Strategic Board Meeting
Date / Wednesday 26 September 2012
Time / 9.00am
Venue / Fareham College
Chair / Carol Allington / Churches Together & Chair of LCP
Bob Gellett / Henry Cort Community College
Charlotte Weavers / Headteacher, Sarisbury Infant School
Gill Sommers / Director of Faculty, Fareham College
Paul Briggs / Rep for Jeff Ballard, Area Manager YOT
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
Narinder Bains / Troubled Families lead FBC
Apologies / Sam Severe / Children’s Centre Support Officer, HCC
Claire Comrie / Student rep from Fareham College
Connie Hockley Cllr / Executive Member for Community, FBC
Janie Millerchip / Community Development Manager, FBC
Malcolm Cooke / Assistant Director, KIDS South East
Chief Insp. Jason Kenny / G&F District Commander, Hampshire Police
Jane Hoggarth / Headteacher, Oak Meadow Primary School
Kath Clark / Locality Clinical Manager, HCHC
Chris Toner / Headteacher, Baycroft School
In attendance / Sue Wilson-Smith / Administrator Fareham LCP (minute taker)
Ian Langley / Strategic Co-ord Supporting Troubled Families
Action
1 / Welcome and apologies
Claire Comrie is no longer able to attend as student rep. Gill Sommers will arrange a replacement.
Carol Allington welcomed everyone to the meeting. She wished to thank on behalf of all the members Bob Gellett and Steph Morley for their work over the past year as Chairs of two practitioner groups. She thanked Charlotte Weavers for agreeing to continue in her role as Chair of the 0-7yr group. The new Chairs are Siobhan Solomon (7-14yrs) and hopefully a Police Representative for the 14-19yrs group. Still awaiting confirmation.
Narinder Bains was welcomed to the meeting as a new member of the Strategic Board. This was unanimously agreed as there had been no dissentions to the request (sent by email prior to the meeting)for Narinder to become a member. / Gill Sommers
The following agenda item was taken out of order.
4 / Minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2012
The minutes of the meeting were agreed as a true record. The following action points were discussed.
Agenda Item 3, outstanding actions have been added to future agenda items. / Sue Wilson-Smith
2 / Presentation, Ian Langley HCC, Strategic Co-ordinator of Supporting Troubled Families (STF)
Ian Langley gave a short presentation to explain how the project will be working from a county level with £900k funding from HCC Leader’s budget and how the funding from government will be claimed on a reward basis.
He explained that for a 12 month period each family should be allocated £4,000 (including the reward element of the funding). It is hoped that with the extra resources provided from specific agencies families will be able to ‘break the cycle’ and not remain a high financial burden to authorities.
3 / STF Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Fareham, Narinder Bains. An overview of the work of the Fareham Supporting Families Practitioner Group who will identify the initial cohort of Fareham families targeted for support.
Narinder explained the process for selecting the Fareham families (a suggested number is 40) who will be invited to take part in this project. The group have met 4 times and the year 1 cohort will have to be agreed by the end of October 2012. This is a voluntary scheme and families have to agree to take part.
She explained the draft terms of reference for the Fareham Supporting Families programme to include the Practitioner Group, which will now be part of Fareham LCP. The Board agreed the following local discretion filters to be used to determine locally families that are a cause for concern; ‘Families with health and disability problems (e.g. mental health problems, drug and alcohol misuse or health problems caused by domestic abuse and families with children internally excluded or early interventions in place to include hard to reach families)’. The Terms of Reference were formally approved by the Strategic Board.
The Fareham Supporting Families Practitioner Group will report back to the Strategic Board at appropriate meetings.
5 / Urgent Business Items
There were no urgent business items.
6 / Budget 2011/12 – updated information sent out by email.
This report was noted.
7 / Practitioner Group Feedback – draft minutes of meetings on 12 September 2012 sent out by email.
0-7yrs - Charlotte Weavers explained that the transition project would be run again next year for children of families that could be identified as having a need for extra support. Steve Cottrell said that Andrew West would be joining the group as a replacement for Clare Williams.
7-14yrs - Steph Morley stated that there was no project ongoing. There was further discussion about CAMHS and concerns that mental health issues are not being supported. Generally it is thought that 16 -18 year olds are being failed by the system.
14-19yrs - Bob Gellett believed that the meeting was reasonably well attended. He was pleased to report that the 1 to 1 mentoring project had been a positive experience for those that had taken part. The final statistics will be produced for members once all the information is received.
The pocket guide for Fareham youth services was almost ready for printing. Matt Healey had done a fantastic job to pull all this information together and the finished product would be useful for youths and practitioners alike. Posters will be produced and links to an electronic version will be available from websites including Youth Tube. An app would also be created to provide a link to the information.
It was agreed that the minutes from this meeting would be made available to Fareham Youth Council members. A group of 40 student liaison reps had been identified by Fareham College so these youths could be invited to attend future LCP meetings. / Bob Gellett
Sue Wilson-Smith
8 / Discussions on the projects and wish list that Fareham LCP will present to Wessex Rotary at the meeting on 5 October 2012.
The following items were suggested by members of the Practitioner Groups at their meetings earlier in the month;
· Garden maintenance needed at Oak Meadow Children’s Centre, could be combined with a gardening club and an outside ‘stay and play’ event.
· Play Rangers – further funding to be sort by Jane Millerchip for the FBC scheme.
· Olympic legacy – to help local youngsters use sports facilities in Fareham especially for those that can’t afford to join clubs or groups.
· Healthy eating
· Youth services – to commission volunteers to open the youth facilities that have been closed due to reduced funding.
· Moving On – suggested that accountants are needed to provide audits and prepare accounts and develop governance, members/directors are needed on management committees.
· Help providing mentors for young people.
· Help supporting families with mental health issues.
· Support the governance of charities – directors, audit team, accountants etc.
· Provide support for youngsters to take part in the Duke Of Edinburgh Award scheme; there is a need for a loan store for clothing and expedition items – (suggested via Portchester School).
· Reading projects – generally in schools
· Help with life skills, budgeting, cooking, practical DIY, year 11
After some discussion it was decided that these suggestions were not specific enough for anyone to lead on the presentation so Paul O’Beirne and Sue Wilson-Smith agreed to get further information from Rotary Wessex to decide exactly what was required. / Sue Wilson-Smith
9 / Consultation on early help and the role of locality teams within Hampshire Children’s Services
Steph Morley explained that following the recent consultation and discussion with schools, locality teams are now responsible for 5 – 14 year olds. A completed CAF will no longer be required – just an assessment form which has been approved for use. They are now a tier 3 organisation for complex needs. When a case has been approved and allocated then the locality team will become the lead professional. Schools will be allocated time in clusters based on pupil numbers. More time can be bought in or negotiated between schools. Monthly reports will be produced. There is no reduction in resource.
Rena Randall raised concerns about pupils who attend Portchester Schools but live in Portsmouth. There is some difficulty in allocating a HCC resource to a Portsmouth child and family. This grey area needs further clarification.
10 / Integrated Youth Service Update
Maria Calway-Kennedy provided a report for the meeting. It is attached as Appendix A to these minutes.
11 / Partner Organisation Report on relevant developments in their own organisations of interest to the LCP (brief verbal update).
Carol Allington requested an interim report on Commissioned Youth Services as there had been no feedback since the funding had been allocated.
Gill Sommers was concerned about home educated children who do not appear on any County lists until they register for a College place. / Maria Calway-Kennedy
12 / Dates and venues for future meetings to be agreed.
For the future dates that were provided on the agenda the following changes are needed.
Delete – 16 October 2013 and 4 December 2013
Add – 25 September 2013 and 20 November 2013
These amended dates will be circulated to members by email.
There was some discussion about the venue for future meetings. Fareham Borough Council have offered the free use of a meeting room and tea and coffee. It was agreed that the next meeting will be held at Fareham Borough Council. / All
13 / Items for the next agenda.
Sam Severe - Update on the new staff structure and a ‘fools guide’ for members following the reorganisation of the Children’s Centres by 4Children. To include contact details for key members of staff.
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.
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 21 November 2012 at 9.30am in the Council Chamber at Fareham Borough Council offices.
The meeting finished at 11.40am.
Appendix A to
Fareham LCP Strategic Board Meeting
26 September 2012
YSSUpdate September 2012
Fareham
Version 1
Maria Calway-Kennedy
YSS Manager
Children’s Services Department
September 2012
2
Minutes 26.09.12
Table of Contents
1. YSS Commissioning update
2. EPT post
3. Enhanced Work Experience & Youth Contract
4. Care leavers
1. YSS Commissioning & CSI grants
Commissioned work is now well underway. All commissioned lots are now in operation including the Health and wellbeing work which commenced at the start of September.
The next steps are for the commissioned services to undertake a self assessment and then be visited by the CDF’s (community development facilitators) for a quality assurance visit. Feedback is then given to the commissioned provider on practice and processes. These reports will then be passed to the Commissioning unit and an assessment made as to whether the funding for the work for year two will be recommended.
The CDF’s are also involved in working alongside the Workforce Development team to deliver basic youth work training .
The Procurement team have now received and started to analyse the monitoring forms returned by the providers. It has been recognised that the form used doesn’t capture all the information that would be useful for local partners to reflect on. There will be ongoing discussions on how we can move this forward.
The second round of CSI funding has now taken place with local organisations accessing funding to enhance programmes and deliver new areas of work.
2. EPT post
Stacey McTaggart has been successful in securing the EPT (Education Participation Team) post for Fareham and Gosport. There are eight of these posts across the County, funded through Schools Forum.
Stacey will be undertaking tracking of NEET young people and working alongside providers to help support young people into Education, Employment or training.
Currently focussing on chasing up the unknown destinations for this years school leavers. This will be the priority group for Stacey to focus on over the next couple of months, along with supporting the Careers Guidance workers in the schools and other engagement programmes.
3. Enhanced Work Experience and Youth contract
The YSS team will be managing the enhanced work experience programme for this academic year. Enhanced work experience targets those young people who are in year 11 and at risk of becoming NEET next summer. The programme will include one to one support, small groupwork programmes and a work experience placement. These young people will need intensive support to enable them to achieve the outcomes required for the programme. The Careers Guidance workers, EPT post and other members of the YSS team will be involved in supporting this work.
Schools are being sent information in the Schools communication bulletin this week about the programme.
Academy schools will be asked to purchase this service, costs to be advised.
The Youth Contract is for young people 16-17 years old.
Hampshire County Council are one of the partners in Hampshire working on this programme. In Gosport, we will be working alongside the Wheatsheaf Trust to engage young people in programmes of work and opportunities. A briefing paper will follow to the LCP detailing the local initiative.
This programme is payment by results and the individual needs to engage for six months before the organisation is eligible to draw down the funding.
4. Care Leavers
The YSS targeted team currently casehold 81 young people within the 18-21 age range who are Care leavers. Of this number, the majority are from the Gosport area. There are also 11 young people in this group that are unaccompanied Asylum seekers. The young people can live locally or as far away as Manchester, Bideford in Devon and Chatham in Kent.
These young people are in contact with their YSS worker on a regular basis, who provide support with independent living skills, education and employment opportunities and accommodation issues.
The team also undertakes the Personal Advisor role for young people who are held within the Children in Care team from the age of 16-18 years. These numbers are increasing with a caseload of over 55 young people at this current time.
Minutes of LCP Strategic Board Meeting – 26.09.12
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