08.05.18
Government pledges £30m to support the nation’s youth across 10 projects
Ten projects across England have been granted investment as part of the Life Chances Fund which focuses on helping and encouraging the younger generation into employment.
As part of an £83m project that provides young disadvantaged children, young people will receive £28m of funding from Whitehall to receive education and employability training as part of Social Impact Bonds.
These bonds encourage social investors to provide projects with up front funding and are reimbursed by government only when projects meet agreed results.
The £80m Life Chances Fund launched in July 2016 with the objective of tackling social issues and helping those people in society who face the most significant barriers.
The fund is structured around six key themes: drug and alcohol dependency, children’s services, early years, young people, older people’s services and healthy lives.
Sheffield City Council will receive over £19.2m, the largest amount of money from the Life Chances fund. The funds will set up local projects to help tackle a range of issues from mental health and wellbeing to homelessness and youth unemployment.
Amongst other recipients of the funding, Norfolk County Council will receive £1.2m to reduce the number of days children and young people spend in care.
In Doncaster, the ‘Innovation Unit’ will receive over £1.7m to address poor school attendance and education attainment among 11 to 16-year-olds who have been identified as having low social mobility and are at risk of falling out of education, employment and training.
Minister for sport and civil society, Tracey Crouch, said: “The Life Chances Fund is helping transform lives across the country and I am looking forward to seeing how these fantastic projects use this funding to benefit children and young people, teaching them valuable life skills.”
Enjoying PSE? Subscribe here to receive our weekly news updates or click here to receive a copy of the magazine!