A £2.5m pot of funding has been made available to support charities, councils, police and schools to work in partnership to keep children safe from violence and criminal exploitation.

Up to five partnerships in England and Wales will receive £500,000 each to provide community based support to children and their families in venues such as schools and health settings.

These partnerships are to be led by local councils but have to include a raft of partners, including the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector and involve providers of mental health services, social care and youth justice.

The funding is being handed out by the Youth Endowment Fund in partnership with BBC Children in Need and the Hunter Foundation. They will fund the five successful partnerships to deliver support for 18 months and their evaluation for a further two or three years. Applications close on 16 May.

This is the latest funding being delivered through the funders’ A Supportive Home funding scheme. A previous funding round in 2021 was worth up to £10m and saw five to ten projects backed to steer children away from violence.

“Children who are most vulnerable to being harmed outside the home often need the support of different public services, said Youth Endowment Fund executive director Jon Yates.

“The problem is that there is little clear evidence on what a good partnership here looks like. This needs to change. We’ll use our funding to test what works and we’ll use what we learn to push for high-quality services that keep children safe from violence.”

Children who are at risk of harm and exploitation outside the home, often have complex needs that require support from different public services. Yet there's very little evidence on what an effective multi-agency approach looks like. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/VVdy9r57si

— Youth Endowment Fund (@YouthEndowFund) March 7, 2023

BBC Children in Need head of funding partnerships Rachel Carter added: “We’re committed to ensuring vulnerable children and young people have the chance to thrive and be the best they can be, regardless of the challenges they face and we know how powerful it can be when organisations join together to make an impact, so look forward to seeing how this partnership and the learnings it will provide will help make an difference to young lives, both now and in the future.”

Meanwhile, Hunter Foundation founder Tom Hunter said: “We need to realign services to need and join up the dots between those services to offer rounded, customer centric support to those that need it most. Our hope is that these funds will be a catalyst for that change.”

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