Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

10th August 2006

Commenced: 2.30pm     Terminated: 4.40pm

Present:

Councillor AL Gwynne (Chair) - Tameside MBC
Ameena Ahmed - Tameside MBC
Tracey Austin - Tameside MBC
Jo Baird - T3SC
Tom Coffey - Tameside MBC
Cheryl Eastwood - Tameside MBC
Caroline Gregory - Tameside MBC
Julie Lord - Childrens Fund
Sue Nathan - Tameside MBC
Kate O'Donnel - Tameside MBC
Sheila Piazza - Connexions
Chris Scarborough - Pennine Care
Geraldine Smith - Tameside MBC
Sue Ward - Tameside Acute Trust
John Whittle - Tameside MBC
Tracy Wood - Tameside & Glossop Primary Care Trust

Apologies For Absence:

Janet Callender - Tameside MBC
Louise Evans - Greater Manchester Police
Ian Smith - Tameside MBC
Jim Taylor - Tameside MBC
Malcolm Watson - Tameside MBC
Ian Young - Off the Record

18. Minutes

The Minutes of the proceedings of the meeting of the Trust held on 22 nd June 2006, having been circulated, were approved as a correct record.

19. Local Outcomes Linked To Local Area Agreement Targets For Children And Young People's Strategic Partnership Trust

Further to Minute 12 of the last meeting, Tom Coffey submitted the draft action plan for the Children and Young People's block of the Local Area Agreement which was currently in negotiation with Government Office North West. The next submission was due at the end of September 2006 with the final submission in March 2007.

Resolved

That the draft action plan be noted.

20. Sustainability Appraisal

Ameena Ahmed reported that Tameside MBC was to adopt additional performance indicators for its Community Strategy in order to address issues of sustainability linked to the regional sustainability agenda.

An appraisal had been conducted using the North West Regional Assembly's Integrated Appraisal Toolkit, through Link Officers from all the Local Strategic Partnership's thematic partnerships. In order to complete the appraisal, this Trust need to select five indicators most relevant to the Partnership.

The Trust had identified 11 priority areas linked to the Every Child Matters agenda and it was now recommended that the performance indicators put forward from this Trust closely related to those priority areas.

Following discussion, it was -

Resolved

That the following five indicators be submitted on behalf of this Trust:-

1. Make Tameside accessible to people with disabilities.
2. Encourage links with universities and higher education establishments.
3. Improve the life expectancy of the fifth of areas with the lowest life expectancy at birth.
4. Encourage initiatives to reduce health inequalities in young people through the Drug Action Team and Teenage Pregnancy Adviser.
5. Continue to redress the imbalances between communities in the Borough.

21. Play Strategy

Cheryl Eastwood submitted a report seeking this Trust's support in the production of a Play Strategy for the Borough and take the lead on a consultation exercise; support an application for big lottery funding to kick start the Strategy, such application to be based on the three strands detailed in the report.

She reported that in 2003 a Draft Play Strategy had been produced entitled "Play as Culture" and the Resources and Community Services Scrutiny Panel had also investigated play provision, albeit predominantly playgrounds. That initial strategy moved play forward but it now needed up-dating to bring it in line with current thinking and with the new opportunities available such as the Big Lottery funding allocated to play. The Council had been allocated some £546,000 to help transform play, however in order to access the additional funding, it was necessary to have a cohesive and comprehensive strategy for play based on sound consultation and research which identified the gaps in current provision.

Details were submitted of the bidding and consultation processes together with details of the themes for the bid, namely, increasing the capacity for play; using play to increase physical activity; and improving access to play.

Resolved

That this Trust support the production of a Tameside Play Strategy together with the bid to the Big Lottery based on the three themes outlined above, with the final version of the Strategy being submitted to this Trust prior to submission.

22. Tameside's Children And Young People's Participation Strategy

Julie Lord submitted a draft Children and Young People's Participation Strategy the aim of which was to develop more formal mechanisms for engaging with children and young people and their families, through the Tameside Participation Network, which would feed information into the thematic groups, the Partnership Executive and this Trust, and also to have the involvement of children and young people embedded in everyone's day to day practice.

The draft contained details of its vision, aims and future objectives together with mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation the strategy, as well as an Action Plan for 2006/2007. Consultations were currently being undertaken with young people and members of the participation network with any comments arising from those consultations being included with the Action Plan.

Resolved

That the report be approved and a further reported be submitted at the end of the consultation period.

23. Youth On-Line Survey

Kate O'Donnel gave a detailed presentation in respect of the above survey which was a large scale quantitative survey carried every two years with Year 10 pupils, the aim being to complement the Residents' Opinion Survey.

This year's survey resulted in 1,730 respondents across 19 schools within the Borough and the key findings included:-

• 66% of Year 10's liked living in their neighbourhood.
• 76% had heard or read stories about young people causing trouble, however 65% though the image was unfair.
• 18% eat five portions of fruit or vegetables per day.
• 52% thought bullying was a problem and a very big problem for young people.
• 31% stated they had been bullied in the last year, especially BME and disabled.
• 50% though they did not get enough SRE in school.

Results had been fed back to participating schools.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

24. How Can We Take The Inclusion Framework Forward As A Partnership?

Cheryl Eastwood reported that following extensive consultation with the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership Trust and Diane Risk and Dave Tweddle, four key ideas had emerged as follows:-

• "Linkages" issues. The authority had a plethora of existing plans and strategic documents and agreement needed to be reached as to how does this Statement fit with those existing plans and documents.
• To agree a number of common actions that would be undertaken by all services and agencies working within the "Every Child Matters" framework.
• Develop awareness raising training materials to be used in a wide variety of contexts to ensure that consistent messages reached all concerned.
• Identified people with dedicated time to under this work would need to be in place with appropriate resources to ensure the Statement was produced.

Resolved

That Members of this Strategic Partnership Trust consider the Statement within their own services and organisations in order to consider methods of building inclusion into all their activities with further consideration being given to the above four key ideas to progress for inclusion in next year's plans.

25. Tameside Children's Workforce Development Strategy Group - Terms Of Reference

Tom Coffey submitted the proposed Terms of Reference for the Tameside Children's Workforce Development Strategy Group for approval by this Trust.

It was also reported that provisional meeting dates for the Group would be 4 th October 2006 and 7 th December 2006.

Resolved

That the Terms of Reference for the Tameside Children's Workforce Development Strategy Group be approved and adopted.

26. Up-Dates And Communications

26(a) Integration Project Team

Cheryl Eastwood circulated a comprehensive list of the Integration Project Team detailing Lead Officers and their roles.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

26(b) Children's Centres and Extended Schools Development in Tameside

Geraldine Smith submitted a report detailing progress on developments undertaken during the previous six months.

Phase 1 of the programme saw the Hyde and Ashton SureStart local programmes being formally designated by the Department for Education and Science as Children's Centres in March 2006, making four Centres in the Borough located at Hattersley, Hyde, Ashton Rosehill and Droylsden. Construction work had commenced on Centres at Stalybridge Ridge Hill, Dukinfield, Ashton Waterloo and Ashton St. Peters and it was expected to have nine fully functioned and designated Children's Centres by the end of this financial year.

In respect of Phase 2 consultations were taking place with key school bodies and other key agencies to secure the development of a capital strategy that would enable the commencement of a number of small capital projects.

Details were given of the services which children and families would be able to access through the development of Extended Schools which should be available in or through all schools by 2010, namely:-

• Child care (age 4 - 14)
• Out of school hours learning
• Parenting support including family learning
• Swift and easy referral to specialised services
• Community access schools including the use of ICT, sports and art facilities and adult learning.

Work was being undertaken locally on a dedicated Network where providers of all services to children begin to work together to create easy access to services for children and families. Schools were a large part of the Network and a joint action plan was being developed across Children's Centres and Extended Schools to ensure best use of resources.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

26(c) Domestic Violence in Tameside

Tracey Austin submitted a detailed report in respect of the prevalence and the number of children and young people in Tameside who were involved in domestic violence.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

26(d) Tameside Children's Fund - Preventative Services for 5 - 13 Years Old

Julie Lord reported upon the work of Tameside Children's Fund programme which supported projects for children and young people between the ages of 5 -13. The projects contributed to improvements in attainment, attendance, punctuality and reductions in youth nuisance and give children and young people the opportunity to become involved in a wide range of activities, providing fun, enjoyment and which benefited others in local communities.

Two projects had been mainstreamed at the end of March 2006 and currently the Fund was supporting 22 projects. However, the budget was reducing each year with an 11.1% reduction for projects this financial year. The Partnership Board whilst deciding not to commission external evaluation for the final two years, had agreed to develop peer evaluation. To that end some Project Managers had undertaken some training and would carry out evaluations on other Children's Fund projects. For each evaluation undertaken the Project Manager would receive £250 for their own project in support of its activities. The Children's Fund Data/Finance Administrator would undertaken the collation of evaluations.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

27. Logo Competiton - Short List

Resolved

That the most popular logo be adopted as the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership Trust's logo.

28. Dates Of Future Meetings

It was noted that the Partnership Trust would meet on the following dates, all meetings commencing at 2.30 pm:-

• Thursday 19th October 2006
• Thursday 14th December 2006