Area Coordination Management Meeting

Denton , Droylsden and Audenshaw

Minutes

Time: 10.00am
Date: Friday 16th March 2007
Venue: Linden Road Primary School

Present:

• Bob Shaw Area Coordinator
• Diane King Youth Service Manager
• Ken Davies Connexions Manager
• Lynne Percival Extended Schools Consultant
• Phil Massey Audenshaw Learning Network Rep
• Gina Jones PCT
• Margaret Morrison Senior Education Welfare Officer
• Heather Good Denton Primary School Rep
• Sue Lennie Secondary School Rep
• Tracy Rowe Social Care Team Manager

Note Taker: Jo Cole

1. Welcome

Bob welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made around the table for the benefit of Sue Lennie, newly appointed Secondary School Rep.

2. Apologies

• Anne Okwei - Children's Centres Manager
• John Rogers - Droylsden Primary School Rep
• Sally Dickin - YOT Manager

3. Appointing a Chair

It was requested that volunteers and/or nominations are emailed to Bob before the next meeting.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Members to email volunteers / nominations to Bob	All	10 May 2007

4. Notes of last meeting and matters arising

Item 3

Gina Jones received the Terms of Reference.

Bob has visited Tracy 's team and again stressed his availability and willingness to visit other teams.

Item 6 (last paragraph)

Extended Schools now have a framework - the assessment wheel being only part of this.

Item 10

Lynne clarified that the Family Learning Projects are not specific to this area. Family Learning Projects are intended to take place borough-wide and for the one being planned specific to this area in Greenside on ICT, Maths and English, discussions are in progress.

Item 11 - Participation

Lynne explained this in more detail.

• The Participation Network is borough-wide, engaging young people in participation and consultation.
• There is a reporting format and procedures for collecting young people's views.
• Copies of the document will be circulated in due course.
• There is an interactive website being developed at the moment, with the involvement of young people.
• There is a need for more young people to be members of the YOF Panel. The Panel is responsible for reviewing the applications from young people (13+) and the Panel meetings are usually held on Tuesday evenings. There is adult support available to enable young people to attend.

5. Minutes Distribution

Chair's error led to the omission of this item at the meeting…

Post script for information :

Minutes of these meetings will be made freely available on the web - probably on the C&YPS Partnership web-site (see http://www.tameside.gov.uk/cypp) in the near future. More information to follow.

For the moment they are being distributed to senior managers and heads of primary schools.

Members of this team should feel free to distribute them to team members and colleagues as they see fit.

6. Managers' Updates

Phil

• Headteacher of St Stephen's, Audenshaw
• Relatively small primary school - 192 pupils.
• The school is linked to other Audenshaw schools through the Audenshaw Learning Network - a document was circulated to explain the Audenshaw Learning Network in more detail.
• It has been agreed that Phil will report back from the ACMT meeting to the Learning Network
• It was pointed out that St Anne's RC are not included in the Learning Network, as they have opted to be a member of the Roman Catholic Learning Network. Therefore, St Anne's will not be receiving the feedback from the ACMT meeting.
• One of the many positive projects that the Audenshaw Learning Network have undertaken are Learning Walks. These enable staff and pupils to look at good working practices by visiting other schools.

Gina

• The PCT have recently undergone a major restructure. There is now two ‘arms' of the PCT - provider and commissioning. Under the provider arm, there will be Speech Therapists, Physiotherapists, School Nurses, Health Visitors, and Dieticians.
• There will an Associate Director post (provider arm) -a strategic role, responsible for the children's agenda.
• The Associate Director will also have management responsibility for the Health Care Co-ordinators per locality (Ashton; Stalybridge, Dukinfield, Mossley; Denton , Droylsden, Audenshaw; Hyde, Hattersley, Longdendale; Glossop), there will be a co-ordinator for children and a co-ordinator for adults. They will be responsible for the day-to-day management of their particular area.
• The Health Care Co-ordinators for children will be members of the ACMT, relevant to their area.
• The posts have been advertised and it is anticipated that appointments will be made within the next few months.
• At present, 4 of the 5 Health Care Co-ordinators for adults have been appointed.
• Bob requested that he be included in the Induction Programme of the Denton , Droylsden, Audenshaw Health Care Coordinator, once appointed.

Heather

• Headteacher of Linden Road - will be reporting back from this meeting to the Denton Primary Cluster.
• 230 pupils
• 26-place part-time nursery, mornings only.
• The school is also the Primary Hearing Impaired Base for the whole of Tameside.
• There are 10 places for hearing impaired children and currently 8 places are taken.
• After Year 6, hearing impaired children usually move on to Hyde Technology School .
• There is a loop system in all parts of the school.
• A signer is present in school assemblies, and children sign some of the songs.
• Signing lessons are very popular, with all 30 places taken.
• Children with hearing impairments learn Sign Supported English.
• The school's recent Ofsted Inspection reported the Equal Opportunities as “outstanding”.
• There is a Volunteer Reading Service held in school in the evenings for adults.
• The school is currently in the process of establishing a Foundation Unit. Refurbishments have taken place and the joining of the nursery and reception classes to form the Foundation Unit will commence in September 2007.
• The school has strong links with the local secondary schools - Two Trees and Egerton Park .
• A French teacher from Egerton Park comes in to school to teach French to Year 3 pupils.
• The school will also become a children's centre from September 2008. The children's centre will be in the existing building, which means the school will go from a two-form entry from year 4 upwards to a one-form entry throughout. It will however have a separate entrance.
• The Rainbow Room, currently the art room, will become a communal room, to be used by both the school and the children's centre.
• Extra curricular activities include: Judo - Friday nights, Cheerleading - Monday nights, ICT workshops, Maths workshops.
• The North-West Majorettes Competition is being held at the school in July, which will gain positive publicity for the school.
• The school take part in the Denton Carnival.
• Through a sports grant, there is a half hour aerobics class in the morning for children, which includes a light breakfast. This is to combat the lack of funds available to parents to pay for a place in a breakfast club.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Bob requested to be included on the Induction Programme for the Denton , Droylsden & Audenshaw Health Care Coordinator.	Gina Jones / Bob Shaw	Once appointment commences

7. Draft ACMT Action Plan

Bob explained that the Denton , Droylsden & Audenshaw ACMT is the first meeting where the action plan has been presented.

Input will be sought from Children's Leadership Team in the Council (CLT), as well as the Area Coordinators. The daft plan will go to the CYPSP in April.

The draft action plan closely follows the agreed Terms of Reference (TOR) for ACMTs, and the bold numbering/headings in the action plan refer to the parts of the TOR.

To promote ownership and to make improvements, members of the ACMT are encouraged to take the action plan to their cluster meetings / staff meetings. Bob is willing and able to attend cluster/staff meetings to present and receive comments the draft action plan.

Bob would welcome comments from members either by phone or email before the next meeting. Amendments can also be made at the next meeting.

There was a discussion over the terminology used in the action plan, and comments were made that parts of it were a bit daunting and not friendly to all readers. Bob explained the Capability Maturity Model (as presented at the last meeting) and, briefly, the outcome based accountability approach adopted by the C&YPS Partnership.

Post script:

For capability maturity model see http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/resources-and-practice/IG00151/

And for outcome (or results) based accountability see http://www.resultsaccountability.com/

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Amendments / comments to be emailed to Bob.	All	10 May 2007

8. Staff Directory

Bob has taken the template for the Staff Directory to the Data Group, and it has emerged that there is a long term plan to transform part of the Service Information Directory (SID) into a Children's Workforce Portal. This will contain contact information for all agencies working with children, but is unlikely to be accessible by the public. The timescale for this is approximately 12-18 months and is currently being led by Jane Forrest.

The feedback from the meeting on using the SID at the moment was that it is not easy to use and sometimes frustrating.

It was agreed that as a short term measure, members of the meeting would exchange internal contact lists of key players within their service.

It was noted that a list of key players in each school is already held by Services for Children and Young People at the Council Offices.

There was a discussion over whether it would be possible to have contact information for groups / agencies not represented at this meeting e.g. the Education Resource Team.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Members to send in their contact lists to Jo Cole	All	As soon as possible
Contact lists for schools to be obtained from within our Service	Jo Cole	As soon as possible

9. Integrated Processes

Feedback / Emerging Issues

Heather (Primary Schools)

• Feedback from the Primary Headteachers Residential:
• difficult to get parents engaged,
• problems with workload.
• Linden Road have completed successfully two CAFs so far.

Margaret (Education Welfare)

• Concerns regarding who will be lead professional

Ken (Connexions)

• Current assessment tool is the APIR.
• Fear of the unknown - new process.
• Parental involvement - young people 13+ - Gillick competence.
• None completed by Connexions yet - a pilot programme will commence at the end of April.
• Connexions will probably not initiate very many - most problems start before the age of 13, although Connexions may have to reopen previously closed cases.
• There are certain projects in place to resolve issues/problems - is a CAF always necessary?

Gina (PCT)

• Many differences between Derbyshire and Tameside. Derbyshire are a Budget Holding Lead Professional (BHLP) pilot and appear to be promoting wide ownership of CAF in the pilot areas.
• Where does the PCT stand if asked to be lead professional on an LA led CAF?
• Some children are already known/ seen by health visitors before school age - danger of duplication when school does a CAF.
• Some LAs use standard CAF for all assessments - sometimes just the front sheet. This ensures borough-wide consistency.

Tracy (Children's Social Care)

• What is the purpose of CAF in Tameside?
• Her understanding is that CAF is to enable all agencies involved with children to work together so nothing is overlooked.
• She envisages at least 30 CAFs being done per month per area, in line with the 30 initial assessments currently undertaken each month.
• Is anyone from Tameside linked to other LAs who have progressed further with CAFs (e.g. Stockport )? It was reported that Jane Forrest is our link on the NW development group but that this can be developed further.
• Feedback from Children's Social Care on the training - wasn't very useful and in some parts confusing and the groups were too large.

Bob

• Reported on CAF training - by the end of March over 500 people will have undertaken the training.
• The main obstacles seem to be workload, accountability, and volume of activity.
• There are many myths about the right and wrong process for a CAF e.g. can't do a referral without a CAF - this is not true. Presently, there are no general instructions on use.
• When the PCT Health Care Co-ordinator is in post, he/she will be able to bring useful information on the operation of integrated processes in their service and from the BHLP Derbyshire.
• At the moment, there is not a lot of information about how CAFs are working. JASPER will ultimately give us a handle on how many CAFs have been completed and how many lead professionals have been appointed. However, presently we do not have a sense of volume - either actual or predicted.

To help ease CAF into the system three suggestions were put to the meeting

1. A sampling of the CAF activity
2. Production of supplementary guidance
3. Hosting meetings of local professionals to introduce the supplementary guidance and share local practices.

The CAF sample template, which was circulated prior to the meeting, was discussed. It was suggested that the following questions be included: -

• Have you taken the role of Lead Professional?
• If so, how many times?

It was also agreed that issuing supplementary guidance at twilight or lunchtime workshops, where good practice can be shared was a good way forward. After some discussion, it was agreed that informal drop-in sessions (per area) would take place from 3.30 - 5.00 and it was suggested that schools are the most appropriate venues. It was felt that the drop-in sessions would be far more useful that the training.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Supplementary guidance and drop-in sessions to be developed further	Bob	Summer term 2007

10. Engaging Secondary Partners and Community Members

An example of secondary partners are voluntary, community and faith sector, police, patrollers, scouts, youth groups, etc. The intention is to have a twice yearly network / partnership event.

It was felt vital that T3SC be included at some level. Bob clarified that they would be invited to the twice yearly event, but that Veronica Hyde (T3SC - CYP Network) will be attending one of each of the 4 area meetings in rotation.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Veronica Hyde to be invited to a future meeting	Jo	10 May 2007

11. Connecting to Regeneration Activity

There are two regeneration areas in the Denton , Droylsden & Audenshaw area - East Droylsden and Denton South.

Bob is the Co-Chair of the Denton South Children and Young People task group.

Bob felt that it would be beneficial to invite someone from these Partnerships to an ACMT meeting some time in the year to give a presentation, as there are very strong links to the five outcomes - particularly around achieving economic wellbeing.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Member of the Denton South Young People Partnership to be invited to an ACMT meeting.	Bob	Before December 2007

 
12. Youth Base in Droylsden

Diane wanted to make the members of the meeting aware of the appalling conditions that workers based in Droylsden are subject to.

The Youth Base in Droylsden is a terraced house on Canal Street in the heart of the Droylsden redevelopment area, currently leased from Tameside Council.

There is no budget for any repairs or refurbishments and a recent Health & Safety inspection flagged up many concerns.

Bob, having visited the Canal Street centre, supported Diane's observations of the inadequacy of the building for delivering youth or other children's services.

Diane's concern is that the Youth Service may be evicted from the building, as it is a potential investment for housing developers.

There was a discussion about the possibility of a Droylsden Youth Base being included in the design for the new Droylsden Academy . How do we express an interest? Who is the contact?

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
To use opportunities as they arise to raise this issue in the context of building schools of the future and the new Academy at Droylsden	All	Continuous

 
13. AOB

Bob distributed leaflets for the Water Adventure Centre in Droylsden for information and recommended this service

The meeting closed at 12.00noon.

Glossary

• ACMT Area Co-ordination Management Team
• APIR (profile) Assessment, Planning, Implement and Review
• CAF Common Assessment Framework
• CMM Capability Maturity Model
• CLT Children's Leadership Team
• CYP Children and Young People
• CYPSP Children and Young People Strategic Partnership
• JASPER Joint Assessment System for Prevention and Early Referral
• LA Local Authority
• OBA Outcome based accountability
• PCT Primary Care Trust
• SID Service Information Directory
• T3SC Tameside Third Sector Coalition
• TOR Terms of Reference
• YOF Youth Opportunity Fund
• YOT Youth Offending Team