1. Case study: Big Lottery Fund
Dan Paskins
03/11/2016

2. Early action funding Overview
Currently designing our England portfolio
In line with our new strategic framework and ‘People in the Lead’ approach
Early action is one of three key goals for all our funding

3. Early action funding Overview
We currently have limited data on our overall support for early action projects.
We have carried out a preliminary mapping exercise that suggests 47% of projects across all our programmes have at least one form of early action - 14% is primary prevention, 15% secondary and 20% tertiary. Only a small proportion of our grants go towards acute care – 1% overall.
However, this data is not particularly robust, and it is likely that the true levels are much higher. Best practise around defining, identifying and recording early action is still developing. Nonetheless, it gives us a useful baseline for measuring future improvements.

4. Early action funding A Better Start - £125m (2015-2025)
Delivered at ward-level within Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend-on-Sea
Delivering joined-up services for families to improve outcomes for children
Focusing on health and wellbeing of families during pregnancy and the first three years of life
Strong focus on evaluation & learning
A Better Start is a strategic programme focusing on early action.
It is a ‘test and learn’ programme investing a total of £215m across five local area partnerships between Being delivered within Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend-on-Sea. These areas were chosen for their innovative and forward-thinking approach to improving child outcomes.  
Local health and other public services, VCSE and the wider community will work together to co-produce and deliver less bureaucratic, more joined-up services for all families living in the area.
This will lead to these services working with the whole family effectively to improve outcomes for children, focusing on health and wellbeing during pregnancy and the first three years of life.
These new pathways of care aim to make better use of local resources and set out to improve outcomes for children in three key areas:
Social and emotional development: preventing harm before it happens as well as promoting good attachment
Communication and language development: developing skills in parents to talk, sing, read to, and particularly to praise their babies and toddlers and to ensure local childcare services emphasise language development
Diet and nutrition: encouraging breast-feeding and promoting good nutritional practices, giving practical advice on healthier meals for young children and portion sizes.
There is strong evidence that the first few years of life build the foundations for future health and wellbeing, and that taking a preventative approach together with systems changes in local agencies can improve the life chances of babies and children. However, these interventions have yet to be tested at scale.
This programme aims to facilitate system change locally, leading to a shift in culture and spending across children and families agencies towards prevention. We are also investing in a substantial evaluation and learning contract, so that the lessons learned from this programme can be identified and widely shared.

5. Early action funding Little Fish Theatre
We have supported their work since 2009, with responsive grants totalling £625,000
Their work challenges young people’s values, enabling them to develop skills which positively contribute to their community
Currently supporting ‘DSV Youth’, a partnership with Her Centre
Using theatre, role play and creative workshops to raise awareness of boundaries in healthy relationships and offer one on one support and counselling
We also support a range of early action projects through our responsive funding.
Little Fish Theatre works in partnership with local communities to deliver a wide range of ground-breaking programmes. Employing expert workshop leaders and professional actors to work with thousands of young people in and around London each year, the company’s work is designed to challenge young people’s value systems, enabling them to develop skills which positively contribute to their community.
They write and produce issue based theatre for young people, they support young people in and out of the education system through community outreach projects and deliver youth offending projects.
Our funding has supported the work of Little Fish Theatre since 2009 with grants totalling £625,000. Through a Reaching Communities grant of £305, 435, we are supporting ‘Bexley DSV Youth’ which is a three year partnership with Her Centre.
They will support 3,600 young people in Bexley to prevent them either perpetrating or accepting domestic and sexual violence. The project will use theatre productions, role play and creative workshops to raise awareness of boundaries in healthy relationships and offer one to one support and counselling.

6. Early action funding Bradford People First Healthy Lives Project
Advocacy group for people with learning disabilities, by people with learning disabilities
Currently funding their ‘Healthy Lives Project’ with an Awards for All grant of £4,140
Pilot scheme looking at the practicalities of people with learning difficulties living independent lives
Providing hands-on practical support and carrying out research into best practise
Bradford People First is a self-advocacy group, run by people with learning disabilities, for people with learning disabilities. Their aim is to make the lives of people with learning disabilities better in Bradford and throughout the country.
They run a variety of projects, including campaigning, advocating for people with learning disabilities in communities and professional environments, and training police officers on how to recognise and deal with disability hate crime.
We have funded Bradford People First several times in the past, and are currently funding their ‘Healthy Lives Project’, with an Awards for All grant of £4, 140.
The organisation is working in partnership with Bradford Trident to carry out a pilot scheme looking at the practicalities of people with learning difficulties living independent lives, specifically looking at issues linked to healthier lifestyles and providing budget plans, healthy eating, shopping trips and healthy cooking sessions.
They are providing hands on practical support to improve the physical health of people with learning difficulties, and carrying out research into how best to support people with learning difficulties in the practicalities of living an independent life.
This project is a good example of the fact that Awards for All projects often have really catalytic effects – you can do a lot with relatively small sums of money

7. Early action funding: the future
Prioritizing early action
Prioritise early action when considering how our funding can make the largest impact.
Encourage organisations to think about the role they can play in prevention, and support those with the space to move beyond responses to critical need
Build an evidence base, identify best practise and scale successful approaches
Wide-scale systems change
Encourage organisations to think about the role they can play in prevention - building community ‘readiness’ alongside community ‘resilience’. Supporting organisations with the space to move beyond responses to critical need.
Use our investments, partnerships and influence to build an evidence base, identify best practice and support organisations in scaling and sharing successful approaches. This includes investing in evaluation, so that we can gather the necessary learning.
For example, for A Better Start, we are investing in a substantial evaluation and learning contract, which will run throughout the 10 year period of the programme, focusing on the setup, implementation and effectiveness of the programme within and across the areas.
Not layering projects on top of systems, but working for system change. For example, Coventry Law Centre (EANF) working alongside housing & social care, not as an extra service. This is very complex. It takes time and can be difficult to measure.
For example, we don’t yet have a robust way to measure and track how much ‘early action funding’ we do, because it’s such a broad category that doesn’t yet have a concrete definition.
There’s another point here about measuring systems change, since numbers are a bit meaningless here. We need ethnographers instead.