Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

Ify Adenuga

Tracey Baldwin                      represented by Penny Thompson

Melanie Danan

Tony Hartney

Paul Head                              Jane O’Neill substituted

Clare Panniker

Jim Shepley

David Sloman                        substituted

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda items where they appear. New items will be dealt with under Item 13 below).

No items of Urgent Business were raised.

Members to declare any personal/and or prejudicial interests with respect to agenda items and must not take part in any decision required with respect to these items.

No declarations were made.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 7 April 2009 as a correct record.

It was noted that at the previous meeting, information provided by NHS Haringey, with respect to the number of Chlamydia screenings carried out by Haringey Youth Service been incorrect.

It had been stated that the Youth Service had failed to carry out any tests when I fact sixty-two had been undertaken. An apology was given for this error.  

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 April 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

This report will be sent to follow.

The Trust received a report setting out proposals for the implementation of Haringey’s Children’s Trust Board as a Theme Board to replace the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board within the Haringey Strategic Partnership structure.

The Chair noted that the developmental session, which had taken place to look at the formation of Trust in more detail, had been useful and thanked members of the Board for their attendance.

A summary of the Government’s response to Lord Laming’s report had been published on 6 May that provided further clarity around the role and functions of Children’s Trusts and an overview was provided of these. It was noted that there areas that would require further discussion to determine how they would be implemented in Haringey.

There had been agreement that the three sub-groups reporting to the Children’s Trust would be formed on a geographical basis and would be known as the North, West and South Children’s Partnerships. These would now be clerked by the Council’s Members Service Team and would produce agendas and minutes that would be form a clear audit trail.

The Trust discussed the ‘strap line’ that would be used to express the Trusts’ key intentions and there was agreement that the following wording should be adopted:

‘Working together for the children of Haringey’

In response to a suggestion that the Youth Offending Partnership Group should report to the Children’s Trust, as well as the Safer Communities Executive Board (SCEB), the Chair noted that this although it was not explicitly set out in the report this would be picked up by the Children’s Partnerships.

In response to a request that Councillors and NHS Non-Executive Directors should be included within the induction and training programme the Trust was advised that provision was being made for this. There would be a focus on producing an induction programme for staff across statutory organisations working with children.

With respect to the Membership of the Trust the Chair noted that Councillor Gail Enghert had accepted a place on the Trust and would be attending the next meeting. Unfortunately this meeting had clashed with another meeting that Councillor Enghert Chaired and therefore she had offer apologies.  

Representatives from NHS Haringey proposed that one of the two places that they currently held for Non-Executive Directors should be given to a Non-Executive Director of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). There was a general consensus that, subject to GOSH’s agreement, this proposal should be excepted.

In order to avoid confusion it was suggested that references within the Terms of Reference and Membership list to the ‘Board’ should be amended to refer to the ‘Trust’.

The Chair noted that having agreed the composition and membership of the Trust and its governance arrangements the next area of work would be to focus on how it should be developed.  

RESOLVED:

1. That the strap line set out below be adopted:

‘Working together for the children of Haringey’

2. That one of the two places currently held by NHS Haringey for Non-Executive Directors should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102.

The Trust received a report setting out progress that been made in meeting the seven themes for improvement identified in the JAR Action Plan.

It was noted that at present the overall RAG rating was not available for progress against the seven themes. Once the Performance Management Group had been established performance reports would be produced with exception reports included.

The Chair noted that Ofsted had written to the Council advising that they would be looking at the Children’s Service for one week from 1 June. An initial ‘set up’ meeting was being held to discuss this in more detail on 21 May and more information would be available following this.

It was likely that Ofsted would be keen to measure how well statutory organisations were working together to improve children’s services. To illustrate this a short narrative setting out the changes that had been made to partnership working would be constructed.

In response to a query as to how risk around the partnership failing to deliver had been calculated the Trust was advised that this was complex and relating not only to the commitment of the Trust members but the ability and commitment of the organisations they represented to take forward actions.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.  

The Trust received a report that provided an update on progress in relation to the development of the new Children and Young People’s Plan (C&YP).

It was noted that the new C&YP was in its final stages of development and that work was underway to evaluate the existing C&YP, which was due to conclude in September 2009.

A Working Group had been established from representatives from across the partnership to assist in the development of Needs Assessment and the Board was asked to comment on the draft executive summary of the Needs Assessment appended to the report.

The Trust broke into three groups to consider the following issues:

• The Vision Statement for the C&YP
• The Needs Assessment
• Workforce Development

It was noted that a summary of each groups discussion would be compiled and fed into the consultation process. Any further feedback on the Needs Assessment should be sent to Zakir Chaudhry whose contact details had been circulated.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. That the points raised during discussion should be noted and fed into the consultation process.

The Trust considered a report that provided an update in relation to the work being carried out to improve Key Stage Two results.

There was agreement that officers should meet with the Mental Health Service to discuss how funding available for improving mental health in schools could be used to help improve Key Stage Two results. Similarly there was agreement that there should be discussion with Great Ormond Street outside the meeting to look out how Speech and Language Therapy referrals may be help improve performance.

The need to work with parents and support families as a whole to maximise children’s potential was also recognised by the Trust.

RESOLVED:

That the report on Key Stage 2 be noted.

The Trust received a report that provided an update on progress made in implementing measures suggested by the Haringey Strategic Partnership Board to help the partnership achieve its target on reducing the prevalence of Chlamydia.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Trust received a report that provided information on performance during Quarter Four of 2008/09.

It was noted that the Council had recently procured a new IT system to monitor and produce performance reports. Consequently the information submitted to the Trust was presented in a different format and was organised under the five Every Child Matters outcomes and a separate section presenting the performance against cross cutting indicators.

In response to a query as to why information in relation to the increase in immunisations by a child’s second birthday had not been available the Trust was advised that the delay for this was unknown. There was agreement that this should be looked at and that an update would be circulated when the information became available.  

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Verbal updates will be provided.

This items was not taken as the Forums had not met since the previous meeting.

• Keys to Well-Being
• Obesity Strategy
• Contact Point
• Sixteen to Eighteen Transfer
• Youth Summit
• Parent Strategy
• Substance Misuse
• Olympics / Provision of Five Hours of Culture
• LSCB Annual Report
• Infant Mortality
• Teenage Pregnancy

Partners should submit any proposed agenda items for the next meeting to Patricia Walker, Policy and Partnerships Manager:

Patricia.walker@haringey.gov.uk  

The Chair noted that the Children’s Trust Performance Management Group would be constructing a strategic work plan and that this would be considered at the next meeting.

To consider any new items of Urgent Business admitted under Item 2 above.  

No new items of Urgent Business were raised.

To raise any items of AOB.

No items of AOB were raised.

To note the dates of future meetings set out below:

• 14 July 2009
• 5 October 2009
• 17 December 2009
• 9 February 2010
• 15 April 2010

The following dates of future meetings were noted:

• 14 July 2009
• 5 October 2009
• 17 December 2009
• 9 February 2010
• 15 April 2010