Naval Children’s Charity

The Naval Children’s Charity were awarded £299,569 for their project Thriving through childhood and beyond through the Transformational Grants Programme in February 2023. This project, delivered in partnership with The Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance delivers tri-Service benefits for all Armed Forces families with children in Early Years education or higher education.

It builds on the Alliance’s earlier work, which developed the Thriving Lives Toolkit – widely used to support improved educational outcomes for Service pupils in primary and secondary education. Thriving through childhood and beyond will develop and share further toolkits for younger and older age groups and ensure wide reach throughout the UK. They will develop a coherent quality standard for the entire sector and create a rigorous evidence base for policy and practice development.

Clare Scherer, Chief Executive of the charity said: “We are deeply grateful to the AFCFT for their support of this important work. For children whose parents have made the choice to serve in the Armed Forces there can be a number of challenges. It is vitally important that we find ways to support them and extending the SCiP Alliances Thriving Lives Toolkit to those all-important early years and into further and higher education will strengthen that support significantly.”

Clare added “The development of the Thriving Lives project to Early Years and Further /Higher education will greatly enhance the support that schools, nurseries and educational establishments can offer to children and young people. As an organisation dedicated to providing support to Naval children and young people in times of crisis and throughout their lives as they deal with the impact and potential disadvantages that can come with their parent’s life in service, we will find it invaluable to support this toolkit for professionals. By providing the toolkit the children and young people will receive enhanced support through their schools and establishments, identify any issues early and help them to find the support they need proactively, thus preventing issues and problems from escalating.“