Strategic Board Meeting
Date / Wednesday 11 July 2012
Time / 9.00am
Venue / Cort Bar, Henry Cort Community College
Chair / Carol Allington / Churches Together & Chair of LCP
Bob Gellett / Henry Cort Community College
Charlotte Weavers / Headteacher, Sarisbury Infant School
Chris Roberts rep. for / Malcolm Cooke Assist. Director, KIDS S. East
Connie Hockley Cllr / Executive Member for Community, FBC
Gill Sommers / Director of Faculty, Fareham College
Janie Millerchip / Community Development Manager, FBC
Jeff Ballard / Area Manager, Wessex Youth Offending Team
Lisa Humphreys / District Manager, Children and Families, HCC
Maria Calway-Kennedy / F&G YSS Manager HCC
Paul O’Beirne / CE, Community Action Fareham
Rena Randall / Headteacher, Red Barn, Primary School
Steph Morley / Team Manager, Fareham Locality Team C&F
Steve Cottrell / District Manager, Education & Inclusion HCC
Apologies / Chief Insp. Jason Kenny / G&F District Commander, Hampshire Police
Chris Toner / Headteacher, Baycroft School
Christine O’Dea / Locality Clinical Manager, HCHC
Claire Comrie / Student rep from Fareham College
Jane Hoggarth / Headteacher, Oak Meadow Primary School
Sam Severe / Children’s Centre Support Officer, HCC
In attendance / Bob Bax / Rotary Wessex
David Hubbard / SkillForce
Lynne Meechan / Participation Officer, Children & Families HCC
Sue Wilson-Smith / Administrator Fareham LCP (minute taker)
Action
1 / Welcome and apologies
Chris O’Dea has now left the area and Kath Clark will return as our HCHC representative in September.
Chris Roberts (representing Malcolm Cooke – Kids) and David Hubbard (Skillforce) were welcomed to the meeting.
2 / Election of Chair, Vice-Chair and Chairs for practitioner groups
Nominations were requested for the position of Chair. Carol Allington was proposed by Connie Hockley, seconded by Jeff Ballard. This appointment was agreed unanimously.
The Chair then requested nominations for the position of Vice-Chair. Paul O’Beirne was proposed by Charlotte Weavers and seconded by Carol Allington. This was agreed unanimously.
Charlotte Weavers agreed to continue as Chair of the 0-7 year practitioner group if there were no other nominations. This was agreed by the Board members.
Steph Morley will continue as Chair of the 7-14 year practitioner group for the next meeting on 12 September; however she will step down after this date and ask the group members for nominations for a new Chair.
Bob Gellett will continue as Chair of the 14 – 19 year practitioner group for the next meeting on 12 September; however he will step down after this date and ask the group members for nominations for a new chair.
These arrangements were agreed by the Board members. / Steph Morley
Bob Gellett
5 / The following agenda item was brought forward.
Short presentation by Bob Bax from Rotary Wessex ‘Our Children Our Future’ coordinator. To give a flavour of the activities that Rotary can provide to support pupils with education and welfare issues.
Bob Bax introduced himself and explained that following the UNESCO ‘Report of the Child’ in 2009, the Wessex Rotary District has been striving to find ways to help local children. They are seeking to expand the ‘Our Children Our Future’ programme which has taken place in Southampton, and use the capabilities of 74 Clubs instead of just 5.
He called it ‘structured philanthropy’. Aimed at 0-19yrs, KS1 – KS4. There will be a meeting on 5 October 2012 hosted by Rotary when practitioners/schools will be invited to state what is needed locally. They will then work together finding people and resources to match identified challenges.
The Chair thanked him for the short presentation and the members agreed that this will be discussed in more detail at the next meeting (after the Practitioner Groups have considered this) in September 2012, prior to the meeting that Rotary will host in October. / All
3 / Minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2012
The minutes were approved as a true record.
Action points arising
3. Portchester School was approached to provide a presentation about their project to monitor students throughout their school life however this was declined because of lack of staff capacity.
5. Sam Severe agreed to provide a new ‘fools guide’ to explain the set- up of the Children’s Centres following the staff structure with contact details for key members of staff.
9. Janie Millerchip agreed to circulate guidance on the use of hand held devices once the Local Safeguarding Partnership has agreed on the new practices and a document has been produced.
9. A reply has been received from Cllr Perry in response to the letter sent by the Chair on behalf of the members of Fareham LCP. This reply will be circulated to members by email. / Sam Severe
Janie Millerchip
Sue Wilson-Smith
4 / Urgent Business Items
There were no urgent business items.
6 / Budget 2011/12 – updated information sent out by email.
The budget document has been updated since the last board meeting. The Chair explained that she was not aware of any new funding for this year, except for an allocated to each LCP for administration and/or co-ordination.
Charlotte Weavers has agreed that Sarisbury Infant School will manage the Fareham LCP funds for 2012/13.
7 / Children's Services Integrated Grant programme for 2012. A panel needs to be convened on 19 July 2012 – information has been sent out by email.
The Chair explained that a meeting needs to be held next week to manage this grant programme.
The following members agreed to take part; Carol Allington, Paul O’Beirne, Connie Hockley, Janie Millerchip. (Richard Sullivan and Matt Healey will also be asked to attend). The Chair invited any other Board Members if they would like to attend.
Post meeting note – this meeting took place on 18 July 2012. / Sue Wilson-Smith
8 / To consider the grant request for the ‘Recruit and Train’ project – all Fareham head teachers have been asked for their comments and the Practitioner Group meetings support the bid. The original grant request form and feedback information has been sent out by email.
This was discussed by the Board who had seen the feedback from the headteachers. The Chairs of the Practitioner groups agreed that the feedback from their meetings was positive. There was some discussion about sustainability.
Steve Cottrell was keen to state that the more successful the LCPs are seen to be, the more funding will be available from HCC. There has been some good practice with FBC contributing financially to some projects.
The grant for £3k was approved. / Paul O’Beirne
9 / Discussion about students attending every 14-19 Practitioner meeting. This was agreed at the last Strategic Board meeting. Bob Gellett, Chair of the 14-19yrs practitioner group would like to invite students to specific meetings only.
Bob Gellett explained that he would like to amend the invitation to students to attend every 14-19yr practitioner group meeting to just two meetings a year. There were logistic problems with getting students to the meetings and attending 6 meetings a year would be difficult. The first meeting would be structured so that the students could contribute to discussions and give suggestions for projects. The second meeting would be a chance to review progress. This was agreed.
The details of this would be agreed at the next 14-19yr Practitioner Group meeting. / Sue Wilson-Smith
10 / Homeless Fareham youths – the Youth Offending Team have concerns about the lack of hostel accommodation for 16-21 year olds who are leaving custodial sentences and need to be tagged. This issue was raised at the recent 14-19 year practitioner group meeting.
Jeff Ballard explained the problem with homeless youths who cannot be supported by YOT or children’s services if they have no suitable accommodation. Parents will sign release forms to get the children out of detention but when they turn up at home, some parents refuse to house them. When it is impossible to house and tag an individual then they have to remain in secure accommodation.
The members agreed that this was a major problem in Fareham with a lack of hostel accommodation for youths – up to 21 years. Lisa Humphreys stated that for all children presenting homeless 73% come from the Gosport and Fareham area.
It was suggested that Fareham LCP as a group comment on the consultation process for the new community North of Fareham. Requesting that youth hostel provision be a key requisite for the planning permission. The consultation closes at the end of July 2012.
Post meeting note
A Gosport LCP sub-group ‘Supporting Families and Communities’ met recently and there was some considerable debate regarding the situation in the Borough. Several members expressed an interest in taking this debate further and working with Fareham Colleagues to explore how we can reduce this problem. Maria Calway-Kennedy and Jeff Ballard will attend future meetings. / Sue Wilson-Smith
Maria Calway-Kennedy
Jeff Ballard
11 / Practitioner Group Feedback – draft minutes of meetings on 20 June 2012 sent out by email.
Members of the group had seen the draft minutes. The Chair stated that a recurring issue was about family mental health issues and how to tackle them. There was some discussion about the health representative for Fareham LCP and how we can use their knowledge to signpost practitioners to the correct services. It is a complex landscape with some major changes to adult mental health services.
The Chair agreed to contact Christine Jackson, Acting Director of Public Health, NHS Hampshire to discuss the health representation at Fareham LCP and for some guidance on the new way forward with Clinical Commissioning Groups now evolving.
Post meeting note Carol contacted Christine. Further information is to be gathered about Mental Health issues. Christine agreed that we have the right Health representation at the Strategic Board level. / Carol Allington
12 / Integrated Youth Service Update
Maria Calway-Kennedy gave an update. The YSS commissioned work is all done with a staggered approach. There is one organisation to deliver the 6 lots across Gosport for health and wellbeing. Fareham is split into West, centre and East.
Hub provision – all commissioned services are delivering. Portchester has 50/60 youths a night. Genesis has 70 names on their list with about 50 attending regularly. They have targeted and detached work to report on. The detached work has not taken place for 18 months so there is a lot of catching up to do.
A task and community group has been started, attended by police, FBC, PCSOs and Cllrs to tackle a serious substance misuse in the area. There are is a known network of dealers who use push bikes in the western wards, this leads to increases in debt and drug misuse including legal highs.
The NEET drop-in at Xperience Centre has seen lower numbers than expected. There are a high percentage of ‘unknowns’ across Hampshire, mostly because of the lack of monitoring last year.
The commissioned services have been asked to provide (nameless) case studies to be available for the use of the LCPs.
13 / Partner Organisation Report on relevant developments in their own organisations of interest to the LCP (brief verbal update).
Jeff Ballard stated that Ian Langley, Ex Head of Hampshire YOT has been appointed as the Strategic Co-ordinator for the Hampshire’s Supporting (Troubled) families programme. Work is underway to implement the programme across the county.
Lynne Meechan reported that the Hampshire County Youth Conference took place last week, a member of Fareham Youth Council attended. Transport, road safety and teenage pregnancy was discussed, a report will follow shortly. The next youth conference is on 19 November 2012 at Winchester. (Please note - Lynne Meechan leaves on maternity leave on 7 August).
Paul O’Beirne was concerned that a lot of staff appear to be leaving Oak Meadow Centre. He asked that Sam Severe bring an update to the next meeting. It is National Play Day on 1 August, Community Centres will be taking part. / Sam Severe
14 / Items for the next agenda.
Consultation on early help and the role of locality teams within Hampshire Children’s Services – Steph Morley
Discussions on the projects and wish list that Fareham LCP will present to Wessex Rotary at the meeting on 5 October 2012.
Steve Cottrell – ‘Changing Landscape of the Education System’
To agree dates of future meetings until the end of 2013.
Sam Severe - Update on the new staff structure and a ‘fools guide’ for members following the reorganisation of the Children’s Centres by 4Children. Postponed until November 2012.
Developing a joint vision for the future delivery of children's centre services – update from a meeting attended by Sam Severe.
Update on homeless hostel for youths in the Gosport and Fareham area.
Update on the sub-group to discuss youth involvement.
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 26 September 2012 at Fareham College.
The meeting finished at 10.30am
Minutes of LCP Strategic Board Meeting – 11.07.12
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