Childrens Trust Board

Minutes - 15 July 2010

Commenced:   10.00am

Terminated:   11.40am

Present:
Cllr A Gwynne Tameside MBC
Ameena Ahmed Tameside MBC
Jim Taylor Tameside MBC
Rafik Iddin Tameside MBC
Tony Okotie T3SC
Susan Marsh Governors Forum
John Rogers Tameside Primary Head teachers
Judith Grigg NHS Tameside and Glossop
Claire Bibby Tameside MBC
Stephen McLaughlin Tameside Hospital
Linda Zrada Tameside Primary Head
Bob Shaw Tameside MBC
Peter Jenkinson Job Centre Plus
Sheila Piazza Tameside Connexions
David Hobbs Tameside Connexions
Huw Davies Tameside MBC
Hilary Garratt NHS Tameside and Glossop
Rafik Iddin Tameside MBC
Tina Greenhough GP/Primary Care Trust
Pat McKelvy NHS Tameside and Glossop
Jane Forrest Tameside MBC

Apologies for Absence:
Councillor, Cooney, Adam Allen, Janet Nevin, Steven Pleasant, Veronica Hyde, Sarah Petts and Densie Spence

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Trust Board held on 27 April 2010 were approved as a correct record, subject to the amended attendance record.

2. Matters Arising

Minute 41 – Total Place
The Executive Director, Children and Young People’s Service confirmed that the Total Place Board inaugural meeting had taken place recently and that Total Place was now up and running.

Minute 6 – CAF Briefing Paper
The Executive Director, Children and Young People’s Service stated that the arrangements outlined in the briefing paper, were now in place.

Minute 5 – Update on Youth Forum
It was confirmed that the Youth Forum was now meeting on a fortnightly basis and some issues had been raised.

3. Partnership Working/Future

Consideration was given to a verbal report of Jim Taylor Executive Director, in which he outlined the future working of the Children’s Trust arrangements. He made reference to the current economic situation and commented that this would have an affect on every partner organisation and with the autumn spending review taking place, organisations would be looking to their own financial situation and all Boards would be making demands that conflict with their commitment to the work of the partnership. He referred to the risks to the work of early intervention and prevention strategies as these could be the first to be cut back as they were a non statutory provision. He stated that the Children’s Trust Board was committed to early intervention and prevention and underlined the continuing need for the Trust Board and partnership arrangements to support this piece of important work. He stated that this could provide further opportunity for collaborative working with partners new and old.

He further referred to policy statements around Children’s Trust and stated that the Government was averse to bureaucratic processes and legislature changes to reverse Trusts was signalled for the autumn. However, the spirit of strong local partnership working was still a key plank of the local Children’s Agenda and in light of the current climate he urged the Trust partners towards greater transparency and continued excellent relationships to collectively deliver on better outcomes within a time of reducing resources.

Resolved
That the report be noted

4. Teenage Pregnancy Update

Consideration was given to a report of Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director, which updated the Board on the report which was brought to the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership in April 2010. That report had outlined progress in strengthening governance and addressing the current key priorities for Tameside in this area. The Partners were informed that the current approach and programme of work was supported by the Deputy Regional Lead on teenage pregnancy at Government Office North West. Data for the first quarter 2009 was now available and this showed a slight decrease in conceptions to under 18’s which was encouraging.

The report further provided Partners with a progress update on the following priorities:-

• Governance;
• Sexual health services;
• Long lasting reversible contraception;
• Workforce development
• Sex and relationships education (SRE);and
• Targeted early intervention.

She stated that Tameside had recently had a paper on the work that it was doing on Teens and Toddlers programmed, validated through C4EO (Council for Excellent Outcomes). The paper would appear on the C4EO website and would be shared as an example of good practice.

Tameside was the first local authority to have a piece of work published relating to Teenage Pregnancy on the C4EO website.

The report concluded that there had been a significant sharpening and refocusing of Tameside’s engagement with the teenage conception agenda, with new structures and strong strategic leadership which would enable the authority to make the accelerated progress needed in this area assisted by Government Office North West.

There were some discussions around the relationship between alcohol and sexual health relationship, as alcohol was seen as a major contributory factor to sexual health and partners enquired what actions there were around this. The Partners were informed of the TSP Alcohol Strategy, but it was pointed out that there were a number of contributory issues to sexual health.  With regard to sexual health training of staff, it was requested that the term ‘hot spot’ schools be replaced with the term ‘local area targets’.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

5. TSP Annual Report

Consideration was given to a joint report of Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director and Pat McKelvey, Children’s Commissioning Lead, NHS which provided a summary of how the Children’s Trust (formerly Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership was performing against the Sustainable Community Strategy key measures and performance indicators in the partnership agreement. The report set out the Trust’s future strategic priorities, identified within the local delivery plan of the Children and Young People’s Plan 2010-13, through which partners monitored and evaluated progress.

The report detailed the following:

• Summary of overall performance;
• Progress against Local Area Agreement indicators;
• Future performance management arrangements;
• Key issues arising in the last 12 months;
• Priorities; and
• Key issues for the next 12 months.

The report concluded that the Children’s Trust’s ambitions for children and young people were set out clearly in the Children and Young People Plan for 2010-13, which covered all aspects of a child’s journey through life from birth to young adulthood. It had been agreed and owned by all services that worked with children and young people through the Children’s Trust arrangements and responded to the Every Child Matters agenda.

Resolved
(i) That the report be noted; and
(ii) That the Tameside Children’s Trust undertakes any resulting actions specified by the Board.

6. End Of Year Performance Report (CYPP 2009-2010)

Consideration was given to a two part report of Bob Shaw, Performance Manager part one of which provided the end of year performance data tables and updated the half-yearly monitoring report provided in December 2009 and part two of which provided the Partners with an update on the actions agreed in the last C&YP Plan. The two parts of the report provided a sound foundation for the strategy groups and other deliver agents charged with the delivery and performance management of the new CYPP, 2010 -2013.

The Executive Director highlighted certain actions on the Improvement Action Plan and the progress on actions. He commented on the large amount of quality work being undertaken with young people and commended the report on the high quality of work undertaken in Tameside.

Resolved
(i) That the report, along with the new CYPP, 2010-2013, be provided to Ofsted in response to their request in relation to the 2010 children’s services assessment; and
(ii) That the contents of the report be noted and circulated widely across the Children’s Trust, including to relevant Strategy Group Lead Officers.

7. Update On Arrangements For Governance And Performance

Consideration was given to a brief verbal report by the Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People which updated Partners on arrangements for governance.

He reported that in the light of the ceasing of Outcome Theme groups; the Executive is looking at a piece of work that will create governance model for strategy and commissioning in line with the CYP Plan and Trust performance framework. Jim said that there is work to be done to align strategy groups with Children’s Trust business and ensure their membership is fit for purpose.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

8. Child Poverty Strategy

Consideration was given to an interim strategy report of Bob Shaw, Performance Manager which provided background information relating to government thinking and intentions round child poverty and contextual data relating to child poverty both in the UK and Tameside.

The strategy also provided a starting point for local strategic partners to enable them to plan for and meet the requirement s of the Child Poverty Act 2010 specifically:

• A local assessment for child poverty (due for publication March 2010)
• A first three year Child Poverty Strategy (due March 2011)
• Partnership processes for creating, reviewing and implementing the requirements under the Act in order to realise the longer-term goal of ending child poverty by 2020.

It was noted that the new Coalition Government had declared an interest in retaining this legislation and the Council would await any changes which arose.

The report detailed the legislative proposals which proposed new duties and powers on Local Authorities and their partner organisations with respect to ending child poverty. These included:

• Cooperation to reduce child poverty;
• Local child poverty needs assessment;;
• Joint Child Poverty Strategy; and
• Sustainable community strategy.

The report contained the targets proposed in the Act to measure impact. The Act required the Government to meet the four challenging UK-wide targets by 2020. These were:

• Relative poverty;
• Combined low income and material deprivation;
• Persistent poverty; and
• Absolute poverty.

The report further detailed the local initiatives in place to address child poverty issues in Tameside.  The report concluded with the acknowledgment that the interim strategy itself could and should only offer a start point to what would in effect be a ten year strategy. It was further acknowledged that there were elements within the forthcoming statutory local economic assessment which suggested that there was both scope and sense in combining elements of this assessment with the first Child Poverty Assessment.

A discussion ensued regarding the challenges around child poverty. A major challenge identified was the high level of unemployment and the entrenched worklessness in certain neighbourhoods, although there were a number of interesting initiatives and new welfare programmes to combat this. Concerns were expressed regarding the potential loss of 25k jobs in the public sector and the challenges faced by those subsequently seeking employment in the private sector. Partners commented that increased deprivation led to an increase in crime and work needed to be done around this issue

Resolved
(i) That the Interim Child Strategy be approved as a starting point for the development of the first assessment; the proposed three year strategy and the processes required to achieve these; and
(ii) That the Tameside Economic Development Partnership takes the principle lead in the development for the strategy with the active support from the Children’s Trust.

9. Update On Compass Teams

The Partners received a verbal report from Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director which updated them on the developments of the COMPASS teams. She stated that the teams would be located in children’s social care area offices in Denton and Newton and working across Children’s Centres in Stalybridge/Mossley/Dukinfield and Ashton. The team leaders were currently in discussion with services about the transfer of staff, and had received a good response. Staff were beginning work on 1 August and induction was being planned using local expertise. There would be a September launch for children, families and schools and the Families Information Service would be the point of contact. The Commissioning Group had continued to meet monthly and the team were participating in the third round of the Local Authority Research Consortium work which was about the cost effectiveness of CAF.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

10. Think Family Development

The Partners received a verbal report from Claire Bibby, Assistant Executive Director which updated them on developments of the Think Family. This initiative arose out of the desire to embrace the Think Family agenda. It was suggested that Think Family should be encompassed within the work of the Trust Board and comments were invited. Partners commented that the Board would have to be clear about the scope of such a move to ensure that it did not replicate the TSP’s remit. Various suggestions were made about this, and it was resolved that the Assistant Executive Director would bring a written report to the next meeting to describe the implications of this for the Children’s Trust Board and to clarify the scope of the remit.

Resolved
(i) That the report be noted; and
(ii) A further report be submitted at the next meeting of the Board which sets out the implications for Think Family being encompassed within the work of the Trust Board.

11. Update On Contact Point/Common Assessment Framework

Consideration was given to a two part report of Ameena Ahmed, Head of Partnership Development which provided Partners with the letter informing of ContactPoint: Next steps and interim operations and provided an update on the actions in the strategic roll out of CAF across the Trust’s agencies.

She informed Partners of the Government’s intentions to end ContactPoint as soon as was practicable but that in the meantime whilst it would remain in use its operation would be scaled down. The letter provided a brief outline of the Government’s new approach and confirmed the interim measure to maintain ContactPoint in limited operation pending further decisions on what should replace it. With regard to funding, the Government recognised that during the interim phase local authorities and their partners would continue to incur costs and confirmed their intention to the grant payment for the first quarter of 2010/11.

With regard to the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) she confirmed that all documentation had been disseminated to Partners and that there were now 4 CAF administrators now in post. The Partners were provided with the CAF Policy Statement which detailed the use of CAF. Some concern was expressed by Partners from a schools perspective regarding the requirement to complete a CAF for school absences.

Partners discussed the use of CAF within their service and the importance of the use and benefits of CAF was highlighted. Partner agencies were encouraged to consider the CAF readiness checklist to help decide the readiness of an agency/service/team to use the CAF to improve outcomes with children, young people and their families.

The Executive Director confirmed his commitment to championing the use of CAF.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

12. Children’s Trust Communications Plan

Consideration was given to a report of Ameena Ahmed, Head of Partnership Development which outlined the local plan for the delivery of information and messages to different stakeholders in Tameside’s Children’s workforce on the content of the 2010-13 CYPP and the Trust arrangements.

The report outlined the local plan and delivery of information and messages to different audiences in Tameside to ensure that all stakeholders in Tameside had an opportunity to be involved in understanding the content of the 2010-13 CYPP and their contribution to it.

The report detailed the aims and objectives, the stakeholders to be consulted and the outcomes.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

 13. Date Of Next Meeting

The Partnership was advised of the date of the next meeting.

14. Information Items:

(a) Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Executive Minutes – 15 April 2010

The Minutes from Children and Young People Strategic Partnership Executive Meeting held on 15 April 2010 were attached for information.

(b) Joint Commissioning Group Minutes – 15 April 2010

The Minutes from the Joint Commissioning Group Meeting held on 15 April 2010 were attached for information.