£200m 'Co-location' Fund to put schools at the heart of their communities

12 June 2009

The DCSF has published the following press release on the Co-location Fund:

Ed Balls today announced allocations of £200m for 101 projects across England to bring together children and family’s services on single sites – from education and health to housing, play facilities and careers advice.

Speaking at the National College of School Leadership’s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Balls said that physically locating services under one roof was vital in making sure children and families can get the right help, at the right time.

He said that early intervention and the importance of schools working closely with outside organisations and services would be a key theme of the forthcoming schools White Paper, to be published later this month.

Mr Balls also announced a pioneering £31m project, Achievement for All, to pilot innovative teaching and support for young people with special educational needs (SEN) in 10 local authorities and 450 schools – including better assessment of children to close the big achievement gaps and more engagement with parents by schools.

Co-location Fund

The ‘co-location’ fund, announced as part of the The Children’s Plan: One Year On report last December, is backing a wide range of projects, with between £50,000 to £10m to deliver vital investment in joined-up facilities.

Projects include children’s centres; careers advice; youth clubs; health services, including mental health, drug and alcohol treatment centres; family support services; Combined Cadet Force facilities; and independent housing for young people leaving care to help their transition into longer-term, more permanent accommodation.

The co-location fund builds on the once-in-a-generation Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Primary Capital Programme, which are proving invaluable catalysts for regeneration of communities.

Mr Balls said:

“I want these winning projects to lay down a marker, not just for their local communities but the rest of the country. This is setting a benchmark for how schools and wider children’s services in the 21st century should operate and the role they can play in raising the standards for all children.

“I’ve always been clear that it is better to intervene early to prevent a problem, then let it develop into a crisis. It is not down to teachers to deal with problems on their own – but it is essential that they can easily tap into services to give young people, families and local people the help they need, when they need it.

“Schools do not exist in isolation to the rest of their communities. Many schools already join up work with public, voluntary and private sector services and organisations – that should be the norm in every single school.”

Achievement for All

The £31m Achievement for All project was announced in December 2008.

It was followed by the publication of a landmark review of SEN provision by Brian Lamb in April, accepted in full by ministers, which called for a major shift in the way schools and local authorities work with parents of children who have special educational needs and disabilities.

It said the system had to move from the onus being on parents having to find out about services for themselves, to schools and services finding out what parents need.

It aims to pilot innovative approaches to closing the achievement gaps at Keys Stages 2 and 4 between SEN and non-SEN children and get local authorities rethinking their approaches to teaching and engaging parents.

Only 11.7 per cent of young people with SEN currently achieve 5 GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths compared to 57 per cent of their peers – a gap of 45.3 per cent.

The key elements of the pilots include:

• better teacher assessment, tracking and intervention to improve achievement and progress to stop them falling behind;
• more effective engagement with parents so they are closely involved with their child’s education and the support they need;
• more extra curricular activities for SEN facilities – to help eliminate bullying, improve attendance, behaviour and better relationships with other young people and adults;
• closer work between schools – to share facilities, staff and share experiences and good teaching practise; and
• training and development for school leaders and staff.

Ed Balls said:

“Every child should play to their strengths and get the grades to help them on to the next stage of education or into employment. But all too often parents with SEN children tell us they have to fight the system to get what their children need. 

“I want to give all teachers the tools and approaches that will see them able to set realistic but challenging goals for children with special educational needs. Achievement for All is a major step forward in our drive to enable children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities to feel positive about school life and to realise their potential.”

Brian Lamb, Chair of the Special Educational Consortium and the Lamb Inquiry said:
 
"We know that children with special educational needs and disabled children don’t achieve as well as their peers or as well as they can. By focusing on better outcomes, Achievement for All addresses this challenge head on.

“I am pleased that the project recognises the crucial role of parents and the need to engage parents and children and young people themselves in their learning. Because the project also addresses wider outcomes, such as the development of social and independence skills, I believe we will see more confident children, more confident parents and more confident teachers. This project is good news for everyone."
Notes to Editors
1. The full details of the 101 projects getting colocation funding are at:
The £200m colocation fund was announced in the Children’s Plan: One Year On document published in December 2008 - http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/oneyearon/index.cfm?id=1
DCSF has also today published a toolkit for local authorities to help plan colocated projects: www.dcsf.gov.uk/ecm/colocationtoolkit
2. The Achievement for All pilot will operate in the following areas:
• Redcar and Cleveland
• Oldham
• Sheffield
• Camden
• Bexley
• East Sussex
• Gloucestershire
• Nottinghamshire
• Coventry
• Essex
Each local authority will receive in their yearly funding £1m in 2009-10 and around £1.7m in 2010-11 to build capacity in schools to deliver these changes, provide training opportunities for school leaders and staff and support parents more effectively.
3. The Lamb Review and ministers’ response is published in detail at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/lambinquiry/

This press release can also be viewed on the DCSF website.