DfE announces £7m innovation funding to three projects

The money, which will be split between Dorset County Council, Bradford Council, and children's charity Coram, brings the total awarded under the latest round of the innovation fund to £29m.

Dorset Council will use the money to improve outcomes for children and families in the county, including through providing additional training and development for staff, and has been given funding for two years.

Bradford Council has been awarded funding for two years for its Rethinking Social Care project, which aims to improve integrated care for children in the City with complex needs.

Coram will use the money to work with four councils - Northamptonshire County Council, Manchester City Council, Reading Council and Slough Council - to help them make better use of data to improve the stability of long-term foster placements as well as improve post-18 support.

Coram director of operations Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent, said: "We are delighted to receive this innovation grant, which aims to promote the placement of children who cannot live at home, with alternative families who can look after them for the long term.

"The project will focus on long-term fostering and make sure that the best placement is actively pursued to best meet the needs of the child."

Children's minister Edward Timpson, said: "It is fantastic to see the range of projects funded as part of the innovation programme, and it is clear to me that this work is helping to transform children's services.

"We know that children thrive when the professionals who care for them are given the freedom to turn their passion and expertise into providing life-changing support. The department has worked with each one of these projects to look at what we can learn from their ideas, and it is good to see that many of them will continue to support vulnerable children and families in the future."

The first money handed out under the 2016/17 round of the innovation programme, £11m of funding announced last November, went to three of the programme's most successful initiatives and schemes from previous rounds.

This included The Pause Project, which supports women who have already had a child taken into care to break a cycle of repeat pregnancies and care proceedings.

Last April the government pledged to plough £200m for the scheme up to 2020.

* The DfE has contacted CYP Now to clarify that the £1.6m funding for Bradford Council was previously announced as part £11m handed to 19 children's services departments last month.