Tameside Children's Trust

Introduction

The Purpose and Goals of Tameside Children’s Trust:

There are around 56,036 people between the ages of 0-19 in Tameside - nearly 26% of the population. Of these there are 32,156 children attending a school in Tameside including 17,499 attending primary schools, 14,267 attending secondary schools and 390 attending special schools. Outside of the school age population, a further 15,000 young people were attending sixth-form in Tameside (both college and in school), 2157 children were attending a maintained nursery provider and in the academic year 2008/9, around 3000 3 and 4 year olds were claiming Nursery Education Grant at non-maintained nurseries in Tameside, an increase on previous years. The past 5 years have shown a steady increase in the numbers of births in Tameside. Local estimates indicate that births in 2009 were likely to be around 3064, contributing to the overall increase in the population of under 5s in Tameside over the same period.

Tameside Children’s Trust is a group of agencies, which work with and for children and young people in the Tameside area. Trust arrangements were originally formed in 2003, but made into a statutory body in April 2010. The Trust includes representatives from groups including Tameside Council, the Police, Local Health Trust and voluntary organisations. Working together, they aim to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people, through coordinated planning and commissioning of services. Tameside Children's Trust is made up of a board supported by sub-groups linked to the Every Child Matters outcomes.

The National Context:

Children's Trusts are local partnership arrangements to improve children's well-being (the five outcomes). They are not defined in legislation but are underpinned by a ‘duty to co-operate’ in section 10 of the Children Act 2004. The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 amended section 10 by bringing schools, colleges and Jobcentre Plus under the duty to co-operate and requiring all local areas to have a Children’s Trust Board, which had to prepare and publish a jointly owned Children and Young People’s Plan by April 2011. In Tameside 2009/10, following consultation with all key stakeholders, a partnership structure based on the Every Child Matters outcome framework was developed to support the Children’s Trust Board.

Recently Government (July 2010) announced plans to reform Children’s Trusts which it states are part of a wider programme of measures for reducing bureaucracy. The Secretary of State indicated that he proposed to remove the duty on schools to co-operate and the duty on local authorities to set up Children’s Trust Boards and to prepare and publish a joint Children and Young People’s Plan. However, Government emphasises that strong local partnerships are crucial to meeting the needs of all children, and fully supports them to address local issues with innovative solutions. The basic duty to co-operate will continue and it is left up to the local area to decide on joint planning and what this contains. Tameside Children’s Trust Board in its meetings (July 2010 and September 2010) has reiterated its commitment to working in such a way. The intention is to make these arrangements lean, productive and focused.

Priorities of the Trust:

Tameside Children’s Trust strongly believes that all children and young people in Tameside should be provided with a framework in which they can:

• Be healthy;
• Stay safe;
• Enjoy and achieve;
• Make a positive contribution to society;
• Experience social and economic well-being.

Tameside Children’s Trust has identified an initial set of 6 strategic priorities (SP) for 2010-2011, as follows:

SP 1. Promote healthy lifestyles with particular focus on obesity and alcohol

SP 2. Improve emotional health and well being for all young people and their families

SP 3. Promote the safety of all children and young people in all settings with a focus on domestic violence

SP 4. Increase the proportion of young people moving into education, employment, training and promote positive role models

SP 5. Continue to raise attendance and attainment at all phases of learning with a strategic focus on vulnerable children, looked after children and continue to narrow the gap for the lowest achieving children

SP 6. Reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy

To view the Children's Trust Priorities poster please click here 145.84 KB

Priorities are reviewed annually. They provide a key reference framework for the business planning process across all children’s agencies in Tameside, and for the review and development of strategic and operational plans for the delivery of children’s services. Tameside Children and Young People Plan (CYPP) is the single, strategic, overarching plan for the Children's Trust Board; for all local services for children and young people up to age 19, young people aged 20 and over leaving care, and young people up to age 25 with learning difficulties.

Membership

Senior representatives of the following organisations:

• Tameside Council
• NHS Tameside and Glossop 
• General Practitioner representation
• Pennine Care NHS Trust 
• Tameside Third Sector Coalition and Tameside Voice 
• Job Centre Plus
• Tameside NHS Foundation Trust
• Tameside Probation Service 
• Greater Manchester Police
• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
• Tameside Youth Offending Team
• Tameside Third Sector Coalition
• Tameside Connexions
• Tameside Secondary Schools
• Tameside Primary Schools
• Tameside Special Schools 
• Further Education/ College 
• School Governors

Children and Young People Influencing Policy Development

Tameside’s Children’s Trust vision encompasses a positive and equal society, in which children and young people are encouraged to aim high but also to learn from mistakes as they grow up. A participation model has been developed to feed views into the Trust. The model of local democracy will co-ordinate consultation activity taking place in the borough so that children and young people will be more able to take part in decisions that affect their lives and those of others.

To find out more about the work of Tameside Children's Trust, contact:

Contact Information
Send us a Message	Partnership Development Manager Tameside MBC Council Offices Wellington Road Ashton under Lyne OL6 6DL  View local map
0161 342 3254