Hampshire Children’s Trust Developing Local Partnerships

Hampshire Children’s TrustDeveloping Local Partnerships

Context • Continued good or outstanding progress in almost all aspects of Children’s Services • General educational attainment continues to outstrip comparators • Children’s Trust arrangements in Hampshire well regarded locally and nationally

BUT • Attainment of vulnerable children remains an issue • We retain stubborn gaps and overlaps • The challenge is to go from strength to strength

The Children’s Trust relates to everything we do for children • It is not about meetings • No services (including schools) can sustain success (or failure) in isolation

The Children’s Trust current position • Standing Conference, Trust Board, County wide thematic partnerships • 11 local partnerships with broad engagement and links to Local Strategic Partnerships (Districts) • Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-12 widely acknowledged and recognised • Performance information emerging at a local level

County Council Cabinet Lead Member Hampshire Strategic Partnership Children’s Trust Standing Conference Countywide Thematic Partnerships Local Partnerships Governance Arrangements of partners Children’s Trust Board Local Strategic Partnerships The Hampshire Children’s Trust

Hampshire C&YP Plan • Reducing the incidence and impact of poverty on the achievement and life chances of children and young people • Securing children and young people’s physical, spiritual, social, emotional and mental health, promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing inequalities • Providing opportunities to learn that raise children and young people’s aspirations • Ensuring that children and young people are safe and feel safe, enabling them to build resilience and personal confidence • Providing vocational, leisure and recreational activities that provide opportunities for children and young people to experience success and make a positive contribution • Removing barriers to access, participation and achievement and not tolerating discrimination and abuse

The Current position, however- • Limited and inconsistent engagement with schools and colleges locally • Limited links between local partnerships and the Hampshire Children’s Trust • Need for greater focus on performance management – Children & Young People’s Plan targets • Need for common approach to early intervention and prevention • Better local data and intelligence

Drivers for change • Duty of all schools and colleges to co-operate - in improving outcomes for all children – with a focus on the most vulnerable • Laming – child protection is everyone’s business • Localism • The prize of better integrated working – to a common purpose – increasing capacity

So • Smaller local partnerships • More local partnerships • Still linked to LSPs • But now configured on clusters of schools as their core

NOT • To destablise governance of schools and others • To be directly responsible for critical services such as children in care, school improvement

Purpose and function • Ensure educational inclusion • Strengthen and develop local networks • Detailed understanding of needs and outcomes • Direct responsibility for delivery locally of defined outcomes, e.g. teenage pregnancy • Influence improvement for all outcomes for all children • Co-ordinate early intervention and prevention activities (with resources)

Membership • All schools, academies, sixth form and education colleges • District Councils • Local NHS • Local District Managers – who will develop the challenge and support role to partnerships • Local coordinators /managers of children’s centres, parent support services etc • Voluntary organisations

Measuring success • Progress against the local children and young people’s plan • Inter-agency governance with effective links to the Hampshire Children’s Trust Board • Pooled or aligned budgets and joint commissioning opportunities in place • Effective joint working sustained by shared language and processes • Integrated front line delivery organised around the child, young person or family rather than professional or institutional boundaries?

Time scale • Direction agreed by the Trust Board on 1st July 2009 • Further consultation with all partners in September / October 09 • Purpose and function reported to Executive Member on 8th Oct • Direction agreed by Standing Conference on 5th November 09 • Local scale and organisation agreed in December 09 • Initial meetings of Partnerships in January 2010 • Early intervention strategy developed by April 2010 - including agreed resource base • Work plan in place in each partnership by April 2010 – e.g. to address - Teenage conception, NEET, attendance, repeat Child Protection plans etc

Issues to be resolved • The necessary scale and geography of local partnerships to ensure the direct involvement of all schools and colleges • Improving links between local partnerships, Local Strategic Partnerships and the Hampshire Children’s Trust – perhaps via a ‘chairs’ group • Governance • Better data at a local level

Issues to be resolved • Capacity to support involvement, leadership, challenge and support • Identifying local targets for improving performance – based upon the C&YP Plan • Identifying resource base • Links to ‘specialist‘ and county wide issues— e.g. CAMHS • Developing a common approach to early intervention and prevention-within the context of the Child Health Strategy • Building capacity

Next steps • Consider the issues with ‘partner schools’ - purpose and function - local scale – too large - too small - local links – e.g. District Councils - what must be in place to take the partnerships forward locally • Discuss options with local Area Directors and District Managers • By December identify local framework - to Colin.Hardy@hants.gov.uk

The prize • If we get this right local people working together will be able to create and implement local policy and influence performance in a way that has never happened before • This is an opportunity to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in a way that previous partnership or service management arrangements have not been able to

Hampshire Children’s Trust Developing Local Partnerships