Funding to tackle harms facing vulnerable children
The government has announced a £24 million regional fund for children's social care, including funding to support unaccompanied minors.
Aimed at levelling up outcomes for vulnerable children and building back a fairer, more resilient system, the new fund will support projects tackling the issues facing the most vulnerable children in society in 2021-22, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) abuse, take care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, preventing adolescents from being distracted by harms away from home for example gangs and reducing the pressure on the system by reduction of court backlogs or improving technology.
Working through England’s network of nine Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliances, it will also provide funding to accelerate the roll-out more family hubs to supply early help, develop existing projects with a proven record of success and offer investment in recruiting, developing and retaining social work staff.
The fund is going to be distributed among the nine regions according plans drawn up by each RIIA and according to local priorities. Each region will be allocated funds worth between £2 and £3 million, including a flat rate of £50,000 for every region to help local authorities play operator in accommodating unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said: “The outcome of Covid on our services, young people and workforce has been multi-faceted, adding immediate pressures on top of all of the longer-term systemic issues and challenges that we face. But it has additionally highlighted your resilience, driven innovation and formed better, stronger partnerships locally, regardless of the challenging circumstances – something by which we can all take pride.
“I am keen that people work together to support both you and your colleagues in the months ahead as we recover and build back better. Sometimes the function of central government is to lead, and often our role would be to facilitate and empower others to lead. And that is why I'm pleased to announce the department will support a regional approach to Covid-19 recovery, for children’s social care, with as many as £24 million, by bringing together funding previously invested in three proven programmes: Partners used, the Innovation Programme and Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliances.”
