Better Futures Fund

8. What progress she has made on establishing the better futures fund.

15. What progress she has made on establishing the better futures fund.

In July, the Chancellor announced the better futures fund—the largest social outcomes partnership fund in the world—to break down barriers to opportunity for up to 200,000 vulnerable children and young people. The fund will boost pupil achievement, and could fund programmes to reduce reoffending or provide specialist workers for children struggling with exclusion, mental health or crime. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for the design and implementation of the fund, and it is engaging extensively with other Government Departments, the impact economy, civil society sectors and local government partners over the coming months.

The better futures fund is a big step forward in working with the impact economy; as the chair of the social, co-operative and community economy all-party parliamentary group for the social enterprise sector, I am really pleased to see how it can unlock extra resources from social investors, private businesses and philanthropy to tackle the country’s urgent problems. Will the Chief Secretary ensure that the principles behind the fund are matched with the targeted approach advocated by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, to make sure that the money goes where it is best needed?

I thank my hon. Friend for his support of what we are seeking to achieve through the better futures fund. He is absolutely right that the fund will be designed to ensure that the money goes where it is most needed and where it will have the biggest impact—principles I think we can all agree on. As I mentioned earlier, DCMS will be working extensively with other Departments, local partners and others to design the scheme and as it gets established.

Our North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, is taking child poverty seriously, with the recent announcement of £28.6 million for the north-east child poverty action plan, including funding for a local pilot to expand specialist youth provision and support to open up pathways to future employment opportunities. How will the Chancellor work with Mayor McGuinness from the earliest stages of development of the better futures fund to ensure that it meets the needs of children and young people in my constituency of Blaydon and Consett and across the north-east?

I was pleased to meet Kim McGuinness just last week and to hear about the excellent work she is doing to champion the north-east. On the better futures fund more broadly, we know that the design must truly be a joint endeavour—it must be built up through an open dialogue with a range of different partners who will be involved in the delivery. I reassure my hon. Friend that DCMS’s stakeholder engagement includes mayoral strategic authorities, as they will be part of that process.

The better futures fund rightly targets the needs of vulnerable children, and one such group are those who are subject to adoption or kinship arrangements. Last week the Department for Education announced that it would renew the adoption and special guardianship support fund for one year, but did not say that it would reverse the 40% cuts in per-child funding that were announced in the spring. Does the Minister agree that reversing those cuts is vital for protecting families and keeping children in adoption arrangements, and will he meet adoptive families from Mid Sussex so that he can better understand the benefits to the Treasury that investing in adoptive families will bring?

The hon. Member asks about an important matter. As a constituency MP, I have met families who have an interest in the fund and who are in the process of adoption themselves, so I know on a personal level from my constituency work how important it is. What the Department for Education was able to announce last week was important in confirming the extension of the fund, which will offer some certainty to the affected families. I will continue to work with colleagues in the DFE to ensure that we are doing all we can to support those families, who are playing such an important role for their children and for society.

I thank the Minister for a very positive answer and for that commitment. What steps are being taken and what discussions have taken place to ensure that vulnerable young people in Northern Ireland can benefit fully from the better futures fund, particularly in the areas most affected by educational disadvantage?

We want to ensure that the better futures fund is targeted where it is most needed and that the investment is spent in a way that really improves life chances, in particular for young people and children who face some of the biggest challenges ahead. I note what the hon. Gentleman says about the area he represents and the part of the UK he comes from; it is something we will consider as we develop the details of the fund.