Reducing inequalities
To reduce inequalities in childhood
Supporting black & minority ethnic children, lesbian/gay/bisexual teenagers
This is a partnership project with the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Voluntary and Community Organisations which will establish and disseminate guiding principles and a framework for better practice across a range of settings, including generic youth services, BME-led services and services focusing on LGB people. A minimum of 30 BME young people aged 14-19, who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or who are questioning their sexuality, will be consulted to advise those who work directly with young people, or who develop services that impact on young people, on how their support needs may be met. Current practice will be mapped through a literature review and across a range of settings in London, including youth services and specific LGB and BME services.
Early networking in the early years sector
The Early Childhood Unit coordinates five national networks: Early Childhood Forum; Local Authority Early Years Network; Young Children's Voices Network; National Quality Improvement Network; and Black Voices Network, who all work towards promoting the well-being of young children.
Policy and Parliamentary Information (PPI) Digest
PPI Digest is a weekly round-up of the latest policy and parliamentary information which affects children and young people. Coverage is England, with reference to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where applicable. Emailed weekly, it covers legislation, parliamentary debates, statistics, consultation documents, policy reports and news. Each item has a brief abstract, details of which UK country it applies to and a web link. The Digest is added to the members' pages of NCB's web site every week.
Every Disabled Child Matters campaign
Every Disabled Child Matters is a national campaign to get rights and justice for every disabled child with a focus on targeting Westminster and Whitehall. The campaign is run as an equal partnership between all four organisations, who each have one seat on the campaign board. Our vision is that disabled children and their parents are able to live ordinary lives. We do this through: raising the political profile of disabled children and their families within central and local government; asking challenging questions to government in order to create the space for effective policy making; seeking to represent a credible voice for disabled children, their families and our campaign network.
Improving the Health and Well-being of Black and Minority Ethnic Children and Young People in and Leaving Care
The Healthy Care Programme has identified that carers, parents and service providers lack information and understanding of the specific healthcare needs of BME children and young people. Concerns have been raised that services are discriminatory and inadequate.
The project will help ensure that young people in and leaving care receive high quality and culturally appropriate assessment, treatment and support for their healthcare needs. To achieve this we will: establish an expert advisory group with representation from the Black Health Agency, CPHVA, and the Royal College of General Practitioners; develop and disseminate a questionnaire to map existing practice to meet the healthcare needs of BME groups in and leaving care; recruit three Healthy Care Partnerships to work with us as pilot sites; carry out consultations with children and young people in each pilot site to explore their experiences of health-related support and ideas for improvements; hold multi-agency workshops with practitioners in each pilot site to identify existing good practice and gaps in provision; and work with the pilot sites to develop and test out new resources to address gaps in provision.
Making Ourselves Heard: making sure disabled children's right to be heard becomes a reality
Disabled children and young people are currently an invisible group in society. The more complex their needs, the more invisible they appear to become. This project is about changing that, by mapping and publicising the work of those who get it right; by giving disabled children and young people direct access to government and policy makers and by ensuring the voices of disabled young people, and their success stories are heard.
National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC)
NCERCC disseminates good practice for children in residential care through the production of relevant materials and resources; hosting and participating in conferences, seminars and training events; and undertaking appropriate media activity in collaboration with relevant NCB departments. It organises an annual sector-wide conference on residential child care, which brings together a wide cross-section of stakeholders to discuss key issues and exchange good practice. Conference proceedings are widely circulated to promote discussion and development.
Managing the transition from secure and psychiatric settings project
This project will draw out, for the first time, the particular needs of children leaving secure settings and adolescent psychiatric in-patient facilities. It will develop a systematic, multi-disciplinary approach towards improving their outcomes, which is compatible with the planning system for care-leavers. It will work with a small number of secure settings and adolescent psychiatric in-patient establishments. For both work strands separate partnerships will be established with an identical aim of developing a shared approach to planning and to service provision. The secure settings partnership will include children's services authority, YOT and health agencies. The psychiatric settings partnership will again include children's services authority along with adult services and community health agencies.
Trust for the Future: the role of health staff in the transition to adulthood of disabled children and young people
We will work with six local authority areas and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), consulting with disabled young people on their experiences of this process and their ideas for improvements.
We will also work closely with health and other professionals across services to learn about key challenges and successes and make links with existing projects addressing similar issues.
Life Routes - phase 2
Life Routes provides young people aged 11 to 19, in alternative education and community settings, with the opportunity to develop the skills necessary for emotional health and well-being. These skills include decision-making, problem-solving, communication, teamwork and responsibility and will be acquired through volunteering, developing positive relationships (for example, peer mentoring), and developing enterprising behavior (for example, fundraising). Life Routes works in areas identified as requiring specific regeneration and development and is delivered through a network of local programmes by social workers, youth workers, teachers and other professionals who work directly with vulnerable young people.
Building the infrastructure to support parents with mental health and/or substance misuse difficulties
The project will be accomplished through intensive practice development, a model developed and applied successfully across NCB, which draws on organisational development theories and attempts to build on what is working well rather than taking a problem focused approach.
An initial mapping of needs, services, strategic planning and stakeholder perspectives will be undertaken by experienced consultants and an evidence-based analysis will be made of the extent to which the needs of these vulnerable families are being met and what needs to change. This will provide a firm platform for the implementation of the project's primary activities with ongoing input from the steering group led by the project development officer.
Action for Race Equality in the Early Years
To publish and promote 'Young Children and Racial Justice', a comprehensive guide to racial equality in early years childcare and education.
Cards for Little Lives
Cards for Little Lives will extend the very successful 'Cards for Life' series, which was first published by NCB in 2005. NCB will consult with a range of children aged 7-11 and their carers, workers or teachers to identify real life dilemmas, which their age group has to address on a regular basis. These dilemmas will be 'worked up' into a scenario, which can be used with a set of questions to facilitate discussion and skill building. Each scenario will have a moral aspect, which requires children to think about the scenario and work out what they would do in this 'real-life' situation and the support and help they would need.
Evaluation of VCS Engage
The VCS Engage programme was a two-year project, funded by DCSF, and led by NCB alongside a consortium of voluntary and community sector partners; NCVYS, NCVCCO, Parenting UK, FWA and NCH. The overall aim of the project was to strengthen the engagement of the voluntary and community sector, in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services for children, young people and their families. The evaluation has conducted three discreet but interrelated studies, outputs monitoring, a process evaluation and outcomes evaluation. Activities and data collection methods include: collation and analysis of outputs data; interviews with stakeholders from the central programme and steering group partners; face to face or telephone interviews with representatives from the voluntary and community sector, infrastructure organisations, local authorities (commissioners or Children's Trust partners) and Government office personnel; documentary analysis; focus groups; and a literature review.
Evaluation of Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) in Leeds
NCB was commissioned to evaluate four activities funded within the PPEL project in Leeds: Parental Involvement in Children's Learning (PICL) training for Early Years practitioners; Parents, Early Years and Learning (PEAL) training for school-based staff; Developmental Movement and Play (DMP) training for Early Years practitioners; Pre-school Learning Alliance Learning and Play sessions for playgroups. Evaluation methods included desk research, telephone interviews with practitioners, face to face interviews and a focus group with parents.
Evaluation of early learning partnership: strand 3 (workforce development) (evaluation of PEAL)
The evaluation focuses on the programme of training delivered under strand 3 (workforce development) of the early learning partnership (ELP) project during the 12 months commencing April 2007. The ELP project aims to improve the engagement of parents with the early learning, education and development of their children. strand 3 includes the national roll-out of Parents Early Years and Learning (PEAL) training to practitioners working with young children, including childminders and practitioners working in children's centres, day nurseries, and pre-school play groups. PEAL training has also been delivered to strategic managers within local authority settings. In addition to PEAL training, 15 organisations have been subcontracted to deliver a range of training programmes addressing the aims of ELP within strand 3 of the programme.
Parents, Early Years and Learning (PEAL) project - phase 2
Phase 1 of the project developed a model, based on research, of good practice for engagement with parents in their children's learning in the early years. Training was developed and rolled out nationally to practitioners from September 2006, and this roll-out was continued under the Early Learning Partnerships Programme from Feb 2007 to March 2008 (phase 2 of the project), delivering to staff from children's centres, the private, voluntary and independent sector, childminders and local authority staff across England. For more details of Phase 1 of the project - please see Project Sheet No.335.
Young Volunteers Leadership Programme
This is a unique programme in which young people will identify, design and deliver a local project of their choice for the benefit of the community. In each of the three years, the project will give 60 young people, aged 16-25, part-time volunteer opportunities in three regions: London, South East and South West; North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber; and East Midlands, West Midlands, and East of England. There will be 180 volunteers over the duration of the programme. The programme will offer two distinct routes for volunteering opportunities. Either as a volunteer leader - each year 12 volunteers will be trained and supported to be responsible for the vision, development, planning and delivery of each local project, or as an impact volunteer - each year 48 volunteers will be peer trained and supported to support the volunteer leaders. Based on messages and research from Young NCB members, the following examples show the kind of project the children and young people might be expected to develop: tackling negative media images and the stereotyping of young people; local transport issues; or mental health issues.
Scoping study on the issues faced by asylum seeking, refugee and migrant children in Northern Ireland
There has been little, if any, interest in refugee and asylum seeking children, including unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) or children of migrants. Children from these groups barely feature in recent major policy developments in Northern Ireland. Nor are there any accurate estimates of the numbers of children and young people within these groups. Anecdotal evidence from practitioners working in schools, early years settings and social services points to a growing number of children from these groups in certain areas within Northern Ireland, the lack of preparedness of services and to the hostile reception they have received. Thus far there is little or no systematic information on the needs of these young people. This all points to the need for a scoping study as a first step to promoting change; a study that focuses specifically on children and young people in order to make them more visible, lead to a better understanding of their experiences of living in Northern Ireland and hence to identifying their needs.
The Good Childhood Inquiry: consultation with diverse groups of young people
As well gathering research evidence and talking to adults, this project will gather the views from children and young people in Northern Ireland. The Children's Society has identified six groups of children and young people they wish to consult: children with disabilities, traveler children, children under five years of age, children in secure accommodation, children in public care and refugees and asylum seekers. Each group will meet once to discuss one of the following themes: friends; family; learning; lifestyle and health and diet.
NIFTY Evaluation (4)
NIFTY stands for Neat, Informative, Feasible, Timely, Yours. The project is running for the fourth time during 2008. It works with six local authorities recruited from Research in Practice partners. Each participating agency has committed to using the NIFTY project to support a specific piece of evaluative work during the course of the project. This could involve planning a new service, evaluating an existing one or commissioning external evaluation. Proposed local evaluations focus on a new service for adolescents, support for families with a disabled child, a mother and baby fostering service, a speech and language service, play therapy and a service which aims to intervene in order to prevent young people being taken into public care.
National Transition Support Team for the Transition Support Programme
The Aiming High for Disabled Children (AHDC) review in 2007 found that more work was needed to co-ordinate services for disabled young people in transition to adult life, and to ensure young people and families have access to high quality information at key points. To address this, AHDC programme funding the development of a Transition Support Programme (TSP). The programme consists of two main elements: firstly, the National Transition Support Team, which will coordinate the work with local authorities, primary care trusts and regional advisers and existing experts; and secondly, support for change at local level through a combination of direct grants and regional adviser activity.
Making it REAL (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy)
Staff from from eight children's centres in Oldham and Sheffield will be trained in the REAL approach at the University of Sheffield. Staff will be released for the equivalent of sixteen days each year to attend training, visit families at home with early language and literacy activities, and run special events and sessions for the families in the centres and their communities in order to enhance the home learning environment for young children.
Promoting Play Opportunities for All Children
Play England is working with local authorities to develop their own local mapping, suitable for reading and amalgamating into a web-based national map. This national map of play provision will have one public and one professional interface.
Play Pathfinder Adventure Playground Support
Twenty local authorities will deliver new adventure playgrounds or play parks by 31 March 2010 and a further 10 will deliver by 31 March 2011. The new playgrounds will reflect the essential elements set out in the Play England briefing 'Developing an adventure playground: the essential elements' and DCSF expectations set out in the Play Strategy and conditions of grant letters. They will be developed with the full engagement and involvement of children, young people, local communities and elected members and reflect good practice and learning across the programme and the wider adventure playground sector. Progress will be monitored through the Play England Red/Amber/Green (RAG) rating system, regional networking events and visits to playground development leads and project implementation groups to inform bi-monthly reporting to DCSF.
Child Safety Education Coalition
Members of the coalition will work together to identify common and avoidable injuries to children and young people. Activities where practical safety education could be improved, extended or introduced will be identified to provide children with opportunities to develop risk competence appropriate to their age and developmental stage. These skills will be transferable to all aspects of their lives and will enable children and young people to have the confidence to put their risk competence into practice.
Mapping Local Play Provision
Every local authority in England will be asked to identify the locations and quality of all their play provision. This information will then be entered on a mapping system for analysis. Data will be shared between local and national government, with partner organisations and to the public, via local authority and national websites.
Speak In: Engaging BME and Faith-based Voluntary Organisations in the Delivery of Children’s Services
This project sits within NCB's Voluntary Sector Support Programme and is currently running in three regions; London, the North-West and the East of England.
Free Childcare for Two Year Olds
NCB and NatCen have been commissioned by DCSF to carry out an evaluation of the implementation of free early learning and childcare for disadvantaged two year olds. The study will provide an in-depth exploration of: how local authorities ensure that the programme reaches children who are most likely to benefit from free early years education and that places are delivered in settings offering high quality provision; early years providers' experiences of implementing the programme and the factors driving successful implementation and good practice; mothers' and fathers' experiences and views of the programme, including perceptions of its impacts on their child, themselves and the family as a whole; children's views of early years education and their setting, which will be explored through an age appropriate research approach. We will carry out case studies of eight local authorities, to allow us to explore in depth implementation, quality and perceived impacts of the programme from multiple perspectives. Data will be collected from early years leads, programme managers and other key stakeholders; staff in 16 group settings, where we will also carry out observations of practice and research with children; eight childminders; and 88 parents (both mothers and fathers). Case studies will be supplemented by interviews with an additional ten local authorities.
Childcare and Early Years Providers Surveys 2010-2012
This survey series is the most authoritative and comprehensive source of data on trends in the supply of early years education and childcare. It includes annual telephone interviews with a large sample of providers to establish: levels of provision and take-up of places; providers' characteristics; staff composition and qualifications; income and expenditure. The surveys are carried out by BMRB and NCB's Research, Evidence and Evaluation Department is assisting with the development of new questions, analysis and reporting.
Employability and Life Skills: Policy and Research Scoping Review
We propose to conduct a rapid scoping review, which will include the following:
An overview of employment in England including the types of jobs available and the skills that they require, and how this has shifted over the past few decades.
A synthesis of recent 14-19 and skills policies and policy reviews in England as well as indications of where this policy direction may be heading under the coalition government.
A summary of recent research (from UK and abroad) examining different employment programmes for young people focusing on the engagement of young people, the types of skills developed and the types of job placements young people receive.
A summary of research looking at employers' perspectives on the types of skills they are looking for in today's economy.
Our focus will be on young people up to age 25 who are 'hard to employ'.
As part of the review, we will incorporate a small-scale consultation with young people and employers to gauge their views on our emerging findings.