YorOK BOARD MEETING
Date: Monday 2 March 2015
Time: 9.30 – 12.00
Venue: The Severus Room, West Offices
Will Boardman - Business Change & Performance Manager, on behalf of Safeguarding Board
Angela Crossland - YOT Manager
Mike Harvey - North Yorkshire Police
Tricia Head - Virtual Headteacher; Danesgate
Judy Kent - Head of Children’s Trust Unit and Early Intervention
Cllr Janet Looker - Cabinet Member, Children’s Services, Education & Skills (Chair)
Graeme Murdoch - York College
Samantha Parisa - Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for N. Yorkshire
Christine Pearson - Clinical Commissioning Group
Paula Richardson - Acting Head of Service, Early Years & Children's Centres
Dr. Sophie Roberts - CAMHS, Limetrees
Cllr Carol Runciman - Elected Member, City of York Council
Eoin Rush - Assistant Director, Children’s Specialist Services
Maxine Squire - Assistant Director, Education & Skills
Jon Stonehouse - Director of Children’s Services, Education & Skills
Liz Vincent - Directorate Manager, Child Health, York Hospital
Lesley White - Public Health Children and Young People's Manager
In Attendance - Sophie Barnes, Jill Bucklow, Tess Ellis, Carolyn Ford (Minutes), Polly Griffiths, Howard Lovelady, Dawn Moores, Liz Roberts
Apologies: - Jane Botham, Gill Gibson, Wendy Green, Sharon Stoltz,
Rosy Tebbutt, Andy Weir, Dr. Aniela Wenham, Simon Westwood
ACTION
/1. / Minutes of Last Meeting & Matters Arising
The minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2015 were agreed as a true and accurate record of the meeting.
Health Data/Children’s Centres
Live birth data cannot be provided by York Hospital Trust at the moment, despite parents giving permission to share information, as to do so would breach patient confidentiality and the NHS constitution. However, other local authorities do have access to this information and it was agreed that this would need to be resolved outside the meeting. YorOK Board members reiterated their commitment to having live birth data in order to support and provide early intervention for children before they are of school age.
Emotional & Mental Health
Eoin Rush reminded Board members of the CAMHS story board which was presented at the last YorOK Board meeting. In relation to the priority to take a preventative approach to mental health issues, he noted that schools are very keen to tackle this issue and support young people. Two school clusters will take part in an innovative pilot to employ a “go to person” who will provide not only extra capacity, but also support and advice for staff already working with children and young people within the cluster. The pathway to specialist services will also be clearly mapped. Eoin Rush is to confirm the two clusters at the next meeting. Work is currently being undertaken on how best to measure the outcomes from the year-long pilot. These outcomes will be reported back to schools and the YorOK Board before a decision is made as to whether the model is sustainable. The local authority will fund the two posts for one year but, if the project continues, funding options will need to be explored further.
Board members were reminded that the contract for specialist CAMHS Services is currently out to tender and the outcome will be reported at a future YorOK Board meeting. Eoin Rush offered to share the minutes of the CAMHS Executive meetings with the YorOK Board.
Eoin Rush left the meeting at 10am. /
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2. / Trust Update
Judy Kent commented on the following Trust updates:
· YorOK Early Help outcomes report was tabled at the Safeguarding Board and will be included in the Independent Chair’s report to the Health & Wellbeing Board.
· 2015 is the year of assessment and a schedule of learning and development around assessment has been drawn up by the Advice Team. Bookable and bespoke sessions are available upon request.
· The findings from the deep dive in to the spike in children presenting at A&E but not being admitted will be brought to a future meeting.
· “Children Missing Education” guidance and “Child Sexual Exploitation” guidance is now available on the YorOK and Safeguarding Board websites.
· It was noted that some headteachers are unhappy that school staff are being asked to undertake Family Early Help Assessments and Tricia Head agreed to forward examples to Judy Kent to be looked into further. / SS
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3. / Children’s Services Transformation Update
School Improvement
Sector-led school improvement in the city is currently being scoped and an options paper will be presented at the Headteacher’s conference later this month. Schools have embraced this way of working and are currently exploring how they will ensure improvement work is needs-led, how they will provide improvement and how they will be held to account. One option is for an existing forum, the Schools Forum, to be the accountable body.
School improvement work within clusters is starting to become influential although time is needed to embed this work and ensure it is consistent across the city. The School Improvement Commissioning Group is working well and is to be refreshed to enable it to better hold people to account.
The consultation on the proposed structure for the City of York Council School Improvement Team ends on 6 March. The proposal will see a radical reduction in the number of posts to six. Schools have requested that the new structure includes phase specific posts (Primary and Secondary) and that clusters have a named contact. Schools do feel that a relationship with the local authority is crucial for the future.
Children’s Centres
Phase 1 of the Children’s Centre transformation is nearly complete and the new staffing structure in relation to statutory working will be in place by April 2015. Phase 2 will consider how communities can work together and deliver services alongside the statutory services delivered by the local authority. Many of the children’s centres are located on primary school sites and work will be undertaken to explore how schools and children’s centres can work more closely together. This “hub” model will be different for each children’s centre.
Youth Support Services
The YorOK sub-group is looking at how to make Castlegate sustainable for the future. At the Council meeting earlier in the week, funding was agreed to give more time to explore a range of models. The sub-group has already visited the Market Place in Leeds and staff will be attending a central government mutual support programme to explore what is involved in becoming a mutual.
4. / YorOK Performance Monitoring: Quarter Three
YorOK Board members raised several issues in relation to the Scorecard data and Judy Kent agreed to follow up and update the scorecard for the next meeting:
· Some performance indicators do not have quarterly data.
· Some data is only available annually, but is recorded as quarterly.
· Tricia Head agreed to talk to Howard Lovelady about how PEP completion rate data is collected.
· Which young people are included in the Level 3 qualification data PI? Does this include all those students at college and receiving training in work?
· Some YOT data is missing but should be available by the next meeting.
· Exclusion data has gone up in the last year and is described as “bad” but in fact the three year trend is downwards.
Will Boardman arrived at 10.30am.
Judy Kent asked Board members to submit queries about the scorecard to her prior to the next meeting, so that she can have responses in time for the meeting. / JK
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5. / YorOK Forward Planning
New Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP)
The Children’s Trust Unit is leading on the production of the next Children & Young People’s Plan, and a project group has now been set up. The new plan will be launched at the No Wrong Door Conference, which has been postponed until January 2016. The project group has looked at the content and design of other local authority plans, and consultation on the priorities is being undertaken with children, young people, families and practitioners. Board members agreed to the launch of the plan at the No Wrong Door Conference and to engage fully in the production of the plan.
The May YorOK Board meeting will be a private development session to work on the new Children & Young People’s Plan, where board members will reflect on the previous plan and identify aims, objectives and priorities for the future.
Revised Terms of Reference
Board members agreed that the updated terms of reference for the YorOK Board, circulated with the papers for the meeting, be ratified. Judy Kent confirmed that amendments submitted by partners by email had been considered and incorporated.
YorOK Integrated Commissioning Group
With regard to the draft terms of reference for the new YorOK Integrated Commissioning Group (ICG), Graeme Murdoch noted one typographical error and asked Judy Kent to align the objectives and terms of reference. The ICG will not have any resources, employ anyone or directly commission services. However, it will promote partnership working and influence decision making in relation to de-commissioning, commissioning and re-commissioning of services. It will ensure decisions align with the CYPP priorities and the YorOK Board’s aims. The terms of reference were approved, subject to the amendment noted.
A project group for the commissioning of 0 – 19 health services has been set up, with joint accountability to the Council and the YorOK / Health & Wellbeing Boards. It was agreed that the first meeting of the Integrated Commissioning Group would look at the vision for this service and the funding streams available. Tricia Head agreed to attend the Integrated Commissioning Group as headteacher representative until it was clear what membership would involve and who would be best placed to represent schools.
Jon Stonehouse, Director of Children’s Services, will chair the ICG and Carolyn Ford will provide the secretarial support for the meeting. / JK
6. / Safeguarding Update
Will Boardman ran through the proposed new structure of the Safeguarding Board and its sub-groups, and highlighted the Board’s five priorities of Early Help; neglect; domestic abuse (including emotional abuse); child sexual abuse and exploitation; and young people who go missing. The Safeguarding Board has a strategic remit and membership reflects this, with members having a strategic overview but also an awareness of practice on the ground. Board members will be expected to sit on at least one Safeguarding Board sub-group and terms of reference for these are currently being considered. YorOK Board members were pleased to see that some of the sub-groups will report to both the YorOK Board and Safeguarding Board, and this was seen as a strength provided work was not duplicated.
Will Boardman agreed to amend the structure chart to incorporate the YorOK Voice and Involvement Group (this confirmed as a key priority by Board members); and Limetrees. The Safeguarding Board will ensure the child’s voice is a priority for each of the sub-groups, and this will be discussed further with Niall McVicar.
YorOK Board members confirmed that they are happy with the Board’s priorities for 2014/15 and that they should remain the priorities for 2015/16.
Judy Kent confirmed that the Early Help Assurance Report had been completed. / WB
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7. / Vulnerable Groups: Young Carers
The YorOK Board has commissioned a profile of young carers in the city who, under the new legislation, will be entitled to an assessment of their needs. The Care Act 2014 promotes holistic, whole family assessment and planning, this involving Children and Adult Services and Health. It is estimated that in York there are 500 young carers under the age of 18 and, despite the Young Carers’ Centre undertaking awareness raising in schools and youth groups, only 150 are registered with them. The profile of young carers in the city is “work in progress” and Board members were encouraged to contribute to the profile from their agency’s perspective.
Howard Lovelady arrived at 11.20am.
Liz Roberts urged Board members to “notice” young carers and promote the benefits within their own organisations for them. The Young Carers’ Centre is unable to support all young carers in the city and she asked partners and individual services to work together to help them, to support them early and to raise their aspirations so that they have the same life chances as their peers. Liz Roberts confirmed that the centre supports all young carers whether they are supporting parents or siblings with a disability, illness or long term health problem. The centre would not be able to support a young carer under the age of 8 and would instead refer them to the Front Door. The centre could support young carers who translate for parents or interpret for deaf parents, should there be a need.
Judy Kent, Tess Ellis and Liz Roberts had recently met some young carers whose clear message was that they had told us their views before and that they now wanted to see change. They wanted whole-family working, with professionals listening to the needs of the whole family together. They wanted to be listened to as they felt that they had a lot to contribute but that their views were often overlooked. When they did contribute, they wanted feedback. They stated that they were keen to be involved in developing training for professionals.