Oxford County Council

Funding is available to support family working and address specific concerns about neglect. This could relate to families within Team Around the Family (TAF), Child in Need (CIN) or Child Protection (CP) planning.

Applications can be made by community and voluntary sector organisations or by any professional working with Oxfordshire families – such as Schools, Health/ Mental Health professionals, Police, Probation, Youth Justice Service, Young Carers, Residential Edge of Care services, Early Help teams, Statutory Family Support and  Disability Services.

By specifically targeting neglect, it is expected that emerging concerns can be addressed without the need for statutory intervention and that chronic neglect can be successfully dealt with and cases stepped down – thus reducing both the number of CIN/CP cases, and the risk of children becoming Looked After, as a result of neglect concerns.

There is £69,277 available during 2017-18 with an upper limit of £300 per child or £800 per family, whichever is the higher amount. Requests must clearly specify costs, including details of all items (firm quote and/ or link to product details) and justify the expenditure.

Funding can be accessed as per the table overleaf

Applications must also:

• Provide evidence of a ‘Think Family’ approach, including a whole family assessment and multi-agency plan which addresses the needs of all family members
• Provide clear evidence of neglect, e.g. as identified via Childcare Development Checklist or Graded Care Profile
• Provide details of the specific evidence based interventions/ whole family approaches which are to be used to address neglect concerns
• Present clear outcomes being sought, linked to the assessment of identified need
• Clearly identify mechanism to monitor/ evaluate impact

Category	Title	Restrictions and Examples (Lists are indicative, not exhaustive)
A	Household Goods	Washing machines, dishwashers, hoovers, beds, bedding, carpets/ flooring, skips, cleaning products/ household deep clean services
B	Essential Clothing	Winter coat, winter shoes
C	Under-2s Provision	Buggy or Double Buggy, car seat, cot
D	Teenage Parents	Childcare funding – to cover any gap between receiving Care To Learn and starting education; or upfront costs when returning to work but awaiting first salary payment Items to support return to education/ training (e.g. beauty courses require a beauty kit to be purchased)
E	Time-Limited Service Access	e.g. Holiday play scheme. Note, funding cannot be used to provide ongoing/continuous intervention. Requests within this category should demonstrate how any ongoing participation would be funded.
F	Disability Living Allowance	Specific support to undertake driving lessons for parents of disabled children, in order to allow take up of mobility component. Requests under this category should evidence how wider related costs will be paid – e.g. additional lessons, purchase of car, insurance etc.
G	Exceptional Circumstances	Any requests which do not fall within the above categorisations and/ or funding limits. Note: Any requests in this category will be subject to wider approval and scrutiny.

To apply, complete the form overleaf and return to Daniel.Nicholls@oxfordshire.gov.uk.  You should receive a response within 72 hours.

If approved, individual teams/ service areas will need to purchase the items initially then request a recharge from Think Family, once invoice received/ goods receipted.

If you want to request funding, you can download the form here and follow the instructions to return it.