Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

11 December 2008

Commenced: 10.00 am
Terminated: 12.00 noon

Present:

Cllr Alison Gwynne Tameside MBC (in the Chair)
Jim Taylor Tameside MBC
Melanie Sirotkin NHS Tameside and Glossop and Tameside MBC
Ameena Ahmed Tameside MBC
Claire Bibby Tameside MBC
Tom Coffey Tameside MBC
Cllr Gerald Cooney Tameside MBC
Judith Grigg NHS Tameside & Glossop
David Berry Tameside MBC
David Hobbs Connexions Tameside
Veronica Hyde Tameside Third Sector Coalition
Sheila Piazza Connexions Tameside
Ian Young Voice Representative
Cheryl Eastwood Tameside MBC
Adam Allen Tameside MBC
Tony Okotie Tameside Third Sector Coalition
Susan Marsh Governors’ Forum
Graham Ashford Tameside MBC
Stephen McLoughlin Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust
Annie Dodd Tameside MBC
Sarah Petts Tameside Voice

Apologies:

Janet Callender, Brian Parker, Pat McKelvey and John Rogers

34. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of this Strategic Partnership held on 16th October 2008 were approved as a correct record.

35. Matters Arising

Minute 26 – Establishment of Integrated Teams and Targeted Youth Support.

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, reported that consultants had been appointed to look at possible systems for access to services and referrals to preventative services. The consultants would be contacting Partners shortly to arrange meetings to discuss options further. A more detailed update would be given at the next meeting of this Partnership with regard to progress made.

36. Teenage Pregnancy Update

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, reported on the latest figures (September 2007) with regard to teenage pregnancy in Tameside, which had shown a slight increase from the previous quarter.

She stated that an Executive Group had been established, Chaired by the PCT Chief Executive which had been excellent in terms of raising the profile of Teenage Pregnancy prevention and promoting positive relationships and opportunities for joint working to drive the strategy forward.

She further reported that a Senior Strategic Manager, Paula Henson, had been in place for the last twelve months, with a strong emphasis on performance management and on integrating the strategy into the wider agenda. As a result there was now more targeted intervention taking place, based on improved data and analysis.

She also referred to the new young peoples’ sexual health services planned for roll out in the New Year and the service would have a strong remit to undertake health promotion and preventative work, together with delivering reactive services.

Progress had also been made in the development and roll out of the primary school spiral curriculum for Sex and Relationships education.

It was hoped that with the continuation of the initiatives outlined in the report and the further development of the strategy an impact would be made on the current level of teenage pregnancies.

Resolved
That the report be noted and that Paula Henson attend a future meeting of the Board to lead further discussion.

37. Enjoy and Achieve Outcomes - Report of the Sub-Group

Graham Ashford, Chair of Enjoy and Achieve Outcome Theme Group, reported on the activities undertaken by the Enjoy and Achieve Outcomes Sub-Group for 2008.

A detailed summary of the activities undertaken was given under the following headings:-

• Parents and carers received support in helping their children to enjoy and achieve;
• Childcare and early years education providers were monitored, challenged and supported to improve the quality of their provision;
• Action was taken to ensure that educational provision for 5-16 year olds was of good quality;
• Children and young people were enabled and encouraged to attend and enjoy school and to achieve highly;
• Action was taken to ensure that children who were not able to attend school received education suitable to their needs;
• All children and young people could access a range of recreational activities, including play and voluntary learning provision;
• Children and young people who were looked after were helped to enjoy and achieve;
• Children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities were helped to enjoy and achieve;
• Children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities were helped to enjoy and achieve; and
• Preparation for the future, pupils with statements of SEN were making adequate progress.

Particular reference was also given to Tameside’s 2008 examination results where Tameside schools had demonstrated a long-term trend of improvement in all Key Stages and over the last three years in particular the results at the end of primary school and those at the end of secondary school had been increasing at a faster rate than national figures.

Key Stage 1 Results (Age 7 School Year 2)

 Key Stage 2 Results (age 11 School Year 6)

Key Stage 3 Results (Age 14 School Year 9)

 Reference was made to the Work Plan for 2009:-

• Ready for School;
• Achieve stretching national educational standards at primary school;
• Achieve stretching national educational standards at secondary school;
• Achieve personal and social development and enjoy recreation.

It was agreed that further links should be made to the Cultural Strategy which would assist the further development of participation and enjoyment activities.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

38. Joint Area Review

a) Final Joint Area Review Report

Jim Taylor, Executive Director for Children and Young People, reported on the findings and recommendations of the Joint Area Review for Tameside’s Children’s Services Authority Area, which had been published on 18th November 2008.

The main findings of the report were detailed together with the Grades as follows:-

The recommendations for immediate action were:-

• That the Partnership should ensure that an appropriate way was found for the successful dissemination of the findings of this report to children and young people in the area; and
• That the Partnership should implement robust out-of-hours social care duty arrangements which better serve the interests of children and families and reduced risks for staff and for children and young people in the community.

The actions over the next six months were as follows:-

• Take steps to rapidly reduce the number of permanent and fixed term exclusions of children and young people assessed at school action plus in mainstream schools;
• Ensure all action in plans, including those for CAMHS had specific measurable outcomes to inform an evaluation of the impact of developments on outcomes for children and young people;
• Implement plans to further develop the role of the council as a corporate parent; and
• Review decision-making processes so that families were not removed from the child protection register before they had the capacity to manage their own.

Action for the longer term:-

• Monitor the impact of funding and provision of essential equipment, such as duplicate equipment and wheelchairs, to ensure provision matches assessed need.

Resolved
That the report be noted and the JAR findings reported publicly in line with recommended practice.

b) Outline Joint Area Review Action Plan

Resolved
That this item be deferred as the report was not yet available.

39. Annual Performance Assessement Letter 2008

Jim Taylor, Executive Director for Children and Young People reported on the Annual performance assessment of services for children and young people in Tameside, which summarised the findings of the 2008 annual performance assessment.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

40. Priorities Meeting 2008

Jim Taylor, Executive Director for Children and Young People, reported on the recent meeting with Government Office North West to discuss the priorities for 2009/10. The priorities were slightly amended to the existing priorities, with the addition of a new priority focussed on the safeguarding of children:-

• Promote healthy lifestyles with particular focus on obesity and oral health;
• Improve emotional health and well being for all young people;
• Promote the safety of all children and young people in all settings;
• Increase the proportion of young people moving into education, employment and training;
• Continue to raise attendance and attainment at all phases of learning with a strategic focus on vulnerable children, looked after children and children who are under achieving; and
• Reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy.

Resolved
That the priorities for 2009/10 be agreed and that partner agencies ensure these are incorporated into single agency business plans for 2009/10.

41. Performance Data  2008/09

a)   Children and Young People Plan – Half Year Monitoring Report

Tom Coffey, Partnership Development Manager, reported on the half yearly performance report on the Children and Young People Plan Improvement Action Plan for 2008/09.

He stated that of the 56 measures included in the Action Plan the report indicated:-

• 52% - improved on the baseline figure;
• 16% - declined on the baseline figure;
• 9% - no significant change;
• 23% - no data was currently available.

In addition:-

• 39% were judged to be ‘Green’ on target;
• 20% were judged to be ‘Red’ – not on target;
• 23% were judged to be ‘Amber’ – monitoring/action required;
• 18% - where no judgement possible.

He further reported that the analysis indicated a challenging performance picture at the half year stage and the majority of indicators showed improving performance, however 43% of measured indictors were either not likely to meet their target or required further action in order to do so.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

b) Local Area Agreement 2008-11 – Quarter 2 Performance Monitoring Report 2008/09

Tom Coffey, Partnership Development Manager, reported on the Quarter 2 Performance Monitoring report of the Local Area Agreement 2008-11, which contained 25 measures, 16 of which were statutory education measures. Data was available at the half year stage for 16 of the measures and where no data was available a Red, Amber, Green judgement had still been made in most cases, based on current estimates of direction and progress.

He reported that 12 out of 16 measures had improved, 3 had declined and 1 had shown no change. As part of the performance management arrangements, performance improvement action plans had been completed for all measures which had been judged red or amber.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

42. Public Annual Health Report

Melanie Sirotkin, Director of Public Health, NHS Tameside and Glossop and Tameside MBC, reported on the Tameside and Glossop Public Health Annual Report 2007.

The Annual Report contained the following sections:-

• Our Population – now and in the future;
• Healthy Children;
• How we are working to improve our children’s health;
• Healthy Communities;
• Healthy Living Keeping Communities safe; and
• Recommendations.

She further stated that a full version of this report was available on the PCT website, www.tamesideandglossop.nhs.uk.

Members commented on the excellent presentation of the Annual Report, stating it was very clear and user-friendly. Melanie Sirotkin welcomed any suggestions/comments for the Public Annual Health Report for 2008.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

43. Primary Care Trust Strategic Commissioning Plan

Melanie Sirotkin, Director of Public Health, NHS Tameside and Glossop and Tameside MBC, reported on the World Class Commissioning – “Commissioning Well”, the Commissioning Strategic Plan.

She stated that NHS Tameside and Glossop were:-

• The local leader of the NHS and the local insurer of the health of Tameside and Glossop citizens;
• Passionate about increasing life expectancy and reducing health inequalities;
• Finding, nurturing and sustaining high quality services;
• Working with patients and public to decide how nearly £400 million a year should be spent; and
• The provider of £30 million of community health service provision.

Details were also given of NHS Tameside and Glossop’s purpose, vision and values, what it wanted to achieve, its local priorities, work programmes, investment in priorities, what success would look like, transformational change programme and its ambition.

Resolved
That the presentation be noted.

44. Proposals for the 2009 Review of the Children Plan

Tom Coffey, Partnership Development Manager, stated that this was the second year of the Children Plan and the review process would involve producing a draft document and undertaking consultation for completion in June 2009.

Members of the Partnership were requested to work in small discussion groups to consider a draft template for the review of the Children and Young People Plan 2008/09.

45. Reports for Information

a)  ContactPoint Project Update

Jim Taylor, Executive Director for Children and Young People stated that further discussions with the Council’s IT department would be undertaken with regard to the ContactPoint Project.

b)  Tameside Participation Network

An update of the activities of the Tameside Participation Network was detailed.

c)   Executive Group Minutes – 2nd October 2008 and 27th November 2008

The above minutes were attached for information.

d)  Youth Crime Action Plan

A report on planned developments using additional funding made available under the Youth Crime Action Plan was attached for information.

46. Dates for Future Meetings

The Partnership was advised that the next meeting of the Partnership would be the annual development session. As the planned date for this fell in the school half-term period, a new date would be arranged.

Partnership Development session
Original date: Thursday 19th February 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
New date: Monday 2nd March 2009 Lesser Hall 2, Dukinfield Town Hall

Thursday 16th April 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 18th June 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 20th August 2008 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 15th October 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 17th December 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices