Appendix B
Hertfordshire Children’s Trust Partnership position in relation to statutory guidance on The Roles and Responsibilities of the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Services
Para. / Who / Key responsibility / Current position / Identified gap1. DESIGNATION, APPOINTMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
2.7 a) / LM / Politically accountable for the effectiveness, availability and value for money of all local authority children’s services / LM is member of the HCC Cabinet which is responsible for decisions on how Council services are run.
2.7 b) / LM / Be satisfied that services delivered within the local area are planned, designed, delivered and quality-assured with the involvement of children, young people and their families / Strong performance management framework in CSF and HCTP. LM receives monthly service reports and quarterly reports on CYPP priorities.
3.17 c) / DCS / Day-to day management of the local authority’s children’s services. In particular:
3.11 / DCS /
- Ensure that effective systems and protocols are in place for the discharge of local authority children’s services functions
3.44 / DCS /
- Ensure that services are of high quality and appropriately targeted on delivering improved outcomes for all children and young people and on narrowing the gap in outcomes between groups
3.44 /
- Ensure that all children’s services comply with statutory requirements and particularly improving the well-being of children and young people in relation to the five Every Child Matters outcomes
3.44 /
- Ensure that the needs of all children and young people in the authority’s area are assessed
3.44 /
- Ensure that there are sufficient financial, human and other resources available to discharge the statutory children’s services functions
3.30 / CE / Ensure that DCSs are performing their duties effectively / Existing performance management arrangements. / Enhance focus on safeguarding performance.
3.5 / DCS / Report directly to the Chief Executive and be a member of the local authority senior management team / The DCS reports directly to the Chief Executive of HCC and is a member of the Strategic Management Board.
4.5 / L & CE / Monitor the performance respectively of the LM and DCS in securing better outcomes for children and young people / Done through existing performance management arrangements. / Enhance focus on safeguarding performance.
2. LEADERSHIP
Improving outcomes and well being
2.7 b) / LM / Provide political leadership within, and in partnership beyond, the local authority in order to improve outcomes for all children and young people and narrow the outcomes gap for vulnerable groups of children and young people / LM is a member of HCC Cabinet and HCTP Executive. LM also chairs the HCC Children’s Services and Corporate Parenting Panel and HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group.
2.7 c) / LM / Political engagement with any elected members on the Local Strategic Partnership/s or the Children’s Trust, with members of the Local Safeguarding Board, and with local community organisations / There are two elected members on the HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group. The Lead Member has recently been invited to join Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Board as a “participant observer” in line with statutory guidance. / The LM is not a member of Herts Forward.
2.7 c) / LM / Ensure that the local authority celebrates and showcases examples of children and young people’s achievements / HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group meeting contains slots for members of the Youth Board to showcase work they have been doing. Range of awards events (for example): Youth Connexions awards, Herts Awards for CLA, Annual review for CLA in children’s homes. Children’s Partnership News contains regular features / Focus on achievements of children with disabilities.
3.17 a) / DCS / Promote the importance of improving outcomes for all children, narrowing the gap for those in disadvantaged groups, throughout the local authority’s services and activities / “Narrowing the Gap” is key focus of CYPP and LAA.
Driving culture change
3.18 / DCS / Drive culture change and promote good practice in order to improve service delivery, for instance by:
- Setting out a shared professional vision for children, young people and families in the local area, identifying within it specific projects for joint working
- Brokering commissioning agreements between partners
- Promoting joint training for the different groups of professionals and enabling greater dialogue between them
- Establishing information sharing governance framework that facilitates more effective sharing of information
- Setting up multi-agency working environments including, where appropriate, co-located bases
Ensuring clear leadership
3.16 / DCS / Ensure that senior managers in their team have the necessary and relevant skills and experience in social care and education / The CSF Board includes Deputy Directors with delegated responsibilities for Social Care and Education respectively.
3.19 / DCS / Ensure that there is clear leadership at all levels of children’s services, including for schools / Members of the CSF Board are responsible for leading the children’s services within their remit. Leadership for school improvement sits within the remit of the Head of Standards and School Effectiveness. Similarly, a clear leadership role has been assigned to each member of the HCTP Executive, with each responsible for leading either an ECM outcome or strand of work
3. PARTNERSHIPS
General
2.11 / LM / Seek to ensure that all services effectively address the needs of children and young people in the local area / Chairs HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group which informs CYPP priorities and reviews performance. / Arrangements for feeding in views of service users, such as children and young people, parents and parent carers need to be improved.
3.21 / DCS / Create and sustain effective local partnerships. This includes leading work with partner agencies to strengthen the Children’s Trust, as well as working with the Local Strategic Partnership / The DCS currently chairs the HCTP Executive, which oversees the CYPP and other Children’s Trust arrangements. The DCS is also a member of Herts Forward.
3.44 f) / DCS / Ensure that the children’s services provided or commissioned by the local authority and its Children’s Trust strategic partners are effective in meeting identified need, are well integrated, child and family orientated, and directed towards achieving outcomes shared across different agencies / The HCTP has a commissioning process which provides the framework for the commissioning of all services for children and young people in Hertfordshire. The HCTP has a commissioning champion, who is leading work on the Commissioning Support Programme. A self-assessment is currently in progress. All specifications are outcome based. These are monitored on a regular basis and used to measure the impact the service is having / From Good to Outstandingincludes workstream to improve systematic commissioning strategy for the HCTP
Children’s Trust Partnership – governance and accountability arrangements
2.12 / LM / Satisfy themselves that the partners’ governing or executive bodies or board are aware of their responsibilities under the Children Act 2004 and are actively promoting improved outcomes for all children and narrowing the outcome gap for children from disadvantaged group; that information about the extent to which those responsibilities are being met is available; and that they are encouraged where necessary to review and improve their own contribution / Terms of reference for the HCTP Executive and HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group set out the expectation that members of these groups will ensure that the executive bodies or governing boards of all partner agencies are aware of their responsibilities under the Children Act. In addition, a HCTP Compact sets out each individual agency’s contribution to the HCTP.
2.14 / LM / Satisfy themselves that appropriate robust governance and monitoring frameworks are in place both within the local authority, under the auspices of the DCS, and in local partnerships with responsibility for local services for children. The frameworks need to cover arrangements for:
- staff management
- financial management
- risk management and
- information governance to support effective decision-making
3.24 / DCS / Lead work with partner agencies to ensure that the Government’s Information Sharing: Guidance for Practitioners and Managers is applied consistently across all partners. DCSs should help all partners to develop appropriate and consistent governance frameworks to promote and support good practice in information sharing / The HCTP has adopted this document. A HCTP information sharing training module targeted at multi-agency practitioners began in May 2009
3.44 i) / DCS / Ensure the LM and other elected members are supplied with full and accurate information about children’s services in the local authority area, and for children outside the area for whom the authority is responsible / The HCTP Executive receives quarterly performance reports on the implementation of the CYPP. / Members are not routinely given information about children outside the area, although it is available if requested
3.44 d) / DCS / Ensure resources from the local authority, other pubic agencies, the private and third sector are identified / Partners’ resourcing and budgetary commitment are not currently set out. However, in the CYPP 2009-2011, priority number 14 contains an action to ‘identify the range of resources available to support children’s services within Hertfordshire, and develop a financial statement in future Children & Young People’s Plans’
Children’s Trust Partnership – District Councils
2.13 / LM / In two tier authorities, establish effective working relationships with the elected members of district councils, encouraging their full engagement with the Children’s Trust / The HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group has two district Councillor representatives
3.25 / DCS / Ensure that District Councils are fully engaged through the Children’s Trust in coordinating the policies which impact on children in the area / The HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group has two district Councillor and two officer representatives. District Children’s Trust Partnerships are responsible for coordinating the policies which impact on children in their area, and District Councils are a key member of these. Each DCTP produces its own local plan for children and young people, which is linked the District Community Strategy, and having regard to the countyCYPP and LAA
Children’s Trust Partnerships – engaging Third and Private sectors
2.15 / LM / Satisfied that there are effective processes in place to engage the private and third sector as partnership in the work of the Children’s Trust / The HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group has six third sector representatives. In addition, the VCS Engage Action Plan aims to strengthen the engagement of the third sector in the HCTP. A pre-school in Hemel Hempstead is the only private sector representative on the HCTP Strategic Stakeholder Group / Consideration might be given as to how the better engage the private sector in the HCTP
3.26 / DCS / Ensure that private and third sector partners are able to play a real and effective role at the strategic level through members of or engagement with the Children’s Trust Board / As above
Children’s Trust Partnerships – engaging children, young people and families
2.10 / LM / Satisfy themselves that arrangement are in place for children and young people and families to be actively involved in and make a real difference to the development of services / Children and young people are consulted in a variety of different ways on CYPP priorities and service development, including the Youth Board, Channel Mogo and the Children’s Commissioning Group / From Good to Outstanding identifies the need to engage children and young people, parents and carers more fully in shaping services and evaluating their quality
2.12 / LM / Actively promote the interests of children, young people and families within both the Children’s Trust, and where appropriate, Local Strategic Partnership / One of the priorities in the CYPP is for children and young people to make a positive contribution to decisions about services
3.23 / DCS / Ensure the children, young people, parents and carers are at the heart of consultation in the strategic planning of services and are able to feedback on their experience of the quality of service / Children and young people are consulted in a variety of different ways on CYPP priorities and service development, including the Youth Board, Channel Mogo and the Children’s Commissioning Group / From Good to Outstanding identifies the need to engage children and young people, parents and carers more fully in shaping services and evaluating their quality
Children’s Trust Partnerships – engaging schools
3.41 / DCS / Ensure all schools are represented in the work of the Children’s Trust and on the Children’s Trust Board, informing strategic planning and being kept-up-to-date with key developments / There are three representatives from schools on the HCTP Executive – one representing secondary schools, one representing primary schools and one representing special schools. In addition, there are five schools representatives on the Strategic Stakeholder Group. The Herts Learning Partnership sets the framework by which schools, HCC and the HCTP work together to break down barriers to learning and improveoutcomes for all children and young people
Other partnerships
3.28 / DCS / Ensure that the priorities for children and young people and their families identified in the CYPP are reflected in the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) and Local Area Agreement (LAA) / One of the priorities in the SCS is children and young people. Reflecting the themes in the CYPP, the SCS contains long-term objectives to narrow the gap between vulnerable children and all children; keep children and young people safe; provide a range of positive activities; and eradicate child poverty. Children and young people also features as a block in the LAA
3.42 / DCS / Ensure that there is an effective 14-19 Partnership for the area, which can deliver local targets on participation and attainment / A County 14-19 Strategic Partnership Group brings together key stakeholders to promote the needs of all 14-19 year olds. The Chair of the partnership is a member of the HCTP Executive.
4. CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S PLAN
2.7 b) / LM / Set the overall vision of the Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) / Currently, the CYPP is prepared and published under the auspices of the HCTP, and is signed-off by the HCTP Executive, before being signed off by HCC
3.17 b) / DCS / Maintain strategic oversight of the production and publication of the Children and Young People’s Plan / As above
3.17 b) / DCS / Hold the Children’s Trust Board members to account for the implementation of the CYPP, including in particular delivery of relevant targets within the Local Area Agreement and the statutory DCSF targets / The HCTP Executive is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the CYPP and receives quarterly performance reports and an end of year report. / Performance reports do not focus on the performance of specific partners as might be expected under arrangements set out in the ASCL Bill currently making its way through Parliament