Budget Holding Lead Professional Pathfinder

HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

CHILDREN’S SERVICES PANEL

TUESDAY 4 JULY 2006 AT 2.00 PM

BUDGET HOLDING LEAD PROFESSIONAL PATHFINDER

Report of the Director of Children, Schools and Families

Author: -Ann Domeney, Deputy Director, Social Care

Tel: -01992 555755

Executive Member: - Jane Pitman

1.Purpose of the report

To inform members that the Children’s Trust has been successful in a bid to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to become one of 14 Local Authority areas acting as pathfinders where Lead Professionals will act as budget holders and directly commission support services.

2. Summary

DfES has indicated its interest in testing the potential of Lead Professional’s having greater flexibility to commission support services directly for the children and young people they are supporting.

They want to test whether this will enable greater flexibility and personalisation of individual support arrangements and, eventually, make the ‘market’ more accessible and responsive to changing needs.

The Hertfordshire Pathfinder will focus on young people at risk who are in transition from compulsory education and those 16 and 17 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

DfES are providing £525,000 of the next two years to support the work of the pathfinder.

3.Conclusions

This provides a further opportunity to contribute directly to the development of emerging government policy for future support arrangements for children and young people. It provides Hertfordshire with an opportunity to develop integrated support arrangements for young people and enhances the piloting of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) across the county.

The Pathfinder will link closely with the CAF Pilot in Stevenage and the Targeted Youth Support Team pathfinder developments in Borehamwood and Bishop Stortford.

Around 150 young people in year 1 and 300 in year 2 will benefit from the Pathfinder and we anticipate that it will result in increased participation and attainment rates for some of the most vulnerable groups of young people in the county.

4.Background

Focus of Pathfinder

4.1The primary focus of the Pathfinder would be on young people identified as being at risk of not making a successful transition from compulsory learning into post 16 learning and work options. The long term economic wellbeing of this group of young people will be significantly enhanced as a result of this work.

4.2The pathfinder will eventually operate across the county, but initially will focus on those groups of young people where successful transition is most challenging. Primary target groups include:

• Young mothers

• Non and irregular school attendees in year 11

• Young people with learning difficulties and less complex disabilities

• Young people from certain ethnic minority groups

• Young homeless or those at risk of homelessness
• Young Carers

• Young people with emotional, health and behavioural problems

4.3It will also link closely with both the Targeted Youth Support Team pathfinder (Borehamwood and Bishop Stortford) and the Children’s Trust/Lead Professional Pilot (Stevenage).

Lead Professionals and Support Arrangements

4.4We plan to establish budget holding arrangements that recognise the differing needs that individual young people have and the variation in cost of tackling these issues. We will use the established Connexions APIR arrangements – linked to the Common Assessment Framework - to develop differentiated budgets based upon individual needs identified through the assessment process. We anticipate that individual budgets will vary between £400 - £2,500 based upon the complexity and severity of need.

4.5As part of the Pathfinder we will be developing a broad menu of quality assured services and activities that the lead professional will be able to access. The menu will be diverse and responsive to the needs identified by the staff involved in the project. Our initial work suggests that they are likely to include:

• Mental health and counselling services

• Short term and ‘ad hoc’ childcare

• Support on personal health and hygiene matters

• Additional community based support arrangements
• Equipment, tools and clothing to help make young people ready for the workplace.

• Social skills and personal development opportunities outside mainstream funding e.g. self esteem, confidence building, anger management, team and group work skills

• Focussed life skill development activities e.g. driving lessons, interview and employability skills.

• Transport costs

• Flexible and online learning

4.6Around 12 to 15 lead professionals – growing to around 25 in year two - will be working in the pathfinder. Initially they will all come from our established team of Connexions Personal Advisers (PAs). In Hertfordshire, Connexions PAs are based in a wide range of partner organisations and we anticipate that around eight different host organisations will be involved. This includes a mix of public, private and voluntary sector partners. It will enable us to make a prompt start as all the PAs have been trained to approved standards, use the same individual assessment tool and have consistent support arrangements. Once established the project will extend to a broader range of lead professionals engaged in supporting the target group.

4.7A Project Manager has been appointed to lead the work. They will be

supported by a Project Co-ordinator who will have specific responsibility for developing a diverse menu of activities and support services.

Volumes and Outcomes

4.8150 young people will benefit from the pathfinder in the first year, rising to 300 in year two. We anticipate that the pilot will help the achievement of the following outcomes for young people:

• Reduction in the overall number of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET)
• Increase in the number of young people participating in learning

• Increased attainment levels measured by ‘distance travelled’)
• Increase in the proportion of young mothers aged 16 – 18 in EET

• Increase attainment levels (NVQ II & III) at age 18 (longer term)

5. Relevant additional information e.g. Results of Consultation

As part of the Pathfinder we will be establishing a consultation group of young people to enable them to contribute directly to design, development and delivery or Pathfinder arrangements.

We will use established Children’s Trust arrangements to oversee the development of the Pathfinder and ensure that all partners are actively engaged in its development.

1. Financial Implications

The Pathfinder will have no immediate financial implications for the Authority, as all core costs and the necessary pump priming will be directly funded by DfES.

As part of the bid document, an indication of the range of core budgets that might in future be included in these arrangements was required. An indicative list was provided and further work will now be undertaken to scope the potential implications if they were to be included. This work will help inform year 2 developments and future sustainability beyond the pathfinder phase.

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