Area Coordination Management Meeting

Hyde, Hattersley, Longdendale

Minutes

Time: 9.30am - 11.30am
Date: 21st February 2007
Venue: Newton Family Centre

Present:

• Julie Lord (part) Area Co-ordinator
• Sue Garnett Area Co-ordinator
• Don Entwistle (part) Youth Service
• Dave Munday Tameside & Glossop PCT
• Janet Rathburn Dowson Primary School
• Jo Brown Connexions
• Jane Cooke Children's Social Care - Assessment Team
• Jan Cooper Children's Social Care - Family Support Team
• Beryl Oliver ECM Co-ordinator, Hyde Technology School

Note Taker: Jo Cole

1. Welcome

Sue welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

2. Apologies

• Ruth Dolan Extended Schools Consultant
• Vicky Cuddy Children's Centres Manager
• Mary Clowrey Senior Education Welfare Officer

3. Notes of last meeting and matter arising

Item 5

Connexions update - Jo Brown pointed out that they also offer career guidance, as well as advice.

Children's Social Care update - Jane Cooke wanted to make members aware that her team not only deal with Child Protection issues but also with Child in Need matters as well. She also wanted to clarify her title - she is the Team Manager for the Assessment Team for Hyde, Hattersley and Longdendale.

The remainder of the minutes were agreed and accepted as a true record.

4. Minutes Distribution

It was agreed that all meetings would be 9.30 - 11.30. Dates of future meetings were agreed as follows: -

• Tuesday 24th April 2007 Dowson Primary School , Hyde
• Thursday 28th June 2007 Warrington Street, Ashton
• Thursday 13th September 2007 Bennett Street, Hyde
• Wednesday 17th October 2007 Flowery Centre, Hyde
• Wednesday 5th December 2007 Hyde Technology School

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Venue for 24th April 2007 to be confirmed	Janet Rathburn to confirm with Jo Cole	To be sent out with minutes
Venue for 28th June 2007 to be confirmed	Jane Cooke to confirm with Jo Cole	To be sent out with minutes
Venue for 13th September 2007 to be confirmed	Don Entwistle to confirm with Jo Cole	To be sent out with minutes
Venue for 17th October 2007 to be confirmed	Jo / Sue to contact Hattersley Children's Centre	To be sent out with minutes
Venue for 5th December to be confirmed	Beryl Oliver to confirm with Jo	To be sent out with minutes

 

5. Update on membership of this team

The membership of this Area Coordination Team is now complete, with all representative posts being filled.

Sue gave information regarding the fourth Area Coordinator post. Sue and Julie are sharing the responsibility of chairing the Ashton ACMT meetings, with Jo taking responsibility for the admin.

Short listing is currently taking place for the Ashton Area Co-ordinator post, and interviews are scheduled for Tuesday (27th February).

6. Managers' Update

Don Entwistle - 342 3033 / 07974 821264

• Youth Service Team Leader - team consists of 3 full time staff and many part time staff, based in different locations
• He is based at Hyde Town Hall
• An example of a recent piece of targeted work is the ‘Positive Activities for Young People' project.
• The Youth Service work very closely with the police and Groundwork.
• The Youth Service receive council based funding and funding from the NRF.
• The young people at Bennett Street have recently been involved in a Musical Theatre Production. This was a 6-week project on Monday and Wednesday nights which attracted 40 young people from different communities and included DJing, VJing (video jockey), rapping, dance and musical production. They performed on stage at Hyde Theatre two weeks before for an audience of 350 people, including many of their parents and teachers. This project saw the confidence and self-esteem of the young people increase significantly and this has been reflected in the school and home life.
• Renovations have begun on Bennett Street Youth and Community Centre, with joint funding from the Capital Fund and NRF. When complete, it will be the flagship project for provision in Newton and will hopefully offer much more for young people.
• At the moment, a youth base is missing in central Hyde. Currently, the different communities in Hyde go to different youth clubs. Using the experiences in Oldham and Burnley as examples, it is clear that having segregated communities causes problems. He hopes that he can bring future proposals for a Central Hyde Youth Base to the ACMT meetings for discussion.
• Possible venues for a youth base in central Hyde have included the basement of Hyde Town Hall and the old Police Station. Members of the group commented on other venues i.e. Surestart Post Office House - Hyde.
• There are new proposals for a Hattersley Neighbourhood Centre and there will be excellent youth provision within this centre. This is a great opportunity for the young people, as many parts of Hattersley are unsafe after 6pm. At the moment, the only provision is a Cyber Café operated by the Youth Service and a youth club which is police-led. The Centre should attract young people from all communities in Hattersley.
• Once the proposals for the Hattersley Neighbourhood Centre has been approved, young people will be heavily involved in the process, consultation and design, and will have the opportunity to visit regeneration areas to gain inspiration.
• The Youth Service are hopeful in receiving funding from the Arts Council to enable theatre projects like this to continue. The funding will be for 3 years.
• The Youth Service are hoping to have an input in to the design of the new schools which are part of the BSF programme. They are hoping it is possible to have youth wings incorporated into the new school buildings. The Youth Service will be represented at the BSF Bidders Day on 1 st March 2007.

Links with partners

Beryl Oliver, Hyde Tech expressed a wish to meet with Don regarding the Bennett Street renovations, as she knew nothing about the project and was interested in how many young people from Hyde Tech were involved / attended Bennett Street Youth Centre.

Jane Cooke, Team Manager, Children's Social Care also expressed an interest in the number of young people involved with the Youth Service that her team are involved with.

Beryl Oliver

• Beryl is the ECM Co-ordinator at Hyde Technology School .
• She works on a part time basis but has a flexible working arrangement with the school. Her previous role at the school was that of Assistant Headteacher which included involvement in the Healthy School Award and the pilot scheme Inclusion Charter.
• Her new role is to raise awareness and profile of the ECM agenda, which is now a major part of the Ofsted agenda.
• She has involvement in Extended Schools provision and in the BSF programme ( Hyde Technology School is being rebuilt on the same site).
• She has recently set up a Parent Voice Group, to replace the old type PTA which ceased meeting approx 4 years ago. The first meeting of the Parent Voice Group had attendance from 12 parents, which was seen as very promising.

Links with partners

Through her previous role at Hyde Technology School , she has formed strong working relationships with external educational and community agencies and in her new role she is so far working/meeting with Ruth Dolan, Vicky Cuddy and Ruth Biggar. She is enjoying her new role as she is meeting so many new and interesting people.

Dave Munday

• He is the Hyde, Hattersley and Longdendale Sure Start and Children's Centre Health Co-ordinator for the PCT.
• He is an interim member of ACMT, as the PCT is undergoing a major restructure. They will have 5 geographical areas (same as LA plus Glossop), and each of these areas will have two Health Care Co-ordinators, one for children and one for adults.
• His role is, amongst other things, to ensure that Sure Start, Children's Centres and Health are co-ordinated, provided and delivered in Hattersley and Hyde Children Centre areas.
• A lot of work is embedded in the Hyde wards, and the focus is now on the more disadvantaged areas.
• He is a little anxious about eradicating duplication completely. The benefit of a small amount of duplication is that every family is targeted and no-one ‘slips through the net'.

Janet Rathburn

• She is the Headteacher of Dowson Primary School, Hyde. She has been at Dowson for 6 years. Before this, she was Deputy Head at Holy Trinity in Ashton.
• Dowson is involved with the Extended Schools Service, the Excellence Cluster, and the BEST team. The BEST team has representation from different groups including the Police, Education Welfare, Education Psychology, CAMHS, Family Support and EBD.
• There is a concern that Dowson, amongst other schools, are slightly ‘out on a limb' as they don't fall into a Sure Start area. Dave Munday replied by explaining that the Sure Start boundaries are slowly disappearing and being replaced with much wider Children's Centre areas.
• She feels this meeting is an important and invaluable forum to keep schools in the loop, and she is looking forward to working with the group. She is aware that the different languages used by different members of the group needs to be overcome.
• At the moment, she is a little unsure as to how she can be the voice of all primary schools in the area, as she only attends the Hyde Cluster meetings. This is something that is being looked at.

Jo Brown (brief update from last meeting)

• Hyde, Hattersley and Longdendale Cluster Staff - 6 staff.
• Connexions Assistants - training / employment.
• NEETS - targeted.
• Post 16 primarily.
• 13 - 19 in education are case loaded to another team.
• The main Connexions office is in Ashton, but her team work from the Hyde Office on Market Street in Hyde and are open 4 days a week, Friday mornings are by appointment only.

Jane Cooke (brief update from last meeting)

• Jane pointed out that the best resources are sometimes not accessed due to staff not having the time and knowledge to know where to find them. She feels the ACMT meeting is a good forum for gaining knowledge and ideas to feedback to her team.
• Jane gave an update on the movement of her team. The plan was to move to the Newton Family Support Centre, but the capital bid failed so at the moment they are awaiting further plans.

Jan Cooper (brief update from last meeting)

• Janet introduced herself for the benefit of the people who weren't at the last meeting. She is the Family Support Manager for the Newton team, based at the Newton Family Centre.
• She has links with schools, AHL, both children's centres in the area, health visitors, young carers project, and she is a representative for Services for Children and Young People on the Homestart Board.

School Links service offers support to children in schools that are identified by the headteacher as in need before they reach social care thresholds, examples of needs/problems may be bullying, behavioural issues, bereavement and loss. All referrals for family support however have to have social work assessment before support/intervention can be offered to families.

7. Where is the Area Co-ordination Management team and where is it heading? - a presentation and some thoughts

Sue gave a presentation to the meeting.

The DfES ‘Onion' diagram was explained in detail.

The Capability Maturity Model was briefly explained. It was suggested that this would be brought to a future meeting to be looked at in more detail.

There was a discussion regarding the pooling of resources and budgets. Julie gave an example of duplication as the various parenting courses that different agencies offer. A great deal of research has been done to investigate the number and variety of courses on offer. Julie is working on a Multi-Agency Parental Support Strategy. This will give us direction and possible ways to maximise resources. All partners are involved i.e. Tameside and Glossop PCT, the Acute Trust, GPs, Social Landlords, the YOT, the Youth Service, and many more.

Sue and Julie reported on a bid they have recently made to the CWDC for a domestic violence worker. The bid was successful, being one of only five in the country. This post will focus on working with children in schools to deliver awareness-raising sessions through drama, and working with children who are witnesses to domestic violence. There will also be funding for an admin post.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Slides to be emailed out.	Jo Cole	With minutes

8.Drafting an area action plan and related processes

Sue gave a brief overview of the contents of the action plan.

The action plan is looking at the direction of travel, based on the Terms of Reference.

The draft action plan will be brought to the next meeting, and the final version will be brought back for consultation.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Draft action plan to be put on agenda for 24th April	Jo Cole	Completed
Terms of Reference to be emailed out	Jo Cole	With minutes

9. Integrated processes and emerging issues

There was a discussion focusing on issues surrounding JASPER and CAF.

There is a template being devised containing questions regarding CAF completion, Child and Family meetings, etc.

Any issues/barriers will be fed back to Jane Forrest by the Area Co-ordinators.

Jo Brown

Connexions use an assessment tool called APIR. This is a document as well as a process. They are looking at how this duplicates CAF. They are piloting CAFs with the teams in place of the APIR. This will be reviewed at the next managers meeting.

Janet Rathburn

Not everyone has had the training in schools. There is also the issue of capacity - who will be responsible for completing CAFs, how will their time be allocated, how will this be managed with their current workload?

Jane Cooke

The feedback from schools is that not many are being completed.

Jan Cooper

A leaflet advising Tameside residents about JASPER has been sent to households in Tameside. There is concern that not everybody has received one. Schools have not received a delivery - it would be useful if schools could have a supply to pass on to any parents who haven't already received one.

Dave Munday

It would be useful if the information leaflet was given out at the schools' training sessions, and possibly have posters in schools and include information in schools' newsletters.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Template of questions to be emailed out (Post meeting discussion re distribution taking place)	Jo Cole	With minutes

10. Development of an Area Contact Directory

Sue explained that an Area Contact Directory would be useful to have when contacting key members of various teams.

There is a template being drawn up at the moment, and this will be brought to the next meeting for consultation. Members will need to have some ideas of what information they want to include, what format to have, how to keep it up to date, etc.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Area Contact Directory template to be put on the agenda for 24th April	Jo Cole	Completed
Members to bring ideas regarding the template to the next meeting	All	24 April 07

11. AOB

Agenda Items

There was a discussion regarding future agenda items.

It was agreed that ‘Update on Managers' services', would be a standing item.

‘Second Tier Involvement' would be added to the agenda for the next meeting. This item will involve looking at:

• Who are the Second Tier?
• What meetings should they attend - e.g. twice yearly workshop?
• Are there key players missing from the ACMT?
• At what level should parents be involved?
• Is this the right forum for a parental voice - should other groups feed into this group?

It was felt that the Leaving Care Team should be represented in this meeting. There was a discussion as to how this would work, as the Leaving Care Team are not split into the 4 geographical areas. It was also felt that CWD should be represented. Sue explained that the Area Co-ordinators have regular update meetings with Bev Connolly,

It was noted that a representative from the YOT was not at this meeting.

Sue feels sure that Joyce Boyd received the minutes from the last meeting, but will follow up.

Action items:	Person responsible:	Deadline:
Ensure Joyce Boyd is on the distribution list for meeting papers / dates	Jo Cole	Completed
‘Second Tier Involvement' to be added to the agenda for 24th April.	Jo Cole	Completed

Glossary

• ACMT Area Co-ordination Management Team
• YOT Youth Offending Team
• NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
• BSF Building Schools for the Future
• ECM Every Child Matters
• PSHE Personal, Social and Health Education
• OFSTED The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
• PTA Parent and Teacher Association
• PCT Primary Care Trust
• BEST Behaviour and Education Support Team
• NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training
• TAC Tameside Administrative Centre
• SENCO Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator
• YOT Youth Offending Team
• CWDC Children's Workforce Development Council
• JASPER Joint Assessment System for Prevention and Early Referral
• CAF Common Assessment Framework
• APIR Assessment, Planning, Implement and Review