Decision details

West London Zone harnesses the collective power of the West London community, joining up the right support and opportunities for children at the right time. This includes partnering with schools and charities working locally, sharing their knowledge and insight, and bringing together the whole community- government, charities, schools, families and funders - to work together to support each child. By doing this, they aim to ensure everyone in the community is working towards a common end goal. As part of a vibrant community, they bring together the best of what is already available locally as well as finding and funding other charities to deliver programmes locally to West London Zone children and young people.

West London Zone have recently established a partnership with Wigan Council, bringing their approach to GM for the first time. This will see the organisation commencing a version of its model, tailored to local context, with communities across Leigh and Atherton. A new name/brand, informed by a consultation group from Wigan, will be used for the launch to ensure a local approach. St. Matry’s High School in Astley, Wigan, are looking to pioneer an education strand of this programme in their school.

To deliver the programme, West London Zone will join with AllChild in order to improve the life chances and opportunities of the pupils and the local community. It will do this in 3 main ways:

1. Early and proactive identification of children (who would be deemed at risk of NEET by the time they get to Year 11)
2. The building of trusted relationships with key adults in school
3. Building up and procuring specialist and community support networks covering a range of areas.

The GM VRU is seeking to award £4,950 via a grant agreement to St. Marys High School in Wigan to co-fund a contract a West London Zone to deliver their pilot programme in Wigan, the first time the programme has been brought to GM from London.