Big Lottery Fund
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UK funders come together to launch the £5.25m Early Action Neighbourhood Fund
The Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, working together on the pilot Early Action Neighbourhood Fund (EANF), have yesterday announced up to £5.3m of funding for three early action projects in Coventry, Norwich and Hartlepool.
Early action prevents problems from occurring, rather than dealing with the consequences of those problems: building fences at the top of a cliff rather than providing ambulances at the bottom.
The EANF aims to reduce future demand for public services (eg children’s services, mental health budgets and housing support) by providing innovative models of intensive preventative support right now.
The three funded projects are partnerships led by local voluntary sector organisations, working with statutory agencies, to develop and implement preventative initiatives in family support, young people’s wellbeing and legal advice.
What are we funding?
Changing Futures North East (£1.56m over five years)
Changing Futures aims to reduce spending on acute children’s services in Hartlepool by 10%, as well as improving school attendance and children’s emotional wellbeing, and reducing parental and family conflict. It will do this by improving the way its services and staff relate to each other and by building stronger family relationships through intensive support.
www.changingfuturesne.co.uk
Mancroft Advice Project (£1.64m over five years)
Mancroft Advice Project aims to reduce acute spending in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service budgets in Norwich and unlock a percentage of the future budget for preventative work, as well as improving children and young people’s social and emotional wellbeing, and reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training. It will do this by targeting 13-14 year olds in 3 schools with a range of interventions, mentoring and family support.
www.map.uk.net
Coventry Law Centre (£1.53m over five years)
Coventry Law Centre’s Ignite project aims to reduce demand on specialised services (e.g. children’s services and housing) and initiate a shift in how resources are allocated in Coventry, as well as raising people’s aspirations for their lives and expectations of themselves, improving communities’ ability to resolve their own problems and ensuring fewer people reach crisis point. It will do this by building legal knowledge, confidence and skills in people to help them deal with every day law-related issues.
www.covlaw.org.uk
About the Fund
In 2011, the Early Action Task Force (www.community-links.org/earlyaction/the-taskforce ) brought together charity, business and government leaders to make the case for a shift in spending towards prevention. In response, a group of funders formed the Early Action Funders Alliance, which aims to make the public case for early action, help funders to embed it in their work, and ultimately help the shift towards early action. The Early Action Neighbourhood Fund (EANF) is the result of 12 months’ work by the Early Action Funders Alliance to design a targeted pilot programme which could provide evidence for the value of early action.
Five members of the Alliance committed resources to the Early Action Neighbourhood Fund in order to test and demonstrate the potential impact of early action work and funding in England. The grant funding comes from Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, with Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Legal Education Foundation providing additional support and guidance.
Commenting, Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said:
“This is an exciting moment, building on 12 months’ work but with aspirations to change the way early action is approached long into the future. It is also a great way of working together as funders, drawing in best practice, learning and experience from all the partners. Our collective funding can enable people in Hartlepool, Norwich and Coventry to identify and solve problems early; experiences we can all learn from.”
Commenting, Judith McNeill, Grants Director of Comic Relief, said:
“Early action makes sense. Why wait until problems are entrenched and harder to solve? By targeting funding early, we will see better outcomes for individuals, families, and communities and hopefully show that by using limited resources in a different way we can stretch them further and help more people.”
Commenting, Caroline Mason, Chief Executive of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, said:
“Acting early to help people become more able to deal with life’s challenges is common sense, but far from common practice. Foundations like Esmée Fairbairn can do this because we can fund and think over the long-term. We hope that this fund will demonstrate the value of early action to other funders, commissioners and to the voluntary sector.”
For information about this release or interview requests please contact Nick Colwill on 020 3544 4943 / nick.colwill@champollion.co.uk
Notes to editors
About the Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery.
The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was awarded to projects. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £32 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.
About Comic Relief
Comic Relief is a UK charity, which aims to create a just world, free from poverty. To date, Comic Relief has raised over £960million. That money has helped, and is helping, people living incredibly tough lives, both at home in the UK and across the world.
The first ever Red Nose Day in 1988 raised a staggering £15million. To date, 14 Red Nose Days have raised more than £700million.
For information about Comic Relief and the work it carries out, please visitwww.comicrelief.com
Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland)
About Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for people and communities throughout the UK both now and in the future. We do this by funding the charitable work of organisations with the ideas and ability to achieve positive change.
The Foundation is one of the largest independent grant-makers in the UK. We make grants of £35 million annually towards a wide range of work within the arts, children and young people, the environment and social change. We also operate a £26 million Finance Fund which invests in organisations that aim to deliver both a financial return and a social benefit.
For more information please visit http://esmeefairbairn.org.uk/
