Children & Young People's Strategic Partnership

3rd July 2008

Commenced: 10.00am
Terminated: 12.00noon

Present:

Cllr Alison Gwynne Tameside MBC (in the Chair)
Ameena Ahmed Tameside MBC
Zulf Ahmed LSC
Claire Bibby Tameside MBC
Maureen Burke Pennine Care
Janet Callender Tameside MBC
Tom Coffey Tameside MBC
Cllr Gerald Cooney Tameside MBC
Lucy Davies Tameside MBC
Cheryl Eastwood Tameside MBC
Nick Flight Audit Commission
Judith Grigg Tameside & Glossop PCT
Nicola Hine Tameside MBC
David Hobbs Connexions Tameside
Veronica Hyde Tameside Third Sector Coalition
Hameed Khan Tameside Third Sector Coalition
Alan Kirk GM Fire and Rescue Service
Catherine McKay GM Police
Pat McKelvey Tameside & Glossop PCT
Brian Parker TASH – Secondary Heads
Sarah Petts Tameside Voice
Sheila Piazza Connexions Tameside
John Rogers Tameside Primary Heads
Bob Shaw Tameside MBC
Ian Smith Tameside MBC
Jim Taylor Tameside MBC
Ian Young Tameside Voice
Sue Ward Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust

Apologies:

Adam Allen, Adrian Griffiths and Moira Thompson

13. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of this Strategic Partnership held on 22nd May 2008 were approved as a correct record.

14. Achieve Economic Wellbeing Outcomes Theme Group

Lucy Davies, Head of Access and Equality, presented the annual report on the activities of the Achieve Economic Wellbeing Outcome Theme Group which first met in May 2007. She highlighted the key points to note in the document and stated that since the initial meeting the group had met on eight other occasions and explored themes relating to the evidential requirements as set out in the ‘Arrangements for the new annual performance assessment of children’s services 2007’. The Partnership had received summaries of the first three themes at its meeting in October 2007 and reference was made to a summary of the scrutiny activities undertaken by the Outcome Theme Group on a further four themes, namely –

• Children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities were helped to achieve economic wellbeing.
• Children and young people who were looked after are helped to achieve economic wellbeing.
• Action taken by partners to support families in maximising their economic wellbeing.
• Community regeneration initiatives addressed the needs of children and young people.

A second cycle of meetings had recently commenced which would continue to look at report cards related in the first instance to the new National Indicator Set but would also be looking at fresh, locally devised data sets that could illuminate the impact of collective activities. This would enable the Outcome Theme Group to make judgements about performance and continue to benefit from and offer added value comment to the future strategic direction of issues and performance relating to supporting children and young people and their facilities to achieve economic wellbeing.

Resolved
That the contents of the report be noted.

15. Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector Development Day Feedback

Veronica Hyde, Tameside Community Union Network Co-ordinator, gave a presentation on a development day held on 24th April 2008. She began by stated that a proposal to review the integration of the voluntary, community and faith sector and its effectiveness was agreed by the Partnership at its meeting on the 7th February 2008. Part of the proposal was to hold an independently facilitated development session with a diverse range of stakeholders giving their views as to how the integration work should be moved forward. Julie Dugdale from the national hub – VCS Engage – provided facilitation at the development day. Her observations of the day were that any further action should be led across the Partnership.

The session was well attended from a variety of stakeholders and demonstrated a positive commitment to this agenda across Tameside. From the group work undertaken on the day, it was clear that the work which had been achieved so far had been successful and each working group cited examples of community engagement and processes that could be built on in the future.

The Chair thanked Veronica for her informative presentation.

Resolved
That the presentation be noted.

16. Children's National Service Framework Audit

Pat McKelvey, Head of Children’s Strategy and Partnerships, Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust submitted a report which advised that the Children, Young People and Maternity Services NSF had been published in 2004 and had set a challenging agenda for all children’s services to achieve within ten years. The NSF had eleven standards each containing a multitude of indicators of good practice.
From March 2008 senior managers in all agencies had worked together to audit progress using the online version of the NSF self assessment tool and detailed progress against the standards within the tool was appended to the report. Partners were asked to note that the nature of some of the standards made an overarching audit impossible and there were many where, to measure true progress there would need to be consultation with children, young people and their parents/carers. With this in mind the information provided a helpful snapshot of the general position of the Partnership’s progress towards achieving the standards and identifying the areas that required ongoing attention.

She concluded by asking the Partnership to note the good progress against the Children, Young People and Maternity Services NSF whilst recognising the need to continue to work together to achieve good progress on all indicators.

Resolved
That the contents of the report be noted.

17. Children's Trust Arrangements in Tameside - Discussion Item

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, Children and Young People, presented a detailed report which set out the current position of Children’s Trust arrangements in Tameside to assist discussion amongst Partners regarding next steps. Detailed options for discussion would be worked up and circulated for consultation during the coming months based on the consensus that had been reached regarding the establishment of multi-agency prevention teams and the further development of joint commissioning arrangements. There was also likely to be proposals for different management arrangements.

Partners then divided into discussion groups and at the conclusion of this session reported on the key themes which had been considered.

Resolved
That further consultations would take place with Partners over the coming months.

18. Workforce Development Action Plan

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, Services for Children and Young People, submitted a briefing paper which detailed the current plans for Tameside children’s workforce development. The Children’s Workforce Strategy and the Action Pan for 2008-09 aimed to support the realisation of the Community Strategy themes by providing a framework to improve and increase career and job opportunities and skills competence in children’s services locally and ensure a diverse workforce.

The strategic workforce development objectives and the actions identified in the three year action plan were intended to develop the quality and supply of the children’s workforce. It was intended that this would support the Partnership to enable the children and young people in the community to achieve improved outcomes.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

19. Inclusion Strategy

Claire Bibby, Head of Inclusive Services, advised that the Inclusion Strategy set out a vision for children and young people across Tameside over the next seven years. The Strategy would feed into and support the Community Strategy and the Local Area Agreement. It also benefited from the work already undertaken following the publication in 2001 of ‘Inclusion: A Statement of Intent’ and the definition of inclusion which was developed in 2006 through the Partnership using consultants from Manchester University that identified three aspects which defined inclusion: presence, participation and a sense of achievement. It was noted that the strategy was broad in scope and wide-reaching in implication, to assist in business planning, there would initially be focus on three themes:

• Access and empowerment
• Responsive services and timely support
• Improving quality and capacity

Resolved

1. That the contents of the report be noted.
2. That the report be presented to other thematic partnerships of the Tameside Strategic Partnership.

20. Annual Report of the Children and Young People's Partnership

Ian Smith, Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, advised that he would be presenting the Annual Report of the Children’s and Young People’s Partnership to the Tameside Strategic Partnership on Friday 4th July 2008. The report provided a summary of how the Partnership was performing against the Community Strategy key measures and performance indicators in the partnership agreement and also highlighted a number of key issues for the Partnership to concentrate on the 2008/09.

Resolved
That the report be noted.

21. Teenage Pregnancy Update

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, Services for Children and Young People, advised that a substantial amount of training had been undertaken in preparation for the C Card distribution scheme across the Borough in early autumn. Localised publicity campaigns in ‘hot spot’ areas containing key messages had been organised to take place over the summer and the second cohort continued to have a real impact and plans to extend to new schools were being considered.

Resolved
That the update report be noted.

22. Dates of Future Meetings

The Partnership was advised of future dates of meetings as follows:

Thursday 16th October 2008 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 11th December 2008 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 19th February 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 16th April 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 18th June 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 20th August 2008 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 15th October 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices
Thursday 17th December 2009 Committee Room 3, Council Offices