INTEGRATED CHILDREN’S SERVICES
MEETING TITLE: / Integrated Children’s Services Board / MEETING DATE: / Monday16 June 2014
PARTICIPANTS: / Liz Taylor (LT) / Aberdeen City Council / Social Care and Wellbeing (Chair)
Gayle Gorman (GG) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
Sheila Sansbury (SS) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
Lorraine Currie (LC) / NHS Grampian
Kymme Fraser (KF) / Aberdeen City Council / Social Care and Wellbeing
Maggie Hepburn (MH) / ACVO
Susan Devlin (SD) / Aberdeen City Council / Social Care and Wellbeing
John Cairns (JC) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
Neil McLennan (NMc) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
Charlie Penman (CP) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
Elizabeth Templeton (ET) / Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA)
Joyce Duncan (JD) / ACVO
Richard Craig (RC) / Police Scotland
Nicola Jones (NJ) / Police Scotland
Pete Leonard (PL) / Aberdeen City Council / Housing and Environment
Louise Beaton (LB) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport
APOLOGIES: / Stuart Patterson (SP) / Aberdeen City Council /Education, Culture and Sport
Heather MacRae (HMac) / NHS Grampian
Struan King (SK) / Aberdeen City Youth Council
NO. / AGENDA ITEM / NOTES OF DISCUSSION / ACTION/DECISIONS / BY WHOM / WHEN
1. / Welcome and Introductions / LT welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.
Apologies were noted as above.
2. / Minute from Last ICS Meeting for Approval / 2.1 ICS Board held on 31 March 2014
The minutes from the ICS Board meeting held on 31 March 2014 were agreed as an accurate record.
2.2 Matters Arising
· Item 4 – Risk Register (high level) to be completed.
· Item 5.1 – The Scottish Government Children’s Implementation Team has advised that it is going through a degree of re-structuring and was unable to attend the meeting today. However they may be able to attend September meeting. LB is attending a Children in Scotland event on 18 June regarding the implementation of the respective parts of the new Children and Young People (Scotland) Act.
· Item 6.1 – SD advised that several meetings have taken place with relevant partners in relation to Pre Referral Screening and confirmed that an agreed point has been reached. A position has been agreed with Police Scotland about the need to share the best possible information in order to support Named Persons in the delivery of their responsibilities. Police Child Concern Forms will go to Social Care and Wellbeing, with minor issues straight to the Named Person. Social Care and Wellbeing is currently resourcing an Admin Worker to support Pre Referral Screening. Partners are currently in discussion about Pre Referral Screening being situated at the Joint Child Protection Unit at Bucksburn.
· Item 6.2 – LT is in discussions with Police Scotland, the Reporter and Fiscal about holding a seminar in August about maintaining a whole system approach in Youth Justice in the city.
· Item 6.3 – SK wrote to LB to advise that he is standing down as Chair of the Aberdeen City Youth Council. A new Chair for Aberdeen City Youth Council will be elected next week.
· Item 7 – SD agreed to give an update on Reclaiming Social Work programme at September meeting. / Carried forward as an action.
Briefing report to be circulated.
It was agreed that Pre Referral Screening (PRS) would be retained as the name for this multi-agency process.
A meeting of partners will be held next week to finalise the paper. This will include standards around timescales, multi-agency information sharing and common thresholds.
The reviewed PRS process will be operational once the paperwork has been concluded.
New Chair to be invited and welcomed onto ICS Board. / LB / Lead Officers
LB
SD
LT
Chair / LB
SD / September
August
asap
3. / New ICS Governance and Planning Structure / 3.1 ICS Board – Final Version Role, Remit and Membership for Approval
The paper was updated and recirculated following the last meeting. The final version of the Role, Remit and Membership paper for the ICS Board was circulated with the agenda papers.
3.2 Update on Implementation of new Structure
An update on the implementation of the new ICS governance structure was circulated with the agenda papers.
· All groups have met since the last ICS Board meeting on 31 March 2014.
· The Integrated Children’s Services Chief Officers Group met on 27 May. Role and Remit approved.
· The Improvement and Performance Group has met twice. Role and Remit approved. The group has focussed on Outcome Group reporting via Quality Indicators Framework; Early Years and PACE Improvement Programmes; the Children and Young People’s Audit; Year 3 Update of Integrated Children’s Services Plan 2011-15; and preparation for joint inspection.
· The Aberdeen City Child Protection Committee (Safe Outcome Group) is meeting regularly. It has a recently approved Constitution following the disaggregation of sub-committee last year.
· The Healthy and Active Outcome Group has met twice and has approved a Role and Remit.
· The Nurtured Outcome Group has met and has approved a new Role and Remit.
· The Achieving Outcome Group has met and has a draft Role and Remit out for consideration.
· The Responsible Outcome Group has met and has appointed a Lead Officer. A draft Role and Remit is out to members for consideration. A development workshop is being held on 3 July to confirm the Action Plan for 2014-15.
· The Respected and Included Outcome Group has met and also has a draft Role and Remit out for consideration.
· All Role and Remits were circulated with the agenda papers for noting. / The ICS Board Role, Remit and Membership paper was approved.
PL asked about reporting. SD advised that the Improvement and Performance Group would have an overview of all ICS Outcome Groups and future reporting would be based on the Quality Indicators Framework.
To be approved by next meeting.
To be approved by next meeting.
Noted. / JC
NJ / September
September
4. / Performance Update: Focus on Achieving Outcome Group – Aberdeen Guarantees / Neil MacLennan and John Cairns gave an input on Aberdeen Guarantees. A paper was circulated. Key points as follows:
· ECS Directorate has recently made increasing positive destinations one of its four service priorities.
· Over the past four years, positive destinations have increased from 82.7% in 2008/09 to 91% in 2012/13.
· To deliver on the new service priority and to further increase positive destinations, a range of developments are planned for 2014.
· The main action for this year is to rebrand all Youth Employment Activity in the city, as a seamless employability pipeline into positive destinations, to ‘Aberdeen Guarantees’.
· Aberdeen Guarantees will represent a partnership commitment to providing learning, training and work opportunities to all 14-25 year olds.
· Aberdeen Guarantees will be used to profile a range of approaches, pre and post school, which are already in place to support young people.
· Aberdeen Guarantees will be formally launched at an event on Tuesday 2 September 2014.
· JC gave a short demo of the Aberdeen Guarantees website which is also being developed and will be launched to pupils and parents during the new school term. The website will profile all work on one comprehensive site and will have links to social media.
· Work is also ongoing with Skills Development Scotland to produce a new version of the Youth Employment Activity Plan. The plan sets out local opportunities for young people against a five stage employability pipeline, where stage one provision supports young people furthest from learning (e.g. Activity Agreements) and stage five which supports young people who are in work.
· This links with key community planning performance targets and Single Outcome Agreement.
SD asked if a newsletter distributed to young people at Craigielea and Westburn could be made accessible to young people out of the city who are returning.
GG confirmed that opportunities for looked after children and those with additional support needs would be a targeted area of Aberdeen Guarantees. For example internship and promotion of corporate parent.
NMc and JC were thanked for their informative input.
NMc left the meeting at this point. / Note date for diaries.
Agreed. / All
JC / 2 September
5. / National Strategic Policy Drivers / 5.1 Children and Young People (Scotland) Act – Update
Early Learning and Childcare – Draft Statutory Guidance was circulated with the agenda papers.
SS advised that the Scottish Government has not issued finalised guidance in advance of the Referendum. It has been sent out as draft guidance but it is not anticipated it will change significantly. SS noted that the guidance is helpful but some clarity has been requested.
The Nurture Outcome Group has responded on behalf of partners.
Proposal for the Development of guidance to support the GIRFEC provision was circulated with the agenda papers.
SS advised that guidance has been produced as a result of a number of events held. The main content focuses on information sharing, safe practices and processes.
The GIRFEC Implementation Group will respond on behalf of partners. The key message to the Scottish Government will be on impact.
SS noted that some partners may also wish to make individual responses.
5.2 National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2014
The awaited new National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2014 has recently been published and was circulated with the agenda papers.
KF advised that the new guidance is a modern version of the previous guidance, which now includes GIRFEC and the National Practice Model. It also includes Forced Marriage and Children Missing from Education.
KF advised that the Scottish Government have declined to produce a summary version. However, she felt there would be great value in having a succinct local version.
LT indicated that she had hoped to see North East guidance on a North East basis. However, indications suggest this is not imminent. LC also expressed her disappointed at this.
5.3 Welfare Matters – Update
A written update on Welfare Matters which was circulated at the meeting.
PL highlighted key points:
· Welfare Matters is a reform programme taking forward a number of Welfare Matters activities and promoting cross-service working. For example, The Hub at Ebury House is now fully operational and a Satellite based in Tillydrone has been established, marketing materials are being developed to advertise those services. A bid to be a pilot in the Universal Credit Roll-out is being developed along with a bid for European funding, SLAB and the Resilience Fund.
· A new piece of work on the impact of Welfare Reform Changes is being led by the Research Team.
· Updates on Legislative Changes are also been produced. PL highlighted that this affects our employees as well as our ‘customers’. / LT sought confirmation from ICS partners that they were satisfied with views represented. Agreed responses to be circulated to all partners.
LT sought confirmation from ICS partners that they were satisfied with views represented. Agreed responses to be circulated to partners.
Partners to respond as appropriate.
LT suggested that we update local guidance as Aberdeen City Committee as a priority.
SS indicated that Head Teachers are looking for support to sign- post families and agreed to circulate information to schools. / SS / GB
SS / LM
All partners
KF / Child Protection Cttee
SS / asap
6. / Local Strategic Policy Drivers / 6.1 Integrated Children’s Services Plan 2011-15 Year 3 Update for approval
The final draft of the Integrated Children’s Services Plan 2011-15 Year 3 Update was circulated with the agenda papers. Approval was sought from partners.
At section 7.4 (page 33), KF advised that ‘sub’ should be removed from the title of Child Protection Committee.
6.2 Quality Indicators Framework (QIF)
SD advised that the Integrated Children’s Services Improvement and Performance Group has agreed to focus on the Quality Indicators Framework in terms of reporting on performance, rather than the work of individual Outcome Groups. The new Integrated Children’s Services Plan will reflect the QIF themes and also the Action Plan from forthcoming inspection of children’s services.
6.3 GIRFEC Implementation Update
Maturity Model – SS advised that the GIRFEC Implementation Group recently undertook the Maturity Model self-evaluation exercise. The model focuses on five themes and five levels. The Integrated Children’s Services Partnership tested out the model last year.
The outcome of the exercise indications progress has been made on our GIRFEC journey in the past year.
GIRFEC Implementation QA Survey – A headline report outlining key areas was circulated with the agenda papers. There were 373 returns which was very encouraging. SS highlighted that peoples’ understanding of roles, involvement of children in the planning of services, staff engagement, morale, awareness of the Getting it Right website and support to attend development opportunities were all positive.
SD advised she had some concern about the % return on use of guidance tools in carrying out assessments. It was acknowledged that all returns may not have been by the personnel who will be the Named Person. Therefore this could have had a bearing on the results of the survey.
6.4 Integrated Children’s Services (ICS) Conference
A proposal paper for an ICS Conference to be held in September 2014 was circulated with the agenda papers.
Following on from the success of the ICS Conference held on 30 September 2013 and as part of our ongoing communication strategy to cascade key messages to staff and share good practice, it is proposed to hold an ICS Conference on an annual basis.
This year it is proposed to run the event three times – morning, afternoon and twilight, to enable a larger number of staff to attend.
A number of workshops will be offered. Suggestions included: Abby’s room, Reclaiming Social Work, Early Years Collaborative, Domestic Violence / Violence Against Women, Child Sexual Expoitation, Inclusion Review / ASN / Disability, Corporate Parenting, UNCRC.
A headline speaker / conference chair was also suggested.
The date proposed – Wednesday 3 September – conflicts with Reclaiming Social Work programme training. The following week was suggested instead.
6.5 Joint Inspection of Services for Children and Young People in the Aberdeen City Community Planning Partnership Area
SD advised that the inspection process had commenced and highlighted the following key points:
· SD – Inspection Lead
· SS – Inspection Co-ordinator
· Project Team is in place and is working hard.
· Good attendance across all partners.
· Pre Inspection Return has been submitted.
· Sample of 106 children back from Care Inspectorate.
· Self Evaluation and Position statements to be submitted by 18 August 2014.
· Inspectors will be on-site w/b 15 September.
· The proportional week is w/b 13 October. This is one of the October holiday weeks.
· Briefing notes have been prepared and circulated for use across agencies. / LB to amend heading.
The report was otherwise approved.
To enable the report to be published over the summer, the Chair requested any final comments to be submitted to LB by noon on Friday 20 June.
LB advised that a new Integrated Children’s Services Plan would be produced from April 2015.
SS will circulate final report once complete.
Agreed that the survey would be further analysed and a fuller report circulated. This will also flag up key actions.
Proposal to hold conference agreed.
LB to explore alternative dates.
Conference will take place on Tuesday 9 September 2014.
Timetable to be produced.
SD has asked Care Inspectorate if any scope of moving.
Agreed to schedule an additional meeting over summer to look specifically at Quality Improvement Framework. / LB
All
LB
SS / LM
SS /LM
LB
SD / SS
SD
LB / ACTIONED
ACTIONED
April 2015
asap
asap
ACTIONED
ACTIONED
ACTIONED
ACTIONED
7. / AOCB / LC advised that the Family Nurse Partnership programme would start recruitment in September / October for a go live date in February 2015. / LC to keep ICS Board briefed on programme progress. / LC
8. / Meeting schedule for 2014 / Monday 4 August 3.00pm to 5.00pm
Committee Room 2, Town House **
Monday 8 September 3.00pm to 5.00pm
Conference Room, 4th Floor, Marischal College
Monday 3 November 2.00pm to 4.00pm
Conference Room, 4th Floor, Marischal College
Monday 15 December 2.00pm to 4.00pm
Conference Room, 4th Floor, Marischal College / ** Additional meeting scheduled to look at the Quality Indicators Framework in more detail.
MINUTE TAKER: / Louise Beaton, Principal Planning Officer - ICS / DATE OF NEXT MEETING: / Monday 4 August 2014 from 3.00pm to 5.00pm / VENUE: / Committee Room 2, Town House
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