Prime Minister Gordon Brown has praised Nottingham for becoming the UK’s first Early Intervention City this week.

The PM said:

"I'm very pleased to be able to send my congratulations to Nottingham for its inspirational work on Early Intervention.

"Nottingham will become Britain's very first Early Intervention City - launching a pioneering new initiative to help young mothers do the best for their children, reduce child poverty and increase opportunity in the early and teenage years.

"The launch marks the beginning of something very special for your great city."

The Government is keenly interested in how the programme develops in Nottingham to see how it might be rolled out nationally to break generations of poverty, deprivation and under achievement in families.

The Early Intervention approach is about long-term investment to deliver inter-generational benefits and break the cycle of deprivation. The aim is to empower parents, their children and future generations.

Local strategic partnership One Nottingham along with a range of partner agencies including the City Council, health workers and police, are co-ordinating their work and resources to help children, young people, families and adults - who could otherwise face a lifetime of difficulties and crises - at the earliest opportunity.

Councillor Jane Urquhart, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services at Nottingham City Council, said:

"Early Intervention’s holistic approach aims to break the cycle of disadvantage that can run through generations. This can transform people’s lives, making them less reliant on specialist services such as temporary accommodation for homelessness, benefits, social care services and work to tackle offending.

"We want people to be able to access services locally when they need them most, in order to prevent difficult situations for families or individuals becoming a crisis."

Well-established projects are already linked to early intervention work and new ones are being developed. The types of schemes that use Early Intervention techniques include the Family Nurse Partnership project, the Sanctuary scheme and the DrugAware scheme (see details below).

The city is holding the official launch for Nottingham as an Early Intervention City on 28th April 2008. This will bring together around 800 professionals from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors.

Schemes using Early Intervention techniques in Nottingham:

• The Family Nurse Partnership project: Family nurses will help teenage mums through pregnancy and early parenthood as Nottingham becomes one of 20 new areas in a £30 million expansion of Family Nurse Partnerships. Family nurses visit teenagers in their own homes, encouraging them to stay healthy and take proper care of themselves during their pregnancies to help prevent premature births and give their babies the best possible start. They will help teenage mums and their babies’ fathers prepare for the birth and cope with a new baby until the age of two by encouraging inexperienced teenagers to adopt healthier lifestyles, learn new parenting skills and become self-sufficient. The Family Nurses will be working through Nottingham’s 16 Sure Start Children’s Centres, linking into the services available at the centres.

• A Mentoring Scheme for young people: a new initiative is being developed which will enable young people at risk of becoming involved in serious crime, being offered the chance to work with a positive mentor to build a better life.

• Supporting victims of domestic violence: it is hoped that a Stronger Families project will be established to provide individual and group sessions for children and young people, to help them overcome problems resulting from experiencing domestic violence. This is in addition to the Sanctuary Initiative, which supports families to remain in their own home after a perpetrator of domestic violence has been removed.

• The Sanctuary scheme helps victims of domestic violence stay in their own homes rather than having to flee to a refuge and leave family, friends and maybe a job. Nottingham City Council, working with the police, fire service and domestic violence workers, provides free security improvements to the home and practical and emotional support from a specialist worker from the Women's Aid Advice Centre. It means fewer women and children face homelessness. Nationally domestic violence is a factor in one in eight of all new cases of homelessness and costs millions.

• The DrugAware Scheme will tackle illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. It can take Healthy Schools education out to parents and local communities and raise awareness of the signs of substance misuse in the community. It can also put in place easy to access information, services and help for pupils and their families. Parents could become more involved in drug policies and drugs education in schools, share activities with their children and learn new skills. Closer links between local schools, Neighbourhood Beat teams, Trading Standards and local retailers would also tackle the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to young people.