Agenda and minutes

Superintendent Kathryn Craner (Nottinghamshire Police)

Amanda Payne (Futures Advice, Skills and Employment Ltd)

Nicky Bridges (Robin Hood Primary School)

Karla Capstick (Nottingham Citycare Partnership)

None.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 27 September 2022

The minutes of the meeting held on the 28 June 2022 were agreed.

For review and input

It was suggested that links with the Health and Wellbeing Board could be strengthened.

The Terms of Reference were noted.

In view of the recent inquest findings attributing the death of a child to mould in their property, all partners are asked to be vigilant and to talk to parents if they suspect that there are health conditions that might relate to mould.

Communications will be sent within the week to partners and schools on the City’s response to the recent Strep A and Scarlet Fever outbreaks. There are no known cases in Nottingham currently.

Presentation by Natalie Baker-Swift

Natalie Baker-Swift, Head of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) delivered a presentation to the Board, highlighting the following:

(a)  the VRU’s core function is to offer leadership and, working with all relevant agencies operating locally, strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence. Prevention and early intervention focuses on children and young people up to 25 years;

(b)  the VRU recognises that childhood influences may influence violence or exploitation, and data is used to understand the causes of serious violence;

(c)  the VRU works in partnership with Children’s Services, Youth Justice, Public Health, the NHS, Education, Police, Prisons, Probation Fire and Rescue, and community representatives;

(d)  there are three main strands to the work of the VRU: Providing inclusive system leadership, making best use of data sharing, insight and evidence, and delivering and evaluating early intervention and prevention activity;

(e)  new legislation in January will compel local authorities and other partners to prevent and reduce serious violence. Nottingham is ahead of the curve on this work with the VRU leading on trauma informed approaches, workforce development, and community capacity building;

(f)  the VRU has a 3 year plan to improve the quality and accessibility of data across the partnership in order to identify evidence gaps and commission research that strengthens the voice of communities;

(g)  a programme of work is taking place to target and support children in urban street groups in order to support them back into education, training or employment. Often these children require support with the speech and language which is also provided.

Presented by Lana Jay

Lana Jay, Strategic Hub lead, delivered a presentation to the Board and highlighted the following:

(a)  Careers Hubs bring together schools, colleges, employers, and apprenticeship providers in local areas across England. The goal is to make it easier for schools and colleges to improve how they prepare young people for their next steps. The D2N2 hub is divided into four regions, with the Nottinghamshire South Hub covering Nottingham City;

(b)  Careers Hubs enable schools and colleges and their Careers Leaders to access training and support, and to collaborate in a focussed way, bringing together best practice and local labour market insight. Hubs offer schools and colleges dedicated support from the local hub team and facilitate partnerships with key employers committed to improving careers across an area;

(c)  over 170 volunteers now work with schools as Enterprise Advisors in order to improve careers advice and education, providing business acumen that teachers may not possess;

(d)  schools are assessed against Gatsby Benchmarks which include a stable careers programme, learning from careers and labour market information, addressing the needs of each student, linking curriculum learning to careers, encounters with employers and employees, experiences of workplaces, encounters with further and higher education, and personal guidance;

(e)  a primary version of the hub is being trialled, following research that shows that many young people have given up on pursuing certain careers by the age of 7.

The following points were raise during the discussion which followed:

(f)  an event is taking place soon for those who would like to volunteer as an Enterprise Advisor and partner with a school or college;

(g)  the benchmarks could be tailored for use with children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities;

(h)  although the majority of schools in the city engage with the Careers Hub, a number are unwilling to engage and it would be useful to link with the Local Authority to encourage more engagement.

A suggestion was made for a future item on young people who are NEET (not in education, employment of training).

The forward plan was noted.