Children's Trust Induction Pack

Children's Trust - Interactive Induction Pack

Introduction to the Suffolk Children's Trust Partnership

Suffolk Children's Trust brings together all organisations that provide services or support to children and young people in Suffolk.  Through identifying where we can work more effectively together than alone, we aim to improve what we do and make Suffolk an even better place for children and young people to grow up.

Suffolk’s strategic vision for children and young people is:

“To enable all children and young people in Suffolk to aspire to, and achieve their full potential, giving them the basis for a successful life as active members of their community.”

The Children’s Trust works to ensure that children and young people are:

• Healthy
• Safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Able to make a positive contribution to society eg volunteering, giving their views 
• Achieve economic wellbeing – further education and access to employment and training

It does this through:

• A child centred outcome led vision
• Integrated front line delivery e.g. integrated services, children's centres and community clusters
• Integrated process e.g. sharing of information, the Common Assessment Framework  
• Integrated strategy – the Children & Young People’s Plan and working with agencies to share resources 
• Inter-agency governance – The Children’s Trust Strategic Board

For further information visit the Children's Trust web pages.

Integrated Governance

Role of the Children’s Trust Strategic Board

The Board is responsible for the overall direction of the Trust.  It agrees the strategic direction and priorities.  Its main functions are:

• Lead and give clear strategic direction to the priorities and delivery of the Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) and drive the whole system change in the needs of children, young people and families.
• Secure engagement of all relevant partners and hold itself and individual partner agencies to account for CYPP and LAA targets and publish an annual report on the extent to which partners have acted in accordance with CYPP.
• Decide on strategic priorities and investment/disinvestment decisions of joint resources.
• Ensure robust local arrangements for safeguarding.

Membership of the Children’s Trust Strategic Board

 Governance Arrangements

Structure Chart

The National & Legislative Context

What is a Children’s Trust?

Children's Trust are local partnerships which bring together the organisations responsible for services for children, young people and families in a shared commitment to improving children’s lives. It is local authorities – through their Directors of Children’s Services and Lead Members for Children’s Services – which lead Children’s Trusts, but they work closely with the other local agencies with a legal duty to be part of the Trust - strategic health authorities, primary care trusts (PCTs), police authorities, local probation boards, youth offending teams, Connexions partnerships, the Learning and Skills Council for England and district councils.

Current Statutory Responsibilities

The Every Child Matters agenda is based on statutory duties within the Children Act 2004.

Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 states that  ‘Relevant partners’  with a "duty to co-operate" are District Councils, Police and Police Authorities, Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts, Probation Service, Youth Offending Teams, connexions and Learning & Skills Council.

Statutory Guidance Statutory Guidance on co-operation arrangements, including the Children’s Trust Board and the Children & Young People’s Plan was published in March 2010.

It reflects the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (ASCL) 2009 which has strengthened Children’s Trusts co-operation arrangements:

• The Children’s Trust Board is placed on a statutory footing from 1st April 2010.
• Responsibility for developing, publishing and reviewing the Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) passes from the local authority alone to the Children’s Trust Board.
• The CYPP becomes a joint strategy in which the Children’s Trust partners set out how they will co-operate to improve the well-being of children and young people in the local area.  Once the Children’s Trust Board has identified its main priorities, the Plan should focus on what the partners will be do together to deliver them.
• Responsibility for implementing the CYPP remains with the individual Trust partners, who are under a duty to have regard to the Plan.  The Children’s Trust Board is responsible for monitoring the extent to which the partners act in accordance with the Plan and to publish a annual report which sets this out.
• Schools (including Academies), Further Education institutions and sixth-form colleges, and Jobcentre Plus are new statutory relevant partners in the Children’s Trust co-operation arrangements from January 2010. 

New Coalition Policy

Although there have been no formal announcements on the future of Children’s Trusts, there are indications that Children’s Trusts will not be abolished.  Tim Loughton, Junior Minister for Children & Families has said “Where children's trusts have proved successful local authorities are entirely at liberty to continue operating them. If they are such a good thing I'm sure most local authorities will continue working with that model. But there are some areas of confusion that need to be addressed, such as the relationship between local safeguarding children boards and children's trusts."

National Children's Plan: Building Brighter Futures

The Children’s Plan commits to strengthening Children’s Trusts so that they continue to improve their performance, delivering measurable improvements for all children and young people year on year; and have in place by 2010 consistent high quality arrangements to identify and provide early intervention for all children who need additional help.

Performance Framework

More recently, the Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 has put in place a local performance framework based on new statutory Local Area Agreements, and next year will include a new monitoring and inspection system (Comprehensive Area Assessment). The Local Strategic Partnership – of which the Children’s Trust is a thematic
partnership – sits at the heart of this framework, with collective responsibility for agreeing the improvement priorities set out in the LAA.

Child Health Strategy "Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures"

In December 2007, the Government made a commitment in the Children’s Plan to publish a child health strategy jointly between the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Healthy lives, brighter futures: A strategy for children and young people's health

Statutory Guidance on the Roles & Responsibilities of the Lead Member for Children's Services and the Director of Children's Services

This document aims to explain how the roles are both distinct and complementary, and how by working together as a team, the Director for Children’s Services (DCS) and the Lead Member (LM) can be most effective in driving improvements in outcomes for children, young people and families.

Summary of the Statutory Guidance

Introduction

• Children Act 2004 requires each local authority to appoint a DCS and appoint a Lead Member
• DCS and LM work together to provide strategic leadership for education and social care services for children
• In wider local area, DCS and LM must lead and facilitate local partnerships, including Children's Trust, CYPP, information sharing databases, Suffolk Safeguarding Children Board and s.75 arrangements relating to children's health.
• Responsibilities extend to all children receiving services in an area
• DCS & LM should ensure children's issues have priorities in the Suffolk Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement.
• DCS and LM will need to support schools in their new and expanded role of becoming 21st century schools

Role of Lead Member

• Children's champion
• Communicate vision for children to Cabinet, Executive and councillors and Boards/Partnerships on which they are represented
• Promote active involvement of children and young people to inform work of Children's Trust
• Negotiate a productive relationship with DCS

Designation of Lead Member

• LM has responsibility for leadership, strategy and effectiveness of children's services
• Political accountability for effectiveness, availability and value for money of all local authority children's services
• Political leadership within and beyond the local authority to improve outcomes for children and young people
• LM must satisfy themselves that discharge of authority's statutory children's services is effective.

Partnerships

•  LM should ensure that all services effectively address the needs of children & young people in the local area
• It may be appropriate for LM to chair the Children' Trust Board or corporate parenting panels or groups
• LM should establish effective working relationships with members of District councils, encouraging their full engagement
• LM should be satisfied that robust governance and monitoring frameworks are in place
• LM should be satisfied that processes are in place to engage private and third sector as partners in the Children's Trust

Safeguarding

• LMs are politically accountable for ensuring that the local authority fulfils its legal responsibilities for safeguarding
• LMs should ensure that the local authority fulfils its responsibilities to children for which it is corporate parent
• LMs should be a "participant observer" of the Safeguarding Board.  LMs should engage in discussion, ask questions, but not be part of the decision making process
• LMs should work with elected members involved with adult social care services to ensure transition arrangements are in place

Corporate Parenting

• LM has lead political role in ensuring that children looked after by the local authority have their interests protected
• The Guidance (2.22) suggests ways in which LMs should involve other elected members in corporate parenting.
• LM should be satisfied there is a system in place where each looked after child can contact the local authority at the appropriate level.

Support for Lead Member

• Only one person can be the LM but as the role is so broad the LM may need to be supported by one or more elected members.

DCS role in leading the partnership

• DCS has key role in creating and sustaining effective local partnerships.  This includes working with partner agencies to strengthen the Children's Trust, as well as working with the Suffolk Strategic Partnership
• The DCS will contribute to monitoring the extent to which other Board members act in accordance with the CYPP and hold them to account through the CTPB and Suffolk Strategic Partnership
• DCS should ensure that children, young people, parents and carers are at the heart of consultation and are able to feed back on their experience of services.  This includes encouraging "hard to reach" groups to participate in Youth Parliament, Schools Councils or Children in care Councils
• DCS should lead work with partner agencies to ensure that Government's "Information sharing; guidance for practitioners and managers" is applied consistently across all partners
• DCS is responsible for engaging Children's Trust partners, including where appropriate the private and third sector organisations. NHS Trusts and through the PCT, advice from GPs and health professionals
• DCS needs to lead the process for the whole Children's Trust in commissioning so that the totality of the Children's Trust Partners' resources improve child outcomes most efficiently, effectively and sustainably
• DCS has a key role in ensuring that the priorities for children and young people are identified in the CYPP and that these are reflected in the Community Strategy and LAA
• Safeguarding - DCS should ensure that all appropriate local authority services engage effectively with LSCB and DCS should be a member of LSCB.  DCS will be held to account for effective working of LSCB by the Chief Executive and challenged where appropriate by LM.

DCS & LM have different but complementary roles.

Both are champions for children to improve outcomes and narrow gaps; both are local leaders.

Important Differences

• LM provides political leadership and direction
• DCS operates in a professional and managerial sphere
• The LM must be satisfied that the right systems and processes are in place; the DCS must ensure they are being delivered
• LM and DCS should work as a team, without blurring distinction of roles
• DCS & LM should drive forward development of  a strong and dynamic Children's Trust.  Both should improve outcomes by encouraging partnership working and integrated planning, commissioning and delivery across full range of services across Children's Trusts
• DCS & LM have responsibility for leading corporate parenting arrangements, both across authority and with partners of Children's Trust.   LM and DCS have joint responsibility for delivering on Council's pledges to looked after children
• LMs have a political championing and leadership role in influencing service providers for children beyond their direct responsibility
• DCS & LM should work with partners to establish a framework of accountabilities

Integrated Strategy

The Children & Young People’s Plan

Suffolk’s second Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP2) was approved by the Children’s Trust Partnership Board in July 2009.

The Plan sets out the Children’s Trust Partnership’s vision for children and young people and their families, and the 11 cross-cutting priorities that the Trust feels are the most important issues that it needs to focus on over the next two years.  The priorities are spread across the five Every Child Matters (ECM) Outcomes:

Be Healthy
Stay Safe
Enjoy & Achieve
Make a Positive Contribution
Achieve Economic Well-being

The Plan also details how we are implementing a ‘Change for Children’ programme in Suffolk – through developing inter-agency governance, integrated strategy, integrated processes and integrated service delivery to help improve outcomes for children and young people and their families.  Much of this activity is referred to in more detail in the Children’s Trust’s Early Intervention and Prevention Strategy, which is one of the companion documents to CYPP2.

• Suffolk Children and Young People's Plan 2009-11
• Early Intervention & Prevention Final Strategy
• CYPP2 Needs Analysis
• Outcome Leads and Priority Leads (to follow) 
• Commissioning Support
• Workforce Core Values

Integrated Processes

• Common Assessment Framework

Integrated Service Delivery

• Clusters Map
• Integrated Services presentation (to be added)

Involvement of children and young people

• Young Persons Involvement Strategy

Branding Guidelines

• Branding Guidelines
  

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