Newsletter

Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership

Issue 12 April 2015

Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963

Developing priorities for

2016—19 It’s not that

far away!

In 2016, the partnership will publish a new plan for children, young people and families in Stoke-on-Trent. An integral part of the planning process is an assessment of what the current needs are for our children, young people and families. This is done on an ongoing basis through our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). Partners work together to produce a needs analysis on a particular issue; or specific group of people to analyse the impacts on their health and wellbeing within the city. This is often done before a strategy is produced or before an important decision is made regarding a service. Recent needs assessments that have been produced include: Ethnic minorities needs assessment for

Stoke-on-Trent Ethnicity of children and young people People with learning disabilities and

difficulties Children and families in poverty Children with mental health needs We will soon start to gather information from our JSNA to produce an overall needs assessment for the city in readiness for the planning process in the lead up to April 2016. This will help partners to identify key priorities and actions to take forward for 2016-19. If you feel your organisation could contribute to the JSNA please get in touch with Keven Taylor on 01782 234823 or email the JSNA mailbox JSNA@stoke.gov.uk.

City’s care leavers get help to find work

Former care leaver welcomes additional support for young people to find work when they leave council care. On Thursday 5th March Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s cabinet approved plans to create a council-wide employability policy for care leavers.

The policy will see care leavers offered work tasters, work experience placements apprenticeships and paid internships with the city council to help boost their job prospects. New Directorate Champions will also be identified within the council to help facilitate support.

Sammey Joe, a care leaver who benefited from a work placement with the council’s finance team, said she was happy to see the scheme now rolled out so that others could benefit from the opportunity in the same way she did.

The Bournemouth University student said: “It really does give care leavers something that they can showcase and put on their CV.”

Sammey Joe was offered a six week placement in the council’s finance department last year. She is now completing a further placement at Fujitsu following a successful interview process she says was helped by the council’s initial support.

She said: “As a care leaver I felt that I could have been severely hindered in this stage had I not undertaken a placement with the council. Growing up many of the other applicants would not have faced hardship and would have been able to focus on career development. The placement meant I was really able to do justice in an interview.”

Councillor Gwen Hassall, cabinet member for social care, said: “It is so important that as Corporate Parents we help to support our young people when they are looking to leave care so that they can develop the skills to support themselves.

“This Employability Policy will help to give some of our most vulnerable young people the chance to gain work experience as well as other skills needed to secure future work.

This not only benefits the individuals but also businesses and society as a whole. These young people are the work force of the future and it is important we help to harness their true potential.”

The city council will be holding an events day in April to start putting the policy in place and will be working with partners to extend the scheme wider than just the City Council.

Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963

Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership

Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015 2

All about the

Health Visiting Service

A child’s future and subsequent life chances begin in pregnancy and the early years of life. Giving every child the best start in life is crucial to reducing health inequalities across the life course. The foundations for human development – physical, intellectual and emotional – are set in place during pregnancy and in early childhood.

What happens during these early years has lifelong effects on many aspects of health and wellbeing, educational achievement and economic status. Universal and specialist public health services for children are important in promoting the health and wellbeing of all children and reducing inequalities. The Health Visiting Service leads the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (0-5 years), a prevention and early intervention public health programme that lies at the heart of the universal service for children and families which aims to support parents at a crucial stage of life, promote child development, improve child health outcomes and ensure that families at risk are identified at the earliest opportunity.

The health visiting service has recently been described as a “4 5 6 model” - the scope of the service has a 4 tier offer, includes the delivery of 5 universal reviews (subject to parliamentary approval these will be mandated for 18 months) and finally Health Visitors, managers and commissioners all need to be able to evidence and measure impact of services within the 6 high impact areas. On 1st October 2015, children’s public health planning and commissioning responsibilities for 0-5 year olds will transfer from NHS England to local authorities as the final stage of the transfer of public health responsibilities with the corresponding budget. For further detail on this final stage of the public health transition see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfer-of-0-5-childrens-public-health

4

5

6

Levels of service: Your community Universal Universal plus Universal partnership plus Universal health reviews*: Antenatal New Baby 6—8 weeks 1 year 2—2 1/2 years *mandated for 18 months High impact areas: Transition to parenthood Maternal mental health Breastfeeding Healthy weight Managing minor illness & accident prevention Healthy 2 year olds & school readiness

#healthvisiting

Health visitors work with families & communities to improve access, experience, outcomes and reduce health inequalities

Early Years Pupil Premium

(EYPP)

Stoke-on-Trent was one of just 7 local authorities awarded DfE Early Implementer status for the EYPP. The EYPP, paid to all schools and childcare providers who deliver Early Education for three and four year olds, at a rate of 53p per hour per eligible child, making it worth more than £300 per year. EYPP will be used to improve outcomes for eligible children and was introduced during the Spring term, ahead of national roll out of the entitlement from April 2015. To find out more about EYPP, please contact jane.fallows@stoke.gov.uk

FREE Early Education for two year

old children

Do you know a child you is two years old or approaching their second birthday? – they may be eligible for a free funded early education place! Early Education gives children the Best Start in life by giving them the chance to make friends, try new things and learn through play. For more information, including details of the eligibility criteria, please visit www.stoke.gov.uk/beststart or contact the Family information Service Hub (FISH) on 01782 232200.

Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963

Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership

Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015 3

News

Inspection dates for

the Single Inspection

Framework (SIF)

The dates that the Local Authority SIF inspections will commence in the summer 2015 programme are below. Notification to the LA will be on the Monday morning, with inspectors arriving on site on the Tuesday morning. Where a Bank Holiday Monday falls in week one, notification to the LA will be on the Friday of the preceding week. Where a Bank Holiday falls within inspection weeks three and four, on-site inspection activity will take place from Tuesday 1pm until Friday 1pm.

13 April 11 May 22 May (due to the

Monday BH) 1 June 22 June 6 July 20 July 27 July 3 August

A new handbook is due to be published regarding the revised deployment arrangements.

Further information is available on the Ofsted website.

Ofsted inspection of school

improvement

Following a four-day visit to the local authority in January, an Ofsted report has been published. The report both highlights areas of good practice and sets out areas where improvements need to be made.

It praises the work of the innovative school improvement group which brings senior council managers and primary and secondary head teachers together to target school priorities. Inspectors highlighted the way the local authority’s approach is ‘evolving well’ and creating a ‘more rigorous approach to school improvement’.

The inspectors also found that:

Special schools, pupil referral units and nurseries are maintaining ‘good or outstanding inspection outcomes’

Attendance, although below the national average, is improving in primary and secondary schools

Pupil attainment at Key Stage 2 has ‘improved consistently for the last three years’

Pupils are ‘making better progress and the achievement gaps between disadvantaged and other pupils are closing’

Although there is work to be done to narrow the gap between national and regional percentages of good or outstanding schools, intervention and support in primary schools has been ‘effective’.

The report also identifies areas for improvement that the local authority has already committed to addressing. Pupil and school improvements need to happen quicker, pupil outcomes in ‘most phases of education’ need to be better, timescales for our targets need to be more realistic and the quality of school governance needs to be consistent.

The local authority will take on board the findings and are working very closely with schools to achieve continuous and sustained improvements. The partnership between the council and schools has never been better and is driving up the quality of education. Ambitious targets are set for improvements because the local authority wants the best for our city’s young people.

Family Information Service Hub

The city council operates a single point of access for services which support children and families (Early Help) through the Family Information Service Hub (FISH) on 01782 232200 or at fish@stoke.gov.uk. This service provides an easy way to access information and advice on services available in Stoke-on-Trent. The team will also connect you to Children’s Centres, Star, Youth Offending Service, Domestic Violence Advice , Youth Development, Young Peoples Drug Project, Educational Welfare, Young Carers, Families Matter and Family Support. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 8.30-5.00pm. An answerphone is available outside of theses hours.

Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963

Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership

Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015 4

Updates In December, members of the CYP Strategic Partnership approved amendments of the “Declaration of Purpose, including Partnership Governance Arrangements”. Over the past few months several of the members have changed, to find out who is your current rep please see full list below: SOT City Council:

Executive Director - Acting, People Services: Louise Rees, Lead Member for Social Care: Gwen Hassall Cabinet member for Education: Shaun Pender Member of Overview and Scrutiny to be confirmed Director of Public Health: Amanda Fletcher

JobCentre Plus: Joy Hall NHS England (Shropshire and Staffordshire Area Team) - Stephanie Cook North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust: Joanne Barton Post-16 sector and further education colleges: Paul Mangnall Royal Stoke University Hospital: Nick Savage Staffordshire and SOT Partnership NHS Trust: Mel Brock Staffordshire and SOT National Probation Service: Angela Staplehurst Staffordshire Police: Jane Hewitt SOT Clinical Commissioning Group: Dr Asuri Vasudevan SOT Safeguarding Children Board: John Wood (see page 5) Schools SAPH: Primary: to be confirmed

SASCAL: High and Special: Andrew Stanier Voluntary Sector - Karen Wilson from North Staffs Mind

Work To Embed Early Help Assessment (EHA) continues across the city

What is Early Help? Preventing, or minimising the risk, of problems arising-usually

through universal services such as school, children’s centres, youth work and health provision.

Early intervention by supporting individuals, groups at high risk or those showing early signs of a particular problem to try to stop it occurring or escalating.

Providing early help services that respond effectively to needs, to redress the situation, stop problems getting worse and improve outcomes.

Early Help Champions

There are now over 200 Early Help Champions in place to

help support and train practitioners across the city to embed

and deliver early Help. At a recent champion’s meetings a

support package for practitioners that includes a good

example of an EH assessment, action plan, and information

about the use of the process was issued. All of these

examples have been collated along with a list of named

champions. This information can be accessed via the

Safeguarding Children Board website at

www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk

Does your organisation have a named champion ? If your

organisation has not yet identified a champion please contact

Claire Maxwell on 01782 231964 or email

early.help@stoke.gov.uk for further information. The dates of

the next Champions meetings are on the safeguarding board

website and once you have registered a champion you can

book on the next session.

Toolbox – Useful links and tools are available on the SCB website: including Threshold Criteria for the Guide to Levels of

need for CYP and Families

For more information about Early Help go to www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk

Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership

3 Information from the

Safeguarding Children Board

Key Strategic Priorities

for 2015/ 18

The new key strategic priorities of the SCB for

2015 / 2018 are:

Child Sexual Abuse - including child sexual exploitation; child trafficking; missing children; female genital mutilation; honour based violence; youth violence; and intra-familial abuse.

Neglect including the Toxic Trio - domestic abuse; drug and alcohol misuse; and mental ill health

These priorities, along with the new Working Together 2015 will form the basis of the sub committee business plans and the new Training strategy 2015/2018 (click on the link to view).

Introduction to the new

Independent Chair

By way of background I was born in Stoke-on-Trent and having lived and worked in Staffordshire and Stoke-on Trent all my life. I have an insight into the social, political and economic environments. I was formerly a police officer with Staffordshire

Police and retired as acting Assistant Chief Constable. Having worked for many years as the Divisional Police Commander for Stoke-on-Trent I have a broad experience of leading, developing and sustaining effective collaborative multi agency working arrangements in a variety of complex and regulated environments. Since leaving Staffordshire Police I have been actively engaged in co-ordinating the work of the Staffordshire Criminal Justice Board making links to the wider network of community safety and public protection partnerships. In addition I have developed my understanding and support of the Third Sector through my involvement as a Board member with Brighter Futures. I am delighted to have been appointed as Independent Chair building on the excellent work of Jackie Carnell, and am very much looking forward to working with the wider safeguarding partnership to help ensure that the young people in Stoke-on-Trent are able to be happy, safe and healthy and able to fulfil their potential as they grow into adults.

Information from the

Safeguarding Children Board

Working Together to

Safeguard Children

(March 2015)

HM Government issued a revision of “Working Together…” in March, replacing the 2013 document. The revised document contains some significant changes, with particular reference to the following:

Amendments to section 17, Children Act 1989 Children with Disabilities Young Carers (incl. “Young Carers’ (Needs

Assessment) Regulations 2015”) Child Sexual Exploitation Young People in Custody Female Genital Mutilation Radicalisation Dealing with Allegations against Staff and

Volunteers Children with links to foreign countries Children returning home from care

Click on the links below for related guidance which was issued in March 2015:

Working Together to Safeguard Children - March 2015:

What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused - March 2015:

Keeping Children Safe in Education - March 2015:

Safeguarding Practitioners: Information-sharing Advice March - 2015

Guidance specific to young people Young Person’s Guide to Working Together to Safeguard Children - March 2015:

Young Person’s Guide to Keeping Children Safe March 2015:

SCB Membership

To find out who the Board member is for your own organisation, visit the “What is the SCB?” page on the SCB website.