Improving Outcomes: Performance Management Framework for Hampshire Children’s Trust

Issue Date / Date of last review / Date of next review / Staff Involved
29 January 2010 / N/A / 1 April 2011 / DH/LB

Improving Outcomes: Performance Management Framework for Hampshire Children’s Trust

Contents

Introduction4

Purpose4

Hampshire Children’s Trust6

Local Children’s Partnerships9

Roles and responsibilities11

Hampshire’s Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-1213

Performance management14

Appendices:

Appendix 1: National Indicators19

Appendix 2: Toolkit for the development of local delivery plans24

Appendix 3: Template for local delivery plans27

Appendix 4:Hampshire Children’s Trust performance management 39

structure

Appendix 5: Template for Local Children’s Partnership annual self-40

assessment

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Introduction

Hampshire Children’s Trust represents all those working for, and with, the county’s children, young people and their families. The Trust has a shared vision of making Hampshire a better place for all children and young people, where all of them, including those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, have the best possible start in life and are supported by the whole community to reach their potential (Hampshire’sChildren and Young People’s Plan 2009-12).

This document sets out the performance management framework for Hampshire Children’s Trust, including the 15Local Children’s Partnerships. The framework will demonstrate the effectiveness of the Children’s Trust in improving outcomes for children and young people against the objectives within the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP).

Purpose

The Performance Management Framework for Hampshire Children’s Trustoutlines clear and robust processes to deliver the priorities of the CYPP and support continuous improvements in service delivery across the county. It has been developed in order to:

  • ensure that Hampshire Children’s Trust meets statutory requirements;
  • provide evidence of effective partnership working within the Children’s Trust, supporting inspection outcomes (including the Comprehensive Area Assessment);
  • ensure consistency between Local Children’s Partnerships;
  • clearly define the accountability of all Children’s Trust partners in delivering the CYPP, ensuring that priorities are met and outcomes improved;
  • measure the impact of Local Children’s Partnerships in improving outcomes for local children and young people;
  • enable the identification and sharing of good practice.

The Framework has been developed in line with:

  • Children’s Trustsstatutory guidance on co-operation arrangements, including the Children’s Trust Board and the Children and Young People’s Plan, DCSF Consultation Draft 2009;
  • Children’s Act 2004;
  • Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009;
  • Developing Local Children’s Partnerships, report to Hampshire Children’s Trust Board, 1 July 2009;
  • Are we there yet? Improving governance and resource management in children’s trusts, Audit Commission 2008.

ThePerformance Management Framework is supported by:

  • Hampshire Children’s Trust Governance Framework;
  • Toolkit for the development of Local Children’s Partnership delivery plans (appendix 2);
  • Template for local delivery plans (appendix 3);
  • Template for Local Children’s Partnership annual self-assessment (appendix 5).

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Hampshire Children’s Trust

Background

Hampshire Children’s Trust, formerly known as the Children and Young People’s Partnership, was developed to meet the requirements of the Children Act 2004 – specifically Section 10, the ‘duty to co-operate’. This established a statutory duty for the following bodies to co-operate to improve the well-being of children and young people in an area:

  • local authorities;
  • district and borough councils;
  • police;
  • local probation boards;
  • youth offending services;
  • strategic health authorities;
  • primary care trusts;
  • Young People’s Learning Agency.

The Government has recently strengthened Children’s Trusts by extending the duty to co-operate to maintained schools and academies; sixth form and further education colleges; and Jobcentre Plus. These changes form part of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Children Act 2009, which has also placed the Children’s Trust Board on a statutory footing, with responsibility for developing, publishing and monitoring the CYPP.

Function

The Children’s Trust is responsible for promoting co-operation in order to improveoutcomes for all Hampshire’s children and young people, with a focus on addressing inequalities for those facing the greatest risks and barriers and strengthening support for individual children, young people, their families and communities, where needed. Children’s Trust partners should commission or deliver services which are child and family centred. The Trust is not a separate legal entity - each partner retains its own functions and responsibilities.

The role of the Children’s Trust is to undertake the ‘six essential actions’ of a Trust, as established by statutory guidance (Children’s Trustsstatutory guidance on co-operation arrangements, including the Children’s Trust Board and the Children and Young People’s Plan, DCSF Consultation Draft 2009). These are as follows:

  1. Developing and promoting a local, outcome led vision, set out in the CYPP, to drive improved outcomes for local children, young people and families.
  2. Achieving this through better integrated services, which narrow gaps in outcomes for disadvantaged groups against a background of improved outcomes for all.
  3. Putting in place robust arrangements for inter-agency governance (through the Children’s Trust Board).
  4. Developing integrated strategies such as: joint planning and commissioning; pooled and aligned budgets; shared data and other information; and workforce development (through the CYPP).
  5. Supporting these strategies through integrated processes, supported through effective joint working - sustained by shared language and processes.
  6. Developing and promoting integrated front line delivery, organised around the child, young person or family rather than professional or institutional boundaries.

Hampshire Children’s Trust will meet these requirements by:
  • agreeing priorities for improvement across children’s services through the development and implementation of the CYPP for Hampshire;
  • routinely assessing and monitoring the needs of Hampshire’s children and young people;
  • providing rigorous and robust local safeguarding arrangements, in partnership with Hampshire Safeguarding Children Board;
  • engaging children and young people in the planning, delivery and evaluation of services and provision;
  • working in partnership with parents and carers, and providing information, advice and support when needed;
  • putting in place robust arrangements for interagency governance, with partners coming together to agree common priorities and activities whilst retaining accountability to their existing governance and management arrangements;
  • identifying opportunities for integrated commissioning and developing stronger partnership arrangements, including the alignment of budgets to improve outcomes and provide value for money; and the sharing of data and other information;
  • strengthening and promoting early intervention and prevention strategies through better integrated front line service delivery, organised around the child, young person or their family rather than professional or institutional boundaries;
  • better integration of services to deliver the CYPP vision, including developing closer working between early years settings, children’s centres, schools, colleges and partner organisations – narrowing gaps in outcomes for disadvantaged groups against a background of improved outcomes for all;
  • developing more integrated processes including effective joint working, sustained by a shared understanding of professional language and common systems;

  • providing professional development opportunities to build the skills, expertise and capacity of all those working with children and young people in Hampshire;
  • taking account of Government requirements and responding to external review and inspection.

Membership

Hampshire Children’s Trust Board membership meets the statutory requirements of the Children Act 2004 and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.

The Board includes representatives from:

  • Hampshire County Council Children’s Services Department (the Director of Children’s Services and Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services);
  • District and Borough Councils;
  • Hampshire Constabulary;
  • Hampshire Primary Care Trust and South Central Strategic Health Authority (including a ‘lead GP’);
  • Young People’s Learning Agency;
  • Schools and colleges (also representing 14-19 consortia);
  • Early years settings and Sure Start Children’s Centres;
  • Wessex Youth Offending Team and the Hampshire Probation Service;
  • Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service;
  • Jobcentre Plus;
  • Community and voluntary sector organisations;
  • Appropriate child and parent/carer representation.

All members of Hampshire Children’s Trust Board share accountability for the work of the Trust in addition to being accountable to the organisations that they represent. All members have a mandate to speak for their agency, organisation or sector, meaning that they are able to agree the strategic direction of Hampshire Children’s Trust on behalf of their organisation and ensure that agreements are reflected in their organisation’s plans and strategies.

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Local Children’s Partnerships

Following the establishment of Hampshire’s Children’s Trust and publication of the first Hampshire CYPP in 2006, a range of local partnership activity developed across the county, with the purpose of identifying local priorities and associated plans to improve outcomes for children and young people at a community level.

National developments, outlined by guidance and consultation documents,led to an evaluation of Hampshire’s arrangements for local partnership working. Hampshire Children’s Trust Board considered options for strengthening arrangements to form consistent, effective Local Children’s Partnerships, able to meet both national and local requirements. The key issues to be addressed included the:

  • extension of the duty to co-operate to schools;
  • development of ‘21st century schools’ as the hub for service co-ordination for all children within a community;
  • need to strengthen accountability between local partnership arrangements and the county Children’s Trust;
  • duty of all partners to implement the CYPP;
  • creation of capacity through partnerships and integratedworking;
  • need to align the work of local children’s services partnerships with Local Strategic Partnerships and the delivery of Local Area Agreement targets;
  • delivery of the countyCYPP at a local level.

As a result, the framework for Local Children’s Partnerships in Hampshire has been developed. These partnerships are based upon direct involvement from all schools and partners in an area and are responsible for improving a wide range of outcomes (both educational and social) for children and young people.

Membership

The core membership of each Local Children’s Partnership consists of:

  • schools and academies;
  • sixth form schools, colleges and further education colleges;
  • District/Borough Council(s);
  • local level healthcare managers/providers;
  • local Hampshire County Council Children’s Services Department representatives, including District Manager;
  • local managers/co-ordinators of children’s centres, parent support and other services.

Structure

Hampshire’s Local Children’s Partnerships are based on natural community boundaries and also reflect school catchment areas. The emerging picture identifies a possible 18/19 partnerships (subject to Executive Member approval), covering geographical localities as listed below. However, these arrangements remain under review and are subject to confirmation in March 2010.

Basingstoke / Three or four partnerships (to be confirmed)
East Hampshire / Two or threepartnerships (boundaries to be confirmed)
Eastleigh / Eastleigh East
Eastleigh West
Fareham / One partnership
Gosport / One partnership
Hart / One partnership
Havant / Two partnerships (boundaries to be confirmed)
New Forest / New Forest West
New Forest East
Rushmoor / One partnership
Test Valley / Andover and surrounding area
Romsey and surrounding area
Winchester / One partnership

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Roles and responsibilities

Hampshire Children’s Trust arrangements comprise of:

  • Hampshire Children’s Trust Board;
  • county ‘working groups/sub-groups’ aligned to the Children’s Trust Board;
  • Local Children’s Partnerships.

Hampshire Children’s Trust Board

Hampshire Children’s Trust Board is a statutory body, with specific responsibility for the development, monitoring and review of the CYPP, with the overall aim of improving outcomes for children, young people and their families. Responsibility for implementing the Plan remains with the individual partners of the Trust. The Board will produce an annual report on the extent to which the partners deliver their commitments in the Plan. The report will also include an assessment of the effectiveness of local governance and partnership arrangements for improving outcomes for children and supporting the best possible standards for safeguarding children. The Children’s Trust Board is jointly chaired by the Director of Children’s Services and the Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services.

County ‘working groups/sub-groups’

These groups are responsible for managing or promoting improved outcomes in a particular theme, for example the Teenage Pregnancy Partnership and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Commissioning Group. Groups may also be established to support the work of the Children’s Trust, for example information sharing or data quality. Working groups/sub-groups will report directly to the Hampshire Children’s Trust Board against agreed annual reporting timelines.

Local Children’s Partnerships

Local Children’s Partnerships are the ‘delivery arm’ of Hampshire Children’s Trust at a local level. They are responsible for implementing the priorities of Hampshire’sCYPP through the development and implementation of Local Children’s Partnerships delivery plans. This is outlined in further detail under performance management, below. Members of Local Children’s Partnerships retain accountability to their existing governance and management arrangements; coming together to agree common priorities and action to improve outcomes for local children and young people.

The specific responsibilities of Local Children’s Partnerships are:

  • guiding and supporting integrated working to focus on key performance improvements, across agencies and boundaries;
  • strengthening local networks to enable effective integrated working across children’s services in an area, thus enhancing its sense of community and ‘place’;
  • developing a detailed level of intelligence and understanding of outcomes for children and young people within an area in order to promote a focus on the needs of local communities (including the sharing of data to support needs assessment and performance management);
  • identifying the contribution of local partners to the priorities of the county CYPP through the development of local delivery plans;
  • strengthening the links between local partners and Hampshire Children’s Trust;
  • monitoring, managing and reporting performance against the local delivery plan, including providing support and challenge within the partnership and meeting the reporting requirements of the countyChildren’s Trust;
  • ensuring the participation of children and young people in service design, delivery and evaluation, in line with Hampshire County Council’s Participation Strategy;
  • ensuring educational inclusion;
  • being the local commissioning and delivery capability of the Children’s Trust – pooling budgets and influencing partners in the deployment of resources;
  • over time, taking direct responsibility for the improvement of agreed and defined outcomes, such as reducing teenage conceptions and the proportion of young people not in employment, education or training;
  • co-ordinating early intervention and prevention activities.

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Hampshire’s Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-12

The CYPP2009-12 is the agreed joint strategy of the partners in Hampshire Children’s Trust, establishing the key priorities for improving outcomes for children and young people against all five of the Every Child Matters outcomes.

The Plan does not prescribe in detail what people have to do, or how they have to do it, neither does it attempt to list every initiative or provision. Instead, it provides an overarching framework, promoting a shared vision and a number of priorities, aimed at children, young people, parents, carers and communities. The degree to which these priorities are met will be the measure of the Plan’s success.

The priorities for Hampshire Children’s Trust have been identified through a comprehensive needs assessment of outcomes for children and young people across the county. The table below details Hampshire’s CYPP priorities for 2009-12:

Hampshire priorities
1. / Reducing the incidence and impact of poverty on the achievement and life chances of children and young people
2. / Securing children and young people’s physical, spiritual, social, emotional and mental health, promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing inequalities
3. / Providing opportunities to learn that raise children and young people’s aspirations, encourage excellence and enable them to enjoy and achieve beyond their expectations
4. / Ensuring that children and young people are safe and feel safe, enabling them to build resilience and personal confidence
5. / Providing vocational, leisure and recreational activities that provide opportunities for children and young people to experience success and make a positive contribution
6. / Removing barriers to access, participation and achievement and not tolerating discrimination and abuse

TheImprovement Plan (within Appendix 1 of the CYPP) outlines the actions required to deliver the priorities, with success measures and targets. The Children’s Trust Board is responsible for monitoring the extent to which Trust partners act in accordance with the Plan and to publish an annual report which sets this out.

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Performance management

Hampshire Children’s Trust

Progress against the priorities in Hampshire’s CYPPwill be measured against a number of success indicators outlined in the Improvement Plan. These include Local Area Agreement (LAA) performance indicators and a range of National Indicators (which central Government and local authorities use to monitor their performance and progress against targets).

Hampshire Children’s Trust receives reports on progress against the CYPP twice yearly, with quarterly performance updates against key National Indicators and LAA targets. Therefore, LAA reporting will support the performance management of the CYPP. Reports include summary feedback against key actions using a red/amber/green system and providing disaggregated data sets both at county and district level.