Agenda item

Team Around the Child

(To receive a report from Stuart Carlton, Assistant Director of Children's Services, which provides the Schools Forum with information regarding the Team Around the Child)

Minutes:

Pursuant to Minute No 31 from the meeting held on 15 January 2014, consideration was given to a report from the Manager, Team Around the Child (TAC), which provided the Schools Forum with an update on Team Around the Child in Lincolnshire, and described future priorities and actions needed to move from development phase to full implementation stage.

 

Appended to the report were two Appendices, Appendix A provided information on the development phase, which highlighted actions and achievements that had taken place during January to April 2014.  Appendix B provided a proposed implementation plan for the next phase of the pilot project, which included targets that needed to be achieved.

 

In guiding the Schools Forum through the report the Manager, Team Around the Child, highlighted some of the following points:-

 

·         That the Early Help Steering Group had been established with a clear terms of reference and comprised of representatives from all agencies;

·         That the Early Help Assessment (EHA) had been launched on 1 April 2014;

·         That new templates for Initial TAC meeting, TAC plans, reviews and closures had all been developed to follow the (EHA) along with a new TAC Handbook, all of which were now available on the TAC website;

·         A rolling programme of Early Help Briefing Sessions had been delivered since 25 February 2014, and that in the 5 weeks to date almost 600 professionals had attended the sessions.  It was reported that a further 160 professionals, had since the writing of the report taken up the offer.  In the first three weeks 94 contacts from schools had been received to take up the service.  Overall, there had been a very positive response to the new system; and

·          Four Early Help Consultants and a Senior TAC Administrator had now been appointed in order to fulfil current service requirements. It was noted that staff would be in place by the end of April 2014.

 

The development plan shown ensured that children and young people would receive access to effective and co-ordinated Early Help via Team Around the Child.

 

It was highlighted that performance measures had been put in place to ensure quality assurance and to evaluate the service.

 

Clarification was sought as to the figures shown on page eight of the minutes.  The Forum was advised that the minutes only captured some of the content of the overall report presented at the 15 January 2014 meeting.

 

In relation to the targets as shown in Appendix B, the Schools Forum were advised that this was still work in progress and was evolving and that the targets would be refined.

 

In conclusion, the Schools Forum agreed that a further progress report should be presented to the October meeting, which would then help the Forum to decide whether to increase the base budget from 2015/16.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    That the Development Phase as detailed at Appendix A to the report be accepted.

 

2.    That the Implementation Plan as detailed at Appendix B to the report presented be endorsed.

 

3.    That agreement in principle be agreed for the allocation of further funding should the existing Team be at capacity.

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
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