The CCF welcomes the Prime Minister's keynote speech pledging an array of social reforms to tackle poverty, including a multi-million pound package to "lead a revolution in mental health treatment in Britain", and a £1 billion increase in funding for National Citizen Service to show young people "the power of public service, not just self-service".
In a speech to the charity Family Action, David Cameron set out his lifecycle approach - taking action on all stages of life: earliest years, schooling, adolescence and adult life - to bridge the 'opportunity gap' and tackle the poverty cycle at its roots. His approach moves away from traditional income-based and other economic policy measures, to broader social reforms covering four aspects of life: Family and early years, education, opportunity, and treatment and support. Here is a summary of the key lifecycle measures announced:
Family and Early Years:
- An extra £35 million to extend preventative relationship support to more families
- Expand the Church of England’s LifeSavers project which helps primary schoolchildren to manage money and learn how to save
- Scaling up our Troubled Families programme to work with 400,000 more hard-to-reach families, with a specific focus on parenting skills and child development
Education:
- Provide £1 billion for National Citizens Service over the next 4 years so that by 2021 NCS will cover 60% of all 16 year olds, to become the largest programme of its kind in Europe
- New sports strategy to extend Sport England’s remit to cover 5 year olds and upwards
Opportunity:
- Commit £70 million towards a new national campaign led by Christine Hodgson, Chair of Capgemini UK and of the Careers and Enterprise Company, to work with business, charities and the public sector to build a new generation of high-quality mentors for young teenagers.
- Plans and seed funding transform 100 housing estates across the country and tackling barriers that prevent regeneration
- A Life Chances Strategy to include a new cultural citizens programme to promote equality of access to arts and culture among the disenfranchised
Treatment and support:
- £290 million to provide specialist care to mums before and after having their babies
- First ever waiting time targets to be introduced for teenagers with eating disorders and people experiencing psychosis
- Nearly £250 million for mental health services in hospital emergency departments
- Over £400 million to enable 24/7 treatment in communities as a safe and effective alternative to hospital
- New social investment outcomes fund of up to £30 million, to encourage the development of new treatments for alcoholism and drug addiction
Click here for the Prime Minister's full speech.