Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

16th February 2006

Commenced: 2.35pm     Terminated: 4.45pm

Present:

Councillor P. Wilkinson (Chair) Tameside MBC
Ameena Ahmed - Tameside MBC
Alan Bailey - Tameside MBC
Jo Baird - Third Sector Coalition
Cheryl Eastwood - Tameside MBC
Caroline Gregory - Tameside MBC
Glen Hagan - CARCAS
Lynda Johnson - Primary Heads
Ray Maurice - Head Teacher
Sue Nathan - Tameside MBC
Megan Nurse - Tameside MBC
Sheila Piazza - Connexions
Andy Searle - GMP
Tricia Sloane - Primary Care Trust
Ian Smith - TMBC
Councillor S. Smith - TMBC
Denise Spence - Head Teacher
Ian Tonge - VCS
Sue Ward - Tameside Acute Trust
John Whittle - Youth Offending Team
Tracy Wood - Primary Care Trust 

Also in attendance at the invitation of the Chair: 

Councillors Cooney, A. Holland and Walsh

Apologies For Absence:

Huw Davies, Jane Forrest, Julie Lord, Julie McCabe-Robinson, Julie Lord, Jim Taylor and Malcolm Watson

10. Minutes

The Minutes of the proceedings of the meeting of the Partnership held on 8 th December 2005, having been circulated, were approved as a correct record.

11. Making It Better

The Assembly received a joint presentation from Sue Ward, Divisional Nurse Manager (Paediatrics) and Tricia Sloane, which advised of the public consultation "Making it Better, Making it Real", in relation to healthcare services for children, young people, parents and babies in Greater Manchester, East Cheshire, High Peak and Rossendale.

The presentation and the leaflets circulated, explained why the changes in the provision of services were required, gave details of the four options A, B, C and D, with Option A being the preferred option, and most importantly, details of how members of the public could take part in the process.

The consultation period would last until 13 th April 2006 and further information was available on the website www.bestforhealth.nhs.uk . Views could be forwarded either by e-mail to consultation.response@gmsha.nhs.uk or in writing to Freepost, Making it Better. Alternatively information on local consultation events and groups sessions, explaining the options for change in Tameside, could be obtained by telephoning 0161 304 5333.

Detailed discussion ensued in relation to the publicity campaign and the Chair proposed that on behalf of this Strategic Partnership he issue response to the Strategic Health Authority supporting Option A. He stated that he would explore the feasibility of including the information leaftlets within the pay packets of Tameside Council employees.

Resolved:

1. That the Chair, on behalf of this Strategic Partnership, submit a response to the Strategic Health Authority supporting the preferred Option A.
2. That consideration be given to including information leaflets in the pay packets of Tameside Council employees.

12. Local Area Agreements (Laas) 

Megan Nurse , Assistant Director (Policy and Performance), submitted a report explaining the function of Local Area Agreements (LAAs), how they achieved their aims, together with details of the funding available to meet those aims.

LAAs were a key element of Central Government's 10 year vision for the modernisation of Local Government and it was envisaged that they would:-

• Improve co-ordination between Central and Local Government.
• Devolve decision making to the local level and reduce bureaucracy.
• Improve services and outcomes.
• Improve performance through more flexible use of resources.
• Help partners join up at the local level.

LAAs would develop a range of locally owned outcomes and should be structured around four themes, children and young people, safer and stronger communities, healthier communities and older people and economic development and enterprise.

In relation to funding, three types of existing funding could be exploited to achieve the aims of LAAs:-

• Area - specific funding allocation and distributed directly to the area by a Government Department.
• Mainstream - such as Police, NHS, PCT and schools funding.
• Non Governmental Public Bodies - such as Big Lottery, Sport England and the Learning and Skills Council.

A Steering Group to lead Tameside's LAA had been established comprising of representatives from the Council, Primary Care Trust, Police, Manchester Enterprises and the Third Sector Coalition. Monthly meetings will be held until agreement on the LAA had been approved by the Government Office North West. Regular reports will be brought to this Partnership over the next 12 months informing of the direction of the LAA and up-dating on progress.

13. Service Redesign And Improvements Into Four Geographical Areas

Further to Minute 8 (08.12.05. refers), Cheryl Eastwood, Assistant Executive Director (Services for Children and Young People), submitted a detailed report in respect of the developments to date in relation to the organisation of services and management arrangements for the integrated delivery of services into four geographical areas across the Borough, together with a proposed timetable.

She added that it was not possible to co-locate teams immediately or to divide every team into four, and it was therefore planned to move incrementally towards a position where staff were providing services in the designated areas in a co-ordinated way. As a means of achieving this each service was being asked to consider, how they linked to each of the four areas; which groups of staff or other service it would be particularly useful to be located with; and who would represent them in the area co-ordination arrangements.

In response the Chair stated that discussions were also taking place with local Councillors in order to keep them informed of progress and further suggested that it would be useful for the each proposed area to host a meeting where all services could attend and introduce themselves to each other, prior to any arrangements being finalised by this Partnership.

14. Teenage Pregnancy Commissioning

Cheryl Eastwood, Assistant Executive Director (Services for Children and Young People), reported that meetings had recently taken place regarding commissioning over the next 12 months, albeit no action had yet been formally agreed until an holistic view of the situation had been undertaken.

The Chair made reference to a report in respect of teenage pregnancy which recently published by Tameside MBC's Lifelong Learning and Cultural Services Scrutiny Panel, stating that this Partnership would be responding to that report. He expressed concern that this Partnership had not been consulted during the preparation of the report and also that its findings had been based on out-of-date information.

Ian Smith, Executive Director (Services for Children and Young People), informed the Partnership that that Scrutiny Panel would be investigating bullying in schools and suggested that it would be appropriate for that Panel to consult with this Partnership during its investigation.

Andy Searle (GMP), also commented upon the lack of appropriate and consistent recording of both bullying and racial incidents, and suggested that this needed to be further considered.

15. Children And Young People's Strategic Partneship Peformance Framework

15(a) Tameside's Integrated Performance Management Framework

Ameena Ahmed , Children's Services Manager, submitted a report describing the overarching framework that will demonstrate how the Children and Young People's Plan delivered improved outcomes. The framework will enable the assessment of the impact on children and young people's lives by providing a cohesive approach to cascading and reporting upon priorities within the Plan. The framework was also aligned to other drivers that involve significant partnership working such as the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) and Local Area Agreements (LAA).

Details were also given in relation to agreeing priorities, taking account of national targets, local priorities and LAA's; the governance arrangements for taking the management framework forward; cascading responsibilities and monitoring performance.

15(b) Agreement Form 2006/2007

Ameena Ahmed , Children's Services Manager, submitted copies of the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by the Chair and the Partnership re-affirmed its commitment to implementing the management framework detailed in Appendix "C" to the Agreement.

16. "Youth Matters" - Action Plan

Further to Minute 3 of the last meeting (08.12.05. refers), Sue Nathan , Operations Manager Youth Service, submitted an action plan (for details see the Appendix to these Minutes), which was based on the issues which had been highlighted at the Youth Consultation Forum in respect of the Green Paper for Youth.

It was intended that the Action Plan would be included in the Business Plans of both the Youth Service and Connexions Service.

17. Annual Performance Assessment

Cheryl Eastwood, Assistant Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, circulated copies of the correspondence from Ofsted and the Commission for Social Care Inspection which detailed the arrangement for the 2006 Annual Performance Assessment of Tameside Council's children's services.

18. Tameside's Play Strategy

Cheryl Eastwood, Assistant Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, reported that funding had been secured via the Lottery and Tameside MBC for the implementation of a Play Strategy. It was therefore necessary that this Strategic Partnership agree an appropriate, sustainable strategy to be included within the final bid to be submitted in July 2006. To that end a further report would be submitted to the next meeting of this Partnership.

19. Up-Dates And Communications

19(a) Integration Project Team

Further to Minute 5 of the meeting of the Partnership held on 10 th November 2005,Cheryl Eastwood, Assistant Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, submitted details of the officers who were leading the various elements in relation to the integration of services, together with a brief summary of the progress to date within those elements.

She added that an official ceremony signing ceremony in relation to the "Duty to Co-operate" agreements, would be held in March or April 2006.

19(b) Under-Achievement of Particular Groups

Ian Smith, Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, advised the Partnership in relation to under-achievement in particular groups namely, pupils in Pupil Referral Units; traveller, refugee and asylum seekers; children in public care and boys at all key stages particularly those of Bangladeshi/Pakistani origin. At the present time the Council were dealing with around 30 under-achievers in the Borough, which was a very low percentage of the school population as a whole.

20. Dates Of Future Meetings

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

• Thursday 23rd March 2006 (re-arranged from 27th April 2006)
• Thursday 22nd June 2006
• Thursday 10th August 2006