Agenda item

South Somerset Families Programme - supporting struggling families, improving life chances for children and young people

Meeting of District Executive, Thursday 4th June 2020 9.30 am (Item 141.)

Decision:

RESOLVED:	That District Executive:-
	a.	agreed the development of a strategy, with partners.
	b.	in advance of the strategy, agreed action now to start to address some of the issues and challenges.
	c.	approved the engagement of Yeovil4Family to carry out the Council’s priority project to support struggling families and help address child poverty and low rates of social mobility in the district for a period of three years, subject to meeting agreed milestones.
	d.	approved the allocation of funding for Yeovil4Family to carry out this programme of work in the sum of up to £361k for Year 1 of the project which includes £62k of set up costs.
	e.	approved in principle, a future funding allocation of £303k for each of the following two years of the programme subject to budget approval and satisfactory progress reports at month 10 and 22 of the project.
Reason:	To agree a proposed programme delivery the “South Somerset Families Programme” to meet the Council Plan Priority Project 7 - support struggling families and help to address child poverty and low rates of social mobility in the district, and to approve the funding required to enable delivery.

Minutes:

The Leader of Yeovil Community Church, representing Yeovil4Families said they had worked in partnership with SSDC for 8 years and the proposal was to expand the programme to work with more families. Currently, they worked with 75 families and would increase this to 200, to include innovation to understand the unique pressures on families at the current time and how to support them and enable them to help themselves. There were plans in place to up-scale the project and they were being adapted because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Portfolio Holder for Health and Well-Being said the report set out the details for the proposed delivery to meet the Council Plan priority project 7 – Supporting struggling families and helping to address child poverty and low rates of social mobility across the district. He noted that it was increasingly likely for a child to live in a deprived area within the district as there were 29 neighbourhoods within the 20% most deprived areas. He said the Covid-19 pandemic had increased the impact upon these families so now was the time to turn them around.

The Director for Place advised that the programmed would address issues identified in the Council Plan and support for families was required in rural as well as the urban areas. He said it was a bold programme which would look innovatively at how to address social mobility as Covid-19 was impacting people on lower incomes. The programme hoped to address a number of aims and outcomes as listed in the report over the following 3 years. It was a South Somerset programme and was district wide, expanding to help 200 families in partnership with schools, primary care, police and other agencies and the governance arrangements would reflect that multi-agency approach. The cost of the project was identified for year 1 but not years 2 or 3 as yet and this was to be looked at.

During discussion, Members were supportive of the project and it was suggested that economic development initiatives could be brought in to help. It was also noted that working in an integrated way would help to address the issues within the district and improve the lives of families in the longer term.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members unanimously agreed the recommendations of the report.

RESOLVED:	That District Executive:-
	a.	agreed the development of a strategy, with partners.
	b.	in advance of the strategy, agreed action now to start to address some of the issues and challenges.
	c.	approved the engagement of Yeovil4Family to carry out the Council’s priority project to support struggling families and help address child poverty and low rates of social mobility in the district for a period of three years, subject to meeting agreed milestones.
	d.	approved the allocation of funding for Yeovil4Family to carry out this programme of work in the sum of up to £361k for Year 1 of the project which includes £62k of set up costs.
	e.	approved in principle, a future funding allocation of £303k for each of the following two years of the programme subject to budget approval and satisfactory progress reports at month 10 and 22 of the project.
Reason:	To agree a proposed programme delivery the “South Somerset Families Programme” to meet the Council Plan Priority Project 7 - support struggling families and help to address child poverty and low rates of social mobility in the district, and to approve the funding required to enable delivery.