Decision details

Agreement will be sought from the Cabinet member for Education and Health Reform:

1.      That the HeadStart Kent programme be adopted and proceed  in accordance with the Big Lottery Grant Agreement and as set out in the report

2.      That the necessary procurement exercises be undertaken for goods and services required to deliver the programme.  

3.      That authority is delegated to the Corporate Director of Education and Young People's Services to award the necessary contracts for HeadStart Kent to providers selected through the procurement process and to award the HeadStart Kent grants to selected schools to deliver the Big Lottery Programme Grant Agreement.

Kent County Council is one of six authorities to be approved by the Big Lottery Fund to deliver the HeadStart Programme. A total investment of £9.99m has been secured for HeadStart Kent over the next five years.

The Programme aims to improve the mental health and emotional well-being of at-risk 10 to 16 year-olds and increase their resilience. It promotes an ecological, preventative and early intervention approach.

How the proposed decision meets the objectives of ‘Increasing Opportunities, Improving Outcomes: Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement (2015-2020)’

HeadStart Kent directly delivers towards KCC’s strategic outcome ‘Children and young people in Kent get the best start in life, in particular by ensuring:

• resilient and strong communities exist in which to raise young people
• children and young people have better physical and mental health.

The aim of the HeadStart Kent programme is to improve the mental well-being of at-risk 10 to 16 year-olds in Kent as well as work with 5 other local authorities who have also received investment.  The investment aims to facilitate and support:

·         the implementation of a locally developed, cross-disciplinary, multi-layered & integrated prevention strategy, with the young person and their needs at its core

·         the development of the necessary local conditions to enable that strategy to become sustainable in time

·         the development of a more robust evidence-base around ‘what works’ in the area of mental wellbeing to be proactively shared beyond HeadStart with the aim of contributing to the national and local policy debate.

As Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform,  I agree:

1. That the HeadStart Kent Programme be adopted and proceed in accordance with the Big Lottery Grant Agreement set out in the report.
2. That the necessary procurement exercises be undertaken for good and services required to deliver the programme.
3. That authority is delegated to the Corporate Director of Education and Young People's Services to award the necessary contracts for HeadStart Kent to providers selected through the procurement process and to award the HeadStart Kent grants to selected schools to deliver the HeadStart Programme in accordance with the Big Lottery Grant Agreement.

Governance:

The Executive Scheme of Delegation for Officers set out in Appendix 2 Part 4 of the Constitution (and the directorate schemes of sub-delegation made thereunder) provides the governance pathway for the implementation of this decision by officers as it assumes at 1.9 of the scheme that once a Member-level decision has been taken, the implementation of that decision will normally be delegated to officers, so that multiple Member decisions are not required in respect of the same matter