Extra funds for children in care across Rutland
It includes cash for creative mentoring and one-to-one therapy
Last updated 20th Mar 2024
Rutland County Council is to receive additional funding so it can expand the support it gives to children and young people in its care.
The Council operates a range of vital services that protect and support children and families in the county, including fostering and adoption, and Early Help for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It also offers safeguarding services that act when children are suffering abuse or neglect.
In total, Rutland County Council provides care for around 30 children.
The authority says some of these children benefit from a special kind of support called creative mentoring, which provides one-to-one therapy through the arts and other creative disciplines, if they are struggling at school, at risk of exclusion or social isolation.
Rutland County Council has been awarded funding by the Department for Education (DfE) to expand this type of support to children from overseas who are placed in its care.
They say this type of support came off the back of working with the Leicester-based charity, The Mighty Creatives to offer creative mentoring to six of its looked after children, with good results.
Councillor Tim Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Families at Rutland County Council, said: “Providing care and support for children without a stable family environment is one of the most important things we do.
This applies to all children, including those from overseas who come into our care – often because they’re trafficked into the UK and then abandoned.
It’s confusing and frightening for them and they need all the help we can give them.
We’re very pleased to have secured the funding needed to widen our creative mentoring programme, so it can include children from overseas who have no family here.
We know creative mentoring works because it’s already being used to great effect to support an increasing number of Rutland children.
"It’s vital that children from overseas are given the same opportunities to build relationships and support systems through programmes like this, which provide safe and fun avenues to communicate and develop a sense of confidence and belonging.”