|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |||
 |
 |
|
Home |  |
|
|
Newsletters Edition 12 - January 2007Welcome to Edition 12 of the Every Child Matters in County Durham Newsletter. The theme of this edition is 'Joining up Local Services to Support Families' You can also obtain a PDF version of the newsletter at the bottom of this page. In this Edition
County Durham Family Support StrategyThis strategy sets out a framework for inter-agency working to deliver the local activities and services that all families are entitled to expect, no matter where they live in the county.
It overarches and merges 3 major national strategies: the National Service Framework for Children, the Extended Services Programme and the Respect Agenda. These separate strategies have been too much associated with single agencies in County Durham. Key agencies are required to work together at a county wide and local level to jointly commission, co-ordinate and deliver effective, integrated, flexible and responsive services to children, young people and their families. The 'Windscreen Wiper' model illustrates how seamless support will be delivered for children and young people according to need. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website.
After a common assessment the child or family may access targeted or specialist services from a ‘Team Around the Child’ made up of those best able to meet their needs. It should feel like a single service, no matter how many agencies are involved. Parents, carers, children and young people need to be involved at the very early stages of planning to ensure that the service is designed to meet their needs effectively. All agencies, including schools and GPs, voluntary and community sector organisations should be involved in implementing this strategy along with members and officers of both County and District councils. In most areas, services would be organised in or through a school cluster arrangement linked to a Children’s Centre. It is expected that all agencies working with children will embark on extensive workforce reform, the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework, Lead Professional arrangements and Information Sharing protocols. Integrated teams?Views are invited on whether teams should be actual (based in one location under single management) or virtual (coordinated action from staff based in their own agencies).
As a minimum it is proposed that the ‘team around the child’ will be drawn from:
Making it HappenEach of the 5 locality areas will have champions responsible for working with all stakeholders to implement the strategy to suit local needs. Views are invited on who these champions should be.
The consultation on the County Durham Family Support Strategy continues till the end of January 2007. Management of Children and Young People's Services (CYPS)Following consultation with staff, David Williams, the Corporate Director, has made appointments to the new Senior Management Team (SMT).
Whilst the new management posts are effective from the beginning of 2007, there will be a managed transfer of responsibilities that could extend beyond that. The Corporate Director, with the new senior management, is currently producing a transition plan which will set out exactly when and how any transfers of particular teams into their new service areas will occur. Some restructuring of other parts of CYPS may be necessary to reflect the new service groupings. The prime aim will be to ensure the provision of the best possible services for children and their families, whilst keeping disruption to staff to a minimum. Other partner organisations may be invited to be represented at SMT at a later stage after consideration by the new SMT. A similar restructuring is also underway in the PCTs. More on this in a future issue. Annual Performance Assessment (APA)The County Council and its partners have been praised by national performance watchdogs for the services they provide to children and young people.
The APA was carried out by inspectors from OfSTED and the Commission for Social Care Inspection who found that many of the social care services offered to children and young people were “outstanding” and were given the highest possible rating. The Council’s overall performance in delivering children’s services, including education, was found to be “improving” and “consistently above minimum requirements” and was just one point short of the maximum score possible. Joint Area Review (JAR)The first JAR in County Durham will be held in May 2007. This new style inspection focuses on the contribution all partners make to achieving good outcomes for children and young people. In particular the JAR will focus on vulnerable groups. Regular information on preparation for the JAR will be circulated in a separate newsletter.Parent Support Adviser (PSA) PilotThe PSA Project offers a significant number of schools and all agencies an opportunity to develop coherent, integrated support for parents, so they can help their children achieve better outcomes.
The PSA pilot will support the implementation of The Family Support Strategy. It will examine the most effective use of the Common Assessment Framework, the role of Lead Professional and any associated information sharing issues. PSAs will work directly with parents or carers in a non-judgemental way empowering them and their families to get the most out of the educational opportunities available by:
The role of PSA is inextricably linked to the development of extended school services. Schools must identify a named individual responsible for liaising with the pupil, his /her family and the service to be accessed. The named person is the school link but not the lead professional, therefore this role sits naturally within the role of the PSAs who would be a non-teaching, non-classroom based member of staff. Existing services such as Education Welfare, Behaviour Support and Family Support from various agencies will need to be coordinated with the PSA project along with the work of teachers with pastoral care responsibilities and inclusion coordinators. We intend to take a holistic, multi-agency approach to the PSA pilot, to create new relationships between agencies, and with parents, leading to effective, local, non-stigmatising networks of support for all according to their need. The PSA pilot will consider the following questions:
Effectiveness/Outcomes/Cost EffectivenessEffectiveness will be measured by impact on behaviour, including teacher, parent and child assessment, take-up of more intensive services, impact on attendance and on attainment.Performance indicators such as referral for child in need assessment, child protection registrations and children looked after will be monitored for the localities covered by the scheme. The costs of interventions will be compared. SureStart Children's CentresThe Centres are part of the Government’s 10 year strategy to give every child the best start in life and to give parents more choice about how to balance work and family life focusing on 0-5 year olds.“Core Services” will be offered at each centre:
Phase 1 between 2004 and 2006 saw the development of 30 Children’s Centre’s. Between 2006 and 2008, 13 Children’s Centres are to be developed in Phase II. Almost 1 in 4 Children’s Centres across the Northern Region will be in County Durham which will accommodate the 3rd highest number of centres in England and Wales. For further information including a list of Children’s Centres, contact Carol Lonsdale, Integrated Programme Officer on 0191 3835617 Extended Schools Offer
Children and their families continue to be involved in the planning of activities and services to ensure those developed meet the needs of their community. To avoid duplication, a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of extended services at or through schools, is being undertaken. The DfES requested that 60 schools engage in the programme in County Durham, there are now 64 schools able to provide the full Extended Services Core offer, with ALL schools throughout County Durham now engaged in the programme. If you would like further information about the Extended Services in Schools programme please contact Rose Envy, SureStart County Durham on 0191 3833127, or click on extended schools at SureStart County Durham. Work with the Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS)There have been five workshops for the VCS Children's Community of Interest across County Durham for awareness raising, dialogue and indentifying key issues.
Key themes were:
80 different organisations/projects attended and this consultation identified real concerns about how the community sector is going to be protected and encouraged in the future. One proposal was that there should be in the sector to help organisations achieve accreditation against key areas of VCS providers list for commissioning, to demonstrate quality. The Community of Interest will explore how this proposal can be implemented. It will focus on a) establishing the local VCS engagement infrastructure and b) provide an opportunity for VCS activity to meet the requirements for quality service delivery. Contact: Eva Alexandratou, Partnership Development Officer on tel no: 0191 3707811. PDF Version of the NewsletterYou can download Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website.
Top of Page |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
