The Children’s Fund was created in 2000 as part of the Government’s commitment to tackle disadvantage amongst children and young people. The aim of the Fund was to facilitate the development of more extensive and better co-ordinated early intervention services for children and young people aged 5 to 13 years who were at risk of social exclusion. Cheshire Children’s Fund, the local response to this national initiative, is guided by the Children’s Fund Partnership which is made up of representatives from local voluntary and statutory organisations. The aim of this research was to explore the impact of a number of projects which had received funding from the Cheshire Children’s Fund, specifically to learn how these projects had worked with children and families where there had been a positive outcome. The objectives of the research were to identify, for each child or family, the reasons for the provision of a service, the type of service that had been provided, and the impact that it had had on their lives. The research explored the factors that enabled a positive outcome for each family: the similarities and differences between the cases were also examined to determine whether any contributing factors were present across the services. The 11 projects were selected to cover a range of themes to reflect the breadth of the Children’s Fund work in Cheshire. They provided a range of services under the headings of crime prevention, promoting inclusion, success in schools and family support.Cheshire Children’s Fun
