Children's & Young People's Services

What is the Children's Fund?

The Children's Fund acts as a catalyst for change in children's services thoughout Bexley, providing many opportunities for learning and sharing of good practice. Notable achievements to date have been:

• Improvement in children's and young people's participation through programmes such as Children's Parliament
• Closer working alliances between different sectors including preventative services
• Innovative projects which have made a real contribution to the lives of local children

The Children's Fund programme of activity is now considered by Bexley's recently formed Children's Trust. However, on a day to day basis Children's Fund services are supported and monitored by Childcare, Play and Family Services officers. For further information on these services, please contact the Children's Information Service.

Delivery Plan

In April 2005 the Bexley Children's Fund Delivery Plan (1,073Kb pdf file) received full approval from the Department for Education and Skills. This is Bexley's second successful delivery plan and includes 14 new services operating throughout the Borough. £1.2 million from 2005 - 2008 has been secured to develop new preventative services in Bexley of which 25% must be allocated to projects which address youth offending.

Due to the success of the initial plan from 2002-2005 and the development of the new plan this progress puts the Children's Fund in an excellent position to play its part, in relation to preventative services, in helping to shape the future direction of Bexley's Children's & Young People's Services, in line with the Change for Children agenda.