Agenda and minutes

The Chair to introduce the meeting and receive apologies.

Dr Steve Ollerton welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made around the table.

For approval as a correct record and to consider any matters arising.

The Minutes of the previous meeting of the Children & Young People’s Partnership held on 21^st September 2017 were approved as a correct record.

A briefupdatewasgivenon theDemocracy CommissionRecommendationsandhow astrong

andhealthylocal democracyshould lookfor peoplein Kirklees.The reportincludesideasfor workingwithactivecitizensand howwecan encouragelocal voicesto beheardin regionaldevolution. The Commissionmade48 recommendationsandthoseset outin theAppendix areofspecific relevance tothe Board.

Recommendationshave6 keyprogramme areaswhichthe Children& YoungPeople Planwilldeliverand thiswillmake asignificantcontribution to oneofthe5 outcomeswhichtheChildrenand YoungPeople Plan is seekingto achieve.

Board membersdiscussedthedevelopmentoftheActiveCitizenshipStrategyand collectivelymade suggestions onhow children and youngpeople maybecome more involved:

·           Feel valuedand begiventheopportunityto contribute to society.

·           Be active in somethingwhich is important in theirlives.

·           Listen to what they have to sayand articulatewhy or ifit can be takenforward.

The report provided a summary for the Board of the Kirklees Youth Alliance (KYA), the background to the KYA and what it hopes to achieve. The severe financial position facing local authorities, the direct provision of professional youth services has been challenged across the country. Kirklees Council no longer provides generic youth services.

Partners now involved in trying to move the KYA forward are: Kirklees Council; the University of Huddersfield; Kirklees Active Leisure; Central Youth Club, Huddersfield; Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing; West Yorkshire Police; and Huddersfield Town Foundation.  KYA will champion and support the development of quality, values-based youth provision across Kirklees that supports the development of young people’s life skills to enable them to play an active and responsible role in the life of the community. Kirklees Council has indicated that it has been able to identify a degree of funding to support this initiative in the medium term. This funding will be used to attract a senior leader (Development Manager) for the KYA to drive forward the initiative; ensure it effectively links with the range of other providers involved locally and identify where further support is required and, ideally, how this support can be provided.

KYA contributes to a number of the draft Children and Young People’s Plan outcomes (section 3), including wanting local children and young people:

·         To have the best start in life and be healthy.

·         To aspire, achieve and enjoy life.

·         To feel safe and live in a strong… and a vibrant community.

·         To feel valued and contribute to society.

Board members discussed the progress to date of the KYA and identified possible funding opportunities and other constructive suggestions. Potential positive outcomes from the alliance:

·         Instil good quality provision.

·         Lead to apprenticeship opportunities.

·         Social action – engagement of private sector.

·         Everything is joined up and managed from one place.

·         Plug the gaps.

Board members confirmed that they supported the proposal.

The board was given a brief update on the Strategic Partnership with Leeds and how this is progressing.

The intention is that Kirklees and Leeds will work together to build relationships confidence and skills in Kirklees in order to promote and sustain change and improvement which is secure and sustainable in the longer term. Kirklees will continue to retain accountability for Children’s Services. Leeds will provide an agreed and defined programme of support and improvement. The agreement will be in place for three years but with regular reviews and monitoring with agreed milestones to measure our progress against. The intention is that Leeds will provide intensive support and input over the first 12 months with support reducing to a mentoring and advisory role once progress has been secured and a new local leadership team is in place.

Progress on the Improvement Plan will be monitored by the Improvement Board which will be chaired by Eleanor Brazil. The overall governance of the partnership will be overseen by a joint board which includes both Chief Executives, both Leaders of the Council and Portfolio Holders for Children’s Services as well as the Director for Children’s Services (Steve Walker) and any future DCS appointed by Kirklees as appropriate to work alongside Leeds. These governance arrangements will remain in place for the duration of the improvement journey until such time as the DfE is satisfied that the direction is no longer necessary.

Saleem Tariq and Steve Walker will share the role of Director for Children’s Services. Dedicated time will be allocated to work on the Improvement Agenda. 

The plan is a 10 point plan - 10 critical points were identified as ways of improvement (each point will have a detailed plan):

1.    Children Looked After.

2.    Care Leavers.

3.    Early Help and Edge of Care.

4.    Front Door.

5.    Workforce.

6.    Practice.

7.    Voice of the Child and Families

8.    Leadership

9.    Partnership.

10.  Performance and QA.

Care First system will be replaced by ‘Liquidlogic’:

As a result of the changes in senior management and the reshaping of Children’s Services that have taken place since September 2016 Ofsted inspection and the adoption of a different approach to Social Work practice Care First is to be replaced by ‘Liquidlogic’. The Liquidlogic Children’s system (LCS) is a workflow based Case Management System which will replace the current CareFirst system. The system supports all aspects of social work with children, allowing practitioners to keep a complete and accurate case management record for children in need, looked after children, child protection cases and adoption. The workflow aspect of the system assists the practitioners to ensure that all the necessary information is correctly recorded and tasks are completed in the right order, with an emphasis on only having to record information once. Family working is central to the system supporting recording for groups of people whilst maintaining individual records.

There was a general discussion on the role of the Board and how they could contribute towards  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Board has previously discussed and commented on the draft Children and Young People’s Plan, and endorsed the ‘plan on a page’ approach. There are some final minor amendments to be made based on feedback from the Director of Children’s Services.

The Plan forms part of the Council’s Policy Framework and as such must be formally signed off by Full Council.

As discussed at the last meeting a report has been drafted to accompany the Plan to enable partners to take the Plan into their own organisations to gain endorsement of the Plan. Work has also been started on a communications plan to ensure there is widespread awareness of the Plan.

The next stage of development for the Plan is to set out the next level of detail around the key actions for each of the six priority areas:

·         Children’s Services Improvement Programme.

·         Thriving Kirklees and CAMHS Transformation.

·         All-Age Disability and SEND Strategy.

·         Learning and Skills Strategy.

·         Community Hubs, Community Plus inc Kirklees Youth Alliance and Early Support offer.

·         Kirklees Democracy Commission, voice & influence.

Progress on implementing the Plan will be including a number of strands:

• Monitoring changes in the relevant Kirklees outcomes, especially those most relevant to children and young people i.e.

1.    Children have the best start in life.

2.    People in Kirklees have aspiration and achieve their ambitions through education,   training, employment and lifelong learning

·         Monitoring changes in indicators set out in the Plan for each of the 5 outcomes.

·         Sharing plans for each of the 6 priorities and progress and issues with implementing the plans.

·         Collating and listening to stories of children and young people’s experiences of growing up in Kirklees.

The updated Terms of Reference document was approved by Board members.

‘The Chair of the Board will be the Cabinet Member with portfolio responsibilities for Children’s Services’. Cllr David Sheard, the Leader of the Council, will be taking on statutory responsibility for Children’s Service and will ‘Chair’ the Partnership meetings in the absence of Cllr Erin Hill.

Note: Since the meeting it has been decided by Cabinet that Cllr Viv Kendrick will take on the statutory responsibility rather than Cllr Sheard, and she will Chair the Partnership meetings.

The Department for Education is considering how to update the existing Sex and Relationship guidance which, was last updated in 2000, and is therefore now out of date. The updated guidance will support schools in delivering the new subjects of Relationships Education at primary and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) at secondary, as well as, potentially, Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE).

Changes to the teaching of Sex and Relationship Education and PSHE. A call for evidence.

https://consult.education.gov.uk/life-skills/pshe-rse-call-for-evidence/