Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from: Gaynor Mullins; Cllr W Meikle; Jo Ellis; Claire Woodford;Chief Superintendent Caroline Ball; Jane Connolly; Alison Cresswell; Caroline Gallogly; Nigel Groves; Dil Jauffur; Andy Kippax; Viki Packman; Danny Pearson;

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 4^th April, 2014, were approved as a correct record by the Chair.

Presentation by Rebecca Cheung iHop

iHOP

Rebecca Cheung, Partners of Prisoners (POPS) carried out a presentation about the iHOP project which is a joint project between POPS and Barnardo’s, targeted at professionals, to support the partners, children and families of offenders from the point of arrest to release and beyond. It comprises an online information hub; phone helpdesk and engagement service and brings information together into one place. 

Discussion took place regarding how Stockport could help?

·      Consider adding children affected by parental offending to the children and young people plan. 

·      Support educators to identify these children and young people. It was acknowledged that this is very difficult as not all children and young people want this information to be shared, nor their families. The figures within the presentation are based on likelihood within the ‘whole population’ as actual figures are almost impossible to ascertain.

·      Schools could ensure that they raise awareness amongst school mentors about these children and young people.  A champion’s scheme could be instigated within schools.

·      There are particular safeguarding concerns for children around arrest and release of parents.

·      This is a very vulnerable cohort about which iHOP aims to raise awareness with all professionals.

Representatives from the primary and secondary consortia, children’s centres representatives were asked to disseminate the information to their colleagues.  It was also proposed that there should be a link to Stockport Youth Partnership.

POPs will be running an information event in January 2015 to which CT boards will be invited. 

Action:

Andrew Webb to approach Stockport Youth Partnership.

Donna Sager to include cohort in to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and within the Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan.

Donna Sager

Donna Sager outlined the 4th quarter 2013/14 Stockport Children’s Trust performance report

Donna Sager

Health Partnership Board

Duncan Weldrake (Public Health Specialist, Stockport Council) summarised the content of the health report.

To note: There has been a rise in unintentional injuries in the last year.  Public Health has employed a child injury prevention officer and there is a paper on childhood accidents going to CYP scrutiny in the near future. 

The Family Nurse Partnership programme is now in place and will start from August. 

A review of School Nurse commissioning is in place.

Staying safe

David Mellor (Chair, Safeguarding Children’s Board) reported that an independent review of lessons learned from Operation Windermere (CSE investigation and subsequent prosecution) is being carried out. The author is Peter Maddox and it is anticipated it will be shared in 4/5 months. 

Ofsted: In preparing for the inspection, the council and partners found that we had impacted on outcomes principally through identifying areas of concern and carrying out multi- agency reviews.  The LSCB needs to ensure that services are co-ordinated, so needs to look at risk through this period of major public service reform and transition. For instance, there is a high risk associated with big changes to the probation service at the moment, and this is being monitored carefully. 

Early years and early intervention:

Chris McLoughlin (Service Director, Children’s Safeguarding and Prevention) reported that a Police Protection and Investigation Unit (PPIU) and CSE team has now been established in Fred Perry House. This provides an integrated front door into services reflecting an integrated response using the supporting families’ pathway.   The impact of these changes on improving the services for children and young families is being monitored, and progress has been made over the initial 2 weeks.

Mike Hughes (representing Viki Packman, Head of Integrated Children’s Service [ICS]) reported on ICS.  Children’s Centre registration and engagement rates: registration continues to rise and is now at 55% but Ofsted expect 80%.  ICS hopes to alleviate this because of links with health which will mean that all children will be registered.  Priority groups at under-5 are clearly identified.  The last inspection demonstrated 65% performance achieved working with targeted groups within Offerton.  Ofsted are about to consult on a new inspection framework although there are few details at present.

Child poverty and new ways of working: there has been an increase in CAF completion rates. Under-18 conception rate continues to fall.  There is a multi-agency steering group to monitor CAF/TACs and ensure the embedding of process.  There is good partnership work being carried out with Job Centre plus.  Stockport Local Assistance scheme had its busiest January ever, but it has been confirmed that there will be no government funding from 2015. The Council is actively looking at creating a partnership with the Stockport Credit union to progress SLA support.

Attainment and skills: Phil Beswick (Director of Education services) reported there has been an increase in good and better schools in Stockport. The quality of teaching in Stockport schools is good or improving, however the Free School Meals (FSM) gap may affect this in the autumn. 

Pupil premium conference update: A report was given on the recent conference resulting in the LA developing an action plan and strategy from the conference.

Exclusions in relation to Stockport Academy: a question was raised about what the LA and CTB can do?   It was reported that the Headteacher has been invited to attend the Education Monitoring Panel (EMP) to discuss the situation but the EMP is still awaiting a response. United learning is the sponsor and therefore responsible for school improvement. The LA is looking at earlier intervention from Highfields.

Action:

Phil Beswick: to return to next CTB with report re: FSM gap – action plan and strategy.

Andrew Webb: to write to the chair of Stockport Academy sponsors (United Learning) to state that the exclusions issue has been discussed at the Children’s Trust Board and ask for a way forward to be found.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5a

Mike Hughes

Chris McLoughlin updated the board on the Integrated Children’s Services (ICS) new operating model, in which the capacity and capability of service teams has been brought together under Chris McLoughlin (LA) and Jo Ellis (Health).  The service is working to a model of the 4 Clinical Commissioning Group localities and a central hub, and would like to see schools becoming further integrated into these localities with GPs and mental health services, allowing closer working together around safeguarding and early intervention.  There is a multi-skill mix of service managers already working together as a team. 

Chris McLoughlin requested the CTB to consider whether we have captured the whole resource base in the localities?  Phase 1 of the plan is shown here; for the future we will need to be much more intelligent about how we work together to ensure better integration across all services. 

Andrew Webb

Andrew Webb (Corporate Director, People) updated on the Investing in Stockport budget programme in relation to Children’s Services.

The LA has to make £39 million savings over the next 2 years.  The Council’s approach towards managing this is to discuss overall strategy at the July Executive meeting and then put forward a proposal for consultation to be decided in August.

The newly created Integrated Children’s Service (ICS) will serve as a major building block to ensure there is resilience in the system as further changes are considered in safeguarding and Looked After Children (LAC) and Children’s Social Care (CSC) services. This will be supported by the changes in the MASH as described above.  The first priority of action will be to determine whether savings can be made in the commissioning of LAC services. What follows will require a full, multi-disciplinary debate about the shape of safeguarding services. The Council’s Executive will be discussing the proposals for the first time on 15 July.

The Children and Families Act is being implemented in stages. The sections relating to disabled children and their families will start coming into force in September 2014.  SEN Statements will be replaced by Education and Health Care (EHC) plans.  We have been working across parent groups/health/care colleagues to reflect the journey to adulthood from birth to achieve more holistic planning from all stakeholders.  We should achieve this over the next few months.

How do we better build services around the child? 

Andrew Webb reminded the board that there has never been a better opportunity for people to come forward and say what they feel could be done better.  We will need to do pilots on schemes in order to ensure that the totality of available funding is used in the most effective way.

See link to the document: Medium Term Financial Plan – Financial Landscape and Forecasts 2015/16 to 2018/19

http://scnmodgov:9070/documents/s42415/MTFPExecii.pdf

Donna Sager

CTB asked to consider the key headings and ensure that CTB are happy with the proposals.  Comments to be returned to Donna Sager.

Kate Fitzhugh

CTB noted and agreed the Prevention and Early Help Strategy.

None considered.

Alan Beswick

 This item was covered above in item 5a.