The Community
Childcare and
Family Support
Clyde Gateway’s work in Nurseries and Schools has been bolstered by an award from the Scottish Government’s £3 million Access to Childcare Fund (ACF), launched in July 2020, and one feature of the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan which focuses on tackling and reducing levels of child poverty in Scotland.
It recognises that the cost and availability of school age childcare around about the school day and during the holidays is often prohibitive for low income families and can limit opportunities for parents to work, train and learn.
Supporting Families (SF) is a ‘whole family’ approach that provides enhanced and flexible wrap around services for families in Clyde Gateway by addressing both economic and social exclusion; to provide improved outcomes for children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds whilst supporting a reduction in levels of child poverty. Lead by Clyde Gateway with ACF funding, the model links to a range of well-founded delivery partnerships designed to be flexible to meet different family needs.
The lead partners involved are One Parent Families Scotland, South Lanarkshire Council Education, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture.
The project is supporting a minimum of 150 children (ages 5 upward) to access after school provision in Stonelaw High School hub, in addition to providing support to 50 families to improve all aspects of their wider family life, including financial stability, wellbeing, education, employment and health. SF is an established project, focussed on improving and supporting existing services. Additional match funding from Clyde Gateway is being provided to fund the role of Family Support Worker to liaise and integrate all families referred into the project, including young children in transition from nursery into P1.
The tests of change for this project are very specific and relate to wrapping discrete services, provided by individual partner agencies, around the family so that support feels integrated and full to that family.
