A three-part report commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills concludes that the 150 small start-up grants programme for local voluntary and community projects has had many benefits for young people since being rolled out across England from 2001.
But researchers voiced concern about the vulnerability of the programme, which will be managed by children's trusts after government funding runs out in 2008. Trusts can continue to fund projects from the children's services grant if they want to.
Professor Gary Craig from the University of Hull, lead author of the national evaluation of the Local Network Fund, said: "My anxiety is about the scheme's sustainability. Sucking it into children's trusts makes the trusts seem like a statutory vacuum cleaner, incorporating anything that has young people in it. It would be a disaster."
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