Issue - meetings

Background:

This report updated Cabinet on the development of the “A Better Start” Big Lottery Bid.

It was reported that Medway had been successful in reaching the final stage of the “A Better Start” Big Lottery bid, which aimed to improve outcomes for children. This would bring circa £40m over 10 years to enable a systematic change to services to provide a preventative approach in pregnancy and early years and reduce the incidence of health and social problems later in life.

Details were given of the work undertaken through the Area Partnership Board to develop the bid and the outcome of the Strategy Days facilitated by the Social research Unit at Dartington in January. 

It was noted that the bid was currently being drafted based on the information presented in this report. The closing date for the bid was 28 February 2014 and Cabinet was asked to delegate authority to approve the bid for submission.

Reasons:

The bid provides a significant opportunity to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for children in Medway. The timeline between the strategy days and the submission date had not offered an opportunity to bring the final bid to Cabinet for approval.