Big Lottery Fund announces long-term early years funding package

Up to £50m will be allocated to consortia led by voluntary sector organisations in between three and five local authority areas.

The areas to benefit will be announced in March 2014, following an initial development stage, during which Big will support local services in around 15 areas to help them create sustainable plans to bid for the cash.

“What’s important is how local government, health authorities and the voluntary sector might be able to come together to work differently, by placing prevention and early years at the heart of what they do,” said Dharmendra Kanani, Big's director for England.

“The point of this investment is to make sure we create a better start for children in the poorest circumstances.”

The investment programme, called A Better Start, will focus on three areas of improvement: creating better social and emotional bonds between children and their parent or carer, promoting healthy diets and improving learning, and communication and language skills.
 
The fund will be targeted at areas with a population of 50,000 that meet certain eligibility criteria on issues including poverty, unemployment and crime levels.

“The purpose of this is to show agencies that lottery money can support agencies to act and work differently on prevention in early years,” said Kanani.

“We want to shine a light on the fact that prevention not only makes sense, but can have economic and social return.”

Naomi Eisenstadt, former director of the Sure Start programme and Social Exclusion Task Force, has worked with the Big Lottery Fund on the project.

“This initiative will, for the first time, bring to scale some already proven approaches, as well as test the effectiveness of other innovative ways of working with families with very young children,” said Eisenstadt

The project is one of four that Big is planning to invest in long-term, the others being ageing, adults with complex and multiple needs, and young people furthest from the labour market.