Strategic Board Meeting
Date / Wednesday 23 May 2012
Time / 9.30am
Venue / FarehamCollege
Present / Bob Gellett / HenryCortCommunity College
Charlotte Weavers / Headteacher, SarisburyInfant School
Chief Insp. Jason Kenny / G&F District Commander, Hampshire Police
Connie Hockley Cllr / Executive Member for Community, FBC
Gill Sommers / Director of Faculty, Fareham College
Janie Millerchip / Community Development Manager, FBC
Maria Calway-Kennedy / F&G YSS Manager HCC
Chair / Paul O’Beirne / CE, Community Action Fareham
Rena Randall / Headteacher, Red Barn, Primary School
Sam Severe / Children’s Centre Support Officer, HCC
Steph Morley / Team Manager, Fareham Locality Team C&F
In attendance / Lynne Meechan / Participation Officer, Children & Families HCC
Sarah Gibbs / 4 Children, County Manager
Sue Wilson-Smith / Administrator Fareham LCP (minute taker)
Apologies / Carol Allington / Churches Together & Chair of LCP
Chris Toner / Headteacher, BaycroftSchool
Christine O’Dea / Locality Clinical Manager, HCHC
Jane Hoggarth / Headteacher, OakMeadowPrimary School
Jeff Ballard / Area Manager, Wessex Youth Offending Team
Lisa Humphreys / District Manager, Children and Families, HCC
Malcolm Cooke / Assistant Director, KIDS South East
Steve Cottrell / District Manager, Education & Inclusion HCC
Action
1 / Welcometo allPaul O’Beirne chaired the meeting in the absence of Carol Allington. Everyone was welcomed to the meeting. Gill Sommers is the new board member for Fareham College replacing Catherine Richards.
Post meeting note – the Chair would like to thank Catherine Richards on behalf of the members of Fareham LCP for the work that she did in the last 2 years to help set up Fareham LCP.
2 / Apologies
Noted above.
3 / Minutes of the meeting held on 21March 2012
Agenda Item 12 – 14-19 Practitioner Group, the figure of £130k should be amended to £330k.
Action points arising
Gill Sommers was able to nominate Claire Comrie a student to attend the next Board meeting as our youth representative.
It was agreed that Portchester School would be asked to give a presentation on their project to monitor students throughout their school life. It would be useful to see if this project is suitable for other schools. / Sue Wilson-Smith
Sue Wilson-Smith
4 / Urgent Business Items
None
5 / The new Children’s Centre provider, 4Children represented by Sarah Gibbs, County Manager, gave a short update and an indication of their plans for the centres in Fareham.
Sarah explained that the contract started on 23 April 2012 and they were continuing with the previous programmes in place to provide a seamless transition period. Staff consultation ends on 6 June 2012 following which a new staff structure will be put in place, possibly with an increase of staff because some post have become vacant. Sarah manages Fareham and the southern parishes of Eastleigh. 4Children run 58 children’s centres across the country. They have a commitment to universal services, focusing on the most vulnerable. They will provide strong links in the community and partnerships with schools, family learning and health in the area.
There is a partnership board for each centre. They provide support for 0-5yrs only. After some discussion everyone agreed that practitioners are finding the changes and new mergers confusing and it was suggested that following the agreement of a new staff structure then a ‘fools guide’ needs to be produced to explain any mergers and joint working with contact details for key members of staff. Sarah stated that there would also be some briefing sessions for partners.
Sam Severe confirmed that her job title, Children’s Centre, Support Officer, has not changed but she is now managing 3 areas and 3 HCC nurseries. / Sam Severe
6 / Budget 2011/12 – updated information sent out by email. Board members will be asked to approve the transfer of the 2012/13 LCP budget from Northern Junior School to Community Action Fareham.
The budget was discussed. Some funds (£11k) are expected from HCC for administration costs for 2012/13 but they have not yet been received. The Board agreed that if the funds are sent to Northern Junior School (as they were in 2011/12) then approval is granted to transfer these funds to Community Action Fareham. Rena Randall kindly agreed to clarify this point with the headteachers of Northern Infant and Northern Junior Schools to try to resolve any confusion. / Rena Randall
7 / Request for a grant of £3k from Community Action Fareham to support the Recruit and Train initiative. A request for funding form is to follow
Paul O’Beirne summarised the grant request - Agenda Item 7. There was general discussion about the fact that people with driving licenses obtained after 1997 will be unable to drive minibuses and have to attend anexpensive 5 day course to do so. Therefore older volunteers would be greatly valued as minibus drivers. They could drive any vehicle not just a Community Action minibus.
It was generally agreed that this idea was good and volunteers are needed for trip assistants and minibus drivers. It was clear that different schools had different needs so it was proposed that this project be discussed at all the practitioner group meetings to establish exactly what would be most useful and get some evidence of need. These outcomes will be fed back to the board for the next meeting in July 2012. This proposal was agreed unanimously.
It was also suggested that the idea be emailed out to all Fareham headteachers to get some feedback about the usefulness of the project. / Sue Wilson-Smith
8 / Practitioner Group Feedback – draft minutes of meetings on 25 April 2012 sent out by email.
0-7yrs Charlotte Weavers explained that the project had started but it appeared that identifying 30 children to take part was too ambitious so it has been reduced down to one group meeting at Oak Meadow Children’s Centre supporting 15 children.
Sarah-Jane Scott from Homestart Fareham & Gosport attended this meeting and members generally agreed that she should give a presentation to the Strategic Board.
7-14yrs Steph Morley explained that her health representative was concerned with the increasing number of referrals from schools for behaviour and family issues.
There was also major concern that children over 11 years old that needed counselling had a 3 to 4 month wait to be seen by councillors in the Moving On project. There was some general discussion about this trying to identify where Relate and Moving On and NSPCC fitted into this counselling service. This is an area for further discussion.
Janie Millerchip was able to give information about the Fareham Community Savers scheme which will be rolled out shortly to provide a Christmas saving scheme. This project is funded by HCC, First Wessex Housing and Southern Cooperative.
14 – 19yrs Bob Gellett discussed the issue of present year 9 and 10s having to stay in education until they are 17 years old and year 8s will be staying until they are 18 years old. This will impact on secondary schools who have no capacity to ‘manage’ these pupils as somewill opt for ‘home education’.
There was concern that the Summer diversionary activities – ‘Summer Passport’ that is being provided by Fareham’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP) 13th-20th August have not yet been published. Jason Kenny agreed to raise this at the next CSP meeting.
More funding is being sort to increase the £2k available to publicise the changes to youth services. Gill Sommers reiterated that students from Fareham College would be happy to produce a website or app to help. It was noted that this must not duplicate what ‘youth tube’ is providing. / Jason Kenny
9 / Integrated Youth Service update to include ‘health and well-being’ bids
Maria Calway-Kennedystated that there were 71 care leavers in Fareham and Gosport, there are 45 children in care that her team are supporting from 16-18yrs. 98 transitional plans have been completed for young people with special needs (S139a's). There is a capacity of 20% to support other young people. Hub provisions are now all open.
There are some increases in Fareham of underage alcohol sales and tobacco sales. Other feedback is that there are concerns about ‘risky’ behaviour’ substance misuse, unprotected sexual activity and sex-texting.
Janie Millerchip agreed to circulate newly provided guidance on the use of hand held devices.
The health and well-being bids have been received and there are 2 potential providers. A scrutiny panel meeting will take place in June so that the provider can be in place by September.
There is a need to produced specifications in July for the next part of the commissioning process when a 3 year contact with the possibility to extend for another 2 years is given to providers.
It was suggested that a sub group be created to look at the lots and bring the specifications back to the next board meeting. These will have to consider hub provisions, NEET provision, health and well-being, LGBT and outreach work.
There was some discussion about the need to evaluate and change the specification for services that are barely 2 months in post, some have not started yet (health and well-being). It appears to contradict the HCC policy of consultation and listening to what is required. This appeared again to be a rush job and would risk a poor outcome.
Paul O’Beirne wanted to see the risk analysis which must have been produced to decide that the new services should not roll over for another year, before HCC gran a 3 year contact.
Members generally wanted their feelings about the poor management of this process to be known and requested that a letter be sent to Cllr Perry at HCC to state that Fareham LCP are not happy about this imposed process, that it is not providing best value for money and we are failing the youths in the area with these vital services.
It was understood that Fareham LCP would have to work within the system dictated. Maria Calway-Kennedy agreed to provide guidance for a sub-group of Janie Millerchip, Bob Gellett, Paul O’Beirne and Carol Allington to meet and discuss the amended specifications prior to the next board meeting. / Janie Millerchip
Carol Allington
Marie Calway-Kennedy
10 / Youth Conference Recommendations – relevant information about Fareham has been extracted from the recent report and sent out by email.
Lynne Meechan explained that the information provided at this meeting was part of the main report and only listed the written outcomes of discussions that took place. It was not able to record the detailed and at sometimes heated discussions that happened in the Fareham group.
Sue Wilson-Smith agreed to provide a summary of the main report so that it gave some background to the questions being asked.
It was agreed that students from the main secondary schools represented at Fareham LCP be invited to attend the 14 – 19 practitioner group meeting. This would be;
- Henry Cort Community College
- Portchester School
- Cams Hill School
- Neville Lovett School
- Brookfield School
Carol Allington
11 / Partner Organisation Report on relevant developments in their own organisations of interest to the LCP (brief verbal update).
There was no new information.
12 / Future Conference – ideas about themes and a key speaker to be discussed.
It was agreed that this would be discussed at the next meeting.
13 / Items for the next agenda.
Future conference – ideas and themes and a key speaker to be discussed.
Consultation on Early Help and the role of locality teams within Hampshire Children’s Services
Steve Cottrell - ‘Changing Landscape of the Education System’
Presentation from Portchester School about their project to monitor students throughout their school life.
Request for a grant to support the ‘Recruit and Train’ initiative after it has been discussed at Practitioner meetings in June 2012.
Date of meeting: 11 July 2012 at Henry Cort Community College.
The next meeting will take place at 9am at Henry Cort Community College so that after the meeting members can visit a presentation being given by Skills Force.
The meeting finished at 11.55am.
Minutes of LCP Strategic Board Meeting – 23.05.12
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