Area Coordination Management Meeting

Hattersley, Hyde & Longdendale

Time: 9.30am – 11.30am
Date: Tuesday 23rd September 2008
Venue: New Charter – Ashton under Lyne

Present

Sue Garnett Area Co-ordinator & Chair
Jo Brown Connexions
Liz Taylor ATM – Hyde Social work Team
Sue Jones Families Information Service
Ameena Ahmed 0-19 Unit SYCP
Kathy Astley 0-19 Unit SYCP
Linda Sidebottom NCHT Regen Officer
Joyce Boyd Team Manager Tameside YOT
Mary Clowrey Education Welfare Service
Alan Fish
Beryl Oliver Hyde Tech

 Note taker: Lindsay Patchett

Item 1: Welcome

Sue welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Ameena Ahmed as the new Chair of the group. Sue wished Ameena well in her new role.

Item 2: Apologies

Janet Rathburn – Primary School Rep
Gill Gibson – NHS
Janet Cooke – Children’s Social Care Assessment Team

Item 3: Notes of Last Meeting and Matter Arising

Janet Cooper now settled in her new post at Cheshire Council
Jane-Ann Birkitt is now in post as CAF Advisor
Jo – Connexions going into Area teams – a rep will attend the December meeting to give an overview.
Jim Taylor has been appointed as Executive Director – replacing Ian Smith 

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true and accurate record with no matters arising

Item 4: Family Information Service

Sue Jones gave a very informative presentation on the Families Information Service

• Background to change of service provided (section 12 Children’s Act 2006)
• Families can access services through just one service
• Good partnerships with a good knowledge of “what’s available”
• Universal service not criteria based
• Telephone help line
• Information/assistance for children moving on from primary to secondary schools to ensure they meet the application deadlines.

Item 5: Common Processes

CAF:

• A booklet was passed round, draft only at this stage
• Monthly CAF figures passed round – Ameena stated that a higher number of CAF’s completed than are recorded on JASPER
• It is hoped now that Jane-Ann is in post that this information will be more accurate.
• Jane-Ann is to be the main contact for monitoring and first line support with CAF’s
• There are to be further workshops for CAF’s – these are for practitioners already undertaken CAF’s and initial CAF training
  

Item 6: SID Demonstration

Kath Astley gave an informative presentation regarding the use of SID

• Home page has links to other organisations
• Information is updated on a regular basis by Kath – Sue added that the information is only as good as has been provided.
• Information is collated to ascertain how childcare link is used
• Facility to obtain directions from an address/postcode to any of the centres – including bus timetables.
• Ameena stated we have a duty to provide young people with relevant, up-to-date information and this service meets this need
• The front page has been simplified
• New programming will pull out key works (search engine optimisation), this should make SID more user friendly.
• There was a suggestion that Kath visit schools to introduce the SID programme and it was felt that this would encourage more people to use the service.
• Sue suggested that it would be useful if IT staff in schools were introduced to SID and children and young people were encouraged to use SID via this route.
• Kath demonstrated the use of the practitioner area
• FAQ’s updated monthly
• Kath suggested that when practitioners registered for SID they changed their password to one that they would remember as the registration process issued a random password
• Kath invited staff to send items to her for publication.

Item 7: Good News Items/Events

Beryl updated the group on the Hyde Technology School calendar

• As this is the first year of the calendar it has been designed and produced in-house
• The calendar has dates that are specific to Hyde Tech
• Pictures are of pupils art work
• It was agreed to have the calendar as an item for the February meeting to discuss input from partners

Beryl discussed a Transition Information Session that she had attended in a Manchester school which they hoped to introduce at Hyde Tech,

•  Parents as partners in the school
•  Video on parenting support
•  Information stalls around the school
•  Community Cohesion to engage Asian Parents

Item 8: Future Network Meeting

Linda gave details of Acresfield – Old Newton Forum Shop (New Charter)

• This is a community venue – fully refurbished kitchen and interview space
• Open to partners for their use
• Networking event to pull together, small event , all families in the area have been invited
• Linda invited all group members to go and have a look at Acresfield and its facilities

Lindsay to circulate details

Item 9: Suggested Dates and Venues 2009

A discussion took place surround suggested venues for next years meetings.

Lindsay to follow up and book the venues

Items 10: AOB

No other Business.

Items 11: Date of next meeting

4th Dec 2008 – Hyde Technology School

Susan thanked the group for their hard work and stated that she had thoroughly enjoyed working with the group and wished them well for the future. 

In response Linda thanked Susan for her hard work for the group and said that Susan’s enthusiasm had rubbed off on the group.