Agenda and minutes

Jean Sharpe (Sue Fielding Attending)

David Stewart

Karen Slack

Malcolm Cowgill

Sue Smith

Julie Burton

None.

Of the meeting held on 24 June 2015 (for confirmation)

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 June 2015 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

To consider for approval the refreshed Terms of Reference.

Catherine Ziane-Pryor, Governance Officer, presented the refreshed Terms of Reference which had been reviewed mainly with a focus on membership due to the ongoing changes to organisations. The facility for joint Chairing of the Board is also proposed.

RESOLVED that subject confirming a relevant representative for the Clinical Commissioning Group and Nottingham CityCare Partnership, the refreshed Terms of Reference are approved. 

Subject to the approval of the revised Terms of Reference, the Board is asked to appoint Joint Chairs.

RESOLVED for Councillor Mellen, Portfolio Holder for Early Intervention and Early Years, and Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Schools, to be appointed Joint Chairs for the 2015/16 municipal year.

Report of the Strategic Director for Early Intervention and Department of Work and Pensions

Part A – Crime and Drugs Partnership

Jane Lewis, Community Safety Strategy Manager and Domestic and Sexual Violence Strategic Lead, presented the report which informs the Board of what practices and approaches have been working well and achieving good results, what the challenges are and how partner organisations can help.

Also included within the report was detailed a domestic violence gap analysis.

The following points were highlighted:

(a)  the Domestic Violence Strategy has been refreshed and is due to be published next week;

(b)  there is a new formal definition of domestic violence which includes dropping the age criteria from 18 to 16 years old and identifying coercive control as a factor;

(c)  the Domestic Abuse Referral Team (DART) review is ongoing and aims to identify and analyse best practice;

(d)  challenges include:

(i)  partner agencies engaging, particularly with regard to releasing trained staff to facilitate the programme of ‘stronger families’;

(ii)  trying to get the healthy relationships programme into all primary and secondary schools, although there has been some support, more is needed;

(iii)  maintaining the free ‘friend’ 24 hour domestic and sexual violence helpline funding. The Joint Commissioning Group is trying to stabilise the funding but it is an ongoing issue and partners may be called upon to assist;

(iv)  with regard to the Saint Project, raising confidence in holding perpetrators to account;

(v)  funding for next year’s children’s workers in refuges as it is very fragile.

Questions of the board were responded to as follows

(e)  work to raise awareness of and support for domestic violence affecting young people is taking place in schools and the young people’s website but partners are encouraged to help raise awareness;

(f)  the inclusion of younger people by reducing the criteria age from 18 to 16 years old, has come about based on the experiences of young people living in Bilborough;

(g)  the Crime and Drugs Partnership Leadership Team are considering the overlay of domestic abuse with child sexual exportation and modern slavery;

(h)  partners are asked to help train partner agency staff to deliver therapeutic help and support by ensuring the partners are more confident to deal with young people and the issues, this will help young people progress;

(i)  a lot of resources go into training colleagues which they are often too busy in their full-time roles to train others.

John Yarham, Chief Executive of Futures, commented that Futures has strong engagement  with 15 to 18-year-olds, including secondary schools, so could prove a good link for raising awareness.

Helen Blackman, the Director of Children’s Social Care, and Alison Michalska,Corporate Director of Children and Adults, requested information on who within the City Council had been trained to enable identification of blockages which prevented trained staff training others, in the recognition and response to domestic violence, in line with the ethos of the training provided by the Crime and Drugs Partnership, so that these blockages can be removed.

It is noted that training is not appropriate for all partners  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Presentation by the Head of Small Steps Big Changes

Michelle Battlemuch, Head of Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC), delivered a presentation which is included within the agenda and informs the committee that:

(a)  SSBC is a 10 year programme funded by the big lottery and partnerships, with a focus on pregnancy and the first three years of child life in Aspley Bulwell Saint Ann’s  and Arboretum wards;

(b)  the focus of SSBC is to develop and improve children’s:

(i)  communication and language skills and ability;

(ii)  nutrition;

(iii)  social and emotional development;

(c)  SSBC provides parenting preparation and support with science and evidence-based activities and interventions which include:

(i)  supported book giving

(ii)  parent infant relationship assessment and guidance;

(iii)  the Triple P parenting programme;

(d)  details of the ‘Universal Healthy Child Program’ pregnancy to first birthday, and aged 1 to age 4 are detailed within in the presentation;

(e)  the scheme strongly reinforces the Children and Young People’s Plan Priority of ‘Empowering Families to be Strong and Achieve Economic Well-Being’;

(f)   progress to date includes:

(i)  recruitment of programme and specialist team members;

(ii)  expansion of the Family Nurse Partnership;

(iii)  the imagination library;

(iv)  the development of the ‘Baby Buddy’ app which will be launched in late September;

(v)  a refresh and relaunch of ‘Bump Birth and Baby’;

(vi)  contracts awarded for ‘Family Mentor’ in Aspley and Bulwell Wards;

(vii)  infant massage training;

(viii)  universal screening for maternal mental health;

(ix)  provision of a new consent form in the Red Book and an agreement for information sharing with Children’s Centres;

(g)  Some of the most prominent challenges include:

(i)  enabling the flexibility to adapt the programme to changing service offers during the next 10 years, including budget changes;

(ii)  embedding the concept of universal services which are not targeted;

(iii)  balancing local and national expectations of funds, funders and partners;

(iv)  developing performance reporting structures across all partners.

Comments and questions of the committee were responded to as follows:

(h)  parental influence is vital so parents need to be equipped and skilled to do the best for their children;

(i)  a lot of training is needed for the workforce to deliver what is required;

(j)  all Health Visitors now ask and talk to pregnant women about domestic violence and abuse. This does not happen in hospitals but should be considered;

(k)  the success of this program will clearly have a positive impact on families and children by the time children reach school age, but it is not specifically structured to the needs of schools although further bridging could be considered.

RESOLVED to note and welcome the progress of the SSBC programme.

Report of Director of Procurement and Children’s Commissioning

Chris Wallbanks, Strategic Commissioning Manager for Children, presented the report and delivered a presentation which informs the Board of the current Child Development Review being jointly undertaken by Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The review intends to ‘improve outcomes for pregnant women and their children through defined universal and early help pathway of services which will be delivered by an integrated, consistent and co-ordinated approach’ and is taking place as a result of the opportunity for increased integration of commissioning and service delivery.

The programme for phase 1 of the review is outlined in the presentation with phase 2 to be reported to the next meeting. The new working model is expected to be implemented by April 2017.

Following thorough consultation, the redesigned pathway will ensure a consistent, evidence-based approach to child development services across the city and will support Small Steps Big Changes Programme, in addition to increased integrated working to support OFSTED inspections and identifying workforce approaches. It is predicted that integrated Area Teams will be delivering a new pathway within two years.

The rationale behind the review includes;

(a)  transfer the commissioning of Health Visitor and Nurse Practitioner responsibilities to Public Health from October 2015;

(b)  further develop the evidenced based programmes and approaches of Early Intervention City phase 2;

(c)  further develop the focus of joint working with the CCG;

(d)  support Small Steps Big Changes;

(e)  continue the drive for service improvement and efficiencies.

It is predicted that this review will be cost neutral but the finished product should save money.  Some investment will be needed to embed a consistent evidence-based approach by a competent and confident workforce and move away from established cultures of working.

RESOLVED to note:

(i)  the purpose and core activities of the Child Development Strategic Commissioning Review;

(ii)  the progress of the Child Development Review;

(iii)  the timescale to move towards the implementation of the new pathway and integrated area teams;

(iv)  the link with Small Steps Big Changes programme and the potential of this review to become the mechanism to implement system change.

Report of Strategic Director of Early Intervention

Candida Brudenell, Strategic Director of Early Intervention, and Lisa Hazell, Integrated Workforce Consultant, presented the report which proposes changes to the Strategic Core Development Standard. 

The Core Development Standard, which links into the Priority Families Programme, was last considered by the Children’s Partnership Board in 2013 and is designed as a framework to support a co-ordinated approach amongst all Children’s Partnership partners. It has become apparent that a further update is necessary to best support and progress the knowledge and skills of the Children’s workforce. 

The most significant change is that where there were originally six key themes, there are now four:

(i)  Communication and Engagement;

(ii)  Child Development;

(iii)  Integrated Working and Information Sharing;

(iv)  Safeguarding and Welfare;

Within these four key themes the levels of training requirements are identified as;

(i)  the minimum skills and knowledge expected for the whole workforce from the workforce strategy;

(ii)  skills and knowledge for colleagues and managers who have no or minimal direct contact with children, young people or their families;

(iii)  skills and knowledge for colleagues and managers who have direct contact with children and young people or their families.

Information on the training available via the website is outlined in appendix B to the report and includes a comprehensive training facilitated by partner organisations with many aspects free of charge to partners.

Also available is the Nottingham Priority Family Training Programme for partner representatives who wish to work towards becoming a family partnership worker or accredited practitioner. The content of this training is outlined in appendix C to the report.

The Core Development Standard is still hosted on the Children’s Partnership website (http:/www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/ics/TrainingSkillsDevelopment) offering training and skills development and opportunities information.

Comments and questions from partnership members and responses provided included:

(a)  further work is required to improve engagement with schools, including private schools. Training may be independently sourced, but the opportunity remains for them to utilise the Core Development Standard programmes offered within the partnership;

(b)  it is imperative that that all colleagues and partners working with children are equipped to identify child sexual exploitation (CSE) so while a rise in the uptake of CSE awareness courses is pleasing, there is still further work to be done;

(c)  it is a concern that whilst some courses, including safeguarding and CSE, are provided free of charge, people book but don’t necessarily attend. It is possible that a ‘no charge’ course is considered to be of lower quality and isn’t valued the same as a charged for course so further consideration of charging, possibly for ‘non-attendance’ bookings, is needed.

RESOLVED

(1)  to approve the improvements and changes to the Strategic Core Development Standard;

(2)  for each agency to look at ‘best fit’ within their own training plans to show consistency of developing practitioners in line with the Strategic Core Development Standard;

(3)  to note where partners needed training delivery support; the offer of buying elements of the core offer from Nottingham City Council if or when required;

(4)  for further consideration  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Report of Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Uzair Hashmi and Chloe Mullins, members of the Youth Cabinet, presented the report which outlined the work of the Youth Cabinet during the second quarter of 2015-16 which had included a trip to Karlsruhe Youth Conference 2015.

The report included the participation in governance calendar for the academic year 20 1516 which identified the following themes for the next three quarters:

·  education work and training;

·  safe lives, positive neighbourhoods;

·  healthy creative you.

RESOLVED for partners to consider using and promoting the ‘Participation in Governance Programme’ to engage children and young people and create meaningful and rewarding opportunities for them to participate in decision-making.

Partners are encouraged to assist in facilitating training, as discussed during the empowering families to be strong and achieve economic well-being agenda item.

Partners are requested to ensure timely response to the Child Development Review consultation.

Board Members wishing to suggest specific issues to be considered by the Board should contact Dot Veitch, Children’s Partnership Support Officer at dot.veitch@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

RESOLVED to note the Children’s Partnership Board Forward Plan for 2015/16.