Children at risk to be tracked

Local systems to identify, track and refer children at risk of
offending, drug-taking and teenage pregnancy are to be introduced
across the country next year, according to the minister for
children and young people, writes Clare
Jerrom.

John Denham set out how the £600 million for the
Children’s Fund and the Children and Young People’s
Unit announced in the recent spending review, will be spent. The
money is available over three years from April 2003.

The Children’s Fund will continue tackling social
exclusion and poverty, and the funding will also enable small
grants to be provided through the local network fund for projects
helping 0-19-year-olds at risk of social exclusion. The money will
also support the work of the government’s youth participation
unit.

“The Children’s Fund has shown its worth in the first 17
months of existence, and is joining up working with children in the
areas most in need through partnerships between statutory,
voluntary and community sectors,” Denham told a meeting of local
partners in the Children’s Fund in Trafford.

But, he warned that a review of children at risk had identified
the failure of agencies to share information as a significant
barrier to providing effective services to help young people at
risk.