Children's Trust Board

Minutes - 14 October 2010

Commenced: 12.30pm

Present:
Cllr Alison Gwynne Tameside MBC (Chair)
Jim Taylor Tameside MBC
Steven Pleasant Tameside MBC
Claire Bibby Tameside MBC
Ameena Ahmed Tameside MBC
Jane Forrest Tameside MBC
Rafik Iddin Tameside MBC
Huw Davies Tameside MBC
David Berry Tameside MBC
Judith Grigg NHS Tameside & Glossop
Pat McKelvey NHS Tameside & Glossop
Rona Cruickshank NHS Tameside & Glossop
Catherine Allen NHS Tameside Acute Foundation Trust
Julie Scrymgeour Pennine Care CAMHS
Lynne Jones Tameside Safeguarding Children Board
Peter Jenkinson Job Centre Plus
Tina Greenough Primary Care Trust
David Hobbs Better Choices
Veronica Hyde T3SC
Sheila Piazza Connexions Tameside
Tina Lavender Voluntary Representative
Susan Marsh Governors’ Forum
Janet Nevin 16-19 Representative
John Rogers Primary Head Teacher
Catherine McKay Greater Manchester Police
Jeff Barber Office for National Statistics

Apologies for Absence:
Councillor Cooney, Linda Zrada, Hillary Garratt, Stephen McLaughlin, Tony Okotie, Sarah Petts, Adrian Griffiths, Dil Jauffer.

26. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Trust Board held on 2 September 2010 were approved as a correct record.

27. Role of Children’s Trust – Obesity Health Needs

Consideration was given to a report of Sabrina Fuller, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Tameside and Glossop, which updated the partnership on progress on the implementation of the Children’s Action Plan. The report further identified how the Trust Board could apply leverage to improve the effectiveness of implementation.

The report detailed the following:

• Achievements of the last 12 months;
• The Tameside and Glossop 2010 - 15 Healthy Weight Strategy;
• Tackling childhood obesity effectively with limited resource: the contribution of the CYP Trust; and
• Action required by CYP Trust partners.

Particular reference was made to the MEND programme, which the borough had received national recognition for successfully recruiting and retaining families onto. Since the launch of the health mentors programme in January 2010 they had offered health education advice on diet and weight management to 667 contacts. The now offered brief advice and brief intervention to any children, young people and families who wanted to make a change to their lifestyles.

The 2010-2015 partnership Tameside (and Glossop) healthy Weight Strategy had been developed on the basis of the recommendations of the Needs Assessment and consultation, which had been completed including data on national and local obesity levels and trends.

A discussion ensued about the engagement of partners and the impact that Health Mentors had had since being in post from January 2010. The partnership was advised that Health Mentors had rigorous performance monitoring and to date, 700 families had been advised by the Health Mentors.

There was further discussion about overlapping and duplication of services and how to avoid this. The partnership enquired how it could assist and were informed that the MEND programme was not sustainable hence the need to develop local programmes. Assistance was sought in making obesity health as part of children’s overall health needs a priority. Concerns were expressed by some partner that the assistance requested was too generic and needed to be more specific so that the partners could feedback to their respective organisations.

It was suggested that a further report be submitted at the next meeting of the partnership but also be circulated to all partners before the next meeting.

Resolved
(i) That the report be noted; and
(ii) The Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People requested a further detailed and specific report be submitted to a future meeting of the Partnership.

28. Integrated Offender Management

The partnership received a presentation from Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director, which informed them of the proposed framework for the reduction of re-offending strategy. Young people who offended required a holistic approach to stop re offending.

The presentation detailed the following:

• Aims and objectives of the strategy;
• Guiding principles;
• A whole system approach;
• Three year strategy;
• Issues for the Children’s Trust.

A discussion took place following the presentation and it was noted that reducing re-offending was a cross cutting theme and there was consensus for preventative work to be done with children of offenders to prevent them from becoming offenders themselves and enabling families to break out of the cycle. Discussion also focused on early intervention work and restorative justice.

Resolved
That the presentation be noted.

29. Partnership Agreement TSCB and CTB

Consideration was given to a report of Rafik Iddin, Assistant Executive Director which set out the Partnership Agreement between Tameside Safeguarding Children Board the Children’s Trust Board and Tameside Strategic Partnership. The Agreement set out the relationship between the three partners including their functions, roles and responsibilities.

The Agreement detailed the following:

• The relationship between the Tameside Safeguarding Children Board and the Tameside Children’s Trust Board; and
• The proposals for the relationship between Tameside Strategic Partnership, Tameside Children’s Trust and Tameside Safeguarding Children Board.

A discussion ensued with reference to the audience for the Agreement and it was confirmed that the Chair of Safeguarding Children Board had written to everyone about their commitment to the Agreement.

Resolved
That the report be approved.

30. Interim TSCB Business Annual Report

Consideration was given to a report of Rafik Iddin, Assistant Executive Director, which detailed the TSCB Interim Annual Report. The Interim Annual Report had been approved by the TSCB as a milestone document setting out the activities, achievements and areas of challenge for safeguarding in Tameside. The partnership was asked to note that the report would be the basis for a public document due for completion by 31 December 2010.

The report detailed the following:

• Achievements;
• Governance and accountability arrangements;
• Implementation groups;
• Serious case reviews;
• Priorities for 2010-11;
• Performance monitoring data; and
• Multi-agency practice audits.

Resolved
That the report be approved.

31. Actions From Report Cards With Trust Implications

Consideration was given to a report of Jim Taylor, Executive Director, which provided the partnership with a summary of the RAG reports commissioned by the Executive in July 2010 and recommended actions.

The partnership was informed that the reporting format had been amended to enable managers to complete them more easily. Furthermore these were the first set of RAG reports commissioned by the Trust.

Resolved
(i) That the report be noted;
(ii) That the Executive recommendations against each of the six RAG report detailed in Appendix 1 be approved; and
(iii) That the full RAG reports be made available to all Trust partners via the Partnership Information Portal.

32. Partnership Information Portal

Consideration was given to a power point presentation by Lorraine Kitching, Principal Research Officer which provided the partnership with a demonstration of the Partnership Information Portal and its capacity.

The partners were informed that the Portal contained a new section with the latest dataset which was organised by geographical area. The Portal was able to show past trends but did not have a predictive capacity. It was an interactive database, which contained all key data relating to the borough and partners were encouraged to use the Portal.

Resolved
That the presentation be noted.

33. CYPP – Youth Version

Consideration was given to report of Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director which informed the partnership of the ‘youth proofed’ version of the Children and Young Peoples Plan 2010-13 which had been developed.

Arrangements were now in place to disseminate the Plan through PSHE lessons and School Councils. Furthermore a Tameside Youth Forum delivery plan was in place to engage in a wide variety of activities including: commissioning new projects/services, helping to decide what projects/services should deliver and how they will meet the needs of young people, in line with the strategic priorities in the CYPP.

The partnership was informed that young people from Astley Sports College had assisted with drafting the youth version of the plan. Furthermore they had made the suggestion that the Plan be promoted in schools and be used in Citizenship lessons. It was anticipated that the document would uploaded onto the Council’s website.

Resolved
That the content of the ‘youth proofed’ version of the Children and Young People’s Plan be noted.

34. TSP Annual Conference Actions Points

Consideration was given to a report of David Berry, Partnerships Manager, which informed the partnership of several pilots and initiatives that aimed to deliver improvements to the way the TSP worked as a partnership.

The annual conference took place on 13 July 2010 at Hyde Town Hall and was attended by 100 partnership members from across 40 different organisations.

The report detailed the following:

• Evaluation of the event;
• Outcomes from the group work; and
• Further information on the Improvement and Efficiency programme.

The report concluded that the TSP faced a set of complex challenges in order to achieve the Sustainable Community Strategy vision and aims. It was essential that the challenges were tackled through flexible solutions. Increased collaboration and development of innovative solutions were required to tackle the root causes that cut across many of the TSP’s organisational boundaries. The TSP could increase collaboration through working jointly to successfully implement the identified cross cutting projects and initiatives. The projects would support the planned work identified through the TSP’s key strategies and action plans.

Resolved
(i)That the report be noted; and
(ii)That the Trust engages in the pilots and initiatives to improve outcomes and deliver efficiencies.

35. Census 2011

Consideration was given to a presentation from Jeff Barber, Census Area Manager, Office for National Statistics, which sought to raise awareness of the 2011 Census and develop key contacts for support in outreaching to younger parents and BME communities.

The presentation detailed the following:

• Local authority partnership;
• Census local partnership plans;
• Aims of the census;
• Challenges and opportunities;
• Security and confidentiality;
• Operational improvements from 2001; and
• Improving response rates;

The report concluded with how the partnership could provide assistance through planning, engagement and completion.

Resolved
That the presentation be noted.

36. Urgent Items

Resolved
That the following items be considered as a matter of urgency due to time constraints:

Unannounced Ofsted Inspection – Action Plan and
Meeting the Needs of Young People at Risk of Homelessness

37. Unannounced Ofsted Inspection – Action Plan

Consideration was given to a report of Rafik Iddin, Assistant Executive Director, which detailed six objectives in the Action Plan resulting from the recent unannounced Ofsted inspection of contact, referral and assessment arrangements for children in need and children who were in need of protection.

There was some discussion about a lead person for the development and implementation of CAF and it was;

Resolved
(i) That the six objectives on the Action Plan be noted; and
(ii) That Claire Bibby be appointed lead officer for the development and implementation of CAF.

38. Meeting The Needs of Young People at Risk of Homelessness

Consideration was given to a report of Rafik Iddin, Assistant Executive Director, which set out the implications of the Judgement of the House of Lords in an appeal involving the London Borough of Southwark. The report detailed information regarding the ongoing pressures for suitable supported accommodation for vulnerable young people, and highlighted current concerns and proposed a response.

Resolved
(i) That the Children’s Trust considered a proposal to develop a multi agency “Wrap Around” Service for homeless 16 and 17 year olds which would be multi agency in focus and would maximise the benefits of integration, co-location and pooled budgets;
(ii) That the Tameside Local Safeguarding Board were briefed as to the particular vulnerabilities and risks for this group of young people; and
(iii) That a Task and Finish group be implemented which would include representatives from Tameside Children’s Trust and which would develop these proposals within the wider context of a Youth Homelessness Strategy.

39. Information Items

(a) Children's Trust Executive Minutes – 26 August 2010

The Minutes from Children’s Trust Executive Meeting held on 26 August 2010 were attached for information.

(b) Joint Commissioning Group Minutes – 26 August 2010

The Minutes from the Joint Commissioning Group Meeting held on 26 August 2010 were attached for information.

40. Date of Next Meeting

The Partnership was advised of the date of the Development Session.