Agenda item

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.