Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

Newsletter: Edition 10 (Spring 2007)

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In this edition:

• SCYP Logo Competition
• Preparing for the Joint Area Review
• 'The Straight Path' helps Madrassah teachers to better safeguard children
• Constipation in Children Everybody's business!!
• "Making it Better" Campaign Success
• 'Local Government White Paper 'Strong and Prosperous Communities'
• Common Core of Skills and knowledge
• JASPER - for more effective children's services
• Extended Schools leaflet for health professionals
• Plans under way to improve our teenage pregnancy rates
• Tameside children take up sport
• The Hattersley peer-mentoring project
• Board News - (from meetings in October and December 2006)

SCYP Logo Competition

Young artists who drummed up an array of jungle themed ideas for the Tameside Children and Young People Strategic Partnership Trust's logo competition were treated to a special thank you from the mayor.

More than 100 youngsters entered the competition to design a logo reflecting the trust's rainforest theme - which represents the interdependency of all the interrelated services that make up the partnership.
The two winners, 12-year-old Hanisha Parmar and 13-year-old Jasmine Khanom, and 11 runners-up were invited by Cllr Margaret Sidebottom to the mayor's parlour to celebrate the launch of the new logo. The winners each received £50 worth of sports vouchers and the others each received £5 book tokens.

Elements of one of the winning designs will be used for the new logo and the other used for the front cover of next year's Children's Plan.

Preparing for the Joint Area Review

Since 2005 the corporate assessment (CA) has been delivered at the same time as the joint area review (JAR) of children's services. These are aligned in local authorities where JARs have been scheduled to take place in the year. Tameside's aligned corporate assessments and joint area reviews will take place in 2008

As you may know, the corporate assessment uses key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) to provide a framework to gather and assess evidence about how the council is working.

In order to prepare for this process our Chief Executive, Janet Callender, has been meeting with a consultancy company called Tribal and with senior managers from Services for Children and Young People along with those from our Policy Unit. Plans are to conduct a mock Corporate Assessment and a mock JAR to take place in 2 phases - Phase 1 (3 days) from 14th May and Phase 2 (3 days) from 4th June - to prepare us for the real one in 2008. Staff will be informed of the JAR process in a number of ways. Preparations for the JAR process are also a subject for discussion at the CYPSP development day being held in February.

'The Straight Path' helps Madrassah teachers to better safeguard children

Tameside agencies working with children and families and Tameside's Muslim community are the first partnership in Greater Manchester to introduce new formal child protection guidance to be adopted by Madrassah's - Islamic Schools.

The Guidance was issued to all Tameside mosques and agencies working with children and families late last year at a launch event at Ashton Town Hall which was attended by many people, amongst them Mosque Committee members and Imams and mosque members, including parents of families who attend them. Representatives from agencies working with children and families including Sure Start, Children's Social Care and Health, schools and members of Tameside's Local Safeguarding Children Board also attended.

The guidance is produced in a 35-page booklet called 'The Straight Path' which has been developed by Tameside's six Mosques and Tameside's Local Safeguarding Children Board and is given to Madrassah teachers. This will enable them to have a better understanding of safeguarding procedures and how to deal sensitively with any issues or concerns arising from the hundreds of children who attend Madrassah after their mainstream schooling.

Ian Smith, Chair of the Tameside Local Safeguarding Children Board and Executive Director of Services for Children and Young People, said: "We are very pleased that, in Tameside, all members of the community are working together to safeguard our children. We will work to ensure that this partnership continues to flourish".

Constipation in Children Everybody's business!!

The multi-agency Constipation in Children Care Pathway Group and the Medicines Management Committee are delighted to announce the launch of the first phase of a comprehensive and cohesive pathway through identification, referral, assessment and treatment for children with constipation. This phase includes the addition of two new resources to support staff and parents in managing constipation in children. The resources are

• Guidelines for Management of Constipation in Children - written to ensure consistent practice across all primary care and secondary care practitioners the guidelines outline the different management options available for the treatment of constipation.
• Childhood Constipation: Guide for Parents - a booklet for parents and staff packed with sound advice about constipation and it's treatment.

Copies of both resources have been distributed to widely across Tameside and Glossop and available on Tameside and Glossop PCT Policies and Documents  or from the PCT Resources Officer at New Century House.

"Making it Better" Campaign Success

Full Children's and Maternity Services remain at Tameside Hospital. The decision has finally been reached following the 'Making It Better' consultation on the reconfiguration of Children's and Maternity Services in Greater Manchester. This decision ensures that 24 hour consultant-led obstetric and paediatric services will continue at the Tameside General Hospital.

To keep Tameside General Hospital as one of the main maternity and children's sites in Greater Manchester vindicates both the long-held preferences of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, and the arguments made by Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust, ourselves in the Children and Young Peoples Strategic Partnership, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, and our local MPs, councillors and concerned members of the public.

The hospital's application for Foundation Trust status, and the Health Investment in Tameside hospital redevelopment project is further strengthened by the decision. The many factors which made our hospital the preferred option included reasons relevant to the area and population of Tameside and Glossop, including its high and growing birth rate, the parts of its catchment area with high levels of deprivation and low levels of car ownership, its wide geographical area, and its large number of women from ethnic minorities requiring specialist assistance. Just as important as these were the excellent performance rates of the hospital's children's and maternity services, including one of the lowest caesarean section rates in England, its low locum doctor usage and ward closure rates, one of the best Healthcare Commission reviews for children's hospital services in the conurbation, and its outstanding reports from the University for doctors training.

The campaign, which involved the local media, members of the public and staff in supporting our services also played an important part. Tameside and Glossop had the greatest amount of active support in Greater Manchester in terms of people sending in forms to the Making It Better team backing their hospital. The Trust Board would like to thank the public and all the staff for their support. However, they are aware that the decision is being appealed against with the secretary of state referring the decision to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel based on the objections raised by local health trusts.

Recognising that there is some months before knowing if Option A will stand as the preferred model it has been agreed that reconfiguration work should continue. The newly renamed 'Making It Happen' process will be launched with a workshop on the 19th March where the 4 clinical networks will come together.

'Local Government White Paper 'Strong and Prosperous Communities'

The Local Government White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities (published last autumn) seek to create more space for local flexibility and responsiveness in service delivery, including children's services. This will be achieved in part by a new performance framework designed to ensure that all partners work towards a single set of outcome-based indicators, with clear priorities for improvement. In addition, there will be a new approach to assessment and inspection of local services - Comprehensive Area Assessment - that will provide a sharper understanding of where outcomes for children and young people may be at risk, and will be the basis for targeting any necessary inspection. Joint Area Reviews and Annual Performance Assessments will not continue beyond the end of the current programme in March 2009. More details on the White Paper can be found at www.communities.gov.uk

Common Core of Skills and knowledge

You may have heard of the term-Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children's Workforce. This sets out the basic skills and knowledge needed by people (including volunteers) whose work brings them into regular contact with children, young people and families and will enable multi-disciplinary teams to work together more effectively in the interests of the child.

The skills and knowledge are described under six main headings:

• Effective communication and engagement with children, young people and families
• Child and young person development
• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child
• Supporting transitions
• Multi-agency working
• Sharing information

Over time it is expected that everyone working with children, young people and families will be able to demonstrate a basic level of competence in the six areas of the Common Core. In the future, the Common Core will form part of qualifications for working with children, young people and families and it will act as a foundation for training and development programmes run by employers and training organisations. As part of the Workforce Development Strategy Action Plan, a new staff post has been created to take this work forward and will be based in the Social Care Training Unit at Festival hall in Denton. The Children's Workforce Strategy sets out action to be taken locally to ensure that there are the skills, ways of working and capacity in the Tameside's children's workforce to deliver change for children

JASPER - for more effective children's services

Meeting the needs of children and young people and ensuring they've got the best support possible should improve in Tameside thanks to an initiative which enables all the professionals from different services to share information.

JASPER - Joint Assessment System for Prevention and Early Referral - will help all those working with children and young people to work together more easily and to be more effective.
Allison Gwynne, Tameside Council's Executive Member for Children and Young People, said: "Currently, information about our 46,000 under-19s is held in different places - such as with health services and the council. In some cases one organisation can be helping them without knowing that another service is involved.

JASPER has been piloted in Hattersley. "By using JASPER, we can make services for children and young people more effective by getting everyone working together. That way, children won't miss out and their parents or carers won't have to tell the same story to a number of people. Services will be able to respond to a child or family's needs more quickly."

JASPER will be rolled out across the rest of Tameside from the end of November as professionals in each of the four areas within the borough receive their training.

Under the Children Act, all local authorities have to take the lead in co-ordinating services for children and young people, ensuring all relevant agencies work closely together and have a central database to share information.

The details held on JASPER include each child or young person's name, address, date of birth, gender and the education establishment they attend. People working with them can add in relevant information, such as visits and assessments.

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children's Services said: "All those agencies working with children and young people will be more effective thanks to this central information system. It will help us promote children's wellbeing and help them to achieve their aspirations. Our aim is for services to recognise that a child or young person needs extra help or is experiencing difficulties at the earliest stage possible so that their needs are met as quickly as possible."

The information held can only be accessed by authorised professionals and is basic information already held across agencies. JASPER will not hold any details about a child's family circumstances, individual difficulties or the reason for any extra support.

To date 103 members of staff have trained on our local index since January 2007 and all have been set-up as users on the system and given password access. If you would like to receive a training application form, contact our JASPER trainer Andrea Reed:

Room 2.107 Tameside Council Wellington Road Ashton Under Lyne OL6 6DL
Tel: 0161 342 2819

Extended Schools leaflet for health professionals

A brief guide featuring case studies has been produced to explain how extended schools can help health professionals achieve their targets on issues such as teenage pregnancy, immunisation and childhood obesity. Extended schools, together with Sure Start children's centres, offer a model of integrated working that will make it easier for children's health professionals to work closely with colleagues in schools and other agencies to implement the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services. The new leaflet, developed jointly by the Department of Health and Care Service Improvement Partnerships, also illustrates how basing health services in schools can improve attendance and attainment by removing wider barriers to learning.

Plans underway to improve our teenage pregnancy rates

Tameside remains a red area for Teenage Pregnancy, which means that we are under performing in this area, as there is a variable rate of progress being made despite some of the rates coming down in 2004. Whilst the pregnancy rates amongst under 16's are declining, pregnancy rates amongst over 16's and second pregnancies are rising. There is some concern as to whether we will be able to deliver the 2010 target.

This is a matter of high priority for Services for Children and Young People and recently Ian Smith discussed local issues with Government minister in a recent visit.

The Teenage Pregnancy Board also has undertaken a stock take exercise on what is working and what can be improved.

Tameside has trained "peer educators" that will be working in secondary schools in the summer term 2006, and there are now teachers in 11 schools that have achieved the PSHE Certification that develops expertise and good practice in PSHE, Sex and relationship and Drug Education. Plans are to: review current commissioning strategies; review sex and relationship policy and implementation across Tameside schools; better identify young people most at risk of teenage pregnancy using a national data tool and; develop a condom distribution scheme.

Tameside children take up sport

Nationally, almost a third of schoolchildren play little or no sport, adding to fears about unhealthy lifestyles causing obesity, a new report has revealed.

One in five pupils aged five to 16 play games for only an hour or less per week, and a further 12 per cent never play, according to the latest research.

In Tameside, growing numbers of children are getting at least two hours of physical education a week, which will contribute to stopping the growth of obesity among under-11s by 2010.

Your Views

Suggestions for future articles in this newsletter are welcome. Please contact Cheryl Eastwood, AED Children's Services (TMBC), on 0161 342 4143.

The Hattersley Peer Mentoring Project

The Hattersley Peer Mentoring Project provides opportunities to deliver a comprehensive range of bespoke training packages using a programme of counselling and supervision. It is delivered in conjunction with Off The Record youth counselling service that has long since delivered face-to-face counselling along with peer education support in schools.

Most recently, the project has been delivered at two primary schools in Hattersley, Arundale and Pinfold. All the staff involved in the project are professionally qualified counsellors and trainers
with a great deal of experience of working with young people.

The specific aim of the project was to ensure vulnerable young people have access to support in their own schools from their peers.

The project aimed to provide support networks for vulnerable and marginalised young people in schools through using peer mentors, thus reducing their risk of social exclusion and isolation.

Peer mentors were established in schools to help deal with and reduce, for example, the incidence of bullying. Teachers and other support staff from the school were encouraged to attend the peer mentor training.

Some of the things the young peer mentors said were:

• It was good to listen to other people
• It was very useful and fun
• Meeting nice new teachers
• Me and my best friend did it together
• I learnt a lot
• We got a break
• We had a different nicer teacher
• It was different to other lessons
• Talking about my feelings
• We had a laugh

Board News - (from meetings in October and December 2006)

Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services

Pat McKelvey, Commissioning and Service Development Manager for the Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust, submitted a report detailing progress in achieving the National Service Framework target for the development of a comprehensive Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service by December 2006.

The CYPSP noted the on-going development of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services together with the implications for all children's services.

Children With Disabilities

A report was noted, detailing the work of the Children with Disabilities Integration Group whose aim was to achieve integrated provision for children with disabilities or who had complex health needs to ensure they received coordinated,

high quality, child and family centred services, which were based on assessed needs, promoted social inclusion and where possible, enabled those children and their families to live ordinary lives. Details were also submitted of the Children with Disabilities Integration Group Work Plan together with the proposed outcomes and a further report would be submitted to a future meeting in relation to a detailed strategy.

Terms Of Reference For Outcomes Sub Groups

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, Services for Children and Young People, Tameside MBC, submitted a report setting out the Statement of Purpose and Terms of Reference for the Outcomes Sub-Groups.

Tameside's Play Strategy

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, Services for Children and Young People, Tameside MBC, submitted the final version of the Tameside Play Strategy and thanked all the members of this Partnership Trust for their valuable contribution thereto, whereby the Tameside Play Strategy was formally approved.

Children And Young People's Consultation - Feedback

The purpose of the consultation was to ascertain children and young people's views, priorities and aspirations with regard to children's play; the Plan for children and young people's services for the year; together with the Strategy which would inform on how children and young people were involved in decision making, planning and delivery of services.

Participation Strategy

Cheryl Eastwood, Director for Children, Services for Children and Young People, Tameside MBC, submitted the final version of the Participation Strategy whose aim was for all children and young people to have the opportunity to be an influential and constructive partner within their community.

Children And Young People's Strategic Partnership Trust - Proposals For Name And Logo

It was resolved that the logos submitted by Hanisha Parmar and Jasmine Khanom be approved and adopted.

National Child Index Regulations - Consultation

Jim Taylor, Director of Education, Services for Children and Young People, Tameside MBC, submitted a report informing the Partnership of the educational performance of boys at Key Stage Four, improving the performance of such group, was one of the agreed priorities for Tameside MBC.

Local Area Agreements - Up-date

Ian Smith, Executive Director, Services for Children and Young People, submitted a report detailing progress on the development of the Local Area Agreement (LAA), the priorities identified by the four block negotiating groups and giving details of performance measures and the associated supporting actions.

APA and Priorities Conversation

Consideration was given to the letter received from OfSTED which summarised the findings of the 2006 Annual Performance Assessment process for Tameside. In all the areas judged Tameside Council was awarded Grade 3, a service that consistently delivers above minimum requirements for users. Cheryl Eastwood, Director (Children), reported upon the recent meeting with the Department for Education and Science together with other agencies, where discussion took place in relation to linking priorities to performance information with the key priority area of reconciling the Department's priorities with those of this Partnership.

Structure And Membership Of The Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership

Tom Coffey, Head of Strategy and Commissioning, submitted a report detailing proposals to reconstitute this Partnership with a Strategic Lead Group and a revised membership drawn from the existing partnership agencies and suggesting some additional partners. Proposals were also put forward for changes to the Executive Group, being renamed as the Executive and Joint Commissioning Group which would support the work of the Partnership in relation to service configuration, joint commissioning and related matters.

It was resolved that further discussion in relation to the proposals be undertaken as part of a review of the functions of the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership.