Child Poverty Programme Board

In meeting the Duty to co-operate and manage the Programme of activity that will support the reduction in Child Poverty a Child Poverty Programme Board has been set up.  Terms of Reference

This Board will manage and commission new projects or activities that will support the overall aim of reducing child poverty and mitigating the effects of child poverty. 

The Governance for the Board sits within the Economy Theme which is part of the Sustainable Communities Strategy

Child Poverty Programme Board Dates

2010
Monday 20 September, 2-4pm
Thursday 16 December, 2.30-4.30pm 

2011
Monday 19 September, 2-4pm
Monday 12 December, 2-4pm

Employment and Skills

The current projects that are being delivered to reduce child poverty and mitigate its effect are as follows:

Volunteering

Volunteering England research suggests that for every £1 of investnment in volunteering a return of £8 in additional organisational capacity is realised. This added to the significant benefits for volunteers and the economy make a good case for volunteering. 

This project support the development of consistent and well managed volunteering opportunities across Children's Services which will result in an increase in the volunteering opportunities available for both adults and young people. The project will promote a co-ordinated approach in which it will be important to share good practice and experience both within Children's Services, across the LA and with partner organisations.

In the first instance the project will be mapping existing opportunities and developing consistent policies.

The project was initiated by the Youth Volunteering Board as part of the Integrated Youth Strategy and Newcastle City Council's Volunteer Strategy Group 

Project Manager/Contact - Jo Colton, 0191 277 7422

School Gates

This project seeks to provide support for parents in the most deprived areas to enable them to access training and employment support and advice. The project will put job centre plus staff in a primary school in Newcastle, enabling them to develop relationships with staff and parents through a community engagement model. The project will work with parents at their own pace signposting them to support and advice about training and employment through a variety of agencies working on the ground.

This approach is a nationally recognised approach and is being piloted in Middlesborough supported by the Child Poverty Unit. We are learning from the experience in Middlesborough in developing the project in Newcastle.

Project Manager/Contact - Elaine Easton - Jobcentre plus 

Financial Inclusion

This  theme is  identifies opportunities for families to ensure that they are accessing the right financial support and advice at the right time. Work in this theme will develop opportunities to maximise take up of benefits, tax credits and free school meals using data matching to identify those residents most likely to qualify.

The project will also identify other areas of work that can support achievement of the aims in this theme. The detail of projects is still to be developed and will be added to the website when available.      

Project Manager/Contact  -  Rosemary Bell - 0191 277 2614

Regenerating Communities

This theme has identified the need to l develop a tool to enable regeneration and other services to ensure that they understand the impact of the their strategies and service plans on the financial poverty and aspirations of families and communities  

Project Manager/Contact  -  Abby Holder  0191 277 7132

Improving Services to Families
Cowgate Family Support Project - This project builds on the work of the Cowgate strategy and will provide a co-ordination role to recruit and train local people to offer family support and parenting advice to others. Initially these opportunities will be voluntary, however in the longer term it is hoped that local people will be employed on a sessional basis to offer this support within their communities.     
Project Manager/Contact  -  Sue Miller  0191 277 4686

Raising Aspirations and Attainment

Extended Services Subsidy - This project will implement the Extended Services Subsidy which provides resources for children and young people at economic disadvantage to enable them to access some of the enrichment activities that they would otherwise not be able to do without additional financial support  

The Extended Services Subsidy resources have been allocated to all schools across the City based on the number of children eligible for free school meals.

Project Manager/Contact  -  Jayne Moules 0191 277 4488

Self Organised Learning Environments

The project seeks to pilot the model of Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) developed by Professor Mitra (described below) and to understand what impact they can have on children's learning and their aspirations.

Self Organised Learning Environments are created in public places and provide an opportunity for groups of children to use computers connected to the internet to explore, play, draw, answer questions and solve problems.  SOLEs are suitable for children aged 6 - 14.  There is minimal input from adults apart from supervision.

The project would build on our partnership approach to addressing child poverty involving the Play and Youth Service, voluntary sector partners and Newcastle University.   SOLEs would be piloted in Scotswood Play Centre and Kids Kabin in Walker. These venues have been selected on the basis of interest expressed at a recent Play Partnership meeting, their location (in deprived areas of the city) and existing facilities with suitable supervision which can be adapted to create SOLEs.  An initial visit to both locations has taken place with key staff members and Professor Mitra.

Children and young people would be involved at the project planning stage and will help to develop solutions to concerns such as how we will ensure safe and appropriate access to the internet. 

The project would include a strong evaluation element, supported by Professor Mitra who is a visiting professor at Newcastle University (see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/staff/profile/sugata.mitra). We will monitor the impact of SOLEs on the learning and aspirations of the young people who participate in the pilot.  The learning from the pilot could potentially inform future play and youth provision and activities in schools.

Project Manager/Contact - Louise Metcalfe 0191 211 5896

Reducing Health Inequalities
No projects approved as yet.