Area Coordination Management Meeting

Ashton

Minutes

Time: 10.00am
Date: Wednesday 18 th April 2007
Venue: Children's Social Care Family Room 2, Warrington Street, Ashton-under-Lyne

Present:

• Dave Munday - Area Co-ordinator
• Julie Lord - Area Co-ordinator
• Jane-Ann Birkitt - Secondary School Rep, Stamford High School
• Deborah Walker - Area Social Care Team Manager
• Anne Okwei - Sure Start
• Briana Bamforth - Education Welfare Service (rep for Mary Clowrey)
• Craig Stone - Connexions
• Annie O'Malley - Connexions
• Catherine Matthews - Youth Offending Team

Note Taker: Jo Cole

1. Welcome

Dave welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced himself as the newly appointed Area Co-ordinator for the Ashton area. He gave a brief explanation of his background with the PCT. Introductions were then made around the table.

2. Apologies

• Pam Chadwick - Youth Service
• Elaine Sayer - Extended Schools

3. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes were agreed as being a true and accurate record.

4. Minute Distribution

This item relates to the distribution of minutes to schools.

The minutes will go out 10 working days before the meeting and headteachers can then contact their school rep with any issues / agenda items. The rep will then pass this information on to the area co-ordinator.

5. Appointing a Chair

There was a discussion about who should be appointed as chair of this meeting, as it was only ever on an interim basis that the area co-ordinator acts as chair.

Concerns were raised over what the role of the chair would be and how time consuming it would be. Dave clarified that the chair would liaise with the area co-ordinator via phone or email to agree the agenda, update on progress, etc.

Dave encouraged everyone to consider and think about this, and it will be brought back to the next meeting.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Appointing a Chair to be added to the agenda for 21 st June	Jo	Completed.

6. Managers' Updates

Jane-Ann

• Assistant Headteacher at Stamford High School .
• As well as being a teacher at the school, she is also responsible for Inclusion and Behaviour, which includes SEN, EAL, Gifted and Talented, and EBSD.
• As Stamford is a BIP school, she is in liaison with the BEST team.
• The school has 550 pupils. There are approximately 220 SEN pupils, 22 of these have a statement and 80 are Action Plus.
• The pupils who attend Stamford are mainly from the Ashton area and Oldham .
• They have a significant number of refugees and asylum seekers on role, and currently 1 traveller.
• They have recently appointed 2 Polish classroom assistants to combat the language problems between staff and Polish pupils.
• A principal for the new Ashton Academy was appointed yesterday (17 th April). This post will commence in September 2007 and the Academy will open in September 2008. Until September 2010, when the new building will be complete, it will run from 2 sites ( Stamford and Hartshead).

Craig

• He updated the meeting on two projects that Connexions are currently running and are keen to publicise.

Activity Agreement

• This began in April 2006 and it is a Greater Manchester pilot and there are currently 8 pilots being run nationally.
• It is aimed at 16 & 17 year olds who have been NEET for at least 20 weeks.
• Providing the young people participate in an activity, they are paid £20 and the family member they are residing with is paid £30.
• Out of 500 NEET young people in Tameside, 150-200 are eligible for this scheme.
• In the last year, over 100 young people have progressed through the scheme and a whole range of young people have participated.
• The activities range from personal development activities to work experience.
• The young person has a link to a personal adviser at Connexions and an action plan is produced.
• The scheme was originally a two-year pilot, but it has been extended for a further 12 months.

Learning Agreement

• This is aimed at 16 & 17 year olds who are in employment but have not received any form of training.
• The aim is to provide training for young people either relevant to their current job, or in an area of interest to them.
• There are currently 300-400 young people in Tameside who are in employment without any form of training or higher level qualification.
• This scheme is beneficial to both the young person, as they will receive a recognised qualification, and to the employee, as the trained young person will be more productive.

Briana

• Tameside has been identified as a ‘priority for attendance' authority, as we have 5 high schools that have over 10% PAs.
• As part of this, the DfES visit Tameside every 6 weeks and accompany officers into schools.

Dave

• 8 out of 10 health care co-ordinators recruited so far.
• 3 out of 5 children's health care co-ordinators recruited so far.
• Nicky Leech - Associate Director covering the Ashton area.
• Judith Grigg - Associate Director for Hyde (responsible for Children and Young People).

7. Draft ACMT Action Plan

The action plan went to the CYPSP in draft form in February and it was agreed in principal.

The action plan was discussed point by point and it was opened for comments and discussion.

Clarification was sought for point 4.5, regarding using the outcome based accountability method. This is a report card method, which has been championed by GONW. It is felt that once agencies become familiar with the format, it will be a very clear and easy way of reporting information, with a common approach.

If there are any further queries members are asked to contact Dave by phone or email.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Sample report card to be emailed to members	Dave	As soon as possible

8. Staff Directory

It has been decided that there will be an area co-ordination staff directory compiled, which will eventually link in to the SID.

Work is currently underway to collect and format the information we already have. Agencies will then be contacted to fill in the gaps.

There was a discussion about how the directory would be kept up-to-date and who would be responsible for this.

9. Integrated Processes

Members were invited to discuss and comment on any issues relating to CAFs.

Annie

• Senior advisers have been given the task of completing at least one CAF by the end of April, to determine whether it is beneficial for the young person and the adviser.
• A suggestion is to be open with the young people about what the CAF involves - maybe use posters in receptions / waiting rooms, etc.

Briana

• Feedback is that it is very time consuming.

Jane-Ann

• None completed yet but feel they will be very time consuming.
• Sometimes difficult to engage with the young person and get parental consent.

Julie

• The area co-ordinators have suggested to Jane Forrest that a wall planner / poster is produced showing the steps for completing a CAF.

The Early Sample form was discussed and more clarification is needed as to what the area-co-ordinators require.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Clarification needed on the completion of the CAF Early Sample form. To be brought back to the next meeting.	Dave	21st June

10. Engaging Secondary Partners and Community Members

The intention is for there to be two 6-monthly meetings in order to invite a wider group e.g. patrollers; police; voluntary, community and faith sector; regeneration, etc.

How do we involve parents, children and young people?

Julie is currently working on a Parent Support Strategy with Catherine Mee. As part of this, there is an event taking place at Portland Basin on 12 th June where parents and carers are invited. If anyone believes they should be invited to this event and haven't had an email, please contact the area co-ordinators.

There was a discussion regarding engaging parents and carers.

11. Connection to Regeneration Activity

There is currently many projects taking place across Ashton e.g. St Peter's, Broadoak, and it would be beneficial to the ACMT to have a wider knowledge of these.

There was a discussion about whether guest speakers need to be invited to ACMT meetings to update members of the work going on.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Relevant people to be contacted for information regarding current projects.	Dave to gather information and feedback to the meeting	Ongoing

12. New Items

Annie

• Refurbishment of the reception area at Clarence Arcade will take place in the summer.
• CAMHS workers for 16-17 years olds have now been appointed. The new team are offering appointments at Clarence Arcade.
• The Connexions website - www.cnx2jobs.co.uk - was launched recently, which has job opportunities for young people in the Greater Manchester area.

Anne

• The keys for the new St Peter's Children's Centre at Trafalgar Square will be handed over on 18 th May and the official opening will be on 1 st July.
• The keys for the Waterloo Children's Centre will be handed over at the beginning of May.

Briana

• The ‘Friends of Young Carers' event will be launched in the next couple of months and Briana welcomed any ideas regarding funding from local businesses to be sent to her (0161 342 3259).

13. AOB

None.

The meeting closed at 11.30am

Glossary

• ACMT - Area Co-ordination Management Team
• APIR (profile) - Assessment, Planning, Implement and Review
• BEST - Behaviour and Education Support Team
• BIP - Behaviour Improvement Programme
• CAF - Common Assessment Framework
• CAMHS - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
• CYP - Children and Young People
• CYPSP - Children and Young People Strategic Partnership
• DfES - Department for Education and Skills
• EAL - English as an Additional Language
• EBSD - Emotional, Behavioural and Social Difficulties
• ECM - Every Child Matters
• EWS - Education Welfare Service
• GONW - Government Office for the North West
• NEET - Not in Education, Employment or Training
• PA(s) - Persistent Absence (in Education Welfare)
• PCT - Primary Care Trust
• SEN - Special Educational Needs
• SID - Service Information Directory
• T3SC - Tameside Third Sector Coalition
• VCF - Voluntary, Community, Faith
• YOT - Youth Offending Team