Area Coordination Management Meeting

Denton, Droylsden and Audenshaw

Time: 10:00
Date: 9 November 2007
Venue: Greenside Children’s Centre, Greenside Lane, Droylsden

Present:

• Bob Shaw - Area Co-ordinator
• Phil Massey - Primary School Rep, St Stephens Audenshaw
• Chris Harris - Connexions
• Debbie Duddridge - Children’s Social Care
• Lynn Barber - Children’s Centres
• Diane King - Youth Service
• Margaret Morrison - Education Welfare
• Malcolm Knight - Inclusive Services
• Sue Lennie - Secondary School Rep, St Thomas More
• Paul Dodd - YOT
• Sue Nathan - Youth Service
• Tracey Rowe - Children’s Social Care
• Lyn Jenkinson - Droylsden School
• Lorna Grennan - PCT

Note taker: Rachel Lees

Item 1: Welcome

Bob welcomed everyone to the meeting, particularly Lorna Grennan and Lyn Jenkinson as it was their first meeting. Introductions were made.

Item 2: Apologies

Apologies were received from John Rogers.

Item 3: Notes of last meeting and matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 September 2007 were approved as a true and correct record save for the following amendment:

Item 2 - Apologies: Sue Lennie: Amend “(Linden Road)” to “(St Thomas More)”.

The following matters were arising:

Action Plan 3.5: Staff Directory
The Staff Directory continues to be updated.

Action Plan 8.1: Monitoring progress towards integration
Due to a referral to the Audit Commission, all members of frontline staff and managed of TMBC and PCT would complete an on-line questionnaire to make judgements regarding the progress of integration. Team members were asked to encourage their staff to complete the questionnaire.

Action Plan 9.1: Area Profile of Need and Services
Data on a local Child Poverty has been added to the profile. Co-ordinators were struggling to work out how to best capture the volume of activity but this should be clearer by the next meeting.
(note: please ask Bob if you would like a copy of the latest profile)

Item 4: The Changing Role of Tameside Youth Service

Bob Shaw noted that two things of interest to the team were common assessment processes and referral processes. Schools had the desire to ensure that referral procedures were swift and easy to access. Bob asked where the new Youth Service fit in with this. Sue responded that she thought the referral form they were using was simple and that only a minority of young people with complex needs would require a CAF route. The Youth Service had tried to put young people on their schemes on to JASPER but this had not proved possible, partly because of the need for staff to have enhanced CRB checks. This was an issue for all children’s services generally but Bob noted that in time this would be resolved. Sue also noted that the key youth worker would be the lead professional.

Lorna requested that Sue provide a talk to the PCT which could be linked to childhood obesity, healthy eating and other issues.

Bob noted that combining Youth Services with neighbourhood renewal/regeneration funds in Denton South seems to have made a significant contribution towards solving the youth nuisance issue in that area.

Malcolm expressed a view that the agencies mentioned also engaged with young people and the benefits in relation to attendance and behaviour: this needed to be mapped and tracked to show the positive effects.

Chris Harris asked the age at which a young person was classified as an adult and there was debate regarding age 16 and 18 with Bob confirming that with JASPER a child was no longer considered a child the day after their 18th birthday.

As this was Lorna Grennan’s first meeting Bob had asked Lorna to prepare an outline of the PCT service. Lorna was recently appointed as the locality services coordinator for the PCT. She outlined the organisation of Children’s Services within Tameside and Glossopdale together with contact numbers and locations. She emphasised that working in partnership with TMBC would ensure better outcomes for children and young people. The PCT needed to meet their own agenda as well as contribute to the ECM agenda and it was recognised that there needed to be a change in the way that health professionals worked.

Item 5: Area Action Plan – Updates

Action Plan 2.3: Referral arrangements

Continuing discussion and links to Extended Schools offer on ‘swift and easy access’

Bob had taken action points arising from previous meetings to a Headteachers and deputies to try to get a better picture of referral arrangements. He was particularly conscious that the emphasis on schools having a ‘swift and easy access to referrals’ had not been considered at the last meeting.

Four issues had emerged from the last discussion:

• That locality, multi-agency working and networking was helpful but not yet developed sufficiently
• That there may be scope to rationalise and improve referral arrangements. Bob had collected referral forms from different agencies and asked if there was scope to rationalise the referral process.
• That there was a relationship between CAF and referral arrangements
• And that relationships of trust between parents, children and professionals are very important - there was common agreement here.

Lyn Jenkinson noted that repetition of information was an issue and there was a problem with agencies, such as the police, refusing to share confidential information resulting in information leaving school but not returning. A common, multi-agency form would be useful and the team asked if a form could be piloted.

Malcolm asked whether a form could be prepared with the first page detailing basic information and the second and ongoing pages being more specific to agencies/services.

Bob did not want to see the development of anything bureaucratic and noted that children at level 1 or 2 on the children’s needs framework would not need a CAF but may need a simple referral for a service and that this should be a simple 24/48 hour process for whoever was making the referral. Was this amenable to a single form? If a child had additional needs, then a CAF would be completed which should lead to the appointment of a lead professional and consideration of referral for additional services.

Chris noted that when referrals worked well they were on an informal basis. Systems were needed for referral within the local Authority and Contact Point would be a lynchpin.

Maureen noted that a basic form was essential and that a blank area could be included to provide further detail to inform others of needs.

Lorna noted that Social Services (adults) had an internal transfer form (acting as a referral) and consideration should be given as to whether it was appropriate to use the term referral only at the point of entry to a service.

Conclusion:

• A common referral form would be desirable although agencies would need to see the form before committing to it
• There is a willingness to pilot such a form

Action Plan 5.3: Models of integrated working

The three models of integrated working (click icon above) had been extracted from the ECM website and team members were asked to consider if there was a direction of integration that could serve Tameside well and whether the BEST model considered at last meeting was helpful.

Malcolm responded that BEST had developed a holistic approach to service delivery though it was not the easiest team to run because of the responsibility to the host department and loyalty and commitment to team working. Malcolm also noted that the models were not mutually exclusive and that the three models of integrated working could be linked to make area working more effective.

A discussion regarding those children who wanted to engage but had parents who prevented them from doing so took place, with the team agreeing that early intervention was useful but a universal/information service to make everyone aware of what was offered was missing. Parents needed to be engaged from the very beginning and Children’s Centres were a good base for getting professionals together in the community. There was a short discussion noting that BSF funding did not allow for the development of integrated staff accommodation as might be envisaged by integrated working.

Conclusion:

• The BEST model for integration was the preferred option and there is a willingness to pilot a model of integrated working

Action Plan 2.1 and 2.2: Integrated processes – statistical update

The statistical reports provided (click icon above) a snapshot of activity as at October 31st 2007 with 349 children with a lead professional assigned and 11 Child and Family meetings requested.

Geographical statistics showed that in the Denton/Droylsden/Audenshaw area there were 368 enquiries covering 270 children, an overall increase in activity and a small increase in CAFs completed.

Discussion of user suspension and password expiration also took place with data security and enhanced CRB checks noted as being a factors. Malcolm suggested that a prompt be provided as notification that the password needed changing.

Action Plan 4.4: Change for Children Events and the Participation Network

The event which had taken place at Waterloo Children’s Centre in Ashton (17th October) was a success with about 50 parents dropping in for between 10 and 45 minutes. It was generally felt that the event was more useful for young children and young parents than older children and parents though the exhibits can be changed to better suit the likely audience. The format, from its original form, had been changed to make the event informal and attractive to parents, children and community members. The Area Coordinators now believe that it can be used as a model to be rolled out across the areas not as a stand alone event but on the back of and integrated with existing events.

In this area we are looking at an event that will coincide with the opening events around the children’s centres at Linden Rd and Fairfield or at open days at school (Greenside had volunteered) or parents’ evenings in schools. The Participation Network run by the NCH had agreed to manage the face to face consultation for the events and record this systematically for us.

Item 6: Area Action Plan Monitoring Update

The Plan continued to be updated.
 
A link to the Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan 2007-10 had been posted to team members via email and could be located at:

http://www.tameside.gov.uk/cypp/chilyoungplan.pdf 1021.05 KB

Item 7: Date and Venue for Next Meeting

Friday 25th January 2008
10.00 - 12.00
Guide Lane Clinic, Guide Bridge

Bob thanked everyone for their attendance and the meeting closed at 12:00.

Glossary

• ACMT Area Co-ordination Management Team
• APIR (profile) Assessment, Planning, Implement and Review
• CAF Common Assessment Framework
• CAMHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
• CMM Capability Maturity Model
• CLT Children’s Leadership Team
• CWDC Children’s Workforce Development Council
• CYP Children and Young People
• CYPSP Children and Young People Strategic Partnership
• DDA Denton, Droylsden and Audenshaw
• ECM Every Child Matters
• EIG Early Intervention Group
• ISA Information Sharing and Assessment
• ISSP Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme
• JASPER Joint Assessment System for Prevention and Early Referral
• LA Local Authority
• OBA Outcome based accountability
• PCT Primary Care Trust
• SENCO Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator
• SID Service Information Directory
• T3SC Tameside Third Sector Coalition
• TOR Terms of Reference
• YOF Youth Opportunity Fund
• YOT Youth Offending Team