To ask the Office of the First and deputy First Minister to detail if all existing services funded through the Children’s Fund should be placing staff on redundancy notice as of the beginning of March, as continuation funding has not been confirmed beyond 31 March 2008; what if any action has been taken to advise such programmes of the way forward and if the Department could outline by what mechanisms, if any, such programmes can access the budget line for children and young people, incorporating the previous Children’s Fund, recently announced by the junior Ministers, the main proportion of which appears to have now been mainstreamed within the various Departments?

As you are aware the Children's Fund will no longer exist beyond March 2008. This decision was made on the basis that if the individual projects supported are considered to be of significant value then the funding stream should be in the departments' programmes, rather than continuing to be managed through central funds.

Whilst the allocation of Departmental budgets remains at the discretion of individual Ministers, Ministerial colleagues have been urged to mainstream and protect funding for children and young people within their departmental budgets.

Junior Ministers are continuing to have discussions with relevant Ministers on the issue of services currently funded through the Children's Fund. Junior Ministers will respond to you in more detail when the way forward has been decided.

Should your query relate directly to specific programmes or projects, we would suggest that you should also contact the appropriate Minister.