Network Information Sharing Meeting

Network Information Sharing Meeting

Held Wednesday, 19th June, 2013

Present:

·  Keith Smith – Parents of Autistic Children Together (PACT)

·  Femida Dadabhai – Redbridge Vision

·  Tora Gregory Sayce – Healthwatch Redbridge

·  Mark Geribaldi – MGTC

·  Ravi Walters – Norwood/RCYPN

·  Lesley Perry – Redbridge Children’s Trust

·  Alan Cook – Redbridge Children’s Trust

·  Shilpa Patel – Redbridge Forum

·  Paulette Kelly – Children’s Centre

·  Ann Garrard – Newbridge/RCYPN

·  Marsha Mattis – Victim Support

·  Sonia Anderson Cunningham – Home-Start

·  Saffina Masood - RCYPN

·  Carmeta Groves – RCYPN Volunteer

Apologies:

·  Noel Judge (Deputy Head) – Palmer Catholic Academy

·  Lubomira Harankova – Redbridge Action Against Domestic Abuse (RAADA)

·  Emma Smart – Redbridge Carers Support Service (RCSS)

·  Bruce Hausenloy – Families Information Direct (FiND)

·  Hilary Goldstein – Pre-School Learning Alliance (PSLA)

·  Kik Schoenberg – Barnardos

·  Roger Backhouse – Vicarage Lane Play Park (VLPP)

·  Claire Barnes – Diversity Programme Manager (Children’s Service)

·  Athena Daniels – Sharing Together Autism & Aspergers in Redbridge (STAAR)

·  Kate Harvey – RCYPN Volunteer

Welcome and Introductions

Welcome and introductions were made. Jyoti the new volunteer at RCYPN was welcomed Participants were asked if they were happy for the meeting to be filmed by a volunteer for the RCYPN website which is being developed. There were no objections.

Minutes of Last Meeting

The minutes were agreed as accurate.

Matters Arising

Keith (PACT) - As a result of PACT’s presentation at the last Network Meeting, lots of interest has been received for Autism Ambassadors. He stated that the young people had enjoyed doing the presentation. RCYPN worked well in enabling this to happen. A lot is happening for PACT; they are to engage with more families and will be recruiting more young Ambassadors in the future. Keith can give more details.

Chairs’ Report

There have been no Strategic Partners’ Meetings, but there was a meeting with Councillor Chan (Business and Regeneration Leader) and Shila Barber. Discussed 2nd and 3rd year of funding cycle with Cllr Chan and looked at ways of identifying future funding.

Looking at the funding situation after 2014/15, it is felt that this may be worse than expected. It was suggested by the Councillor that RCYPN look at businesses for possible future funding and that RCYPN consider consulting neighbouring boroughs to explore working in partnership with them to take this work forward through maybe setting up RCYPN in their area; Eg Waltham Forest.

Local businesses (Nando’s and Cineworld) support RCYPN by providing “rewards” for volunteers which is funding in kind but is not sufficient to expand services. LBR are changing how the Strategic Partnership works and are no longer supporting the Redbridge Strategic Partners Assembly.

RedbridgeCVS is suggesting making health the focus once a quarter at their monthly Network Meetings. This month, the Chair of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Dr Anil Mehta, came to talk about Clinical Commissioning. To make the RCYPN more effective, there is a need to attend these meetings.

Ann attended the Healthwatch Redbridge ‘Advisory Committee Group’ Workshop on behalf of RCYPN. Healthwatch Redbridge (HWR) circulates information which RCYPN receives. If anyone wants this information it can be sent to them. The Healthwatch Advisory Committee Group is seeking members but is still deciding the process. HWR enews will have information. A RCYPN representative is needed to attend regular HWR meetings.

After the RCVS Network Meeting, there was a presentation by Lloyds TSB on funding. If anyone would like the information presented, contact Saffina. Ann encouraged anyone not on the RCVS and HWR circulation lists to do so.

Coordinator’s Report

·  As well as filming at the Network Meeting, training courses will also be filmed by Sy (RCYPN volunteer) along with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the RCYPN website.

·  A Fundraising Consultant, Mark Gerbaldi has been recruited to help RCYPN write a Business Plan to help towards funding applications. As well as attending today’s Network Meeting, he will be meeting with the Trustees later.

·  The Community First Funding for Basic First Aid training for young people was held on the 6th and 13th June at Redbridge Foyer. The aim of the Foyer is to support them while they develop life and independence skills. A total of 15 attended over the two sessions.

·  The financial records have been submitted for independent examination and the Audit Report by ACE which should be ready before the AGM.

Six training courses are being organised in partnership with Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) which are:

·  Domestic Violence Levels 1 & 2

·  Safeguarding Level 1 & 2

·  Safeguarding Children with Disabilities

·  A Paediatric First Aid Course (3 days) is also being run.

·  A Training Programme has been produced for all the above.

·  ‘Volunteers Week’ was celebrated in the first week of June. All the volunteers at RCYPN were given certificates, with some receiving a second certificate for achieving 50 and 100 hours volunteering.

·  Applying for ‘Investing in Volunteers’ quality mark was looked into, but due to the cost of the programme, it was agreed to shelf this for the time being. A ‘Volunteers Welcome’ Pack has been produced and will be given to all new volunteers joining. It includes all Volunteers Policies & Procedures as well as a Volunteers’ Handbook.

We are continuing to send out emails about training, events and consultations to all members regularly

·  The work on producing the website is continuing. The volunteer who is engaged in this will be leaving soon to have a baby.

·  All Volunteers’ Policies & Procedures are being updated.

The Work Plan for 2013 -14 is as Follows:-

·  Speakers booked for the Network Meetings till November

·  Regular mass emails are being sent out

·  Contact Details Update forms have been sent out as well as ‘How We Doing’ forms with the incentive of a free MP4 player for all those returned.

·  The AGM is still to be organised. Work still needs to start on the Annual Report, for which funding is needed.

·  It is hoped to have the website completed by the next meeting

·  RCT – Workshop on Child Sexual Exploitation is being held on Thursday, 12th September, 2013 in Barkingside.

Guest Speaker: Harriet Jannetta from the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB)

Harriet is the Service Manager and the Head of Service for the Children’s Resource Centre.

There are substantial changes happening in social care. It is important to share that information and find ways to improve working together. For example, sharing some of the understanding and learning with other agencies and vice versa to make the service more effective for groups’ needs and to provide training for the community.

The Domestic Violence Forum (DVF) and the developments that take place as a consequence are important. It is about getting the message across, but there is limited money. Harriet spoke about how to develop some relationships to promote what LBR want to do and why linking up with voluntary sector was important.

Discussion took place about the different ways of working together and what the expectations are from the LSCB. Many people contributed their knowledge to the discussion. Core training has been undertaken on Safeguarding, Domestic Violence and Sexual Exploitation. The aim is to communicate better and work out strategies that improve the work of the LSCB and its users.

Sexual Exploitation is a big issue with the Government. Training/information will cover all areas; for example, the signs and symptoms of sexual exploitation. There is a need to identify areas which are Redbridge specific and the LSCB Training Group need to know how they can raise awareness across Redbridge. There are at present 17 week courses for male perpetrators of Domestic Violence, run in partnership with the Probation Service. The issue is how they can access the course that needs to be looked into.

The DVF needs the message brought to a wider audience like parents and schools. The LSCB wants all organizations represented on the training sessions and take the message to a wider audience. There is Voluntary Sector training on Sexual Exploitation, but groups are not attending. The message needs to also be got across to faith leaders. .

Auditing and practice in Local Authorities are to be looked at to broaden the voice for delivery of services. In Redbridge there are better relationships between Forums, Networks and RCYPN. RCYPN get different speakers to spread information but there is a capacity issue, and also for LSCB. Contact with groups is important and RCYPN are hoping to get more funding to do direct work with small groups.

There is a need to look at how to set suitable timescales and length for training. Saffina suggested language needs to be simplified and be jargon free. She was concerned that many people wouldn’t understand the words ‘Sexual Exploitation’ and so not attend training. RCYPN would be happy to run training around Child Sexual Exploitation and a separate one for faith leaders.

Harriet is also responsible for the ‘Troubled Families’ work which RCYPN has already had a presentation on. There are referrals from the police, education and youth justice but that is not enough as the referrals need to be from an earlier point. Social Services is a barrier for some people. The early intervention access to services is difficult as there are long waiting lists. Statistics on domestic violence and mental health problems etc are collated before help is given.

There are problems with getting information out to people and for access of services. People may not want to access services because of stigma and ways around that need to be found. There is the need to identify how to reach hard to reach groups. It was agreed that Harriet would email Saffina three main areas of training need. These are ‘Early Intervention’, ‘Troubled Families’ (possibly) and ‘Sexual Exploitation’.

An area identified is for people from communities to do internal work, especially leaders of specific communities to train trainers. A speaker for future Network Meetings would be Diane Drury a Child and Family Social Worker. Saffina will contact.

Reports from RCYPN Representatives on Boards

The Local Safeguarding Children Board meetings were not attended, but a sub group for individual case management was. It was chaired by Ruth Jenkins the Principal Child and Family Social Worker. On the 15th July there will be a new Chair for the sub group. They use a form to check complex cases of agencies involved which is for quantitative information. There is less qualitative information available. The ultimate aim is to look at managing and improving outcomes to improve the lives of children.

There have been no board meetings since the last Network meeting.

Lesley Perry informed the meeting of the LSCB Conference on Child Sexual Exploitation taking place on 23rd October, 2013. There are Child Sexual Exploitation training courses February 2014 being held by LSCB. The February courses are generic courses for Police and Social Workers.

Home Start can help with learning needs that are not extreme. Something to consider for Home Start is that more permanent school nurses are needed rather than just temporary ones.

Any Other Business

There are half day workshops which are free of charge on Disabilities and Substance Misuse to be held on the 12th September 2013. Skills for Care will launch an on-line website for Managers which will be published soon. There are 100 log ons for organizations and another 100 for Social Workers. See Google “Social Managers Tool Kit”.

The Redbridge Equalities Forum has been re-launched.

Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday, 17th July 2013 - Guest Speaker - Cathy Turland – Healthwatch Redbridge