CVC Local Children’s Partnership

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Purpose

The Local Children’s Partnership (LCP) is the delivery arm of Hampshire Children’s Trust at a local level. It supports implementation of the priorities of the Hampshire Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) through local delivery plans. Members retain accountability to their existing governance and management arrangements; coming together to agree common priorities and action to improve outcomes for local children and young people. It is based upon direct involvement from all schools and partners in an area and is key to improving a wide range of outcomes (both educational and social) for children and young people.

Membership

Membership of the CVC Local Children’s Partnership is open to all stakeholders,

agencies and partners involved with children and families in the catchment areas ofThe Costello School, CranbourneBusiness & EnterpriseCollege and The Vyne Community School. Partnership members will have an opportunity through sub committees, for direct engagement to ensure that the process of identifying local need is met, and in agreeing common priorities and delivering action plans.

The Steering Group will be made up of members drawn from a cross section of Education, Children’s Services, Health, Childcare and the Voluntary Sector, representing the community related to Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College, The Vyne Community school,The Costello School,Dove Houseand Maple RidgeSpecialSchools, their feeder primary schools and the wider community related to the school catchment areas. Members will usually be appointed for a 2 year academic period.

  1. The steering group membership will include:
  • The District Managers E&I and C&F
  • Headteacher/nominated representative from the secondary schools
  • Headteacher/nominated representative from the Primary Schools
  • Headteacher/nominated representative from the Special Schools
  • A representative from Health services
  • A representative from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
  • Arepresentative from Children’s Services Department
  • Arepresentative from Post 16
  • A representative from Services for Young Children
  • Arepresentative from Children Centres
  • Arepresentative from local police
  • Arepresentative from the Voluntary Sector
  • A representative from the Ashwood Centre
  • A representative from Housing Association
  • A representative from Basingstoke Consortium
  • A representative from Job Centre Plus
  • A representative from Wessex YOT

The quorum will be 6representing a minimum of three separate partner agencies.

Meetings

  • Four meetings will be held over the academic year – two in the autumn term, one in the spring and on in the summer term. Dates for the year will be set in advance and members should be prepared to commit to attending these meetings.
  • The chair of the Steering Group will be elected from the group annually in the Autumn Term.
  • The chair will be responsible for the sending out agendas, papers, reports and minutes which will be supplied seven days prior and ten days following the meeting in question.
  • Chairs for the sub groups will be selected from the steering group. They will be responsible for reporting back information from the sub groups and providing the link with the steering group.
  • Decisions made by the LCP will be by way of majority vote. In the event of there being no majority, the Chair shall have the casting vote.
  • Members of the LCP will be expected to declare any pecuniary interest or conflict of interest in matters being discussed by the group and withdraw from the discussion and voting on these matters. This should be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

The LCP responsibilities

Children and Young People’s Partnership

  • To draw up a Delivery Plan for the CVC LCP based on the priorities from the Hampshire CYPP, identifying the contribution of local partners and through consultation with stakeholders and the sub-committee members who will deliver the plan;
  • To delegate items on the Delivery Plan to the appropriate sub-committee and receive reports on their progress;
  • To report back to the Hampshire Children’s Trust twice-yearly (April and October) on progress of the Delivery Plan;
  • To monitor outcomes and measurement of impact providing support and challenge within the partnership;
  • To continue to audit local need to inform the Delivery Plan in order to promote a focus on the needs of children and young people within the local community (including the sharing of data to support needs assessment and performance management);
  • To promote the participation of children and young people in service design, delivery and evaluation, in line with Hampshire County Council’s Participation Strategy;
  • To manage any funding allocated to the LCP and to ensure that it is used in accordance with the funding guidelines and a clear audit trail is kept for reporting purposes;
  • To be the local commissioning and delivery capability of the Children’s Trust – pooling budgets and influencing partners in the deployment of resources;
  • To strengthen local networks to enable effective integrated working across children’s services in an area, developing the sense of community;
  • To guide and support integrated working to focus on key performance improvements, across agencies and boundaries;
  • To improve educational inclusion;
  • To strengthen the links between local partners and Hampshire Children’s Trust;
  • To plan and hold an annual stakeholder / information sharing event;
  • To, over time, take direct responsibility for the improvement of agreed and defined outcome as set out in the CVC LCP Action Plan.
  • To co-ordinate early intervention and prevention activities.

Accountabilities

  • All members share accountability for the work of the LCP, in addition to being accountable to the organisations that they represent.
  • Each LCP member is responsible for:
  • taking collective responsibility for the development of children’s services in the local area by developing partnership;
  • representing the views of their organisation, partnership or sector;
  • making decisions on behalf of their organisation or seeking the ratification for decisions;
  • reporting back to that organisation and other groups with whom they work;
  • acting with integrity, objectivity and honesty in the best interests of the LCP and the community.

Use of resources

Maintained schools (including federations) and further education colleges: the legal foundation for delegation and joint decision making by majority vote for schools is provided by The Collaboration Arrangements(MaintainedSchools and Further Education Bodies) (England) Regulations 2007.

Other partners (including academies): are prohibited from decision making on the use of maintained schools’ resources; they are able to contribute their own resources for LCP use; and decide upon the use of these resources.

Local Authority resources: any resources delegated by the Local Authority to the LCPwill be managed by a ‘banker’ school. The LCP must be able to evidence consensus in the use of this resource, and also comply with Hampshire County Council financial regulations, procedures and management policy; contract standing orders and procurement guidance; and Children’s Services Department budget monitoring requirements.

Any funding received via any other funding streams will be managed by a ‘banker school’. The banker school will provide quarterly financial reports to the CVC LCP in order to monitor allocation/expenditure of any monies received.

The LCP will be responsible for drawing up, entering into and monitoring agreements with third party providers delivering services on behalf of the partnership.

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