Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Taskforce
Angela Smith, Minister for Social Exclusion, visited an innovative mental health project Southwark Works on 15 December. The successful partnership between the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Southwark Council has helped people with mental health conditions to secure jobs. It illustrates good practice approaches encouraged by both 'Work, Recovery and Inclusion' (the recent delivery strategy on mental health and employment) as well as 'Link Up Link In' (the campaign encouraging joint working among frontline staff working with vulnerable groups).
The Government has published a new delivery strategy on mental health and employment. Work, Recovery and Inclusion sets out a high level vision to support people in contact with secondary mental health services into work. This strategy forms part of the Social Exclusion Task Force's latest work on the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement (PSA 16) which aims to support vulnerable adults in a home and a job.
It forms part of the Government's new approach to mental health which includes the New Horizons framework and Working Our Way to Better Mental Health, the new National Strategy for Mental Health and Employment.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, with support from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the National Care Advisory Service today launches Realising Young Potential: supporting care leavers into education, employment and training.
The report aims to support local authority Leaving Care Teams and their partners to further help young people who have left care to access education, employment and training (EET). It includes 10 recommendations, with agreed actions and practical examples of how some local authorities are addressing issues identified in the report.
The Social Exclusion Task Force will be running a workshop and exhibiting at the Community Care Live: Children and Families 2009 conference on 18 November 2009 at the Business Design Centre, London.
Click on the logo for more information on the conference.
Naomi Eisenstadt, the director or the Social Exclusion Task Force, will be retiring at the end of September.
Campbell Robb, who currently manages the Office of the Third Sector, will also become responsible for the Social Exclusion Task Force following Naomi Eisenstadt’s retirement, as Director-General of the Office of the Third Sector and Social Exclusion.
A new toolkit supporting public service workers in helping at-risk groups into stable employment and accommodation has been launched by HM Government, as part of the Link Up, Link In campaign. The toolkit provides a range of case studies, guidance and useful facts, showing how organisations across the country are working together to improve the lives of vulnerable people. It forms part of the Government’s commitment to get more people from groups such as people with a learning disability, people with mental health problems, care leavers and offenders under probation supervision, into a stable home and sustainable employment.
Working together to deliver public services is vital to improving the lives of the most vulnerable groups in society. Ahead of a major cross-Government campaign aimed at front-line public service workers, the Social Exclusion Task Force is calling for examples of public services that have worked together and improved the lives of the most vulnerable groups in society, focussing on people with a learning disability, people with mental health problems, care leavers and offenders under probation supervision.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, in partnership with Remploy, will be running a policy session on 'Valuing Employment Now: sustainable jobs for learnign disabled adults in a recession - brighter future or left behind?' at the National Children and Adult Services (NCAS) Conference in Harrogate on Thursday 22 October. We will also have an exhibition stand throughout the conference, which runs from Wednesday 21 October to Friday 23 October.
Inspiring Communities is a new programme that aims to create new opportunities, broaden horizons and build up the self-confidence of young people. A fund of £10 million will enable neighbourhood partnerships in 15 areas to deliver a programme of activities working with young people, their parents and communities. This programme is a development of the Social Exclusion Task Force’s work on raising aspirations in deprived areas.
The NHS Information Centre today published the first data release for National Indicators 145 and 146, which cover the employment and settled accommodation status of the PSA16 learning disability group.
Following a commitment in the New Opportunities white paper (January 2009), the SETF with the help of Jobcentre Plus has been working with government departments to develop action plans aimed at improving the civil service’s employment of people from the four groups covered by PSA 16. Key commitments include DWP’s aim of providing up to 400 employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities, and MoJ’s aim of enabling government departments to offer work placements to offenders. A short film is available showcasing Project SEARCH in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital - an internships programme giving people with learning disabilities the skills they need to find employment - and Bovis Lendlease’s scheme which offers work placements to offenders. The civil service can learn from this kind of good practice. Departments are also looking at improving how they employ people with mental health conditions, and care leavers.
The Understanding the Risks of Social Exclusion Across the Life Course research project comprises four studies that map the risk of social exclusion among people and families at key life stages: children and families, youth and young adulthood, working age without dependent children and older age.
Further information on Understanding the Risks of Social Exclusion Across the Life Course
Published alongside the government’s strategy on ageing, Working Together for Older People in Rural Areas is the final report of a joint project between the Social Exclusion Task Force and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This report examines evidence on the social exclusion experienced by older people in rural areas and identifies examples of innovative service delivery that can make a real difference in these areas. As a result of this study, a number of key practical policy actions have been integrated into the government’s Ageing Strategy ‘Building a Society for all Ages’ [External website].
Further information on Working Together for Older People in Rural Areas Short Study
Yesterday, Ed Balls, Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and Angela Smith, Minister of State with responsibility for Social Exclusion at the Cabinet Office, formally launched the employment support programme for care leavers: Transitions: from Care 2 Work.
The From Care 2 Work programme funds the National Care Advisory Service (NCAS) to work closely with national employers and local authorities to offer opportunities for work experience and mentoring to support care leavers into work.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, in partnership with the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions, has led the publication of a cross-government Learning Disability Employment Strategy, called Valuing Employment Now: Real Jobs For People With Learning Disabilities.
The strategy sets out a vision to increase the number of real jobs for people with learning disabilities with appropriate support being provided, and close the employment gap with their employment rate and that of the disabled population as a whole.
The Social Exclusion Task Force held a seminar on the Social Exclusion and the Economic Downturn study on 19 May 2009. This event brought together a wide range of leading academics, third sector representatives, policy advisors and social commentators to share insights and evidence on the links between recession and long term social exclusion.
The Women Offenders Short Study is a joint project between the Ministry of Justice and the Social Exclusion Task Force, Cabinet Office. The report brings together existing data and new analysis on women offenders, highlighting the complexity of women offenders’ needs, and draws out opportunities for further improvement in systems and support.
The Inspiring Communities programme will develop a new approach to raise the aspirations and educational attainment of young people in deprived areas. The Government is now seeking applications from neighbourhood partnerships who would like to participate in this programme.
On 28 January, the Social Exclusion Task Force, in partnership with various government departments and third sector organisations held a Valuing Employment Now! event in York. The event was designed to support and encourage local areas to employ adults with learning disabilities.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, in partnership with the Department of Health, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Office for Disability Issues is issuing a short Call for Evidence to inform the Learning Disability Employment Strategy, which will be published in Spring this year.
On 13 January, the Prime Minister launched the New Opportunities White Paper, which sets out the Government's plans for building fair chances for everyone to succeed in the new economy. It sets out the Government’s agenda for capturing the jobs of the future and investing in families, communities and citizens throughout their lives to help them get on and ahead.
Developments from the Social Exclusion Task Force's work are included in the paper in the form of policy proposals on aspirations, and commitments on socially excluded groups to support the aims of the Socially Excluded Adults' Public Service Agreement.
The 'Supporting communities to support individuals' chapter outlines proposals on increasing the aspirations of young people in deprived areas through a new approach: Inspiring Communities. Over £10 million has been allocated by central government to initially develop this approach in 15 areas.
Specific commitments to support adults with learning disabilities, offenders, and those in touch with secondary mental health services, are included in the chapters on 'Pathways for all' and 'Getting into work'. Care leavers are included in the 'Strengthening family life' chapter, with a commitment to develop a new national employment support programme for children leaving care, to help overcome barriers to work through extended periods of work experience, training and mentoring.
The Social Exclusion Task Force and Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) are working in partnership on a short study on older people (aged 50 and over) in rural areas. To inform this work, we are issuing a Call for Evidence to identify examples of good practice and innovation in the delivery of services to older people in rural areas.
‘Aspirations and attainment in deprived communities’ is a joint project between the Social Exclusion Task Force, DCSF and CLG. It explores the potential to raise the attainment of young people in deprived communities, by raising aspirations and changing attitudes within these communities.
The Government Office Network has published a report which provides information on a selection of initiatives which focus on tackling worklessness amongst vulnerable groups in deprived areas.
Kevin Brennan gave the keynote address at a conference on personalisation and complex needs on 5 November. At the event, organised by the third sector organisations Turning Point and Revolving Doors, he spoke about the importance of partnership working in delivering services for socially excluded people.
Kevin Brennan spoke about the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement (PSA 16) at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Liverpool on 23 October. He emphasised the need for central and local Government, and the Third Sector, to work together to improve the life chances of excluded groups, despite current economic circumstances.
Kevin Brennan, minister for social exclusion has launched the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement Community of Practice. This is an innovative and interactive online community forum for people involved in working with Public Service Agreement (PSA16) client groups to share ideas and information, and help shape government policy. The community is open to anyone involved or interested in helping to improve services for vulnerable groups, whether you work in local or central government, for a service provider, or in the third sector.
Updated data on how local authorities are performing in supporting care leavers into settled accommodation, and education, employment and training, have been published. Improving outcomes for vulnerable groups in both these areas is the aim of the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, in partnership with Barnardo's, Research in Practice (RIP) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) have launched a user friendly tool to assist commissioners and service providers to select and monitor evidence based services for vulnerable people. The guidance will sit alongside and support commissioning frameworks already developed and used by local authorities and service providers.
The Social Exclusion Task Force has created a video to communicate some of the key messages from the Families at Risk Review. Video clips featuring practitioners and family members illustrate the key characteristics of services that ‘Think family’.
A £16m ‘Family Pathfinder’ programme has been launched to offer disadvantaged families intensive help and support. 15 local authorities have successfully bid to lead the way in testing and developing a ground-breaking ‘think family’ approach to help their most vulnerable families. These areas are Blackpool, Bolton, Brighton and Hove, Durham, Gateshead, Islington, Leeds, Salford, Somerset, Walsall, Warrington, Southampton, Southend, Sunderland and Westminster.
‘Think Family' is an approach developed by the Social Exclusion Task Force and aims to ensure that adults' and children's services join up to respond to the needs of whole families.
Think Family: Improving the life chances of families at risk launched on 10 January, setting out a vision of a local system that ‘thinks family’.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families is funding a £16m Family Pathfinder programme to test and develop the Think Family model outlined in the Social Exclusion Task Force report ‘Think Family: Improving the Life Chances of Families at Risk’. They are inviting expressions of interest from research organisations to evaluate the pathfinder and the extended elements. The closing date is 21 April 2008.
The Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) approach is being piloted by the Department of Health in partnership with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and fulfils the commitment set out in the Cabinet Office's Social Exclusion Action Plan, published September 2006, to test interventions for tackling mental health problems in childhood.
The ten sites chosen to pilot MST have been announced by government Ministers Kevin Brennan, Ivan Lewis and Gillian Merron. These will be in: London Borough of Merton and Royal Borough of Kingston; London Borough of Greenwich; London Borough of Hackney; Leeds; Trafford; Sheffield; Barnsley; Peterborough; Reading; and Plymouth.
In partnership with DWP and the nine English Regional Offices, SETF are organising a series of workshops on two of the Public Service Agreements (PSAs) that aim to improve the lives of vulnerable adults in our society.
Socially excluded adults are prioritised in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. A new Public Service Agreement (PSA) is aimed at reducing social exclusion amongst the most vulnerable adults.
One year on from the publication of the Social Exclusion Action Plan, we have made some significant achievements across government.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families are consulting on their ‘Staying Safe’ strategy. Its purpose is to set out how we can work together to help children and young people stay safe, and make the most of their talents and new opportunities to fulfil their potential. The consultation runs until 31 October 2007. For more information please see the Staying Safe website.
As part of the Social Exclusion Task Force's work on systems reform the Code of Practice will set out guiding principles for evaluating services and programmes for socially excluded groups. The Code will support commissioners and providers in conducting and using service evaluations to drive improved service delivery. It will be a tool that can be used by Local Strategic Partnerships to aid identification of ‘what works’.
The Government has announced the next steps in its programme to tackle social exclusion, supporting twelve new projects to help the most chronically excluded adults in society.
Reaching Out: Think Family is the first stage of our Families At Risk Review. This report sets out interim analysis and themes on the multiple problems faced by some of the most excluded families in society.
The report focuses on public services and asks what more can be done to improve the outcomes of the small minority of families who continue to experience multiple problems in their lives. In particular, it poses questions to adults– services about the extent to which they treat their clients as parents and family members. The report suggests that there are opportunities to better coordinate all services so that they can tackle the root causes of families' disadvantage.
Social Exclusion Minister Pat McFadden and Kate Billingham, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, recently joined ‘Early intervention’ pioneer, Professor David Olds, to share experiences and ideas at a Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) event.
Professor Olds from the University of Colorado marked his visit to England with a speech at the RSA this week. A pioneer in devising new approaches to early intervention in the first few years of a child’s life, Professor Olds discussed in detail his work and experiences. This included the Nurse Family Partnership, a programme he established in the US and has been developing for over 25 years, which is now being piloted in England.
Pat McFadden said:
‘If we know about the importance of the early months and years of a child’s life, and we know about the cycle of disadvantage that can be passed from generation to generation, cutting off opportunity and aspiration, and we know we have a programme that offers a lot of promise in challenging this pattern, then it would be wrong to turn away from that.’
The Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Task Force has released new information revealing that over 140,000 families in England and Wales are at risk of permanent social exclusion and need targeted personalised services aimed at whole family issues. Hilary Armstrong, Cabinet Minister for Social Exclusion, announced a review into how to reach families at risk at a conference with health and social service workers in Brighton. She was joined by Pat McFadden, Social Exclusion Minister.
In March 2007 the Social Exclusion Task Force held a series of regional conferences in Brighton, Birmingham and Leeds. The aim of the conferences was to talk to key national and local stakeholders on our progress to date, including the pilot projects announced in the Action Plan and developments in systemic reform. Cabinet Social Exclusion Minister Hilary Armstrong gave the keynote speech at each conference and was supported by a number of guest speakers. In the afternoon, workshops asked participants for their ideas on our review of excluded and at–risk families.
The Prime Minister, at his monthly press conference, set out progress on tackling social exclusion six months after the publication of the cross-Government Social Exclusion Action Plan. In a presentation, he showed the Government's success in improving lives for the most disadvantaged groups but also set out the challenges in reaching those hard to reach groups, caught in a cycle of disadvantage.
The Adults facing Chronic Exclusion Programme is a cross–Government initiative led by the Social Exclusion Task Force, resulting from the Reaching Out Report. The programme will improve service delivery for people with multiple problems and complex needs.
We are currently reviewing proposals for a range of 3–year pilots that can:
The deadline for proposals has now passed.
The University of Bristol have completed a research project on behalf of the Task Force looking at severe forms of social exclusion; identifying gaps in the knowledge base and recommending appropriate research strategies to fill these gaps.
The Office of the Third Sector has published an action plan outlining opportunities for the third sector to play an enhanced role in public services. 'Partnership in Public Services: an action plan for third sector involvement' will be of interest to all organisations involved in tackling social exclusion. An interim report on the review of the future role of the third sector has also been published.
On 9 November the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills invited applications from primary care trusts and local authorities wanting to become demonstration sites for the parenting support programme for at risk families. Further information is available on the DH website.
The former Chief Adviser on Children's Services at the Department for Education and Skill (DFES) Naomi Eisenstadt has now been appointed the Director of Social Exclusion Task Force in the Cabinet Office.
Hilary Armstrong, in a speech to mark the 25th anniversary of Community Links at Leeds, spoke about mental health, the role of the third sector to deliver better and more personalised services and the government's role in helping that happen.
News release about information sharing in order to help protect the most disadvantaged members of society.
‘Reaching Out: An Action Plan on Social Exclusion’ has been launched as part of a week of announcements from government departments setting out plans for dealing with social exclusion.
Pat MacFadden has launched a new minister's forum with an article on social exclusion. Read the article and add your comments on the new e-Politix's Minister's Forum.
Minister's forum [External website]