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BIG appoints Catch 22 as preferred bidder for £25m youth fund

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 10 Aug 2011

The Big Lottery Fund has appointed a consortium led by Catch 22 as the preferred partner to run its £25m Realising Ambition progamme, which will focus on support for young people at risk of offending.

The consortium, led by Catch 22, includes the Young Foundation, Dartington Social Research Unit, Rathbone and Substance.

The UK-wide programme will focus on projects across the UK that have already proven their effectiveness in diverting young people from crime, with the aim of providing support to young people at risk, helping them to realise their potential for a meaningful life and avoiding pathways into offending.

The consortium led by Catch 22 was awarded development funding of £69,924 to progress its application further. It will now work closely with BIG to identify up to 30 of the best projects across the country that might be suitable for scaling up or replication elsewhere. Grants of up to £3m will be available for individual projects over three to five years.

BIG will assess the submitted business plan and, if satisfied, will appoint Catch 22 as its UK partner for the Realising Ambition programme.

Peter Ainsworth, chair of the Big Lottery Fund said: “That prevention is better than cure is a well known axiom and there is a clear need for a more systemic and intelligent approach to preventative work.

“We were very impressed with the original proposal from Catch 22 and are now looking forward to working closely with them to develop the plans further to help more young people receive timely support to ensure the best possible future for them.”

Charities not considered for youth services

Elsewhere, a report published this week by Ofsted has found that local authorities are not always considering the voluntary and community sector, charities, or other arms of the public sector, when commissioning services for young people.

An evaluation of approaches to commissioning young people’s services identifies some of the difficulties being faced by local authorities and youth organisations.

Only five of the 12 local authority areas visited by Ofsted had sufficiently well-established commissioning arrangements for youth services.

In most cases, local authorities were not giving sufficiently impartial consideration to new providers as part of their commissioning processes, particularly voluntary sector, community and charitable organisations.

Examples were seen where a well-managed commissioning approach, over a period of time, had provided young people with a greater range of better-targeted activities.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Miriam Rosen, said: "Youth services play a vital role in young people’s educational and social development. Different approaches to commissioning services bring different advantages; however the best approach should reflect local circumstances and priorities, and take account of existing relationships, available resources and geography.

"Local authorities should take a lead role in creating a shared approach to commissioning. In a time of rapid change and reducing budget, maintaining local networks of practitioners and other local organisations will be extremely valuable."

Young people’s participation in service design, delivery and monitoring featured in all of the areas visited. In the most effective examples, young people were given unique opportunities to learn about local democracy, how councils operate and how to represent the views of their peers.

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