Frances Coupe – Head of Partnership Commissioning, CSF Helen Foye – Commissioning Manager CSF Charis Harbridge – St Albans Bereavement Network Planning and commissioning Children’s Services : the future

What do we want to achieve? Better outcomes for all children and young people Focus on those children and families who are most vulnerable Allocation of resources where they can have the greatest impact Quality services that are safe and accessible We want to know what works and what doesn’t

How effective planning and commissioning will get us there …. We use up to date data and needs analysis We will use open and transparent commissioning processes We will challenge historical funding patterns where appropriate We will monitor quality, access, equality and safeguarding We are building the capacity of the VCS

Key Drivers Hertfordshire Children’s Trust Partnership District Children’s Trust Partnerships Children and Young People's Plans (District and county) The Hertfordshire Compact Value for Money and Added Value Children’s Centres and Extended Schools

Commissioning in Hertfordshire – what's happening? VCS participation in funding decisions i.e. children's centres, Children's Targeted Services Fund, Prevention 513 The District Children and Young Peoples Plan influences decision making Shift towards longer term contracts where possible Increasing role of children and young people in the commissioning process CSF continues to have a small grants programme – Children's Targeted Service Fund (CTSF) to support smaller community groups Specific actions on VCS Engage Action Plan linked to Area Based Grant (ABG)

VCS Funding allocations – a pattern of growth Overall the VCS are increasing share of funding through more open and transparent commissioning processes Focus on preventative services – what the VCS do best VCS performing well in new commissioning culture

Challenges There isn’t enough money Shift from commitment to high level intervention to more investment in preventative services takes time Representation on partnership groups takes up time – it has to be worth it Government policy and priorities can change – new initiatives, short term cycles

Opportunities Representation on various HCTP groups Involvement in decision making about resources Opportunity to be involved in priority setting and shape future delivery Opportunity to develop workforce – lots of free training

St Albans City & Bereavement Network’s (SABN) on-going relationship with CSF Began in 2004 with the provision of annual awards of around £6,000 which provided valuable start up funds Helped SABN to think clearly about our project with children, what we could realistically achieve and what our objectives were Helped to shape the support of the project – setting up policies – recruitment procedures and quality measures Helped to develop evaluation procedures and made us think about how we could measure the ‘outcomes’ of our work

The Value of Monitoring Monitoring forms were daunting at first but over time we have valued the disciplines they encourage. Recording statistics and interpreting them Appreciating the success of a project and looking at weaknesses Helping us to plan services for the future

Children’s Targeted Services Fund – 2007 SABN’s most successful application at a time of great financial hardship for our organisation We benefited from our partnership with other local organisations especially the St Albans District Children’s Trust Partnership and the SPACE programme

The Prevention 513 Fund – June 2008 Difficult to find the time to do justice to the application because of unforeseen circumstances – form completed on staff days off The importance of having someone who really understands and cares about the project to write the application or have a major input The importance to SABN of receiving CORE funding rather than new project funding The helpfulness of the CSF team in clarifying what SABN could apply for

The Prevention 513 Fund – June 2008 The value of children’s participation in goal setting within SABN – eg the recent memorial service The value of being honest about our existing funding The importance of the final contract in clarifying the agreement, setting achievable targets and ensuring the ongoing validity of our policies and procedures

So how can we help each other? What is the best way to communicate with you about funding, HCTP partnership news etc? How do you monitor your own services – can we learn from you about what works best? How do you share information with other VCS organisations about your services and service users?