Bringing up children

The money, made available through the Real Choices Tackling Child Poverty project, aims to help parents and carers who find childcare a barrier to preparing themselves for work or training. The £60,000 "Childcare Seed Money" is administered by Family Services, part of Cornwall County Council.

The funding complements a range of other sources available to support parents to get back to work.  Family Services Area Manager Jane Acton said:

"The aim of Childcare Seed Money is to pay for quality registered childcare to help parents back into work. However, we must see the return to work journey as a gradual process and we are working to make sure the money is used as effectively as possible to have long term benefits for families as a whole, as well as, ultimately, employers. Unlike childcare funding from other sources available to support parents to get back to work, this stream can be used for the widest possible interpretation of the parents 'employment journey' which is fantastic news for parents and children. It means it can be used when parents might for example need their confidence increased or just need space to think. It can only be used as a short term measure but this could be enough to help one parent wanting to work or train to turn the corner and face a brighter future."

The fund is primarily aimed at supporting parents from households where out of work benefits are received, there are lone parents or underemployed parents on a low income. Children can be any age.

Real Choices is a Government-funded project in Cornwall bringing together a range of public, private, voluntary and community sector partners working to break the cycle of child poverty for families in the county. The project focuses on preventing and tackling child poverty through innovative and holistic means. The money from Real Choices has been made available until the end of March and it is estimated it will help some 500 families. There are hopes for a second wave of funding in April.

For more information on this and other childcare funding initiatives, families should contact the Family Information Service on 0800 5878191.

To find out if Cornwall Works can help you too please contact us on 01872 355015 or info@cornwallworks.org.uk