Meeting documents
Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership Board
Friday, 28th September 2007
Present
Chair
Cllr Phil Davies
Councillor
Sheila Clarke
Voluntary/Community Sectors
Mary Kilcoyne (Catholic Children's Society), George Thomas (Youth Exchange Wirral)
Connexions
David Barlow (Finance & Corporate Services Director)
Director of Children's Services
Howard Cooper
Apologies
Keiran Gordon (Connexions), Dr Abhi Mantgani (Wirral Primary Care Trust), Chief Supt Colin Matthews, Simon Pierce (Learning & Skills Council), Cllr Sarah Quinn
Index to Minutes
- Minute 52 - MINUTES
- Minute 53 - MATTERS ARISING
- Minute 54 - A STRATEGIC JOINT COMMISSIONING FRAMEWORK FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WIRRAL
- Minute 55 - PARTNERS' BUDGETS
- Minute 56 - YOUNG PEOPLE AND ALCOHOL
- Minute 57 - DATES FOR FUTURE MEETINGS
- Minute 58 - ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Minute 52 - MINUTES
Minute Text :
The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 5 June 2007, were accepted as a correct record.
Minute 53 - MATTERS ARISING
Minute Text :
Further to minute 49 (Schools Health Behaviour Questionnaire), the Chair asked about progress. The Director replied that the questionnaire had not yet been issued. Further discussions were taking place with colleagues in the Health Service. Because sexual health was considered to be an important issue, it was felt necessary that there should be a more effective understanding of it and more preparatory work should take place. It was vital to tackle the increase in teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.
The Director also referred to the initiative to offer health services to schools, as part of the package of facilities available through extended schools. In the first instance, it was proposed to explore the matter with headteachers and establish pilots in four secondary schools. George Thomas hoped that any report on the matter could be made available, and he queried whether the school context was the right one. The Director pointed out that currently Oldershaw School had one such facility off-site but it appeared that young people preferred easier access. As schools were developed with extended facilities, there was less likelihood that such services would be perceived as out of context amid the variety of services on offer. Obviously consideration would have to be given to the issues of confidentiality and privacy. Mary Kilcoyne asked what statistics were available on how many young people took advantage of such services.
The Director pointed out that there were conflicting views on how to approach some of the issues, in particular, between the Safeguarding Board and Health Services. A particular problem was the issue of under-age sex and the extent to which information about it could be shared. Such activity could either be consensual or exploitative, and views differed as to where the line between criminal and non-criminal activities should be drawn. The Health Service's view was that they should be offering help in a range of settings that were most comfortable for the client. Some concern had been expressed over literature issued by the Brook Clinic, which had been misunderstood in some quarters.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That health services in schools be included as an item on a future agenda and the PCT's Director of Public Health be invited to attend.
Minute 54 - A STRATEGIC JOINT COMMISSIONING FRAMEWORK FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WIRRAL
Minute Text :
The Director of Children's Services submitted the proposed Strategic Joint Commissioning Framework for Children and Young People in Wirral. The document had been prepared by Tricia Hopkinson, Children's Services Joint Commissioning Manager, and Tina Long, the PCT's Director of Strategic Partnerships. The document was intended to make clear the issues involved in working in partnership, and it included the following definitions:
(i) Commissioning: "The process of specifying, securing and monitoring services to meet people’s needs at a strategic level. This applies to all services, whether they are provided by the local authority, NHS, other public agencies, or by the private and voluntary sectors”;
(ii) Joint Commissioning: “The process in which two or more commissioning agencies act together to co-ordinate their commissioning, taking joint responsibility for translating strategy into action”.
The Every Child Matters agenda was focused on the bringing together of key partners to create strong Children’s Trust arrangements that placed children and families at the centre to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people. Joint commissioning across partnerships was key to delivering that agenda.
Moira Curran, Head of Information, LMS and PMU, explained that the framework had been considered at a full meeting of the Management Board. It set out the principles involved in commissioning arrangements and the national and local contexts and explained the commissioning cycle and its various components: strategic vision, needs assessment, service mapping, financial mapping, identifying resources/setting priorities/planning services, procurement and contract management (with provision for de-commissioning of services that proved ineffective). The document was also linked to the priorities in the Children and Young People's Plan, the four major priority themes of the Children and Young People's Department and the outcomes and priorities relating to children and young people that were specified in the Local Area Agreement. The Management and Partnership Boards would oversee the implementation of the framework, together with the PCT's Paediatric Group. Appendix 3 of the Framework document set out the governance structure for partnership arrangements. Ms Curran went on to explain funding arrangements via aligned and pooled budgets. In the case of the latter, ten percent would be held in a central fund and only released to organisations that demonstrated to the Management Board that they had achieved outcomes and exceeded delivery targets.
The document listed:
(i) the specific areas that were being addressed in 2007/08:
- teenage pregnancy - reduction in conception rates for under-18’s;
- substance misuse, especially alcohol abuse;
- safely reducing the number of looked-after children;
- improving the stability of looked-after children
- reducing the number of out-of-borough independent and non-maintained special schools placements;
- improving the contextual value added from Key Stage1 to KS2;
- improving performance and attendance of looked-after children;
- reducing the number of schools around floor targets and Ofsted categories;
- addressing the number of persistent absences;
- reducing numbers of NEET young people, with particular emphasis on 17-year-olds; and
(ii) the joint commissioning priorities:
- children with complex needs (primarily children with disabilities);
- high cost multi-agency placements (including independent sector/out-of-borough, with an emphasis on returning children and young people to Wirral);
- development of a family support and parenting strategy;
- embedding the Child Concern Model across the children and young people’s partnership and shifting the balance of services to prevention;
- re-designing transition pathways and protocols.
The Chair opened the discussion by stating that the document was a very helpful one. He was particularly concerned about the need to reduce the gap in outcomes for children from affluent and deprived areas. He asked how the specific outcomes from the priorities within Every Child Matters linked to that goal. The Director hoped that that would become clear in the new Children and Young People's Plan. The Board's priorities were embedded in the commissioning framework, which was supported by many statistics on outcomes. From that, the key areas for improvement (listed above) had been identified. The ten areas were related to the five outcomes, but could also be clustered around his Department's four priority themes:
• Improving value for money in services;
• Intervening and supporting children earlier;
• Supporting children more in their communities;
• Reducing the gap in outcomes for children.
The Chair asked about the Partnership Board's involvement in commissioning. Moira Curran explained that the new Plan, which would come before the Board in December, would set out the activities, under various themes. It was important that other plans were reflected in that Plan, and the Board would know what outcomes it wanted to achieve. The actual commissioning arrangements would be undertaken through the Management Board, based on working groups' recommendations.
The Director went on to explain how that would work in practice, giving the priority of developing a family support and parenting strategy as an example. It ought not to matter who actually provided the service, as long as they could achieve the proposed outcomes. Funding would be aligned with what service was commissioned (and he thought that that might have an impact on voluntary organisations). In other areas there would be national outcomes to comply with, for example, Connexions would be the sole provider of many specific services: for many services it would be necessary to have an overview of them on a Merseyside-wide basis, but, where necessary, they should be customised to meet Wirral's needs. David Barlow felt that a framework would be very helpful to such working arrangements.
Councillor Clarke asked for more detail on what would be commissioned and how bids would be accepted. The Director stated that he would expect to be in a position to make recommendations in respect of services already in the Children and Young People's Plan. He foresaw the potential for some contentious decisions: for example, in the area of youth work support (and George Thomas pointed out that, as a result of such decisions in Staffordshire, many youth workers had been made redundant). The Chair, however, accepted that the key issue in deciding where funding should go was who was best placed to deliver the required outcomes (i.e. funding would be based on what the Authority wanted, not what the provider wanted to offer, no matter how good that service might be).
Mary Kilcoyne asked about the timetable for the bidding process, leading up to April 2008. The Director stated that the Authority would have an indication of its core funding, i.e. what could be pooled, by October. He had already received notification from some grant regimes, such as the Children's Fund and Sure Start, which were likely to remain the same over the next three years, but others did not look so promising. He hoped to have a clearer, overall picture by December.
George Thomas stated that he was aware that, out of a national allocation of £4bn for Sure Start, £176m had been allocated to the voluntary/faith sectors. He queried how much of that would be available to Wirral. The Director stated that he hoped he could provide that figure at the next meeting.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the Strategic Joint Commissioning Framework for Children and Young People in Wirral be accepted.
(2) That the Director report back on the funding and related issues to the next meeting.
Minute 55 - PARTNERS' BUDGETS
Minute Text :
The Board was reminded that, at the meeting on 20 April, the Director of Children's Services had circulated details of the services that were funded through pooled funding within the Children and Young People's block of the Local Area Agreement. That information was readily available to the Council, but he felt that it might be less clear for other partners. A particular concern was that a proposal to amend the budget within one organisation might impact on others' budgets, and it was therefore necessary to ensure that the Board was made aware of all such matters. It had been suggested that a protocol be established for dealing with linked budgets and for developing arrangements for the pooling of funds.
Although the matter had subsequently been deferred at the June meeting, the Chair felt that, in view of the absence of a number of members, particularly those representing health services, it would be better if consideration was deferred again.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That this matter be deferred to the next meeting.
Minute 56 - YOUNG PEOPLE AND ALCOHOL
Minute Text :
Because Chief Superintendent Matthews had been called away at the last minute to an urgent meeting, consideration of this matter was deferred.
Minute 57 - DATES FOR FUTURE MEETINGS
Minute Text :
The Board noted that the next meeting would be held on Friday 14 December 2007, at 9.00am.
The Director stated that the main item for the agenda would be the Children and Young People's Plan for the period 2008 to 2011. The Chair suggested that the Board might receive a report on extended schools at some point.
Minute 58 - ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Minute Text :
The Chair agreed to consideration of the following matters as urgent business.
(a) The Director of Children's Services sought to clarify certain governance arrangements for Children's Services. There were two other boards that had statutory status, namely the Local Safeguarding Board and the Youth Justice Board, both of which he chaired. They had separate accountability, and the YJB had a national responsibility. It was necessary for the Safeguarding Board to be set apart, in that it was responsible for scrutinising how effective the Children's Services Authority was in maintaining the safety of children (and, therefore, for the avoidance of doubt, it was acknowledged that the Safeguarding Board was not accountable to the Partnership Board). However, as part of the relationship between the bodies, he proposed that the Partnership Board should receive information of performance outcomes, both from the Safeguarding Board and the Youth Justice Board, at alternative meetings.
(b) The Director gave a brief report on the outcome of the Authority's Annual Performance Assessment (APA). He emphasised that Ofsted had submitted their findings in a draft letter, the contents of which were embargoed until receipt of their final letter, which was expected on 26 November. The Authority was in the process of commenting on the draft.
The APA, which was carried out in those years when the Council was not subject to a Joint Area Review (JAR), judged the Children's Services Authority's performance in relation to the five outcomes for children, its capacity to improve and its overall effectiveness. The Director gave his views on the results, and pointed out that the areas for development identified in the report would be built into the Children and Young People's Plan for 2008 - 2011.
(c) Mary Kilcoyne referred to the recent successful conference on extended schools and on the emerging potential for new partnerships between schools and the voluntary sector. Moira Curran added that the Children's Directory was being expanded and the website relating to extended services in schools was being developed.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the various reports be noted and the proposed arrangements for receiving reports from the Local Safeguarding Board and the Youth Justice Board be accepted.
(Minutes Published: 16 November 2007)