Denton, Droylsden & Audenshaw

Area Coordination Management

Time: 10.00
Date: Friday 4th December 2009
Venue: Greenside Children’s Centre

Present:

Bob Shaw  -   Area Co-ordinator & Chair
Diane King  -  Youth Service
Chris Harris -  Connexions 
Phil Massey -  Audenshaw
Emma Lewis -  Greenside Children’s Centre 
Pauline Robinson -  Denton Social Work Team 
Maureen Wallis -  EWS 
Lynn Barber -  TMBC Children’s Centres

Note taker: Lindsay Patchett - SCYP Commissioning Team

Item 1: Welcome

Bob welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance.
Introductions were made around the table.

Item 2: Apologies

Apologies received from Anne Chesters, John Rogers

Item 3: Notes of last meeting and matter arising

Agreed as an accurate account

Item 4: Common Processes:

JASPER stats circulated

• Need to embed a culture of using JASPER/Contact Point
• David Hoyle can provide up to date print out showing individual services’ input onto Jasper.

Contact Point
Bob gave details of briefing paper supplied by David Hoyle

Item 5: Early Intervention & Prevention Team update:

These elements of the minutes were provided to Claire Bibby, project lead, for the Early Intervention project.

There was a general welcome to the proposals. People could see the drive for change and the logic of integration but were concerned about the details - the practicalities of the shift in resource allocation and the changing working and management practices.

Positive support
The two issues that received positive universal support were:

• Place of CAF (para 5.5) makes sense
• The notion (page 10) of aiming to deliver/locate integrated services even more locally than is envisaged presently

Resource issues
There were a number of resource focused issues raised that require clarification:

• The community workers currently have capacity to work with 0-5 yrs olds. How will this capacity be extended to 0-18 year olds?
• The YOT only have 3 prevention officers for all borough based work. How does this equate to one per area?
• Education Welfare Officers are presently working to capacity. Concern expressed about their ability to contribute effectively to EI teams
• Schools concerned about reduced staffing levels in mainstream resources - illustrated by expressed concerns about the Educational Psychologists’ participation in EI and further delay in the timescale of statements for SEN
• Gatekeeping and signposting skills were seen as desirable skills for the information hub staff to hold. But… will the hub be sufficiently resourced with the skills and knowledge to be able to discriminate between signposting and deeper ‘concerns’ that indicate an EI team or a safeguarding response?
• General concern about resources becoming over-stretched - at least in the interim

‘How will it work’?
There were a number of management related comments

• Will early intervention take precedence over mainstream work? And what is the relationship between the EI and mainstream?
• Will existing referral arrangements be replaced by referrals only to the information hub?
• How will the EI teams deal with cross boundary (e.g. DDA/SDM) issues and the fact that some services currently work with home and others with schools addressed?
• Para 8.3 - on supervision of staff. The proposal can present particular difficulties for part-time staff and can present challenges to staff in identifying who they are working for and when. How do we prepare for this?
• Will existing referral arrangements be replaced by the information hub? What is the change envisaged?
• How long is the wait time (i.e. what will be the standard) between referral and allocation/action?
• No real mention of schools and the part they will/must play - this feels underdeveloped
• There will need to be some kind of budget and some kind of administrative/business support arrangements for the EI team
• There is a key place for training/participation/vision sharing and becoming clear about the key role of supervision - this will need to be a management focus early in the process
• There are other key partners (e.g. RSLs, patrollers, police) that are outside of the core EI team. How do we manage this relationship to best advantage?
• There will be huge unevenness in the salary scales between different staff that will require sensitive management. How do we prepare for this? How will we deal with it?

General comments

• Concern about what seems to be a weighting in the service specification towards the crime and disorder agenda but there was a general support at the coming together of the ‘welfare’ and ASB/C&D agenda for children and young people
• The process of change has become unnerving for staff. They recognise that we are on the cusp of some considerable changes but the uncertainty is affecting morale
• Concern that the timetable will not be met and indeed that hurrying to a position is not the most desirable or best way of achieving the best outcome
• Do 4 local information hubs not make better sense?
• The current ACMTs have performed a useful information sharing function for front line managers. How will we deal with Team Leader to Team Leader issues (i.e. between the EI team leader and ‘other’ Team Leaders and between the ‘other’ Team Leaders)? There seems a need for a problem solving forum (a substitute forum) for Team Leaders in a given area.

Item 6: Key facts and figures for Children Centre’s in DDA

Data not available at the meeting – documents to be circulated to meeting members.

Item 7: Reporting back on local networks

• Lynn
  
• Last Denton South meeting, not well attended
• Next meeting 15th December at Greenside Lane. Hoping for better attendance.
• Theme for the meeting is “Staying Safe in and out of School”.

Dianne

• Still working towards 7 day service
• Outdoor Early Intervention Team – really good feedback (for NEET and potential NEET young people
• TYZ launched – looking to commission climbing wall
• Sports zone – looking at criteria for placing
• “Open for the week” feb ½ term activities. Flyers have been distributed.
• Running an NVQ Level 1 into Youth Work – names of interested young people to be sent to Dianne
• Consultation on Children’s Plan – redesigned questionnaire to make young people friendly. Board game designed to assist in the process. CYP task group looking at CC Business Plan.

Item 8: Any Other Business

• Bob wished Phil a happy retirement
• Bob thanked everyone for their contribution to the group.