The Parent Mentors project was initially developed in partnership with Sure Start Speke and South Liverpool PCT Trust in 2004. The aim of the project is to provide local residents with an employment option, focusing on individual skills development within the children and families workforce, which at that time was undergoing radical change. At the same time the parent mentors who were the main beneficiaries of the project were working in their own community supporting other parents.

The main role involved working closely with Health Visitors and the Sure Start Midwife offering a support service to parents to be, and families with children under the age of five. The project was recognised as an example of good practice locally and has been extended to the Netherley Valley area, due to its success in Speke. The project is supported by Liverpool Neighbourhood Regeneration Group (LNRPG) a partnership body with responsibility for allocating approximately £40million of Objective 1 funds across Liverpool.

This partnership has representatives from the voluntary sector, Liverpool City Council, NWDA, Greater Merseyside Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus and Liverpool Council for Voluntary Services. Local community representatives from Netherley Valley and Speke Garston are also represented on the group. Prior to being approved by the LNRPG group we underwent a rigorous assessment by Liverpool City Council Procurement Team to become a preferred provider, and our tender to undertake the work also had to receive endorsement from the South Liverpool Neighbourhood Management Board.

Funding for the project is made up of Neighbourhood Renewal Funds (NRF) and European Structural Funds (ESF) this is predominantly focused on the Netherley Valley project and Sure Start funding enables us to continue the project in Speke although with fewer mentors.

Objective 1 funding comes from Europe and is aimed at reducing the social and economic disadvantages faced by many communities in Liverpool. Our project is one of the many funded projects that will help to achieve this aim, and we have set out to this in a number of ways.

The Parent Mentors themselves are our first beneficiary group; they are local people who have not been in the workforce for some time or who are looking for a new challenge within the Children and Families workforce.

Each Parent mentor is a paid employee on a fixed term contract, but whilst they are employed they each have an individualised training plan to improve their longer term job prospects, whilst building up their actual work experience and ongoing help and support to achieve their personal aims.

Finally the parents who the mentors are targeting will also benefit from the scheme. Some time ago the Government commissioned a report into ",Tackling Health Inequalities,", Lord Acheson who undertook the report found that the most effective way to tackle longer term health inequalities was to invest in supporting mothers in their communities. There is a lot of evidence that backs this up and we believe our Speke project has had huge benefits for parents and children in Speke and look forward to achieving the same success in Netherley valley.