Agenda for Children's Partnership Board on Wednesday, 5th July, 2017, 4.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: LB 31-32 - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions

Contact: Phil Wye  Email: phil.wye@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Joint Chairs

Minutes:

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor David Mellen and Councillor Sam Webster as Joint Chairs for the 2017/18 municipal year.

2.

Election of Vice Chair

Minutes:

RESOLVED to appoint Sean Kelly as Vice-Chair for the 2017/18 municipal year.

3.

Membership and Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 280 KB

To note the updated membership and Terms of Reference

Minutes:

RESOLVED to note the updated membership and Terms of Reference for the 2017/18 municipal year.

4.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Phyllis Brackenbury

Chris Cook

Alison Michalska

Jacqui Newton

Sally Pearce

Sally Seeley

Maria Ward

John Yarham

5.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

6.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 286 KB

Minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2017, to be agreed.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2017 were agreed by the Board as a true record and signed by the Chair.

7.

CYPP Priority: Empowering Families to be Strong and Achieve Economic Wellbeing pdf icon PDF 226 KB

Report of the Director for Children’s Integrated Services

Minutes:

Sophie Russell, Head of Children’s Strategy and Improvement, introduced the report outlining the city’s progress in relation to delivery of the national Troubled Families programme, known in Nottingham as Priority Families. Sophie highlighted the following:

 

(a)  the Priority Families programme has worked with 2026 families so far, which is 53% of the total target to work with by 2020. The targets for 2016/17 have been surpassed and the target for 2017/18 has been set as working with 941 families;

(b)  self-assessment against the maturity model, which measures progress, is maturing, and the programme received a positive spot check from the Troubled Families Unit;

(c)  most Priority Families cases are held by Nottingham City Council, but a number are held by other agencies including the police, schools and the NHS;

(d)  3 Troubled Families Employment Advisors are employed in Nottingham by the Department for Work and Pensions. They can advise case-holders on complex employment issues. They also identify potential priority families, and send letters to individuals who have been claiming benefits to encourage them to engage;

(e)  national changes to the programme are planned,  with a shift towards a focus on service transformation. This will mean a greater focus on the service maturity model, self-assessment  and peer review activity;

 

(f)  schools can refer into the Priority Families programme and referral routes to do this are being streamlined. However, not all schools may be aware of this so it is an area for development.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  note the contents of the report in relation to the successes of the Priority Families Programme to date;

(2)  consider where Board members can support whole family approaches to supporting children and young people in the future.

8.

Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub Update: Police and Duty Team working together

Verbal update by Sophie Russell, Head of Children’s Strategy and Improvement

Minutes:

Tajinder Madahar, Head of Service Children’s Duty and Targeted Services, gave a verbal update on development of a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), highlighting the following:

 

(a)  the HMIC expressed concerns about the lack of a MASH in Nottingham City at a recent police review, and the recent pilot inspection of Children’s Services also raised concern about the lack of multi-agency information to inform decision-making strategy discussions. This has led to establishment of a MASH in Nottingham City;

(b)  from the police, the MASH has access to 2 detective sergeants, 3 detective constables, 4 risk officers and 1 clerical support worker. Work is done in real-time enabling accuracy. 61 face-to-face strategy discussions have taken place since 5th June and a backlog of cases has been cleared;

(c)  there is a lack of health representation on the MASH which is an ongoing piece of work, and there is also an aim to work with Community Protection, Probation and Education as well.

 

RESOLVED to note the information and thank Tajinder for the update.

9.

Moving towards Integrated Children's Services pdf icon PDF 327 KB

Report of the Director for Commissioning and Procurement

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Katy Ball, Director of Commissioning and Procurement, introduced the report setting out the process that has been undertaken in order to move towards a more integrated approach to delivering services for children and families. Katy highlighted the following:

 

(a)  in 2014 the Council inherited contracts such as health visiting from the NHS, and together with early intervention opportunities and big lottery funding an opportunity was identified to create a unified and early help pathway for pregnant women, babies, children and young people;

(b)  services in scope of the review include health visiting, the Family Nurse Partnership, breastfeeding peer support, children’s nutrition, public health nursing and children’s centres;

(c)  problems identified with service provision include disparity of outcomes, duplication, inconsistent delivery across the city, lack of evidence of impact and gaps in provision;

(d)  proposals for what should be delivered include a new shared outcomes framework and an updated Pathway of Support, underpinned by a set of logic models;

(e)  the proposals should result in more holistic and co-ordinated support to children and families with fewer handovers from one professional to another, reduced duplication of activity, increased opportunities to share data and information, and a more flexible approach to workforce planning.

 

Board members commented that current arrangements can be frustrating as it is difficult to know where to access services, so if these arrangements result in a more unified approach then that will be positive.

 

RESOLVED to note the progress made in moving to a more integrated approach to delivering services for children and families.

10.

Youth Cabinet Q4 16/17 & Q1 17/18 update pdf icon PDF 258 KB

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Minutes:

Jon Rea, Engagement and Participation Lead Officer, introduced the report providing an update on the work of the Youth Cabinet and associated CYP Participation in Governance programme groups and activities in quarter 4 of 2016/17 and quarter 1 of 2017/18. Jon highlighted the following:

 

(a)  The Youth Cabinet themes have been Safe Lives, Positive Communities and SMART Cities in quarter 4 of 2016/17 and Healthy Creative You in quarter 1 of 2017/18. Partners have included Nottingham SMART City, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, Opportunity Notts, Cultural Education Partnership, Stemcity, Nottingham Citizen’s Panel and the Future in Mind Programme;

(b)  Primary Parliament has had two sessions in March and two in June, with the same themes as the Youth Cabinet. Each round of events engaged around 130 year 5 and 6 children from around 36 schools, including special schools. Findings from these sessions have fed into the SMART Cities engagement plan and the Health Environment Action Plan;

(c)  a Youth Council event was planned and created by young people from Oliver Hind Youth Club on the theme of ‘Safe, Positive, SMART Communities’, attended by 30 young people from across the city;

(d)  the next Youth Council event is on Friday 28th May at NGY on Castle Gate with a theme of Healthy, Creative You. The event is also a celebration of the leadership shown by the young people who have organised the last three Youth Council meetings;

(e)  there has a programme of face-to-face engagement with Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) around access to information, advice and support services and preparing for adulthood, with over 50 young people taking part;

(f)  the Festival of Science and Curiosity 2017 promoted engagement and participation of children, young people and families in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning and culture, with 60 activities over 7 days based in schools, the city centre and community locations. Plans for a 2018 event are already underway.

 

The following comments were made by Board members in the discussion which followed:

 

(g)  the engagement with children and young people is extremely positive but not always reported widely, so should be reported to a future Executive Panel meeting;

(h)  when engaging with SEND children it is important that the wide range of differing needs are covered and all voices are heard.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  acknowledge and support the achievements of children and young people engaging in participation and active citizenship work through the Participation in Governance programme and the work of the Youth Cabinet;

(2)  consider how they can use the CYP participation in Governance programme to further participation in their organisational strategies, plans and processes.

11.

OFSTED Pilot Inspection update

Verbal update

Minutes:

Sophie Russell, Head of Children’s Strategy & Improvement, gave a verbal update on the Ofsted Inspection which took place from 23rd January to 3rd February 2017, which was under a new inspection framework that Nottingham volunteered to pilot. Sophie highlighted the following:

 

(a)  the inspection involved 4 Ofsted inspectors over 2 weeks, and focussed on frontline practice and experience of children, young people and families. It used existing audits rather than requesting new ones which was less onerous and involved in-depth time with practitioner sampling case files in real time. Over 270 cases were sampled;

(b)  Nottingham City Council received a lot of positive feedback from the inspection, including the following:

·  strong political and officer leadership of services;

·  bringing together two directorates to create one directorate was a catalyst for change;

·  regional peer review and challenge are well used;

·  investment in recruitment of a permanent workforce;

·  Nottingham City Council is an environment where good and outstanding practice can flourish;

·  the council has invested heavily in an integrated model for effective partnership working;

·  the diversity of the community is well understood;

·  the voice of the child is a real strength;

·  social workers know their children well;

·  children live with carers who are ambitious and proud for them;

·  children’s assessments are consistently good which leads to meaningful indicative plans;

·  support for disabled children is good which leads to tailored support;

·  Multi Systemic Therapy/Multi Systemic Therapy Child abuse and Neglect and Edge of Care Hub are examples of a creative use of resources;

·  integrated locality hubs offer accessible, responsive and effective forums to support multi-agency services;

·  children’s emotional needs are considered and children are supported by wrap-around services like CAMHS and the Targeted Support Team;

·  education outcomes are improving;

·  Early Help is seen as outstanding, with access to Early Help services resulting in risks being minimised and welfare improving;

 

(c)  areas for further development were identified as follows:

·  a more robust response is needed for 16-17 year olds who present as homeless;

·  a need to be more tenacious to sustain contact and support for care leavers who aren’t currently engaged;

·  more analysis of themes and trends in relation to children missing and ensuring  they receive the help they need;

·  a review of Independent Reviewing Officer capacity;

·  multi-agency information to inform a shared view about risk and need;

·  partners, particularly police and schools, to contribute to initial fact finding, assessments and plans;

·  children’s social care to set clear expectations for responses from partners;

·  case file audit arrangements should be strengthened for children’s social care;

 

(d)  the council received a judgement of Good for overall effectiveness, with considerable improvement since the last inspection in 2014. However, the experiences and progress of children looked after and care leavers and achieving permanence was judged to require improvement;

(e)  as a result of the Ofsted findings, the following actions have been put into place:

·  phase 1 Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) arrangements with Nottinghamshire Police went live from June 2017, with phase 2 to expand to other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

Children and Young People’s Plan: End of Year CYPP Action Plan Review pdf icon PDF 216 KB

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Integrated Services, introduced the report which identifies key headlines, challenges and an overview of areas relating to children and young people. Helen highlighted the following:

 

Priority 1 – Promoting the health and wellbeing of babies, children and young people

 

(a)  achievements include consistently high breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks, a reduced number of hospital admissions for mental health conditions for those aged 0-17, reduced rates of re-offending by young people, and a lower number of first time entrants to the youth justice system;

(b)  the percentage of women smoking at the time of delivery is higher than the England average and remains static. A smoking in pregnancy pathway is in development, which will be supported by a specific smoking in pregnancy service;

(c)  the percentage of children obese at Year 6 remains higher than the target but is lower than the statistical neighbour average. Work is taking place across the city with children and their families to encourage healthy eating and physical activity;

(d)  the number of hospital admissions for self-harm for those aged 10-24 has increased. There has been an upward trend nationally but Nottingham still has a higher than average number. The city’s Behavioural, Emotional and Mental Health single point of access is now co-located with Children and Families Direct;

 

Priority 2 - Safeguarding and supporting children and families

 

(e)  achievements include a reduction in the number of children subject to a child protection plan, a slight reduction in the number of A&E admissions for children aged 0-4 caused by deliberate or unintentional injuries, performance with regards to review timescales being maintained, implementation of a new model for children’s services front door, and a rating of Good overall in the recent pilot Ofsted inspection;

(f)  the percentage of children subject to a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time within 2 years has increased;

(g)  the number of offences where children and young people are the victims has increased. To support this the front door is being developed into a MASH type model, with Police colleagues now sitting within Duty;

(h)  nationally, recruitment and retention of the Children’s Social Care workforce remains a challenge and demand for services remains high. The ‘grow your own’ social work development scheme is in its final phase, with a view to starting the fast track degree in September 2017;

 

(i)  the implementation of the Liquid Logic system has presented some challenges and additional pressures, but managers and specialists are addressing outstanding data issues from migration;

 

Priority 3 - Supporting achievement and academic attainment

 

Patrick Fielding, Director of Education, highlighted the following:

 

(j)  achievements include a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage, an increase in the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard for phonics in year 1, strong attainment in maths and English, higher than average progress in writing and maths at key stages 1 and 2, good numbers of pupils achieving the expected reading and writing standard in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

Partner Update: National Probation Service Nottinghamshire

Presentation by Julie Burton

Minutes:

Julie Burton, National Probation Service, gave a presentation on the work of the Service, highlighting the following:

 

(a)  probation nationally is divided into 2 sections: the National Offender Management Service and the National Probation Service. The National Probation Service is divided into 7 divisions with the Midlands division governed in Birmingham. Only a small number of staff are employed in Nottinghamshire;

(b)  the National Probation Service deals with pre-sentence reports enforcement, youth offending, foreign national prisoners, Multi-Agency Public Protection arrangements, serious organised crime, sex offenders, medium to very high risk of harm offenders, victim liaison, personality disorder, lifers, domestic abuse, and integrated offender management;

(c)  around 3% of cases involve child protection. In Nottinghamshire these are split to around 60% in the city and 40% in the county. The National Probation Service will liaise with the city council to see if the children are already known to them;

(d)  the work of the probation service links to priorities 1,2 and 4 of the Children and Young People’s Plan.

 

RESOLVED to note the information and thank Julie for her presentation.

14.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 69 KB

To be noted.

Minutes:

RESOLVED to note the contents of the Forward Plan.

15.

Future meeting dates

To agree to meet on the following Wednesdays at 4pm:

27 September 2017

13 December 2017

28 March 2018

Minutes:

RESOLVED to meet on the following dates at Loxley House at 4pm:

 

27 September 2017

13 December 2017

28 March 2018