Narrowing the Gap

Addressing the needs of children and young people from vulnerable groups (for example, Traveller and gypsy children, children in care, children from poor and less well off households, disabled children, children with a disabled parent, children living in Priority Neighbourhoods and young people who are homeless).

Background from the 2008 CYP Needs Assessment:

• children and young people from vulnerable groups are more likely to experience inequality of outcomes and have less positive opportunities;
• proportionately more children from vulnerable groups have lower levels of educational attainment and are likely to do less well;
• South Gloucestershire has a higher than average number of children living in families characterised as living in Moderate Means;
• the most deprived areas of South Gloucestershire have become more deprived;
• downturns in the economy have a more adverse affect on less well off families and vulnerable groups;
• vulnerable children and young people face additional difficulties if they are from some minority ethnic backgrounds.

  From expert group sessions and consultation:

• the impact of family poverty and adversity cuts across the work of South Gloucestershire Council and its partners and can have consequences lasting into adulthood and subsequent generations;
• strategies for Narrowing the Gap need to have a long-term focus, be evidentially based and are not simply more of the same;
• learning from successful models elsewhere can bring services and professionals together and be inspirational and sustaining;
• interventions which adopt an holistic and joined-up approach dealing with the range of obstacles and negative influences holding children back are the most effective;
• services that ‘work with’ rather than ‘do to’ have been found to be more successful with better long term outcomes;
• children from vulnerable groups benefit from a more individualised approach; 

 What young people say: 

• they would like more help from teachers, more fun/interesting lessons, a quieter / better behaved class, smaller classes / groups and fewer bullies (TellUs Survey);
• some children think that their school is unhelpful to them when they are feeling unwell;a small but increasing proportion of pupils report that there is a lack of emotional support in both primary and secondary schools (TellUs Survey).  

What we need to do:

It’s never too early or too late - start early and offer second chances.

• improve collaboration between Council departments and agencies to pool efforts aimed at addressing family poverty and its effects;
• encourage children, young people, carers, parents and those delivering services to believe that everyone can succeed;
• doing with, not doing to - value and learn from the way parents and children have coped in adverse and difficult circumstances ;
• provide fit-for-purpose and innovative services - understand how and why people choose the services they use;
• increase the range of seamless access to services through improved council interfaces and cross departmental working;
• explicit target setting for different groups and different contexts.  

What this would mean for the each outcome:

Outcome	Impact
Be Healthy	Deeper reach into vulnerable groups with a shared understanding of the benefits of being healthy and improved integrated pathways for those with complex needs
Stay Safe	Parent and family strategies that effectively promote children’s safety and sense of safety and acknowledge the positive developmental aspects of risk
Enjoy & Achieve	More use by schools and settings of personalisation and family learning models with vulnerable groups to realise successful outcomes
Positive Contribution	Increased representation of vulnerable groups having a say in how services are delivered and received
Economic Wellbeing	Coordinated strategies aimed at reduced child poverty which are tailored to the specific needs of local communities, and ensure they reflect the real lives and conditions of parents/carers and are sensitive to cultural and other differences

Key Changes we will see as a result: Over three years the establishment of a shared long term approach to reducing inequalities in South Gloucestershire across agencies; Increasing examples of successful ‘narrowing the gap’ interventions; Growth in the number of services developed with children, young people and adults from vulnerable groups.