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£5m plan to extend pioneering community programme to Liverpool City Region’s most deprived areas is approved

Local leaders have approved funding for the pioneering £5m plan to improve life chances in some of the Liverpool City Region’s most deprived areas. The funding will support the roll-out of the Cradle to Career change programme to a further five areas across the Liverpool City Region – following its success in North Birkenhead.

Our Business Cases and Funding team helped to secure the funding for Northwood (Knowsley) and Halton Lea (Halton), the first two communities under the Combined Authority programme. The Northwood programme also received funding and strategic support from Bank of America for the discovery phase. The pre-development work has been completed and delivery arrangements are being finalised with the local authorities. Right to Succeed anticipate that pre-development work will start in Sefton and St Helens early 2023 and Liverpool later in 2023.

Cradle to Career is a programme delivered in partnership with Wirral Council, instigated and funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation and SHINE, and managed by national charity Right to Succeed. The Steve Morgan Foundation and SHINE are committed to the community of North Birkenhead in the long-term, and to extending the impact of this pioneering work across the Liverpool City Region.

Aimed at improving educational outcomes for children and young people, Cradle to Career is focused on delivery in three key areas: education, community and services. It has brought together residents, local services, professionals, and community leaders to support children and young people in one of the most deprived areas within the Liverpool City Region.

Right to Succeed will help roll out further programmes to one community in each of the city region’s five other boroughs.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:

“One of my driving ambitions as Mayor has always been to lay the foundations for a better future for our next generation, creating a place where young people, irrespective of their background, are given the opportunity to thrive.

“It beggars belief that, in 2022, where you are born still too often determines your life chances – a post code lottery dictating your bank balance, the food you can afford, the diseases you’re likely to develop, and how long you will live.

“I want the Liverpool City Region to lead the way in showing the rest of the country how to support the most vulnerable in our society. Too often, people on our region are held back, not by a lack of talent but a lack of opportunity. But by treating people as human beings, not statistics, we’re helping to give our young people a promise not just of hope, but of opportunity.

“Everyone deserves the chance to fulfil their full potential. We will give the next generation the chance to learn, to better themselves, to embark on a career they’re truly passionate about to build a happy, healthy and successful life for themselves here. Together, we’re building a region where no one is left behind.”

The roll-out programme will see the place-based Cradle to Career approach introduced in five of the city region’s areas most in need, with a wide range of different organisations and agencies working closely with local communities to improve outcomes for children and young people, managed by Right to Succeed.

Right to Succeed is a charity that works across the country to support communities in areas of high deprivation to deliver place-based approaches that improve outcomes for children, in partnership with philanthropic donors and local and national governments.

Graeme Duncan, CEO from Right to Succeed, said:

“We are delighted that the Combined Authority has decided to fund the roll out of collective impact programmes across the Liverpool City Region. Our experience working in North Birkenhead on the Cradle to Career programme over the last three years has shown that by putting the decision-making power in the hands of the community and bringing people together around shared aims, you can accelerate the pace of change for children and young people. By rolling this out across the region, the Combined Authority is taking the lead by investing in a new approach that will see sustained change and improved outcomes for more children and young people.”

The Combined Authority has supported the pre-development work in Northwood, Knowsley and Halton Lea, Halton and is due to continue that support in St Helens, Sefton and Liverpool.

Director of Economics, Bindu Pokkyarath, added:

“Working with the team at Right to Succeed on this project has been an inspiring experience. We were able to gain insights and analyse the long term social and economic impacts of the interventions proposed within the project, some of which will be intergenerational. This programme is an example of Levelling-Up interventions that will touch the lives of several families, for whom this support can be life-changing – a project that can make a real difference.”

3 November 2022