It’s Everybody’s Business
Review of Lewisham’s Children and Young People’s Plan 2012–2015
April 2014
Introduction
This document is a review of progress against Lewisham’s fourth Children and Young People’s Plan. Compiling information and updates from across the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board, this review serves as a stock take and reference tool. It allows the Partnership to review collectively progress against targets and actions to ensure that we are able to meet the objectives we have set for completion in 2015.
The review shows the strong progress that the partnership has made in improving outcomes for children and families in Lewisham. It shows that in some areas improvements remain to be made. As a partnership we are evidence and performance-based and recognise that there is more to do to deliver the outcomes of our plan. We will continue to work together, engaging children, young people and their families, to ensure that we focus on narrowing the gap so that those most at need benefit the fastest.
Summary of the Children and Young People’s Plan 2012 – 2015
Lewisham’s fourth Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) sets out the strategic aims and priorities for all agencies working with children and young people across Lewisham from 2012 to 2015. The plan strengthened the foundations established by previous plans for improving outcomes for children and young people in Lewisham.
The plan was drafted in the context of the economic downturn and government cuts to funding for local authorities which even now continue to impact upon the partnership’s resources and capacity to provide the same level of services previously available. This led to a commitment in the Plan to make every penny of public money work as hard as it possibly could to provide high quality services for our children and young people, with a continued focus on improving outcomes.
The Plan reiterated Lewisham’s long-held vision for children and young people “Together with families, we will improve the lives and life chances of the children and young people in Lewisham” and its three key values:
to put children and young people first every time;
to have the highest aspirations and ambitions for all our children and young people; and
to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people.
The plan also described the robust culture evidenced across the partnership:
· we all work for children
· all Lewisham’s children are all of our concern
· all money is children’s money – we will make every penny count
· we intervene early and target children and families at risk of poor outcomes – including siblings
· we all have personal responsibility to integrate and share information
· there can be no resignation from the Teams Around the Child – we do not just refer on
· we have no wrong door.
Our priorities
The way we work in Lewisham
Lewisham has well–embedded and mature Children’s Partnership arrangements. All partners have agreed to work within a single framework in which services will deliver the vision for our children and young people.
All agencies in Lewisham provide services against our three stage model: universal, targeted and specialist. All Lewisham children and young people must benefit from excellent universal services. Within those services we continue to embed high quality targeted services for those children and young people who may have a problem, so that support can be provided quickly to ensure that problems do not escalate and eventually require specialist services. Our approach to early intervention – including through Children’s Centres and family support services – ensures that children, young people and their families needing targeted services are identified effectively and early and receive the coordinated support they need across all relevant agencies, and that we are therefore improving outcomes by making the best use of our resources.
Crucial to this way of working is Lewisham’s joint commissioning approach which is fundamental to successful partnership working, a shared culture across all partners, better joint working and continued integration of services for children. Our joint commissioning delivers integrated support based on the use of robust evidence and needs analysis as well as effective use of our resources ensuring our services demonstrate value for money. This approach ensures that resources are targeted where they are needed; that there is a continued emphasis on integration; and that levels of need are able to be met with fewer resources.
We know that Lewisham’s population is growing at an accelerated rate. There is a growth forecast in Lewisham’s population of 27,000 over the next 10 years and we will need to meet the needs of an increasing number of children, with significantly reduced resources and with fewer staff. Over the next five years, the numbers of children aged under 5, and aged 5 to 12 will rise the most. There is a particularly marked increase forecast over the next five years. For 2016, our challenge will be to sustain the partnership’s high performance in delivering effective services within these constraints and to prepare and design services so they are able to cope with the anticipated increase in demand for services.
As before, the plan committed the partnership to demonstrate that across all services it would:
Collaborate – through approaches such as Team Around the Child/Family, through tools like the Common Assessment Framework and through a shared understanding of our workforce.
Be evidence based – with actions and priorities supported by a strong evidence base and a well–established performance management framework which is shared across all agencies.
Be outcome focused – able to demonstrate that we are making a difference to outcomes for children not just to processes or services that surround them.
Be efficient – a commitment to use all the partnership’s resources efficiently and effectively, providing value for money across all partners - ‘all money is children’s money’.
Be inclusive – The partnership is committed to ensuring that every single one of Lewisham’s children and young people is able to access those services that will improve their life chances and choices. Lewisham offers sustained support to those children who are vulnerable, particularly our Looked After Children, children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, young carers and those in the youth justice system.
Listen – The views of children and young people and their parents or carers are vital to improved wellbeing. It is only by listening that services can understand how to meet the needs of the people we serve.
Be innovative – building upon the Partnership’s track record of developing innovative solutions to address complex and entrenched issues.
Key areas of impact
The Plan identified four key areas of impact where the Partnership needed to work together to embed and improve its practice.
Looking forward to 2015 and beyond
This version of the Children and Young People’s Plan was written in the context of reduced public expenditure, with all partners expected to provide high-quality services with less resource. This situation has not changed. With each passing year the partnership’s ability to decrease funding without fundamentally changing the shape and scope of services becomes more constrained.
This Children and Young People’s Plan runs until April 2015. The Partnership will need to start working on developing its strategic goals and commissioning intentions over the course of 2014/15. The Partnership will also need to consider the format, size and scope of the Plan.
Headline achievements and challenges
The table below summarises the headline achievements of the Partnership since the plan was launched in 2012. It also identifies the key areas where further improvement is required.
Be Healthy
Areas of good progress in 2012/2014 / Challenges /Mothers who smoke at time of delivery – down from 8.7% in March 2012 to 2.9% in December 2013. This is the lowest in SE London, and significantly lower than the average for London and England as a whole at 12.8%
Looked After Children who have completed annual health assessments is up from 80.9% in March 2012 to 96.8% as at December 2013 against the target of 93%.
Annual health checks of Looked after children at age 0-4 achieved its target of 100%
Obesity in primary school age children in Reception year is above target
Percentage of LAC received intervention for substance misuse is at a 100%, exceeding the target of 80% / Early access to maternity services remains a low (79% compared to 86% access to maternity services nationally.
Low birth weight babies has remained stable on average, ranging from 8.3% in 2012 to 8.4% in 2013. This above our target of 7.2%. It is also above our statistical neighbours at 8% and 7.4% national average.
Immunisation rates especially MMR2 remain below target.
The percentage of looked after children who complete an initial Health Assessments within 28 days of becoming LAC has dropped from a 100% in December 2013 to 67% in February 2014.
Early access to maternity services remains a low (79% compared to 86% access to maternity services nationally.
Low birth weight babies has remained stable on average, ranging from 8.3% in 2012 to 8.4 in 2013. This is above our target of 7.2%. The levels are also above our statistical neighbours at 8% and 7.4%national average.
Immunisation rates especially MMR2 remain below target.
Stay Safe
Areas of good progress in 2012/2014 / Challenges /Businesses are signing up to the “Safe Havens” roll out scheme for shops and public buildings to become "safe havens" for young people who are at risk of becoming victims of crime or being chased by other gangs. / Issues with cooperation from gun crime victims and witnesses, with 51% of non-fatally shot victims unwilling to work with the police, mainly because they are worried about reprisals from gang members;
Enjoy and achieve
Areas of good progress in 2012/2014 / Challenges /March 2014 Key Stage 1 results for 7 year old pupils for Lewisham average as compared to 2012 results shows Lewisham continues to improve in Reading, Writing and Maths at both Level 2+, Level 2b+ and Level 3+. All the figures are above target
March 2014 Key Stage 2 results (except LAC and FSM) for Lewisham average as compared to 2012 results shows increases in Writing, Maths and the overall combined Reading, Writing and Maths (RWM) at both Level 4 and above and Level 5 and above. The overall combined RWM at Level 4+ was up by 14.6% from 68% in 2012 to 82.6% in 2014. The overall combined RWM at Level 5+ was up by 12.8% from 14% in 2012 to 26.8% in 2014
The number of Looked After Children achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) at Key Stage 4 (with English and Maths) show an increase of 10% from 15% in March 2012 to 25% in March 2014. This is also better when compared to 15.3% nationally / At 39%, LAC Key Stage 2 Level 4 attainment in grammar, punctuation and spelling is behind the national average 45% and our statistical neighbours 55.8%
At 16.2%, FMS Key Stage 2 Level 5 in Reading, Writing and Maths attainment is below the 18% target. Level 4 is also below target by 2.8%
Make a positive contribution
Areas of good progress in 2012/2014 / Challenges /Increased participation by young people in decision making, including a large turn-out in election for Young Mayor
Achieve economic wellbeing
Areas of good progress in 2012/2014 / Challenges /Continuing reduction in 16-18 year olds Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) – down to 3% in March 2013. This is better than the national average 9.6% and our statistical neighbours 5.6%
80% of the Care Leavers in the borough are in Education, Employment or Training. This is better than the national average (66%) and statistical neighbours (70%) / There is a challenge to meet the target on the number of Care Leavers living in suitable accommodation. 87% of care leavers were measured as living in suitable accommodation, compared to 91% in London and 88% nationally.
BEING HEALTHY
Our Priorities
BH1: / Reduce health inequalities by(i) improving uptake of immunisation and
(ii) reducing the number of babies born with low birth weight
BH2: / Improve the health of Looked After Children
BH3: / Further reduce teenage conceptions and reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections
BH4: / Reduce childhood obesity
BH5: / Reduce substance misuse, including alcohol and tobacco
BH6: / Promote mental and emotional well-being
Since 2012, the partnership has broadly sustained its upward trend in the proportion of children immunised at all ages. There have been some particular success stories including the uptake of HPV which, from a low base is now nearing the national target. The uptake of MMR 1 is above the national target. Challenges remain specifically around MMR 2 and the Pre-school booster. Performance against the former currently places Lewisham among the worst performers in London.
In terms of low birth weight, the partnership has not yet seen as much improvement as was hoped for in 2012. The rates are remaining stable. However, the partnership’s focus on this issue means that messages around early access to maternity services and the importance of stopping smoking during pregnancy are understood and reinforced by all the agencies coming into contact with women.