Winchester Local Children’s Partnership

Notes from Meeting held on 22nd November 2011

The Westgate School, Winchester

Attendees: / Louise Chapman – Twyford St Mary CE Primary School
Julie Amies – Senior Sports Officer, HCC (Chair)
Paul Nicholson – The Westgate School
Lesley Tarling – Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
Donna Beckford – Area Manager, Post 14 Learning, HCC
Debbie Dean – Team Manager, Youth Support Service, HCC
Mike Simpson – CEO, YMCA Winchester
Peter Stokes – Youth Worker, HCC
Matthew Haynes – Childrens Services, HCC
Ian Massey – County Inspector, Childrens Services
Apologies: / Neil Hopkins, Sam Severe, Lin Ferguson, Sally Humphries, Jean Humphries, Lorrain Ronan, Karen Digweed, Debra Crook, Eileen Emptage
Action
1. / JA Welcomed the group.
2. / Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
Minutes of last meeting agreed.
Matters arising:
a)  Podium Project at Peter Symonds has received interest from local schools.
b)  Tier 3 CAMHS roadshow – Westgate hosted a day which went very well and was well received by the pupils. It would be useful to open it up to all schools. Helen Dove had agreed to attend the January meeting to inform the group about their restructure.
c)  Environmental First Aid Training – PN and JA have seen the information pack (the course is a CAMHS product). PN thought it was a worthwhile resource but felt it would be better delivered to a group of schools rather than individual courses for each school. It was suggested that the information be cascaded to the cluster group meetings for Headteachers to discuss. JA will circulate the information pack with the minutes of this meeting to the Headteachers.
d)  Girlscan – Via email, Paul Williams had enquired of the 14-19 partnership whether the programme of activities designed for girls in partnership with Streetreach could be scaled up and rolled out to other areas? Paul is keen to deliver things locally to build capacity and to keep funding and resources in the District.
e)  Mike Simpson queried item 8 on page 6 re Winchester area having 0% NEETS, which was felt was not an accurate reflection. He had attended the 14-19 yrs Board meeting, where the September figures for the 12-14 yrs were 9.5% for Winchester, which is higher than Basingstoke or Eastleigh. DD explained that the figures become clearer and more accurate as the year goes on and went on to qualify the figures from Hampshire. / Agreed
JA
3. / Rights, Respect, Responsibility
Ian Massey gave an overview of this Hampshire initiative, which is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The initiative is aimed at all children and all schools, not just mainstream, plus early years settings.
It is now moving beyond schools and being taken out to Children and Families. It may act as a values and vision for LCPs and could be something that is picked up at the LCP conference, where young people could be included to give their perspective on RRR and their experiences.
Quite a lot of Hampshire schools are already involved. Westgate have used it in their Student Council as a driver but also with individual groups of vulnerable children.
The advantage of the scheme is there is no set way of doing it. It releases creativity in both teachers and pupils.
Ian can be contacted by email on for a copy of the overview he gave out at the meeting.
4. / Participation of young people
Item was deferred to the meeting in January 2012
5. / Assessing the level and needs to NEETs in the Winchester area
The YMCA runs St John’s House Youth Café. In the first 6 months, there were 888 visits by NEETs, which equates to between 80-120 young people. The last set of official figures states that Winchester area has a higher level of NEETs than the surrounding areas and with the demise of Connexions, we need to keep track of these young people.
Winchester City Council are commissioning some research on how to engage, assess needs and work with these young people.
It was felt that the size of the problem could increase due to rising unemployment in Winchester, which had previously been fairly low, and that there is a real need to be able to offer real work opportunities for young people to move into. HCC has offered internships for children in care which has been very successful. It is not just about identifying and tracking these young people but being able to create real opportunities for them at the end. It was felt there was also a need to engage more effectively with employers even though times are hard in the recession.
It was agreed that there are different classes/types of NEETs in the area – for example, those who are well qualified but out of work; teenage parents; gap year students; disengaged young people
Statistics show that 5% are NEETs who have no interest in engaging in work and 75% are ‘churn’.
MS suggested that the LCP works with WCC and HCC to carry out the research, which may then form a template for tracking, providing and assessing the needs of NEETs. Some of this information could already be known through the three secondary schools and the colleges in the area.
It was agreed that the LCP would be involved in the research programme through a Task and Finish Group, membership of which would be wider than the LCP, to include people with the relevant expertise.
JA will email to invite participants to help with this specific project. Mike Simpson volunteered to be part of the group. / JA
6. / Winchester LCP Conference
Item was deferred to the meeting in January 2012
7. / Scrutiny Panels for CSI and YSS grants
CSI deadline is 12 noon on 1st December 2011
YSS deadline is 2pm on 21st December 2011
Debbie Dean requested volunteers from the LCP to be part of the assessment panels.
Post meeting – Julie Amies, Mike Simpson, Lorraine Roland, Paul Nicholson and Peter Stokes have volunteered their time. / AF
8. / Update on Therapeutic Early Intervention Support for Primary Age Children
This is progressing and feedback will be given at a later date.
9. / Feedback from Children’s Trust Board
JA to circulate the minutes of the Children’s Trust Board
Post meeting note – these were sent out by email on 22.11.11 / JA
10. / School Places in Winchester
Item was deferred to the meeting in January 2012
11. / Identify priorities in the WLCP plan
Item was deferred to the meeting in January 2012
12. / AOB
The proposal for additional member of the steering group – Early Years District Advisory Teacher – will be put out for consultation by e-mail / JA
13. / Dates of future meetings
Thursday 26 January 2012 a.m. – 10am-12.30pm, Basement meeting room, Mottisfont Court, Winchester
Tuesday 6 March 2012 a.m. – Chute Room, Sparsholt College
Wednesday 9 May 2012 a.m.
Tuesday 3 July 2012 a.m.
Venues TBC – any offers of locations to be forwarded to JA

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