Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

Minutes - 13th December 2007

Commenced:10.00 am
Terminated: 12.00 noon

Present:

• Cllr Alison Gwynne, Tameside MBC (in the Chair)
• Ameena Ahmed, Tameside MBC
• Zulf Ahmed, Learning and Skills Council
• Adam Allen, Tameside MBC
• Claire Bibby, Tameside MBC
• Marc Booker, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Exec
• Tom Coffey, Tameside MBC
• Annie Dodd, Tameside MBC
• Cheryl Eastwood, Tameside MBC
• David Hobbs, Better Choices/Connexions Tameside
• Veronica Hyde, Third Sector Coalition
• Hameed Khan, Third Sector Coalition
• Susan Marsh, Tameside School Governors’ Forum
• Pat McKelvey, Tameside & Glossop PCT
• Steve Noble, Tameside MBC
• Sarah Petts, Tameside Voice
• Sheila Piazza, Connexions Tameside
• John Rogers, Tameside Primary Heads
• Moira Thompson, Head of Special Schools
• Sue Ward, Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust

Apologies

• Janet Callender
• Ian Smith
• Jim Taylor
• Ian Young
  

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of this Strategic Partnership held on 18th October 2007 were approved as a correct record.

2. Annual Report on the Activities of the Enjoy & Achieve Outcome Theme Subgroup

Steve Noble, Head of School Improvement, presented the annual report on the activities of the Enjoy and Achieve Outcome Theme Group which first met in June 2007. He highlighted the key points to note in the document which had been developed to bring together all the outcome sub-themes from Every Child Matters, local priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan, the key area of improvement from the Area Performance Assessment, targets from the Local Area Agreement and a focus on the self assessed red areas of the health National Service Framework standards.

The Enjoy and Achieve Outcome Theme Group had made the decision to prioritise on the key areas from the Area Performance Assessment. It was noted that there were eight key judgements in relation to how far did local services contribute to children and young people enjoying and achieving. The Theme Group had agreed that Report Cards would be used to evidence finding which were appended to the report for information. The multi-agency and partnership working had been productive in providing data, information and evidence of outcomes. The composition of the Group was continually being assessed and additional members would be invited when there was a contribution to be made.

The Tameside School Sport Partnership had reported that they had developed robust networks through being involved with the Enjoy and Achieve Outcome Theme Group and had been able to build working relationships with additional service units, including CIS and children with disabilities.

Whilst the presentations of the Report Cards clearly showed that a lot of activity was taking place there was a need to concentrate on providing evidence of impact and outcomes.

Thanks were extended to Susan Garnett, Theme Co-coordinator, for her work in establishing and supporting the Group.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

3. Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership Development Plan 2007 - 2010

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, circulated copies of the Children and Young People Plan 2007-2010 which provided an overall strategic framework for the provision of services to children and families in Tameside. It detailed the Partnership’s plans for achieving integrated services supported by joint working arrangements and for achieving improved access and earlier intervention when support for children was required.

A progress report on the Partnership’s action plan for 2007-08 was considered and the key points to note in the priority areas were highlighted. A third quarter position statement would be submitted to the next meeting in order that the Partnership could monitor its progress against the indicators detailed in the plan.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

4. Joint Area Review

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, presented a report which detailed the development areas in Joint Area Review (JAR) Action Plan and the progress being made on the key actions which he highlighted for the information of members.

Resolved

That the progress on the JAR Action Plan be noted.

5. Youth Offending Team - Performance

Cheryl Eastwood, Director, Children, submitted a report on quarter two performance which showed that the Tameside Youth Offending Team (YOT) had outperformed all of the Family, North West and National Performance on:

• Overall performance
• Key performance indicators
• Key performance improvement
• Effective performance quality assessment improvement
• Re-offending rates
• Practice Quality Assessments

She added that of particular note was the significant reduction in the first time entrants into the criminal justice system.

Resolved

That the contents of the report be noted.

6. Integrated Youth Support Services

Cheryl Eastwood, Director, Children, presented a report which described the Government requirements for the development of integrated and targeted Youth Support Services. It also provided information about work presently being undertaken and plans for the future development of an Integrated Youth Support Services Strategy for Tameside.

David Hobbs, Better Choices/Connexions Tameside, added that Better Choices had agreed to assist in pulling together the Strategy for Tameside and the key points/actions resulting from an initial workshop held on 5th December 2007 was circulated.

Resolved

That the contents of the report be noted.

7. Joint Arrangements Between Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and Tameside MBC

Marc Booker, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), Education Co-coordinator, gave a presentation on how the GMPTE’s and Tameside MBC’s agendas coincide. His presentation focused on the Education and Inspections Act 2006, the Ten Year Youth Strategy, Building Schools for the Future and the Children’s Act 2004. It also included some examples of close co-operation between GMPTE’s Education Team and local authorities and the work being undertaken to support local authorities which included:

• Development of educational/information websites
• Production of transition guides for years 6 and 11
• Delivery of youth consultation and transport workshops
• Development of travel training projects

The Chair thanked Marc for his informative presentation.

Resolved

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

8. Future Commissioning of Preventative Services in Tameside

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, presented a briefing paper which would inform discussions at the Executive Joint Commissioning Group and the Partnership about future commissioning of preventative services in Tameside.

Agreement was sought for the following proposals:

• That the existing Preventative Strategy be updated to reflect recent developments and current priorities in Tameside.
• That preventative priorities for 2008-2011 are developed and used as the specification for investment of the Children Fund grant.
• That a broad mix of statutory, voluntary and community preventative services should be commissioned, as this range of service provision was most likely to meet the preventative needs of children, young people and families in the Borough.
• That consideration be given to how best to co-ordinate funding for smaller grass roots community groups as part of the overall preventative strategy.
• That monitoring arrangements for projects currently funded through the Children Fund are reviewed and refocused.
• That a commissioning proposal be drawn up for how the investment of the preventative grant for 2008-2011 would be determined and for the ongoing governance and monitoring arrangements required for consideration and approval by the Executive and Joint Commissioning Group.
  

Resolved

1. That the content of the report be noted.
2. That the proposals for the future commissioning of preventative services in Tameside as detailed above be approved.

9. Priorities 2008-2009

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People which gave details of the priorities for 2008/09 which were agreed at the Priorities Meeting with the DCSF in November 2007. These priorities provided a key reference framework for the 2008/09 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. A number of performance indicators and drivers would be aligned to support the delivery of these priorities and details would be circulated to members of the Partnership.

Resolved

That the contents of the report be noted.

10. Area Performance Assessment - Feedback

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People which summarised the findings of the 2007 Annual Performance Assessment (APA) for Tameside. The judgements in the letter drew on the Partnership’s review of the Children and Young People’s Plan and the evidence and briefings provided by Ofsted, other inspectorates and relevant bodies. The overall effectiveness of children’s services and capacity to improve had been assessed as Grade 3 which had put the Authority in a good position.

Resolved

That the contents of the report be noted.

11. “From Strength to Strength” – Developing the Integration of the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sectors

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, submitted a report which reviewed the involvement of the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) in the Partnership’s work with children, young people and families in Tameside and how this could be further developed. It was noted that this was particularly timely in the context of the implementation of the Partnership’s three year Children’s Plan which envisaged further integration and expanding involvement of the voluntary sector.

It was proposed that a independently facilitated development event, bringing together all key stakeholders to review current VCFS involvement and activity which would establish the basis of an operational protocol for the work of the sector in supporting the delivery of the Children’s Plan. Independent facilitation would support the full participation of all key stakeholders in the event. The envisaged outcomes and timetable for the key stages in the development process were also considered.

Resolved

That the proposal for an independently facilitated development event bringing together all key stakeholders be approved.

12. Teenage Pregnancy Update

Cheryl Eastwood, Director, Children, advised that there had been a slight increase in the figures for the second quarter of 2006. In terms of moving forward, a strategic lead had now been appointed which was one of the recommendations following the visit of the National Support Team last summer, the PCT would also be funding consultants to undertake work on developing a communications strategy/training and the Teens and Toddlers Project had commenced in September 2007.

Resolved

That the update report be noted.

13. Dates of the Future Meetings

The Partnership was advised of future dates of meetings as follows:

• Thursday 7th February 2008
• Thursday 17th April 2008
• Thursday 22nd May 2008
• Thursday 3rd July 2008
• Thursday 16th October 2008
• Thursday 11th December 2008