Children and Families

Nigel Rose, Strategic Lead (Commissioning) for Macc comments on the proceedings of Manchester City Council’s Valuing Young People Board.

Manchester City Council is facing unprecedented levels of cuts. Provision for young people is facing reductions in common with every other area of provision. Officers of the Council are in the process of developing proposals for the cuts which will then come to the Valuing Young People Board for discussion and then out for consultation.

Intergen is a growing organisation that offers advantages to older people, children and local schools.

The scheme allows older people to share their skills, experiences, time, friendship and knowledge with children and young people in local schools.
The younger people learn a lot, gain the companionship of older people and knowledge of how life changes as one gets older, become confident in speaking and relating to new people and have a new audience for their ideas and talents. The schools gain an extra pair of hands, a trusted friend and a willing helper in all sorts of ways.

You may have heard of the free Early Education (childcare) entitlement for two year olds.

Manchester has been funded to provide Free Early Education for 2,270 of the most deprived two year olds in 2013 and 4,500 in 2014. Children are entitled to 15 hours of early learning in a range of settings for up to 38 weeks across the city. Manchester City Council want to ensure all two year olds who are eligible access their entitlement and would be grateful for your support in raising awareness and where possible support families to take up this free offer.

A new 3 year tender has been issued by Salford Local Authority on behalf of all the Greater Manchester Authorities for support into employment for people who have gone through the work programme and have not got a job. Bidders can apply to deliver support just for Manchester or for multiple authorities.  There is a meeting for potential applicants in Manchester on Thursday 5th December from 2-4pm at Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, M2 5NS.

Planning for the Greater Manchester ‘A Better Start’ bid has begun in earnest. Researchers commissioned by the Big Lottery Fund have been undertaking well-being surveys with 3,000 families across Greater Manchester, focusing on the challenges faced by families and children. This will help form the evidence base for the Greater Manchester bid.

Community Partnership

The ‘Early Help Strategy’ has been developed under the governance of Manchester’s Children’s Board and the ‘Multi-Agency Levels of Need (Threshold) Document’ has been developed under the governance of Manchester Safeguarding Children Board. Both documents are effective from Friday 25 October 2013.

A new tender from Manchester City Council has been advertised on The Chest. The tender is for advice services and is in 3 parts. Part 1 is for City-Wide Advice Services. Part 2 is for Targeted Individual/Family Advice Services. Part 3 is for a Framework Agreement for the Provision of Innovative Advice Solutions. All the tenders are for 1 year with the possibility of an extension for another year.

As you may be aware, earlier this year the City Council launched a competitive tendering process for the contract to provide support to the city's voluntary and community sector for the next three years.

We are delighted to announce that Macc has been awarded this contract.