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Action for Children is one of the largest children's charities in the UK, providing services and campaigning for children, young people and their families in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and additionally supporting work in Southern Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. Its major areas of work are;

• Family support at critical times
• Vulnerable young people
• Children in care
• Disabled children

Action for Children runs 420 services across the UK, reaching nearly 156,000 ^[1] of the most vulnerable and neglected children and young people, and their families. They provide services in partnership with local authorities and government bodies, including children's centres, disability and resident services, and projects working with families. They also run several specialist schools, and provide fostering and adoption services. Action for Children currently has its main offices on Highbury Park in the London Borough of Islington.

Action for Children campaigns include “As long as it takes” and Growing Strong. As a part of the Growing Strong campaign, they ran a “Step inside our shoes” ^[2] initiative on young people's opinions on gun and knife crime.

In September 2009 Action for Children released a report called “Backing the Future; why investing in children is good for us all” in collaboration with nef, the new economics foundation ^[3]. This report stated that early intervention, or helping the most vulnerable and neglected young people and children as quickly as possible, could save billion of pounds sterling (£). This resulted in extensive media coverage and was discussed during the UK party conference fringe meetings in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Action for Children holds that every child has a right to a safe and secure childhood. Its vision is encapsulated in the following quote

Our vision is of a world where all children and young people have a sense of belonging, and are loved and valued. A world where they can fulfil their potential, shape their destiny and experience the joy of life.

Action for Children was previously known as NCH, The Children's Charity, National Children's Home and, until the mid 20th Century, the National Children's Home and Orphanage or NCHO. The name Action for Children was adopted in 2008. It is a registered charity under English and Scottish law,^[4][5] and in 2007–8 it had a gross income of £209 million, making it one of the 20 largest charities in the UK^[6].

Contents 1 History 2 Activities 3 Schools 4 Campaigns 5 Neglect 6 Extended family 7 Finances 8 Name change/advertising 9 References 10 External links

[edit] History

Action for Children has its roots in the Methodist Church, links which still exist today. It was founded by Thomas Bowman Stephenson (1839 – 1912). As the child of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he saw the huge social distress caused by poverty, unemployment, the effects of alcohol and of the differences between those who made up the Sunday church congregation and those to whom his father preached on the streets. At the age of 19 Stephenson decided to enter the ministry. In 1864, Stephenson was both ordained as a Methodist minister and married.

In 1869, with the help of two Methodist friends, Alfred Mager and Francis Horner, Stephenson established his first Children’s Home for orphans and abandoned children in a converted, disused stable at No 8 Church St in Lambeth^[7]. The Children's Home reflected Stephenson's commitment to a family-style system of childcare. At a time when most children who could not stay with their families lived in big institutions, like the humiliating workhouses, Stephenson's establishment of small homes supported by private donation was ground-breaking.^{[citation needed]}

Even in its early years the Children's Home encouraged the "boarding out", or fostering, of younger children with approved families. Sometimes these arrangements became permanent. The NCHO campaigned for the legal recognition of adoption, becoming an adoption agency in 1926. Later, it influenced the 1948 Children Act, which paved the way for adoption to become the leading childcare strategy.^{[citation needed]} In the mid-1960s, another pioneering step was taken to help children with disabilities or histories of abuse, previously considered impossible to place because of their special needs.

• 1869: work begun in England (London)
• 1911: work established in Wales
• 1955: work established in Scotland
• 2000: work established in Northern Ireland

For more NCH history and historic photographs, from a former NCH resident, see Their History: History of a Child in Care ^[8].

[edit] Activities

Action for Children is involved in and run a large number of fundraising activities and events, including marathons, fun runs, and social and community based events such as high heeled fashion walks, concerts and ‘sleep out’ evenings.

Action for Children is also well-known for its originality in events, from their Time Warp event on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square ^[9], to their participation in the Notting Hill Carnival in 2009. Their largest and most popular fundraising event is Byte Night ^[10], an annual IT industry sleep-out in aid of youth homelessness held across key locations in the U.K.

As the National Children's Home, Action for Children previously raised much of its funding through house-to-house envelope collections run by volunteers throughout the UK. Many of these volunteers were local Methodist Church members, often being former residents, or former carers, teachers or other NCH employees.

[edit] Schools

Action for Children runs a number of special schools in the UK:^[11]

• Cotswold Community School, Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire
• Headlands School, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan
• Penhurst School, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
• Spires School, Besselsleigh, Oxfordshire
• Westwood School, Broadstairs, Kent

Others, now no longer part of the network, included Edgeworth ^[12] (Lancashire).

[edit] Campaigns

Action for Children campaigns to change the lives of the UK's most vulnerable and neglected children, young people and families. They do all they can to help children and young people break through poverty and disadvantage, and the work that they do with them gives Action for Children the insight to campaign on their behalf. Children and young people are included at every level of their campaigning and help them speak for themselves as often as possible, empowering them to take control and have an impact on their own and others lives. The charity is an active member of the End Child Poverty Coalition, and members marched in the Keep the Promise rally in 2008.

As a part of the Growing Strong campaign the charity launched the “step inside our shoes” ^[13]in 2008 as a response to the gun and knife crime among young people in the UK. They collated young people’s views, opinions and responses to collate them into a report. “Question time” events were then held between young people and local influential individuals to enable a better understanding of the gun and knife violence in the UK. Action for Children is committed to taking a long-term approach to help the most vulnerable and neglected children, and young people. This is demonstrated in their campaigning and the services that they deliver. Work that has no quick fixes based on supportive and long term solutions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Neglect

On 12 October 2009, Action for Children launched a Neglect Appeal aiming to raise approximately £17 million across 3 years. The appeal was launched with a three minute advert by Davina McCall talking directly to camera shown at peak time on Channel 4 during Channel Four News. The advert was subsequently published on the Action for Children YouTube channel,^[14] and shorter versions have been shown on other television channels since.^[15][16] The Chief Executive Clare Tickell appeared on BBC Breakfast during peak morning time. The main message of the campaign related to study findings that up to 10% of children - almost 1.5 million - are neglected in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Extended family

The Action for Children ‘Extended Family’ includes ‘Old Boys & Girls’ - people formerly in branches of the charity's children’s homes – and retired staff. Other groups and individuals who are like family to Action for Children are lifelong supporters and Methodists – both of which have a strong historical link with the organisation. The term ‘Extended Family’ derives from a publication by that name, which ran from 2000 to 2004, and was intended for Old Boys & Girls as well as retired staff. The Extended Family magazine is published twice a year. The Extended Family now also has its own MySpace page dedicated to the history and heritage of Action for Children, where anyone interested can discover information about former National Children's Home branches, stories and more.^[17]

[edit] Finances

The charity's turnover in 2007-08 was approximately £206 million. Of this, approximately £16.2 million was raised by voluntary donations - the rest being payments from government bodies for acting as a provider of services purchased by those bodies.^[18]

[edit] Name change/advertising

Following a review in 2006 NCH decided to re-brand to become Action for Children in order to gain more public recognition for its work and to change to a name that more accurately reflected what it does.^[19] As one of the largest children's charities in the UK, NCH worked across the UK and in some areas of the Caribbean, running a wide range of services working with children with disabilities; children in care; young people; and families, so it decided to change its name to Action for Children. In 1991 it had been known for a time as NCH-Action for children.^[20]

On 18 September 2008 the new name was launched, as well as a new logo, brand and revealing a new strapline- "as long as it takes", a symbol of the dedicated of staff and how how many services were able to work with children and young people for significantly longer than the minimum requirement. They developed a whole new way of addressing the public from newly designed materials to focussing on positive images to empowerchildren and young people to help themselves. They also have a policy of writing communications suitable for an eleven year old child to understand. Following the launch came Action for Children's first public campaign, and the release of the "as long as it takes" report, which analysed twenty one years of government legislation and its effect on the most vulnerable children and young people.

On 1 January 2009, Action for Children launched its first advertising campaign including newspaper and magazine ads, outdoor advertising and, for the first time in their 140 year history, television advertising. The first advert, which was traditionally animated (directed by Dan Sumich from Passion Pictures)concentrated on the story of Nicola,^[21] a young carer from Scotland who had been helped by Action for Children when looking after her mum. The ad used Nicola's own words.^[22]

The second ad ^[23] featured a the testimonial of a young autistic man called Dan, who had attended an Action for Children residential service where he had learned how to deal with his anger and frustration. The ad, again, featured a voiceover by Dan himself and used animation - this time mixing live action and animation together. The Dan advertisement was criticised by various autism-related groups and individuals on the autistic spectrum for its representation of for misrepresenting the autism spectrum and autistic people as monsters ^[24][25][26] and 61 complaints were received by the ASA. The content of the advert was also questioned by autism scholars Simon Baron Cohen and Tony Attwood. While open to criticism, the advert also received praise for tackling the subject matter of autism on a national scale. ^[27]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Action for Children Website
• Extended Family website
• History of NCH Branches and File History of a child in care in the 1960s.