New funding secured to help transform understanding and support of Service children
Posted in News
Forces in Mind Trust has awarded £249,437 to the SCiP Alliance in partnership with King’s College London to establish the Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance Impact Centre. The SCiP Alliance Impact Centre will seek to transform the understanding of activities that support Service children and help equip the community to take evidence-based action.
Service children can benefit from being part of the Armed Forces community but can also face unique challenges due to the impact of Service life. While there is ongoing research into these challenges, colleagues working with Service children need to be supported with the most up to date tools for conducting evaluation and identifying best practice.
The Impact Centre will provide training, evaluation, and policy support to practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and funders. This includes highlighting instances of good practice in identifying what works for Service children. This work will be underpinned by co-production with Service children and their families to ensure that it is accessible by those the work supports.
The funding will cover two years of the SCiP Alliance Impact Centre including its initial setup phase and is awarded by the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) as part of a £35 million funding scheme run by the FiMT using an endowment awarded by The National Lottery Community Fund’.
The SCiP Alliance Impact Centre grant will run for 24 months to July 2027.
Dr Liam Satchell, Director of the SCiP Alliance Impact Centre said
“Service children are key to the Armed Forces community and deserve consistent, evidence-driven support across the four nations of the UK. The practitioners, policy makers, and families who support Service children all want to know what works best and how we might know this. The Impact Centre will provide definitive resources for the support of Service children and ensure collaboration throughout the sector. I am delighted to be Directing this centre that will help build change for Service children.”
Phil Dent, Director of the SCiP Alliance and Co-Chair, SCiP Alliance Impact Centre said
“The launch of the SCiP Alliance Impact Centre marks a significant milestone in our long-standing commitment to help professionals take evidence-led action with and for Service children. The SCiP Alliance community has come a long way in both building the evidence base and translating it into meaningful change. The SCiP Alliance Impact Centre will greatly enhance our capacity and expertise in this, increasing the community’s engagement with evidence, our ability to mobilise it through targeted action, and the impact it has on Service children’s lives.”
Professor Nicola Fear, Professor of Epidemiology at King’s College London and Co-Chair, SCiP Alliance Impact Centre said
“Ensuring that the needs of the children of Service personnel identified via the ever-growing evidence base requires a strategic approach to enable the research to have a positive impact on Service families. The establishment of the SCiP Alliance Impact Centre will support the transition of evidence into impact. The Impact Centre will work closely with other key groups in the sector including, but not limited to, the Centre for Evidence for the Armed Forces Community and KCMHR”
Michelle Alston, Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust said
“Many Service children thrive as part of the Armed Forces community, but they can also face unique challenges. We are delighted to award funding that can help transform the evaluation and policy landscape for Service children as a vital part of the Armed Forces community. Service children are a vital part of the Armed Forces community and supporting them is essential to good transition out of the Armed Forces for the whole Service family and Service personnel.
