Our new £165m Fulfilling Lives: A Better Start initiative aims to deliver a step change in preventative approaches in pregnancy and the first three years of life to improve life chances of babies and young children.
The key features of the programme are.
- We invest £30-£50 million in 3-5 areas, each with a population of approximately 50,000 for 8 to 10 years.
- Each area runs a variety of programmes and initiatives to improve outcomes for children in three key areas of development: social and emotional development; communication and language development; and nutrition.
- There will be a ‘systems change’ in the way that local health, public services and the voluntary sector work together to put prevention in early life at the heart of service delivery and practice.
We will make awards for 8 to 10 years for specific geographic areas.
Each area should have a total population of between 30,000 and 70,000 people, and be an area where a range of health, education and social indicators provide evidence of deprivation and high levels of need amongst children. The selected area can be made up of adjacent wards or may comprise two or more separate clusters of wards.
From January-March 2013 we will be identifying a longlist of 30-50 areas, from which we will produce a shortlist of around 10-15 areas by Summer 2013.
These shortlisted areas will be invited to submit a stage two application and offered development grants and support to help them prepare their final proposal. Final applications will be submitted by a lead voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisation in each of the shortlisted areas, with 3-5 awards announced by March 2014.
On 14 January, we wrote to all upper-tier local authority Chief Executives, asking them to identify an area of need, with a population of around 50,000 people, within their authority and express an interest in their area being long-listed for further consideration. In addition, we are asking them to identify a VCS organisation willing and able to be the lead applicant if the area is invited to submit a full application. The VCS organisation must have the potential to lead a partnership within the area to ensure the best start and prevent later problems. The partnership will involve relevant local public agencies, including the local authority, local healthy agencies and local education authority.
Because local health agencies will be key partners, the local Director of Public Health must also support the application made by the local authority and approve the expression of interest.
The expression of interest form must be submitted by
noon on 22 February 2013 by the local authority and only one form can be submitted by each local authority. VCS organisations that are interested in getting involved in the application should contact their local authority.