for every child in Lanarkshire
STAGE 2 SYSTEMS CHANGE
Group 10/11.Locality Planning Groups North / South
The locality planning structure was developed at an early stage in the journey of translating Getting it right for every child from a vision to a reality. NHS Lanarkshire encouraged the two local authorities to join forces so that a uniform approach could be developed across all organisations. One of the most compelling reasons for creating a locality structure is to keep decisions about children as local to their community as possible, involving individuals who know the particular profile of each locality.
There are ten localities within the Lanarkshire Partnership, each at different ages and stages of development. They are:
Wishaw
Coatbridge
Airdrie
Cumbernauld
Motherwell
Bellshill
Hamilton and Blantyre
East Kilbride
Cambuslang and Rutherglen
Clydesdale.
The concept of the locality planning groups is that they retain responsibility and accountability for all children and young people within their local areas. Locality planning groups will help to make sure that every possible option is considered, explored and exhausted to meet children and young people’s needs within the resources available within local communities.
The task of this group is straightforward. This group is asked to bring the discussions from yesterday to the concept of locality planning groups to review and clarify its purpose and how it can contribute to systems change. It may be that yesterday’s activities have helped to confirm the purpose and function of locality planning groups or that group members wish to clarify certain elements. Areas of disagreement should be recorded as well as the agreed views of the group.
Task for Group 10/11: Locality Planning Structures- Spend time carefully considering the discussions about the core components and how they fit with existing processes including the locality planning structure. Discuss and record the group’s views and responses to any of the materials provided.
The understanding of locality planning amongst the group varied considerably therefore there was significant discussion about how this works at present and what issues arose. The issues highlighted were:
Confusion about roles and purpose of meetings
Different GIRFEC model or different application of the model in different localities
Role of elected member
Where do Adult Services fit in?
Role of Community Development and Learning staff
Level of intervention
Role of voluntary sector in area managers group
How do families benefit from all the different meetings?
Has the process stalled on the introduction of the GIRFEC project team?
What is happening to the Integrated Assessment Framework?
Need to map children’s journey through the process
Coterminosity issues
Different legislative processes seem to be barrier – Hall4 /ASL
Role of the Child Protection Committee.
2. Consider and record the other multi-agency structures that are taking place at a locality level and how these locality planning structures relate to each of them. Discuss the capacity that this represents for single agencies. Work this out if possible as a proportion of time and a proportion of the total resource available within single agencies.
Area Coordination Group
Multi-agency forum
Area Managers Group
Problem solving group
Area Resource Groups
Pre-scat
Eymat
Learning Community meetings
Joint Assessment Teams
Local Care partnership meeting
Future Planning partnership
Child Protection meetings
All these meetings have a different focus and different levels of management representation
Discussed how we could streamline these meetings and make better use of resources
What delegated authority do the meetings have
What budgets can be shared
How are the views of children and young people represented at these meetings
3. Discuss, agree and record whether there are any opportunities to streamline and simplify any further than has been done already.
The opportunities to streamline would be dependant in part on what resources the area managers meeting has at its disposal
AMG seen as having a central coordinating role
Develop locality specific services to meet local needs
Involvement of voluntary sector in planning and delivering services within localities is varied and sometimes limited
Current financial climate and its effect on the voluntary agencies and in general service delivery is significant.
4. Record the changes, if any, that might help to support systems change and the steps that would have to be taken to get there.
5. Discuss and record any other issues not included in any other section, listing any areas the group could not agree upon.
Terms of reference of the various groups to be determined and communicated clearly to stakeholders
Operational function, remits and limits to be established
How will outputs and outcomes be measured and evaluated
What are the information/reporting arrangements within/between groups
Need to identify fuller:
What works well
What needs to improve
What needs to cease because of duplication elsewhere or has limited effect
How do we provide/ establish delegated authority/autonomy between partners
Training/team building/learning events