Southwark Children's FundWe are a government-funded partnership programme to help tackle disadvantage and inequalities.
The children’s fund tries to provide flexible and responsive services to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people aged 5 to 13 years, and their families and carers, supporting them and their families in breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage.
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 Our vision
We want to ensure that children and young people are provided with positive life options. It does this by developing and enhancing services that directly improve the development and the stability of their lives.
The objective will be to strengthen children as individuals and support them as they grow up and make new friends. It also works with parents and carers to ensure that they are able to support children and young people adequately. Families themselves often need support in order to provide the right environment for children to grow up in.
How we work
Southwark children's fund is managed by a partnership board (15 kb) with representatives from the statutory and voluntary sectors and is chaired by Reverend David Wade.
The SCF programme 2005-2008 (150 kb) has been commissioned to fit closely with Southwark’s priorities for children and young people, families and communities.
Almost £3 million has been allocated to support Southwark between 2005 and 2008 from the children’s fund. A portion of the funding has been allocated to voluntary organisations providing a range of school-based and community services, from support for siblings of disabled children, to help for children with special needs and for young carers.
We also provides additional funding to the mobile sports and play unit to provide play sessions for young refugees and asylum-seekers and for a mobile drug and alcohol education service to work with vulnerable children.
Arts and drama based schemes have proved popular with children, so we have funded several such projects to work in schools and community settings to support educational attainment, communication and life skills. Two funded projects have their own theatre spaces; these will be used for drama workshops and for children to create their own performances.
We also support the work of the youth offending team and On Track, a schools-based multi-agency family support programme. On Track services include speech and language therapy, parenting programmes, family therapy and activities for children and their families to help them with the transition to primary school and the transfer from primary to secondary school.
 The youth offending team are funded to provide a range of services for children and young people at risk of becoming involved in crime, including provision of diversionary activities and early intervention teams who work with children aged 8 to 13 in neighbourhood renewal areas.
The programme encourages organisations to work together to develop and deliver services for children. Check the full list of Southwark children's fund funded schemes and contact details (96 kb).
All of the organisations involved meet together at quarterly network meetings to share good practice and identify learning to help inform the shape of future children's services in Southwark.
Our aims
We aim to strengthen resilience and support emotional and social development of vulnerable children to manage life’s challenges specifically through
- Supporting and raising educational attainment
- Providing early assessment for children and young people with emotional and mental health problems
The key themes for the vision
- Improving basic health and access to healthcare
- Improving mental health assessment and support
- Supporting transition to secondary school
- Ensuring access to services for refugees and asylum-seekers
- Partnership working and integrated service delivery
- Supporting children living in deprived neighbourhoods
- Establishing children and young people as stakeholders
Contact
Southwark children's fund
Tel: 020 7525 7853
helen.naylor@southwark.gov.uk
1 Bradenham Close
London
SE17 2QB |