Statement from Partnerships for Schools – 101 projects to benefit from £200m Co-location Fund
12 June 2009
The Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls, has 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.
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, by providing 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 – which is managed by Partnerships for Schools (PfS) – 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.
PfS Chief Executive Tim Byles said: “Building Schools for the Future is about much more than just transforming education, it’s about achieving a step change in life chances for all young people. The Co-location Fund will help bring about real transformation and genuine regeneration by joining up funding streams in a way which reflects how people live their lives, so communities will be able to access healthcare alongside education, and sporting facilities alongside libraries.
“The 101 projects which will benefit from this funding demonstrate the value of this approach, and I look forward to following their progress.”
Examples of schemes benefitting include:
- Leicester (£3.2m) – 8 Integrated Service Hubs to be located in and around schools and other existing community services delivery points across the city
- Nottingham (£4.3m) – two GP practices and other primary care services, library, youth centre with sports and recording facilities, play centre, housing office
- Nottingham (£4m) - St Ann’s Community Centre – joint services centre providing primary health care and housing support services, including flexible working space to support multi-agency working
- Lewisham (£5.5m) – learning village and one stop community shop that co-located education, health, cultural, leisure and community services
- Westminster (£10m) – Malborough Hill Campus will deliver co-located community services including education, children’s services, children and family based NHS, youth services
- Brighton and Hove (£5.4m) – Community hub that connects a primary school, GP surgery, a Children’s Centre and Discovery Centre / library
- Birmingham (£5m) – Young People’s centre delivering full range of sexual health services and innovative provision for children with autism.
A full list of the projects to receive funding is available at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0106
