Agenda Items covered in this meeting include:
1. Minutes of last Meeting / Matters Arising
2. GONE Baseline Letter
3. Children’s Centres
4. YOT Prevention Strategy/Interface with wider agenda
5. Local Preventative Strategy & Family Support
6. County Durham Strategic Vision
7. Next Steps to consolidate the Partnership
8. AOB
9. Date of next meeting
Present: Debbie Jones, DCC SSD, David Shipman, DCC SSD, Mark Gurney, DCC SSD, Peter Withnall, Educational Psychology Services, Frank Firth, Education Department, Mary Hall, Wear Valley District Council, Louise Charlton, Priority Services NHS Trust, Paul Hebron, Education Department, Youth Services, Nick Tzamarias, Derwentside District Council, Maggie Bosanquet, Environment & Technical Services, David Cliff, Drug Action Team, Neil Malkin, Durham Constabulary, Brian Brown, Sure Start Programme Manager - Easington, Fiona Callaghan, Sure Start Programme Manager – Wear Valley, Kath Vasey, Sedgefield PCT, Susan Forster, Easington PCT, Mark Weeding, DISC / One Voice (NE), Gill Eshelby, County Durham Youth Offending Service, Christina Blythe, County Durham Youth Offending Service, David Landes, Durham Dales PCT, Mark Cain, CAMHS, Claire Beighton, CAMHS, Bernd Bangel, Sedgefield Borough Council, Liz Green, Sure Start Unit, Government Office North East, Lynne Gregory, Education Department, Kath Tansey , Learning Support Service, Sue Hood, Durham & Chester-le-Street PCT, Janice Bray, Connexions, Liam Cairns, Investing in Children, Sue Younghusband, Durham Dales PCT.
Apologies: Claire Hartley, Co Durham & Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority, Isobel Porter, NSPCC, Judith Latheron, Barnardos Shared Care North East, Harry Cronin, Co Durham & Darlington Priority Services, NHS Trust, Sharon Pickering, Co Durham & Darlington Priority Services, NHS Trust, Tricia Cresswell, Durham & Chester-le-Street PCT, Neil Bellerby, Centrepoint, Maureen Clare, Education Department, Norman Reed, Education Department, Roger Bolas, Drug Action Team.
1. Minutes of Last Meeting / Matters Arising
Page 2 - Children’s Trusts - it is believed that there has been a number of applications for Children’s Trusts in the region, possibly 3 or 4. As yet, there has been no formal feedback of approval for these applications. Learning needs to be shared between various partnerships.
Page 3 - IRT - Mark Gurney commented that the post has not yet been advertised. It will be advertised week beginning 26th June, in local papers, County Council Jobspot and within Health. It is hoped that someone will be seconded to this post. Mark noted that a sub-group will be required for the interviews. There is the potential to include young people in the interview process.
Debbie referred to a new document produced by the Children & Young People’s Unit in relation to outcomes. The document can be viewed on their website.
2. GONE Baseline Letter
- The copy of the letter from Government Office North East in relation to the Local Preventative Strategies will be distributed with the minutes.
- Feedback from GONE indicated that Durham had been harsh on the baseline assessment. There is now room to undertake some development. The Strategy has to be in place by April 2004.
3. Children’s Centres
- Liz Green from Regional Sure Start Unit gave a presentation in relation to Children’s Centres and the implications of these.
- Hard copy of Liz Green’s presentation attached.
- Frank Firth commented that the issues in relation to Children’s Centres could be addressed through focus groups and then be fed back to the Partnership.
4. YOT Prevention Strategy / Interface with Wider Agenda
Christina Blythe, Head of County Durham Youth Offending Service, gave a presentation, detailing elements of the Youth Crime Prevention Strategy 2003-2006. (Hard Copy of presentation attached).
5. Local Preventative Strategy & Family Support
- Mark Gurney and David Shipman prepared a report for the meeting, which was circulated to members. Mark noted that the report is a position statement of current work. It was acknowledged that with a County the size of Durham, development is ad-hoc and the challenge will be to develop a continuum of service and equity. Mark commented that he attended an Institute of Public Care seminar around Best evidence and Best practice. A template for the strategy will be developed and a meeting will take place to formalise this. This template to be presented to the November Partnership meeting. There will be a need for Partnership agencies to identify Lead Officers to commit to this work.
- A recommendation was put forward to the Partnership that they endorse the use of the Institute of Public Care model.
- Frank Firth queried what was meant by equity and that there are contradictions on some levels. There is not going to be the same services throughout the County. There are further issues that still need to be debated and there are still a number of uncertainties.
- David Shipman acknowledged that this is a proposed model and there is a need to build on what is in place already and also that there are issues which need to be addressed further.
- Brian Brown noted that there is a lot of good intention within the report, however members will need time to digest the information, before decisions and recommendations can be made and ratified.
- A query was raised as to what the timescale would be for giving responses to the report and how this should be done. It was agreed that responses should go directly to Mark Gurney and these will be addressed at the next Partnership meeting. It was also agreed that information around the Hardiker model would be circulated for information.
6. County Durham Strategic Vision
Views and feedback were sought on the County Council’s Draft Strategic Vision for County Durham, which was previously circulated. No comments were received.
7. Next Steps to consolidate the Partnership
- An amended version of Debbie Jones’ report was circulated to members. The purpose of the report is to outline the next steps for the Partnership. The views of Partnership members are required in relation to the proposals in the report. In relation to Appendix 2, the question was raised about whether the Partnership has the correct representation across the board and whether the membership is at the right level.
- Debbie Jones briefly outlined the proposals, stating that a post of Partnership Development Officer be established, which would be multi-agency funded, to which members would be required to contribute a nominal sum. A robust infrastructure between the various sub-groups and the Partnership needs to be established.
- Mark Weeding commented that he is aware of a number of agencies that have Development Officers doing similar work. Frank Firth noted that there could be replication of work that is already underway. Liam Cairns talked about the Partnership group in Darlington who have similar issues to address. They had a Project Development Officer from the DOH, only for one day per week, however this was beneficial and they have moved on considerably more than Durham.
- The post would be accountable to the Partnership and a smaller Core Steering Group, which would have key representation. It would be a smaller group than the Partnership, however as yet, this has not been expanded on.
- Debbie Jones requested that Partnership members present her report to their own Management Teams and come back to the Partnership with their views and feedback.
- The report was endorsed in principle.
8. Any Other Business
i) Information from Claire Hartley in relation to NSF discussions, more detail will follow as the NSF in finalised.
9. Date for Next Meeting
Tuesday 15 July 2003
