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Early help for
families in Liverpool
AN early intervention
programme to support families where children are at risk of neglect
is set to be established in Liverpool, in partnership with the City's schools.
The 'School Family Support Service' will work with families
where there are issues affecting a child's wellbeing, educational
attendance and attainment, but is not serious enough to meet the
threshold for social work intervention.
The 22 strong team of support workers will provide support for up to
800 families per year. They will receive help for up to 3 months to
improve parenting, help strengthen family life and relieve some of
the pressures they are under.
Triggers for support will include children with poor attendance or
exclusions at school, a member of the family with a criminal offence
or issues with substance abuse, domestic violence or a specific
health need.
Councillor Jane Corbett, Cabinet member for children's services,
said:- "Bringing up children can be really tough. For a whole
variety of reasons, families can find themselves in a position where
their problems are impacting on the health and wellbeing of their
children.
Our schools know their children and their families extremely well
and teachers are best placed to spot when something is wrong at
home, which is why they are integral to this new initiative.
By working in partnership, the School Family Support Service will
enable us to identify and support families where there are problems
and prevent them from becoming crises.
Intervening early is absolutely crucial, because there are huge
consequences in the emotional impact on all concerned. It is
vital we make sure our children get the possible start in life, and
it makes far more sense to support families in their hour of need,
rather than letting issues grow or get out of control."
Success will be measured in terms of improvements in school
attendance and behaviour, better health, reduced crime and
antisocial behaviour and progress in finding work.
Liverpool has a higher number of young people on child protection
plans due to neglect than comparable local authorities. The
£800,000 annual cost of the project will be entirely funded from the
Council's Troubled Families Programme budget for the first year.
It is expected that after this schools will help support it using
Pupil Premium cash.
A report recommending the creation of the service will be considered
by the Mayor's Cabinet on Friday, 6 December 2013.
Letter to the
Editor:- "Make sure your disabled child doesn't miss out on festive
fun"
"FOR many children part of
the fun of Christmas is the change in routine at school and at home
as exciting activities and events take place. However, for some
children with a disability changes to their usual timetable at this
time of year can be extremely stressful. For others, Christmas can
also mean missing out on all the festive fun as they find themselves
excluded from school celebrations. Parents have told Contact a
Family about their disabled child not being allowed to attend
Christmas outings or parties for example, or that their child has
been barred from taking part in the school concert or play. Other
parents report that alterations to their usual timetable at this
time of year means their disabled child is under more stress and
finds it difficult to cope. In some cases this can lead to an
increase in behavioural issues which can result in exclusion from
school altogether.
Christmas can sometimes bring unexpected challenges if you have a
disabled child and Contact a Family is the only UK charity that
supports families with disabled children whatever their disability
or medical condition. Our expert advisors can help you develop
strategies to help you cope at Christmas, such as planning ahead and
working with your child's school so you know what changes to expect
and can explain them to your child before they happen. We want
parents of disabled children to know that they don't have to cope
alone at Christmas or at any other time of the year. So please call
our helpline on:- 0808 808 3555 to get the support, information and
advice you need from our team of experts or visit:-
cafamily.org.uk
for more information."
Yours sincerely,
Jill Davies,
Helpline Advisor,
Contact a Family.
UK Businesses should be aware of
'company hijacking'
UK Businesses should be
aware of a scam where fraudsters change a company's official
registration details with Companies House, known as 'company
hijacking'. It has been told that currently Police are
working with Companies House, the agency that registers companies,
to increase awareness of the threat. They have said that:-
"Many Businesses are unaware of Company Identity Theft problems.
These problems range from obtaining fake company documentation to
open things like back accounts and altering Trade Marks, through to
full blown company theft. The Police and Companies House have set
out these simple steps to protect your business from this type of
fraud:-
• Businesses should check with Companies House to ensure their
registered details are current and accurate.
• Businesses should sign up to the Companies House initiative,
PROOF, that runs a free password protected system for companies to
manage their registration details.
• Businesses are advised to sign up to the Companies House alert
system. which will warn them of any changes to the their company
details. "
Businesses are being told to shred all company letterheads and
material when binning any used materiel, that has address and
contact information on them, that could be used by fraudsters as
proof they are legitimate. Material can be as simple as mobile phone
offer leaflets, sent to you or your business. If a fraudster gets
one of them, they can use the code and information on it to get a
contract mobile that appears to be build to your business... If you
or any of your workforce suspect an issue, then report it to the
Police and Companies House immediately.
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£15M START UP
NOW FUND TO CREATE 5,000 JOBS
THE launch of Start Up Now
which will see £15 million allocated to new start ups across the
North West over the next 2 years, creating around 3000 new
businesses and over 5000 new jobs in the region.
Start Up Now is a new complete package for start ups in GM and the
wider region, offering a suite of support, loans and services to
entrepreneurs, all driven through unique bank referral arrangements.
This is a new development of the partnership between Business
Finance Solutions (BFS) and the NatWest focusing on Start Up
businesses, and will refer North West businesses seeking loans from
NatWest to Start Up Now if the bank is unable to provide all the
funding they need. NatWest predicts that they will refer over £10m
of start up business to BFS via the new programme, with successful
applicants receiving loans of up to £10k, a mentor, business advice
and workshops, global offers from partners including PayPal and
Regis and the full start up business package from NatWest including
£1,000 of free start up benefits. Through this BFS initiative
NatWest is the first major Clearing Bank in the country signed up to
work with Start Up Loans as a formal referral partner.
Start Up Now, the North West arm of the national £150m Start Up
Loans programme, was launched at Manchester's Midland Hotel by
business leaders and partners including Chairman of Small Businesses
at NatWest Peter Ibbetson; Chief Executive of Greater Manchester
Growth Company Mark Hughes; Business Finance Solutions Director Paul
Breen and EY Partner Simon Allport. The event also showcased a
number of the Start Up Loans businesses that have received funding
in the past year including:-
► Former marine Michael Lawrenson who has applied for a loan for his
security business in Wigan
► Liudmila Gnativ who was referred to BFS by the bank with her
business idea of opening a children's private day nursery in Oldham.
► Daniel Leeson and Mark Sixsmith who have run the Wobbleyou
fitness studio in Manchester City centre for the past year after
receiving the loan
► Daniel and Gina Buck, formerly unemployed, who used their loan to
open the Micro Bar in Bolton Market, selling a wide variety of real
ales
► Daniel Cieslak & Andrew Wainwright who run Angus & Belle, a dog
grooming and accessories business
► Caroline Davies, who runs Tiny Ted, a children's clothing store
in Congleton
Peter Ibbetson said:- "NatWest's partnership with BFS has been
a great success and we want to continue to support small businesses
throughout Greater Manchester and the North West. Our partnership
has exceeded expectations resulting in NatWest providing 50% of all
funding referrals to BFS who have provided more than £1million
funding in the last 12 months resulting from our referrals which
would not otherwise have been available to local businesses.
Start Up Now demonstrates the strength of our relationship as well
as and shows the wider business community that we will continue to
support local businesses as they develop."
Paul Breen of BFS said:- "This partnership between Start Up
Now and NatWest means that we are creating thousands of businesses
and jobs that simply would not otherwise exist. The banks have been
criticized for not giving enough help to small business but from
today, rather than turning away a potentially great business,
NatWest advisors in banks across the North West are now able to
refer them on directly to our Start Up Now team and if successful
both the bank and BFS can work together to help the entrepreneur
succeed. This is an effective and highly efficient way of bringing
together the public and private sectors and is exactly what we need
to be doing to support our entrepreneurs and to benefit and grow the
North West economy for the future."
Over 700 BFS Start Up Loan recipients in the North West are now
running their own businesses, creating employment and economic
opportunities across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside,
Cheshire and Cumbria. The Start Up Now partnership with NatWest is
the first of its kind to take place under the government's £150
million Start Up Loans programme and builds on the partnership
agreement signed with former RBS CEO Stephen Hester in 2011 and on
the launch of the Loans scheme by David Cameron in 2012. BFS was the
first delivery partner in the country to make loans under the scheme
and now manages the Loan Management Provision Service for over 30
Delivery Partners nationally. Since December 2012 BFS has managed
over 4,500 applications and has awarded £30m Start Up Loans. Start
Up Now is available to everyone over the age of 18 in the North
West.
Email them or
visit:-
start-up-now.co.uk to learn
more about Start Up Now and register.
UKIP parental
leave views are 'simple sexism'
A North West England
Liberal Democrat Euro-MP has launched a blistering attack on
UKIP for their sexist approach to Nick Clegg's proposals to update
the system of parental leave. Currently fathers have less right to
parental leave than mothers and under Clegg's proposals, both
parents would have the right to share parental leave. UKIP MEP Paul
Nuttall has claimed that "men and women are inherently different"
and that:- "caring for babies comes much more instinctively to
women" in condemning the new proposals. Davies said:-
"Nuttall likes to make a big thing of his 'man in in a pub' persona
but he seems to be forgetting that The Pub Landlord is a comedy
character not a role model. Nick Clegg's proposals will let women
and men decide for themselves how to divide up parental leave.
Individual parents know what is best for their own situation and
Nuttall's comments are straight out of the Victorian era. Given his
comments on breast feeding he clearly doesn't know anything about
inventions such as the breast pump or the fridge either. Since
Godfrey Bloom left the party there seems to have been a vacancy for
blatant sexism at the top of UKIP. Clearly Paul Nuttall is filling
it with glee."
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