Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from:

John Allen (Lincoln College), Rachel Boothby (Parent Partnership Co-ordinator), Tracey Blackwell (South Kesteven District Council), Councillor Mrs P A Bradwell (Executive Councillor for Adult Care and Health Services, Children's Services), Councillor D Brailsford (Executive Support Councillor for Adult Care and Health Services, Children's Services), Stuart Carlton (Lincolnshire County Council), Mandy Cooke (Lincolnshire County Council), Richard Cumbers (Lincolnshire County Council), Andy Fisher (Boston Borough Council), Jo Kavanaugh (Lincolnshire County Council), Karen Parsons (Children's Links), Chris Seymour (Pilgrim School), Nikki Silver (Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust) and Joanna Tubb (Lincolnshire County Council).

RESOLVED

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 February 2014 be signed         by the Chairman as a correct record.

It was reported that this would be picked up under item 7 on the agenda – 'Inspection and Improvement'.

The Chairman of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children's Board provided an update in relation to the work of the Board.

It was reported that the 'Voice of the Child' continued to be very important, and so the Chairman of the LSCB congratulated Andy Payne from Fire and Rescue for co-ordinating the 'Stay Safe' days at Butlins.  This involved 285 primary school children over 3 days of events, and presentations were received from organisations including the Police, Fire and Rescue, PCSO's and Stagecoach bus company.  It was commented that it was a very good example of how to link in with children.  Each student was able to take part in 7 20 minute workshops.  It was noted that these events would be repeated again at the Fire and Rescue training site at Waddington for two days in June, and also at the Deepings School in July.

It was reported that Lee Freeman (Lincolnshire Police) had led work around the school engagement project with the Community Safety Partnership.  It was commented that getting the voice of the child into the daily business of the police was important.  There was a partnership approach in this work and Mark Housley (Assistant Director Safer Communities) was putting together a programme.  This work would come back to this Group as part of the governance.

The Partnership was informed that some children's services staff, health staff and police staff had formed a MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) in relation to child sexual exploitation.  Officers were aware of cross border issues with Nottingham and were working with relevant officers in that area.

Work was also underway to link the LSCB in with the Health and Wellbeing Board, and the Chairman of the LSCB was scheduled to meet with Councillor S Woolley, Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board in the next two weeks.  It was hoped that strong links between the two Boards would be established.  It was also noted that it could be helpful for the Chair of the CYPSP to meet with the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Partnership was reminded that the educational offer to schools was verbally reported on at the previous meeting.  The business manager would be linking in with the head teacher of a primary school and deputy head of a secondary school and would go into classroom scenarios and carry out workshops in terms of informing the future business plan.  It was requested that an update in this work be brought back to this Partnership at a later date.

The Partnership received an update from the Lincolnshire Participation Action Group (LPAG) and it was noted that the Group had a new Chair, Frances Porter, who had received a hand over from Kerry Mitchell, the previous Chair who had stepped down at the end of her term.  It was reported that the Group was looking at setting up some dates, and it was hoped that the next meeting would be held at North Hykeham Youth Centre on Tuesday, 22 May 2014.  It was planned to have two parts to the meeting, preparing for an upcoming event and practice sharing.

Work was underway at the moment to explore how to link the participation agenda into schools, ways this could be developed would be discussed at the next LPAG meeting.

The new Chair commented that she was looking forward to working with the young people at events as well as the adult team, and it seemed to be a very productive group.

It was queried what the CYPSP was looking for in terms of contribution from the LPAG.  It was noted that it was likely that some priorities would have been inherited including anti-bullying, therefore it would be useful to have updates on these priorities.  It was also noted that there was the opportunity for all action groups to report in to this meeting, and input would vary, but it was hoped that it would be a valuable experience.

(To receive an update from Stuart Carlton, Assistant Director Children's Services in relation to the Early Help Action Group)

The Partnership received an update from Paula Whitehead in relation to the work of the Early Help Steering Group, and some of the main points noted included the following:

·         The Group had come to the end of the development phase of some of the issues, and the new arrangements went live on 1^st April 2014;

·         The new early help assessment was now live, and had been based on signs of safety methodology;

·         The TAC paperwork had been redone, but it was only available on the TAC website.  However, there were other sources of information which needed to be added to the website;

·         A rolling programme of early help briefings had been held, which had been well represented through all sectors;

·         New staffing structures would also be going live.  Early help advisors would be in post in the Customer Service Centre to give advice, support and guidance to early help professionals;

·         Existing staff had been restructured and would remain in the localities, but they would now be able to provide additional administrative support to schools;

·         All information relating to early help would be taken off the LSCB website and replaced with a link to the lincolnshirechildren.net website.  It was commented that it would be useful if there was an explanation which accompanied the link to inform people of where they were being redirected to;

·         Clarification regarding the feedback loop for the early help consultants was sought, and it was noted that this would be through the Early Help Steering Group and the development and implementation plan;

·         The standards had been drafted and had been with partners for 5 weeks of consultation.  The closing date was the previous week, and it was expected that they would be signed off at the meeting of the Steering Group due to be held on the Friday.  It was requested that this be put on the agenda for the next meeting of the Partnership;

·         One issue which had been raised in terms of safeguarding boards was what oversight partners had in relation to the staff who sat on the safeguarding boards, and the focus that was required, even if safeguarding was not the core business of the partner organisation.  There was a need to have management oversight of staff who were members of these boards;

·         The early help consultants would be quality assuring 50 open cases per month.  It was expected that there would be a plan for each case and for the agency as well;

·         The concept of a local authority having health records was one not to be underestimated in terms of challenge;

·         Members were informed that assurance could be given that clinical supervision was a priority. In the past there had not always been an audit trail, however, a clinical supervision policy was now in place;

·         There was a need to ensure that this was a regular item on the agenda

(To receive an update in relation to the Child Poverty Action Group)

The Partnership received a presentation from Anita King, Commissioning Officer in relation to ongoing work on child poverty.  Some of the main points highlighted during the presentation included the following:

·         The Child Poverty Act (CPA) 2010 – requirement for Central Government to produce a strategy every three years;

·         Central Government – commitment to end child poverty by 2020, current target set in 1999;

·         Role of Local Authorities – the CPA places specific duties on all Local Authorities to produce an assessment of the needs of children living in poverty in its area (Child Poverty Needs Assessment);

·         Comparison to statistical neighbours;

·         Comparison to East Midlands Authorities;

·         Comparison of districts/wards;

·         Lincolnshire's Strategy 2011-14;

·         Governance – this was agreed at Lincolnshire County Council's Executive;

·         Current strengths – strategy and needs assessment produced by LCC and partners, recognised successful delivery through partnership, review of strategy and action plan;

·         Reality Check – no additional funds from central government;

·         The Action Plan;

·         The Workshops – first workshop – 24 March 2014;

·         March Workshop: Key outcomes;

·         Next Steps;

·         Government Consultation 2014-17;

Members of the Partnership were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the presentation, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was commented that the presentation was a very clear and comprehensive summary;

·         In terms of further education involvement in this, it was noted that discussions around organisations which had not been included had taken place, and it had been agreed that there were a whole raft of organisations which needed to be included, such as the business sector, and this would be picked up during the review;

·         Concerns were expressed regarding the benchmark being set in 1999, and members were surprised that this had not been updated since then.  It was thought that this benchmarking figure would not have much value as things had changed so much since it was set;

·         It was hoped that any future targets would be more realistic and would take into account the current situation;

·         It was noted that it was possible that there could be a central strategy which was weakened by not having robust targets, but the authority could agree its own targets as part of the review.  It was hoped that the authority could put its own structure in place that would be meaningful to the people of Lincolnshire;

·         East Lindsey had a higher number of children in poverty, and it was thought that there were a number of factors which contributed to this including a lot of seasonal work in the county, it was a low wage economy, diverse population, poor access to transport and higher education;

·         In terms of a county wide strategy, there would be a need for a targeted approach and so there would be a need to identify the 'hot spots' in terms of child poverty;

·         A significant issue in Lincolnshire was that it was a 'low wage' economy rather than 'no wage';

·         The Child Poverty  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53b

(To receive an update report from Lynn Smith, 14 -19 Planning and Allocations Manager, in relation to the RPA/Vulnerable Learners Action Group)

An update on the RPA/Vulnerable Learners action group was received and it was reported that the duty to participate in learning until the age of 17 had commenced in 2013.  The Partnership was informed that the draft data showed that 94.6% of young people in Lincolnshire were participating in learning, compared with 93.9% nationally and 94.4% regionally.  It was noted that Lincolnshire had a reasonably static participation rate, however, it was traditionally around age 17/18 when young people would drop out of learning.  In 2015, the participation age would rise to 18.  It was also noted that there had been a reduction from 21% to 18% of people leaving education in year 12. 

Lincolnshire had had some success with apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds and the numbers continued to rise, as opposed to the regional and national picture where numbers were decreasing.  There had also been success with Learners with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities (LLDD) through a Supported Internship pilot scheme.  There had only been small numbers of young people involved in this pilot, but it had been very successful.

Members of the Partnership were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         There was a need to recognise that youth unemployment was an issue;

·         It was noted that there were two apprentice champions who worked directly with  employers and young people to increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities;

·         The challenge was to get organisations to put a policy in place to  actively employ young people and offer apprenticeships;

·         It was noted that Lincolnshire Community Health Services had a newly developed policy and were very keen to take on apprentices ;

·         Consideration of the Social Value Act would be introduced to service specifications for all organisations that commissioned services;

The Chairman informed the Partnership that he would be willing to write to all partner organisations as a direct appeal to ask them to consider implementing a policy which encouraged the employment of apprentices and young people.

(To receive a report from David McWilliams, Head of Performance Assurance (Children's Services))

Consideration was given to a report by David McWilliams, Head of Performance Assurance, which provided the Partnership with an opportunity to consider the performance report for the Children and Young People's Plan.  The Partnership also received a presentation which set out some of the main points from the report.

The Members of the Partnership discussed the information presented and some of the points raised included:

·         This was third quarter data, and the end of year data would be available in mid-May;

·         It was commented that the number of exclusions were going the wrong way;

·         It was suggested that more thorough discussions of this data should be held at the development day.  It was noted that this was not an operational partnership, and its job was to consider what was behind the data;

RESOLVED

            That the information presented be noted.

(To receive an update from David Ashcroft, Chair of the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership)

The Partnership received a verbal update from David Ashcroft, Chairman of the CYPSP in relation to inspection and improvement.

It was reported that there were changing patterns of inspection, safeguarding children's boards were being reviewed, and agencies delivering services were being reviewed in different ways.  It was unclear how it would affect the CYPSP at this point, officers would increasingly find that this would impact on how actions were taken forward.

There was a clear emerging message from Ofsted, that the bar was being raised regarding strategic engagement and LSCB's would be expected to be well informed and engaged with services within their areas.  There would be a need for there to be a three way conversation between the CYPSP, LSCB and Children's Services.

This was welcomed by the Chairman of the LSCB, as an inspection had been expected since November 2013.  It was thought that Lincolnshire was in a good position in relation to partnership working, as it was thought that partners worked well together, and this needed to be delivered to Ofsted.

It was suggested that this something which could be discussed further at the development day, and the framework would be circulated.

RESOLVED

            That the update be noted.

(To receive an update from Debbie Barnes, Executive Director Children's Services in relation to the Sustainable Services Review)

The Partnership received an update from the Executive Director Children's Services in relation to the Sustainable Services Review.  Members were informed that Price Waterhouse Cooper were leading on the next phase of the review.  The draft core design groups had been arranged, and the first was scheduled to take place on 9 April 2014.

Members were advised that there would be more to report at the next meeting of the Partnership in September.

RESOLVED

            That the update be noted.

(To receive an update in relation to work on the draft Lincolnshire Play Strategy)

The Partnership received a report from Clare Bryan, Play Developer, which provided the Members with the opportunity to consider the first draft of the Lincolnshire Play Strategy and Policy for 2014-2016. 

Members were informed that Children's Links had been asked to refresh the strategy and they were now at the stage where they had had some quite comprehensive meetings about what the strategy needed to be.

The Partnership was guided through the document and some of the points highlighted included:

·         Objectives had been set and officers were in the process of gathering local information;

·         There was a need for a clear vision on what the strategy should look like and why play was still important;

·         Lincolnshire was one of the few local authorities to continue to support a play strategy;

·         It was really important that young people and families continued to be given a voice in the play services that they wanted to see;

·         One of the main aims was that every child and young person had the right to safe play;

·         It was important to have 'free' play, which was play with no fixed purpose to it;

·         It was also important that older children were involved in play, which was why an age range had not been included in the Strategy;

·         All children and young people enjoyed and benefitted from play;

·         The play process was based on empowering children and giving them choices;

·         How could communities be supported to be self-sufficient and encourage children to be outside playing;

·         It linked into helping families to be more active;

·         How could existing facilities be used to make the service provided better;

The Partnership was provided with the opportunity to ask questions in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         This was a very significant move forward.  It would need to be determined how this would feed in to the work of the Partnership;

·         Concerns were raised regarding whether the Strategy was too ambitious, as Lincolnshire would be one of the few areas to retain a play strategy.  There were concerns regarding mixed messages as, at this time, when the play equipment in East Lindsey came to the end of its life, it would not be replaced.  There was a need to consider what could be delivered;

·         Members were assured that this strategy was not about investing additional money, but how partners could work together to share resources;

·         It was thought that the Strategy should be ambitious, but there was also a need for it to be tempered by realism, but play was very important;

·         It was suggested whether LALC (Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils) should be involved in this;

·         It was thought important that the message regarding the importance of play reached the relevant executive councillors as well as all councillors;

·         The social value of play was also important;

·         It was suggested whether Section 106 contributions from developers could be used to provide play facilities alongside housing;

·         It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

(An opportunity for Partners to update the Partnership in relation to any work taking place within their organisation which would be relevant to the work of the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership)

Members of the Partnership were provided with the opportunity to update the rest of the Partners on any developments within their individual organisations which may be of interest, and the following was reported:

·         A programme had been running at The Showroom called Shout.  This was an 8 week programme, and would have three cohorts.  It had received funding for the rest of the financial year.  The aim of the programme was to build confidence and aspiration for children who received targeted support;

·         Funding was uncertain in relation to the Princes Trust, and Fire and Rescue tried to work with 180 of the most vulnerable young people every year, particularly those who would get into trouble.

(Development Day – 2 June 2014, commencing at 9.30am until 3.30pm – The Terrace, Grantham Street, Lincoln, LN2 1BD)

The Partnership was reminded that the next meeting would be a development day on 2 June 2014 commencing at 9.30am, and would be held at The Terrace, Grantham Street, Lincoln.