Knight moves Sir Tom Hunter pledges to help charity ‘make Scotland the best place to grow up’
A PROJECT helping children and families in Scotland to lead a better life has been given a major funding boost to allow it to develop its services over the next three years.
A £2 million commitment from entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter through The Hunter Foundation and BBC Children in Need will support the independent Scottish Care Review’s “Promise” across Tayside and East Ayrshire.
The review was set up in 2017 to find a way to give Scotland’s vulnerable youngsters a childhood they deserved.
The funding will be released in partnership with Dundee Council and East Ayrshire Council, and will build on work already undertaken on the What Matters To You project, which stemmed from the review, where families and young people determine their needs and the system offers that support in response.
Part of the funding will enable the project to continue delivering for the next three years and have a greater impact on the children and families that it supports.
Sir Tom, founder of The Hunter Foundation, said: “We want to play our part in turning the ambition for Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up, into the reality that it is. The Care Review and subsequent ‘Promise’ is not the vision of a committee, it’s the reality of 5,500 voices, half of whom are care experienced. We owe it to them that their voice is heard, enabled and delivered upon.
“While this is a relatively small commitment it builds on our existing investments in this area and we hope to make further substantive commitments going forward. Scotland spends an inordinate sum on this system – that shows we care but it also shows we need to change as the outcomes are still far from acceptable for those young people touched by the very system that should be supporting them.”
‘Crucial work’
SIMON Antrobus, chief executive of BBC Children in Need, said it was delighted to be able to support the crucial work. “We are delighted to be supporting this crucial work, in partnership with The Hunter Foundation,” he said.
“This £2m commitment will enable us to continue the work we have already started in Scotland by listening to the voices of children and families, and helping them flourish with their communities.”
Fiona Duncan, chair of the Care Review and the Promise Oversight Board, said she was delighted with the news and pleased to see funders investing in the work of change required to implement the conclusions of the Care Review. “With their support, more initiatives to support children and families will happen and flourish across Scotland,” she said.
“We will only #KeepThePromise made to children and families by working together across organisations, sectors, geography and beyond. The care community demanded change – we all have a role to play to deliver it.”
Councillor Stewart Hunter, Dundee City Council children and families services convener, said the council was grateful for the funding to continue the crucial work of the What Matters To You project.
He added: “Following the report of the independent review, we have recently launched ‘Our Promise to Care Experienced Children and Young People’ to help improve our services for the future.”
Eddie Fraser, chief executive of East Ayrshire Council, explained how communities in East Ayrshire have benefited from the What Matters To You initiative.
He said: “What Matters To You provides valuable support for vulnerable young people and their families, with a particular focus on families with children at the edges of care, to help develop positive outcomes for those most impacted by negative underlying circumstances.
Life chances
“AS an organisation, and through our partnership arrangements, we are committed to improving the wellbeing and life chances of children and young people growing up in East Ayrshire, and with the support of The Hunter Foundation and BBC Children in Need we have created an innovative model to take this forward.
“Our initial focus has been in the Cumnock and Auchinleck area, linked specifically to the new Barony Campus [learning site] which opened in August last year.
“We’ve also been working with locally-based social enterprise Columba 1400 in helping to facilitate and support the conversations taking place. Columba 1400 works with people who play a key role in the lives of young people.”
Both BBC Children in Need and THF will each commit £1m in the investment, with funding from THF coming from a donation pledged to BBC Children in Need in 2020.
We want to play our part in turning the ambition for Scotland to be the best place to grow up, into the reality that it is