Kent Innovation Pilot

Kent County Council is involved in a two year Central Government funded project which will run from March 2009 – March 2011. This pilot is taking place across four locations in Kent; the locations chosen give examples of urban, coastal and rural areas:

• Margate in the District of Thanet 1 (Coastal)
• Ramsgate, Thanet 2 (Coastal)
• Sheerness, Swale (Urban)
• Park Wood, Maidstone 2 (Neighbourhood)

Central Government have funded 10 councils across England to run innovation pilots. The overall objective of these Pilots is to identify and test out innovative ways in order to make a long-term sustainable difference to the lives of children and young people.

What is Kent doing?

We are offering families living in the four areas the opportunity to access services that can empower them to change their lives and circumstances. The key aspects of Kent's pilot are Family Learning, PSHE modules surrounding financial capabilities, Family Group Conferencing to enable families to plan together to deal with the challenges they face and Family Mentoring and Mediation.

What have we achieved in year one?

• FGC – has enabled families who find it hard to ask for help to work together to get a menu of options that will allow them to access services that will work for them.
• 35 families accessed Playing for Success Kent – parents have been given the opportunity to have quality time with their children which has reported to improve skills, confidence, team work and decision making as a group.
• Assisted 275 families to realise and claim all the benefits that they are entitled to.
• 63 Year 11 students achieved a pass in their financial exams. Arming them with the skills to be more financially aware.
• Better reading partnerships – improving the literacy of families and children. Evidence shown that children involved in the project were making significant accelerated progress in their reading, and had increased levels of self confidence and enjoyment of reading.

What are our objectives for year two?

• Continue working with families in Family Group Conference.
• Give additional learning support to teenage mums with the offer of crèche facilities
• Work with primary and secondary school children regarding money matters
• Offer an online mentor surrounding bullying and cyber bullying. 
• Continue the community based mediation work assisting families to resolve any issues.
• Further development of the credit union to assist those families that are unable to access normal banking services.

Case studies

To read about first hand eperiences of how the Kent Innovation Pilot has changed peoples lives, visit our case studies page.