August 2008
Hot news! for August 2008
- Summer activities for young people
- Free childcare for more families
- £5m to get primary boys reading more
- The Philip Lawrence Awards 2008.
- 4Children health programme to target out-of-school settings
- Free on-line resource for volunteer fundraisers
- Charities get £30m to fight gun and knife crime
More summer activities for young people
Children in eighteen disadvantaged areas across the country are to get access to sports, arts and drama, thanks to a £265 million cash fund.
The cash injection comes as the DCSF released figures that show that half of all schools are already providing extended school services.
The eighteen areas receiving a share of £265 million to pilot the extended schools subsidy are: St Helens, Oldham, Gateshead, Redcar and Cleveland, East Riding, Rotherham, Wolverhampton, Warwickshire, Derby City, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Luton, Somerset, Wiltshire, Croydon, Newham, Oxfordshire and Portsmouth.
www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0139
Free childcare for more families
Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes today announced local authority allocations to give thousands more families access to free childcare and early years support. The whole package will total £819 million over the next three years.
She also announced the ten local areas that will offer the £10million 0 to seven Partnership Pilot, which will explore different ways of helping young children and their families, especially as they make the transition from early years to school. The areas are: Blackpool, Derby City, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kingston upon Thames, North Tyneside, Rotherham, Somerset, Staffordshire, and Sunderland.
www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0146
£5 million to get Primary Boys Reading More
The DCSF has announced a new £5 Million initiative to get primary school boys to read more. The £5 million scheme, Primary Boys into Books, expands the programme launched by the Government last year for boys aged eleven to fourteen.
Through the new scheme, public libraries select free books from the list drawn up by the School Library Association, and deliver book boxes to schools in their local area.
www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0112
Nominations are now open for The Philip Lawrence Awards 2008
The Philip Lawrence Awards reward outstanding achievements in good citizenship by young people aged eleven to twenty.
The national scheme recognises groups that are making a real contribution to their local community and the lives of others; and groups that promote respect and understanding of faiths, culture and communities internationally.
The Awards were set up in memory of head teacher Philip Lawrence, who was killed in December 1995. Philip Lawrence inspired many young people, and the Awards commemorate his deeply held conviction that all young people are capable of achieving great things.
Winning groups each receive £1,000 to help support their project. The closing date for nominations is 12 September 2008.
4Children health programme to target out-of-school settings
Youth clubs, extended schools and community groups are to improve young people's health by offering advice and support.
The Make Space for Health project will encourage out-of-school settings to provide information on health, nutrition and wellbeing to young people. Make Space has helped develop a network of out-of-school clubs for eleven to sixteen year olds.
The project will have a strategic role, bringing together local authorities, primary care trusts and other organisations to work out what is needed locally and how it can be delivered.
The first phase of the scheme will consist of the Healthy Living Pilot Programme.
www.makespace.org.uk/home.aspx
Free on-line resource for volunteer fundraisers
how2fundraise.org is the most comprehensive, free on-line resource for the UK's 16 million volunteer fundraisers, from the Institute of Fundraising. There you can share what you know and get inspired by others.
Charities get £30m to fight crime
Voluntary youth groups in England are to get £30m to fight gun and knife crime.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families has pledged to give the cash to youth work charities that focus on preventing young people from committing crime or becoming involved in antisocial behaviour. The fund will support around twelve organisations, who will each get around £2.5m.
