Newletter

Introduction

The Every Child Matters: Change for Children agenda requires all local authorities to prepare an overarching Children and Young People’s Plan by April 2006. It will set out how all partners plan to focus energy and resources to meet the most urgent and important needs of children and young people.

You can also obtain a PDF version of the newsletter at the bottom of this page.

Needs in County Durham have been profiled against the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes:

• Being Healthy.
• Staying Safe.
• Enjoying and Achieving.
• Making a Positive Contribution.
• Achieving Economic Well being.

What is the Audit of Need and Service 2005 (ANS)?

ANS 2005 involves two separate processes:

• An audit of need.
• An audit of service.

The Audit of Need 2005 establishes a baseline for current needs and outcomes in County Durham drawing on research and data collection systems already in place. Information about the needs of children and young people in County Durham, publicly available, but kept in separate agencies, or contained within information about the adult population, has now been brought together.

The Audit of Service 2005 is an evolving assessment of current service provision to meet these needs. The intention is to identify both statutory and non-statutory providers of services and their capacity and capability to meet needs. It has built on existing initiatives:

• The National Child Health Mapping pilot.
• The Durham County Council Community Information Database.
• Agency-specific audits.

Why have we done the ANS 2005?

Before we can improve services for children and young people, we must know how well we are doing now to meet existing needs. We also need to know what services we currently have and how they contribute to the achievement of desired outcomes. This information is essential in building an integrated commissioning strategy for all services.

Our approach in County Durham places the whole child or young person at the centre of the work, rather than the current narrow views of health, education or social care. Integrating and collating information about needs and services across current organisational boundaries is enabling a fresh and fundamentally different examination of how services contribute to outcomes. We should not assume that any one agency will respond to a particular range of needs.

Sharing data on outcomes and developing an integrated approach to needs analysis has proved challenging, but provided a more rounded view of the needs of children and young people. This process of joint working is set to continue.

There is much still to do to improve ANS for 2006 and beyond, but we are determined to refine the process and use what we have learned, in order to achieve our vision for children and young people in County Durham.

Children and Young People in County Durham - An Overview

Many factors will influence the life chances of children and young people in Durham over the coming decades. For example:

• An anticipated relatively stable County population over the next 16 years masks significant changes to the numbers of young people and the elderly over the same period.
• Like most of Western Europe, County Durham will not have enough births to replace the existing population. As a result, the sizes of the two school-aged cohorts 5-10 and 11-15 are anticipated to fall by 13% and 19% respectively by 2031 if current trends continue.
• Numbers within the aged 85+ cohort are expected to nearly treble over the same period, with a consequential increase in demand for Social Care services.
• The proportion of the population aged under 20 is slightly below average at 24.3%, ranking it 31st lowest of all Local Authority Areas in England on this indicator.
• Official unemployment in the County is currently below average. However if the wider measure of worklessness – including other forms of economic inactivity as measured by state benefits receipt in addition to unemployment is used, County Durham has one of the highest worklessness rates in the country.

Percentage of children living in households in reciept of state benefits.pdf

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• Some 30% of households with children in the County receive some form of state benefit or another. This is six percentage points higher than the national average, a differential that persists over time. This dependency on benefits is compounded because the County has a low wage economy, indicating that a sizeable proportion of households, many of them with dependent children, have a low level of disposable income.
• The County experiences high levels of multiple-deprivation, and four of its seven local authority areas always rank highly on the Government’s needs Index.

The major factor influencing the life chance of children and young people in County Durham is enduring poverty. Although the number of children living in poverty has reduced since 1996, the pattern of relative poverty is unchanged.

Investing in Children Research for Every Child Matters

This research begun in summer 2004 aimed to find out what children and young people in County Durham thought of Every Child Matters. Around 90 of them attended agenda days. Meetings with groups of young people aged from 6 to 19 included those who didn’t go to school, those with disabilities, or from travelling families or black and ethnic minorities as well as children and young people who were asylum seekers and those serving custodial sentences.

It is not claimed that this research is the view of all children and young people but it does bring up issues that many in County Durham would agree with. Young people were able to discuss issues freely that they felt were important to them, not simply issues important to adults.

The main findings of the Investing in Children research are included in the ANS 2005 as Key Messages in the context of each of the five outcomes.

For detail such as figures for individual PCTs, see Audit of Needs and Services

Being Healthy

County-wide indicators developed for the Outcomes document reflect local needs and diversity:

• Availability of Down’s screening.
• Breast-feeding rate.
• Numbers of children who are in public care having dental check in last 12 months.
• Numbers of decayed, missing and filled teeth in five-year-old children.
• Rate of new episodes of Sexually Transmitted (STI) among under 16s and in 16-19 year olds.
• Measures of harm cause by illegal drugs.
• Incidence of obesity among children under 11 by 2010.
• Low birth weight and Infant mortality rate.
• Access to therapy services in a range of settings.
• Smoking in young people.

How Healthy are Children and Young People in Durham

Routine immunisation is one of the most effective measures to protect the community’s health. Uptake in children in County Durham is high and above regional and national rates.

• By May 2005, 98 of the 156 schools in County Durham with 20% free school meal eligibility (FSME) had achieved the National Healthy School Standard (NHSS). Another 43 schools are working towards this. The target is to support the remaining 15 schools to achieve NHSS by March 2006.
• 20% of children and young people are estimated to experience mental health problems at some time.
• The Office of National Statistics (ONS) survey in 1999 reported that 10% of 5 to 15 year olds had a mental health disorder ie. 5% conduct disorder, 4% emotional disorder, 1% hyperactive.
• 38 wards across County Durham are in the top 20% nationally for teenage conceptions. These wards, as well as vulnerable groups, are being targeted more actively.

How Healthy are our potentially vulnerable children and young people? For example, children with a disability

Varying definitions of disability and the differing severity and multiple conditions, make it difficult to estimate numbers of disabled children and young people who require services locally.

Estimated numbers of disabled children and young people (0-16 years) based on prevalence estimates of The North East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

	Long Term Disability	Sever Learning Disability	Cerebral Palsy	Autistic Spectrum Disorder
County Durham	2723	292	156	292

Key Messages from Children and Young People in County Durham

(From a report by Investing in Children)

What does a Physically Healthy Lifestyle mean to children and young people?

• Healthy Food to be cheaper than junk food and an affordable gym in the area.
• Have more trees and flowers in schools and fresh fruit available.
• More P.E. lessons in schools, including nutritional studies and a gym open to all pupils.
• Increase children’s understanding of what a healthy diet is through PHSE and PE.
• More information in schools about the risks of smoking, drinking and taking drugs, so that young people can make informed choices.
• Surgeries and hospitals to be more accessible to young people.

What does sexually healthy mean to young people?

• Protection should be available with confidential advice in schools.
• Family Planning clinics to be available in every village or transport available to access the nearest.
• Young people should be made aware of STI’s and avoiding pregnancy (sex education).
• Counsellors available to give advice following sexual abuse.
• More informative sex education at an earlier age and free contact numbers for sexual health advice.
• Pregnant women to be made more aware of possible harm from smoking, drinking and taking drugs.

What does choosing not to take illegal drugs mean to children and young people?

• Show young people the harm that can be done by taking drugs.
• Being aware of the risks and how it would affect all the family, along with legal consequences.

Key Messages for Action and what is Happening Already

• Reduce smoking in pregnancy – school nurses have been trained in smoking cessation.
• Tackle childhood obesity – all schools receiving “Food in Schools Toolkit”.
• Give young people access to private and confidential consultation with school nurses.
• Reduce accidental injury – Health Visitors give parents information on safety.
• Do the basics well - continue to support uptake of immunisation programme and support new mothers initiating breastfeeding

For background to the Staying Safe ANS see Audit of Needs and Services

Staying Safe

How safe are the children and young people in County Durham?

Some of the indicators used to measure staying safe are:

• Number of 0-15 year olds injured or killed in road traffic accidents.
• Reduced number of fire-related deaths in the home.
• An increased number of schools achieve accredited anti-bullying status.
• Reduced % 11-15 year olds who state they have been bullied in the last 12 months.
• Reduction in the number of racist incidents.

Improvements in:

• % of under 16s looked after by the Local Authority for more than 2.5 years and in the same placements for at least 2 years or placed for adoption.
• % of care cases completed in the courts within 40 weeks.
• % children/young people on the Child Protection Register (CPR) who were previously registered.
• % deregistered from CPR who have been registered for 2 years +.

How safe are children and young people from:

Maltreatment, Neglect, Violence and Sexual Exploitation?

County Durham has a higher number of children on the CPR than the national average but the rate per 10,000 is lower than our regional partners. All children on the CPR have a qualified social worker as key worker and all children are reviewed within statutory timescales.

Bullying and Discrimination?

The Anti-Bullying Service supports and encourages all schools to develop policy and to view bullying seriously. Children and young people, who are either victims, perpetrators, or witnesses to bullying incidents can be offered support.

Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour in and out of School?

When children and young people are victims of crime, incidents are less likely to be reported. There is a need to gather more detailed information to plan effective services for them. A considerable number of children and young people in County Durham are likely to witness domestic violence and are potentially at risk of significant harm.

Do children and young people have security, stability and are they cared for?

Over 600 young people aged between 16 and 19 presented as homeless or at risk of homelessness in the year up to April 2005. Over 1300 children were present in households facing homelessness in the same period.

A steady growth in the number of care proceedings issued by the County Council over the last 3 years and increased numbers of children under 10 on the CPR, results from a significant increase in referrals because of parental problem substance and alcohol use, as well as domestic violence.

Key Safety Messages from Children and Young People in County Durham

(From a report by Investing in Children) Traffic - Many younger children are concerned about:

• Intimidation by speeding cars, not being able to ride their bike because they weren’t allowed to cycle on paths and the roads were too dangerous.
• The need for more crossings and school crossing patrols to keep them safe.

Solution: Enforce a 20-mile an hour speed limit in residential areas, near schools and play areas.

Discrimination

Young people often felt discriminated against because of their age as the safety concerns of adults or other groups in society were deemed more important. Most young people said they felt most safe when with their friends but other people in society, often unreasonably, feel intimidated and phone the police to have groups split up and moved on.

“Staying safe does not mean staying at home!” Young people said that the message from the police and residents in their area was to stay at home if they wanted to stay safe. However, this conflicts the continuous messages warning of childhood obesity.
Solution:

• More places for children and young people to go on evenings and weekends.
• Extended school and youth club opening hours.
• Extend access to leisure centres and community centres.
• Safe public transport links ie. well-lit paths and bus stops.

Key Message for Action and What is Happening Already

• Establish co-ordinated multi-agency child protection strategies for children living in households where there is substance abuse. A hidden harm sub group of the local Safeguarding Children Board is working on this.
• Improve multi-agency data collection to address the impact of domestic violence on children and young people. The local Safeguarding Children Board is collating information from across county Durham to develop its strategy for children living with domestic violence.
• Work on Local Area Agreements.

Enjoy and Achieve

How well do children in County Durham enjoy and achieve

Some of the County-wide indicators to measure enjoyment and achievement, based on the Durham 5 Outcomes are:

• % increase in children with satisfactory speech and language development at age 2.
• % 7, 11 and 14 year olds achieving expected levels in attainment tests.
• Take up of sporting opportunities by 5 – 16 year olds.
• Take up of cultural and sporting opportunities at age 16+.
• Number of 16 – 19 year olds in adult and community learning.
• Attendance and exclusions data.

How ready for school are children in County Durham?

• 90% of 3 year olds are in good quality educational settings.
• 45% of children aged 0 - 5 live in Sure Start areas.

Baseline assessment of children entering school indicates:

• Those who have had nursery education experience do better at school.
• Girls generally out-perform boys.
• Older children do better.
• Those in receipt of free school meals generally do worse.

How well do children and young people attend and enjoy school?

• Attendance of children at County Durham primary and secondary schools is the highest ever, exceeding planned targets in 2004. However, as we have 10% of the most deprived wards in the country, the levels of ill health adversely affect overall attendance.
• Permanent exclusions in all schools were below 79 in 2003, but in 2004 rose to 94. Analysis has resulted in further targeted activity to address this.

How well do children in County Durham achieve stretching educational standards at primary school?

Percentage of pupils achieving key stage level 4 English.pdf

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Percentage of pupils achieving key stage level 4 Maths.pdf

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Children in County Durham achieve around the levels of those across England and are improving. (2005 results are currently being processed for all Key Stages and are in line with the trends shown in the three graphs on this page.)

How well do young people in County Durham achieve streching educational standards at secondary school and other learning setting?

• In English, Mathematics and Science at age 14 (end of Key Stage 3) the County has historically performed below the national norms but the gap between County and national figures is narrowing.

Percentage of pupils achieving 5+ GCSEs grade A* to C.pdf

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How well do children and young people in Durham achieve personal development and enjoy recreation?

There is much high quality provision, but data regarding the uptake and its contribution is an area for development.

• Leisure Provision and the Countryside Service.
• Participation of 5-16 year olds in PE and school sport, music and arts development.
• Coordination of Social Inclusion Partnerships (COSIP).
• Participation in the Youth Service and the Schools Library Service.
• Promoting emotional well being in schools.

How well do potentially vulnerable children and young people in County Durham enjoy and achieve? for example, looked after children

• Looked after children do not achieve as well as their peers across all key stages. This is subject to considerable targeted activity.

Key Messages from Children and Young People in County Durham

(From a report by Investing in Children).

• Relationships between teachers and pupils need to be good if school life for all involved is to be an enjoyable and happy experience. Solution: Open a substantial debate on the fairness of school rules and how these are decided and applied.
• Lessons need to be more interactive and fun with more support provided for those who need it. Solution: there should be a bigger choice of subjects, including more vocational subjects.
• Schools need new facilities and better equipment. Despite this they are an excellent resource which are not used to their full potential. Solution:: Increase activities available in school time. Extend the opening times of school gyms and pools.
• There should be more parks, skate parks and roller blade areas where young people can play and socialise without any hassle from the police or the general public. Solution: Do not restrict access for young people to leisure centres and, community centres. Extend opening hours of youth clubs and schools. Ensure good public transport links.

Key Messages for Action and What is Happening Already

Raising achievement:

• At Key Stage 4: by continuing programmes in schools which lift Durham educational outcomes to equal those nationally.
• Of boys, across all key stages by ensuring curricular access and high quality data analysis in schools.
• Of looked after children through highly focussed, multi-agency support.
• Of all children and young people by ensuring a positive and supportive ethos in schools.

Improve leisure opportunities by:

• Making more effective use of school facilities and extending acess to leisure facilities.

For more about Investing in Children see the Investing in Children website.

Making a Positive Contribution

Some of the indicators used to measure making a positive contribution are evidence of:

• Children/young people’s perceptions being included in service evaluation.
• Young people identifying issues that affect them and deciding local priorities for action.
• Percentage of 18-24 year olds who are self-employed, or manage their own business.
• Percentage of 10-19 year olds admitting to:
  a) Bullying another pupil in the last 12 months.
  b) Attacking, threatening or being rude due to skin colour, race or religion.
• Crimes brought to justice, reduced levels of offending and re-offending.
• 75% participation in restorative justice processes.

Children and young people's involvement is a strength in County Durham. We have a range of initiatives of national repute including Investing in Children (Iic), which promotes the participation of children and young people in strategic and service issues to achieve change. The nationally recognised Derwentside Youth Forum has democratically elected representatives from every ward in the district and a budget of over £10000 to allocate for various young people’s projects. Although we are proud of this work we recognise there is more to do.

How do children and young people engage in decision making?

• 169 organisations across County Durham have achieved Investing in Children membership, showing they have acted in response to the views of young people.
• 83% of schools who responded to a recent survey have a School Council.
• 81% of service users felt listened to by youth workers trying to improve the service.
• Those entering the Youth Justice System are invited to complete a “what do you think” questionnaire with their Supervising Officer.
• Local focus groups lead into a County Youth Forum and young people as representatives on the Connexions Partnership Board.

How do children and young people support the community and environment?

• 6,500 under 19s engaged in community and environmental support activities in 2003 and 2004.
• 53% of Youth Service users surveyed in 2004 participated in educational or residential visits.

How well do children and young people choose not to offend or engage in anti-social behaviour?

• Engagement in the Youth Crime Prevention Strategy initiatives is very high.
• The number of young people convicted of an offence was reduced between 2001-03.

How well do children and young people choose not to bully?

• The Anti-bullying Service had 855 referrals during the academic year 2004 – 05
• 34 Schools have achieved Anti-bullying Service/ChildLine/NSPCC Anti-bullying Accreditation

How well do children and young people develop confidence and enterprise?

• All young people aged 13-19 have access to a Connexions Personal Adviser
• 82% of young people using the Youth Service in 2004 felt they could access relevant information and advice at their youth project.

Key Messages from Children and Young People:

(From a report by Investing in Children)

• It is a lot harder to listen to the voices of all young people in comprehensive schools rather than primary schools given the large numbers of young people involved.
• It is difficult to have enough time for debating at School Council meetings in lunch and break-times. The presence of teachers and an adult led agenda means young people feel that they can not bring up issues such as teacher behaviour or teaching styles.
• Young people want to contribute to decisions made within their communities.

Cross-cutting issues:
Transport:

• Bus services are unreliable and it is unreasonable to pay full fare at age 14.
• Young people feel discriminated against by signs in shops that read “only two young people allowed in at one time” and by bans on “hoodies” and “baseball caps”.
• Young people do not feel respected by service providers, from the police to bus drivers, to school teachers to shop owners.

Money and reducing poverty is important in achieving all five outcomes:

• Young people who cannot afford to attend evening activities often hang around outside.
• Only those from middle class families tend to be involved in youth forums and councils.

Key messages for action and what is happening already:

• More positive images of young people in local media showing contribution to community life.
• Enhance funding and resources to increase opportunities to make a positive contribution.
• Improve access to public transport which affects all 5 outcome areas.
• Develop opportunities for young people to engage in decision making within the school.
• Tackle discrimination experienced by children and young people to show respect for all.
• Develop opportunities to engage young people from poorer backgrounds.
• Iic membership scheme open to all services.
• Involvement of young people in ECM developments.

To find out more about economic well-being go to Achieving Economic Well-being.

Economic well-being

Some of the indicators used to measure the extent to which children and young people in County Durham achieve economic well-being include:

• Stock and take up of childcare and improvements in services to support families.
• Percentage of young children living in households where no-one is working.
• Percentage of vulnerable households in the private sector in a decent condition.
• Level of material deprivation and low income, and fuel poverty in vulnerable households.

How well do young people engage in education, employment or training?

• Fewer young people in Durham than nationally continue into some kind of further learning.
• The proportion of young people known not to be in employment, education and training (NEET) and those whose current activity is not known, is the highest in England, although it has reduced since November 2002. 65% of the NEET group are young men.
• 74% of young people have achieved NVQ level 2.
• 28% progress into Higher Education against a target of 33% for 2007.
• Sure Start County Durham returns 2005 show there are 17 childcare places per 100 children aged 0-14 in line with DfES targets.

How ready are young people for employment?

• A range of opportunities in schools prepare them for employment, including work placement to secondary school careers education.
• New vocational diplomas and pathways are being introduced from Key Stage 4 to promote greater attainment and to relate curricula more closely to the labour market.

To what extent do children and young people live in decent homes and sustainable communities?

• An important indicator of economic well-being is the quality of the built environment, cleaner, safer and greener public spaces.
• A Centrepoint audit indicated over 600 young people aged 16-19 are homeless or at risk of homelessness in the year up to April 2005.

To what extent do children and young people live in households free from low income?

Breaking the cycle of poverty that exists in County Durham is essential to improving all 5 outcomes. A rapid expansion of day care provision is planned to reduce the numbers of children living in households where no one is working.

Key Messages from Children and Young People in County Durham

(From a report by Investing in Children)

Education

• Many young people are put off by the cost of higher education before they have even thought about what they would like to study.
• Research shows the average annual cost of sending a child to secondary school was £948.11. For primary school it was £563.15.
• The Educational Maintenance Allowance should be provided at an earlier age and be open to all young people. Everyone agreed that school trips should be subsidised for those less well off and grants should be given to help people pay for uniforms.

Solution: There needs to be a coordinated campaign on child poverty in County Durham

Money and Benefits
The national minimum wage is seen to be unfair for young people and 16 and 17-year-old modern apprentices are exempt from the young workers rate. Solution: Greater equity in benefits and wages.

Key messages for action and what is happening already:

• New range of vocational programmes for Key Stage 4 being developed for 2006 – 8. These will relate to job skills.
• Educational maintenance allowance being broadened for 16 year olds from April 2006.
• Additional European Social fund (ESF) grant made available from November 2005 to support educational achievement at KS4 and increased progression into further learning.
• New childcare places being developed to bring all parts of County Durham to a similar level.

Check out the Durham 5 Outcomes framework on the website:

Outcomes Framework

We need to know how well our children and young people currently do against The Durham 5 “Outcomes for Children and Young People in Durham”, to decide what we need to do better.

Our overall aspirations for all of them are shown in the diagram below:

Joint Planning and Commissioning.pdf

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Joint Planning and Commissioning

If we are to improve outcomes for children and young people, then we need to have the best possible services, effectively coordinated. To get to this point, we need a “where we are now” picture of how all services perform, who does what and where. We can then identify those areas we wish to build on and strengthen.

Joint planning and commissioning will enable all agencies to focus their resources most effectively on improving outcomes for children and young people. Commissioning means ensuring we have the right service, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost and quality. This diagram shows how we will commission services in the future.

The Audit of Need and Service has provided the information required for the first two stages of the commissioning cycle. It will enable us to identify priority areas for planning and commissioning.

Data sources for needs assessment

Information from ANS 2005, the priority outcomes identified by children and young people, the priorities of Local Planning Groups, the outcomes of the Annual Performance Assessment and Public Service Agreements contributed to the Children and Young People’s Block of The Local Area Agreement (LAA).

Ofsted has issued to each local authority, a dataset for the Annual Performance Assessment (APA) which will underpin the outcomes framework. See www.ofsted.gov.uk.

What next for the Audit of Needs and Services?

With the appointment of a Durham Director of Children's Services by January 2006 and the establishment of new partnership arrangements, strategic oversight for ANS 2006 and beyond will be mainstreamed. This will enable significant improvements eg:

• An assessment of the validity and value of existing data sources to avoid the current duplication of effort across agencies.
• The development of a shared vocabulary for types of data and their sources to best utilise this across services (eg outcomes, outputs, user demand, provider supply and levels of service activity).
• Greater involvement in the process by voluntary, community and private sectors, many of whom have useful data and considerable experience of service delivery.
• Improved engagement of parents, carers and communities in planning the future direction of services and stimulating dialogue about local outcomes and local problems.
• Ensuring the process is dynamic and continuous rather than periodic.
• Testing conclusions from aggregated statistical returns with qualitative information from local sources to tell the story behind the figures.

PDF Version of the Newsletter

Newsletter Special Edition.pdf

Date: 30/11/05
File Size: 671KB
Number of Pages: 12

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