Minutes of the Meeting Held 5Th October 2010

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD 5TH OCTOBER 2010

WOOTEY’S JUNIOR SCHOOL

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Those present were:

Carolyn Warne / Community First East Hants
Jon Allen / Amery Hill School Governors
Adele Glen / School Improvement Officer
John Myers / Alton College
Ella Palmer / Wootey’s Infants School
Ian Waine / Medstead Primary School
Elaine Allen / Amery Hill School
Bob Coleman / EHDC
Christine Warner / Basingstoke & NH NHS Foundation Trust
Clare Allen / Bushy Leaze Children & Families Centre
Ann Truman / Children’s Services
Alison Cliffe / Chair AB Steering Group
Dave Ashton / Children’s Services, Youth Team
Maz Skilbeck / Early Years Advisory Teacher

There were no apologies received

2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING & MATTERS ARISING

2.1 / The minutes of the meeting held 8th July 2010 were accepted as a true record of the proceedings
2.2 / The only matter arising was the Terms of Reference (TOR) for this group. The previous meeting reviewed the TOR and had decided they needed to be more strategic in order to drive forward the improvements for children and families. The amended TOR should now be robust enough to remain successful for 3 or 4 years, and will work to develop a common strand right the way through the school years. An amended version was circulated at the meeting.
2.3 / It was decided that membership should compliment a group which is, essentially, the delivery vehicle of the delivery plan. Membership has been amended to reflect this.
Three NHS managers will now sit on the Steering group and the sub-committees. Health visitors and school nurses will also be represented. It was noted there is still no representation from the police.
2.4 / Some members of this group felt that maybe they should be on the East Hants Group rather than this one, but it was noted that EH overarching group is still forming.
2.5 / The meeting accepted the amended TOR

3. HAMPSHIRE LCP CHAIRS – UPDATE

3.1 / A verbal update of the LCP chairs meeting was given. There is £10k available this year for development of the partnership. CA to review this funding in Finance item.6. East Hants was used as an example of good practice of partnership structure and development.
3.2 / Data was available on how to benchmark groups and their progress. Using this benchmarking, East Hants LCP is well structured and working well.

4. SUB GROUP UPDATES

5. DELIVERY PLAN PROGRESS

4.1 / Sub groups are held prior to this meeting so updates are available. The Delivery Plan merges into this.
4.2 / Sub groups are expected to feed back on where they are and how they are doing. There is great need for the Swift & Easy Access to extend information for parents and for the provision of youth activities during the school holidays.
5.1 / The delivery plan has been reviewed and now needs to be updated. It has been noted that there needs to be development on teenage pregnancy, and PHSE needs evaluating and developing
5.2 / Funding for a Health & Well Being Drop Ins has been provided for Eggars which needs developing in the schools, however this is being hampered by lack of space to do this. The success of Health & Well Being is dependant upon schools wanting to progress with it. It was noted that not all schools wish to make contraception available on their site. There is slow progress at Amery, and none at Eggars.
5.3 / There was discussion around Parent and Family Support. The PSA is currently working on case studies to correlate how successful the work is and produce evidence to support the future of Parent/Family Support.
Questions were asked about Parent Line Plus, an organisation based in Southampton, and who have been granted funding for a further 3 years. Could their work be linked into the work of Parent Support?
Action: Alison Cliffe to invite Parent Line Plus to the next meeting to talk about their work. / AC
5.4 / Other professionals were asked to feed into the delivery plan, and if they are doing any work around teenage pregnancy or partnerships.
5.5 / The Early Years teachers for this area are based at Fleet local office. Alison Walters and Hannah Thomas will join the Swift & Easy Access group. Maz suggested linking their delivery plan with the LCP and working with Children Centres and Health Workers around vulnerable children U5.
Action: Maz to contact Children’s Centre and Health Workers to discuss vulnerable children – Identify and consider joint actions / MS
5.6 / A discussion around Teen Pregnancy asked if the Steering group was the place to look at delivering projects or if the role of this group was to collate what projects existed and how they work together. Data available is already two years old, and the Local Implementation Teams (LIT) have tried to get over this problem of aged data to get a better idea of what is working well.
Action: Agenda item on the next Swift & Easy Access (S&EA) Group meeting should be to split ownership of the two priorities. S&EA to get teenage pregnancy, and Vulnerable children to go to the other. / AC
5.7 / Questions were asked if any progress had been made to identify the most vulnerable children in Alton Schools. Ella Palmer has received data from one school, which has highlighted a need to clarify “ vulnerable”
Action: The Heads meeting needs to interpret “Vulnerable” and to identify the target groups.
Health visitors could be key in providing information about vulnerable children, who will remain anonymous outside of the school environment.
Early intervention can start at any age but interpretation and identification are key.
Early years can often produce a good picture of this.
It is worth noting that girls hold it together better than boys, so are in a better position to cover up vulnerability of their family. It might not be until late when a younger brother comes through that the problems are highlighted.
Action: Ella to gather information from Heads Mtg. / EP
5.8 / The delivery plan needs to consider the under achievement of boys. East Hants gap is the worst in the county. That said, both Amery and Alton College along with 4 schools in Basingstoke, reported that boys out-performed this year. Consider work to find out why this should happen.

6. FINANCE

6.1 / The Extended Services budget sheet was circulated at the meeting. Clare Allen talked through the figures with members.
6.2 / At this point, Barbara Langham was asked to leave the meeting. When she returned she was offered an extension to her contract until August 2011. She accepted
6.3 / Actions:
Ø  More detail of costings are required on the Financial sheet.
Ø  Prepare new contract for Barbara
Ø  Alton Heads group to go to EIP re: Parenting Support Funding / CA
CA
EP
7. / Family Support & Co-ordination
7.1 / Given all the uncertainty about the future, members were asked to promote the value of Early Intervention and Parent Support. EIP is moving towards greater partnerships working.
7.2 / A significant amount of money will be needed to develop projects for young People, Young Carers, People leaving the care system, and young people leaving prison.
7.3 / Bob C advised that The RAPP van is reviewing its costs and funding and may work well as a social business enterprise. A bid is currently being submitted for the next four years funding. If the bid fails, it will be a real struggle to keep it.
7.4 / Work needs to be done around researching funding strands that are available, and if Alton Town Partnership can help. Neil Slater and Chloe Atkins may be able to help with this.
Action: This item to be updated at the next meeting

8. INFORMATION SHARING

8.1 / Maz Skilbeck had looked at the delivery plan and informed the meeting there was a Transitions tool kit being released in the spring for Early Years to five year olds. The Early Years team in Alton will have priorities, and some of the projects may fit the Delivery Plan.
Action: Maz will forward information to the group / Maz Skilbeck
8.2 / Alton College is looking at ways the college can accommodate activities at weekends and in the school holidays. Possibly a project that could follow on from Saturday Dads. Safe Place To Be funding could be used for this.
8.3 / Ella Palmer thanked the Steering Group for the 10k funding they have pout forward for the Community Building
8.4 / Medstead Community Group have kept their grant so the Community Building there can go ahead
8.5 / EHDC has a great deal of uncertainty about its future funding streams and it is not in a position to offer funding at this stage. By April 11 the next level of management will be known.
8.6 / Havant Community Action Team representative is planning to do some work with Alton Schools
8.7 / Connexions and the Youth Service will soon merge, but it will be a smaller team, and the reduction will impact on service provision. The reduction of district and team managers is 18 down to 8
8.8 / Dave Ashton predicted that EH is likely to remain as a single district, but doesn’t yet know whether he will be a part of it.
8.9 / The Big Draw takes place at Wootey’s Junior School on 16th October.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 15.40.

The next meeting will be 23rd November 2010 at Bushy Leaze Children & Family Centre. The meeting will start at 2pm