Children and learning – the new agenda Children and Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee July 05

Fragmented funding, multiple assessments and gatekeepers Conduct disorder Statement of SEN Children in need At risk register ASSET APIR £3 billion Social Worker Youth offending team Child psycho- logist Ed welfare officer Connex -ions PA SENCO & Ed Psycho- logist LEA special educational needs Connex -ions EWSCAHMSYOT Social Services Youth workers Youth Service £300 million £100 million £350 million £500 million £1 billion = assessment = worker = agency Health visitor PCT Risks to parents Children’s Fund £150 million

Children Act 2004 Children’s Commissioner Duty to co-operate Duty to safeguard and promote welfare of children Duty to set up Local Safeguarding Children Boards Provision for indexes or databases to enable better sharing of information Single statutory Children and Young People’s Plan Director / Lead Member for Children’s Services Joint Inspection Framework / Joint Area Reviews Provisions on foster care and private fostering Duty to promote educational achievement of looked after children

Every Child Matters… Government vision underpinning Children Act 2004 Systemic change to Build services around the child, young person and family Develop the workforce, changing culture and practice and to integrate Earlier intervention and prevention Radical improvement in opportunities and outcomes for children, driven by whole-system reform of the delivery of children’s services.

The outcomes framework Being healthy Staying safe Enjoying and achieving Making a positive contribution Achieving economic well-being

Responsibilities of Director of Children’s Services and Lead Member Director of children’s services:  Professional responsibility and accountability for all local authority children’s services  Leadership within the local authority and beyond to improve outcomes  Building effective partnership to jointly improve outcomes Lead member  Political accountability for children’s services  Leadership for engagement of local communities  With the DCS to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people across all agencies

The children’s trust in action Outcomes for children & young people

Children’s trusts driving change Arrangements for working together to improve outcomes for all children and young people through:  the front line staff providing integrated services, including children’s centres and extended schools  the processes to support these services  the planning which sets their direction  the governance arrangements which sustain them

Youth Matters Green Paper July 2005 Empowering young people - Things to do and places to go:  Opportunity cards  Opportunity fund  Children’s trusts commissioning Making a contribution  Encouraging volunteering Information, advice and guidance  Minimum standards  Devolved from Connexions to local authorities, through children’s trusts Targeted support  Nominated lead professional  Local authority becomes lead for teenage pregnancy and tackling number of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training

Southend: Vision in Interim Children and Young People Plan To achieve better outcomes for all children and young people in Southend We will work to: Narrow the gap in outcomes between those who do well and those who do not Secure improvements in all the five outcomes in the Every Child Matters framework We are committed to working in partnership to improve universal services and to integrate our services providing early intervention and specialist help We listen to children, young people and their families in our planning and delivery of services and strive to make these accessible and children-friendly

Children’s services improvement cycle

Priorities for improvement Reduce teenage pregnancy in 4 hotspot wards Increase prevention to reduce LAC; reduce agency foster placements and out-borough placements Improve value-added at Key Stage 2 Improve attainment and progress in non-selective secondary schools Remove all schools from special measures and serious weaknesses Improve outcomes for Looked After Children Improve range of choice through strategy Children’s trust arrangements Expand multi-agency clusters Build capacity in new department Arrangements for joint governance

What should the new service look like? Strengthened preventative services Integrated multi-professional teams delivering services around the child with lead professionals Work across all agencies in clusters, co-located where possible Children and families participating in service planning Common assessment framework and quality systems for information sharing Integrated workforce development based on common core of competencies for the children’s workforce

Southend - our culture Performance improving outcomes Customer focus children/young-people/family friendly Integrated one system: for 1 child - 1 assessment, 1 plan, 1 lead professional ‘Can do’ embracing the change, being flexible, mutual support Continuous improvement staff training, development and appraisal

Joint Area Review Inspection by all the inspectorates of all services for children within a local authority area Southend’s JAR provisionally Lessons from pilot JARs:  Significant focus on vulnerable children  The views of children and young people given considerable weighting

Implications for scrutiny of children’s services Scrutiny members have an opportunity to ensure: The improvement and integration of universal services Requirements for specialist help identified early and effectively Effective work with partners to achieve outcomes Authority’s performance is assessed in the light of inspection findings That service reviews listen to the views of children, young people and families Child Focussed Scrutiny, Ten, 2005