Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

Tracey Baldwin

Jean Croot

Melanie Danan

Jan Doust

Paul Head                              -Jane O’Neil

Claire Panniker                     -Julie Halliday

David Sloman

Members should 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 of interest were made.

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under Item 14 below).

No items of Urgent Business were raised.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2009 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes if the meeting held on 3 February 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

A presentation will also be made.

The Board received a report and presentation setting out the role of the new Community Engagement Framework (CEF) and how it was being developed.

It was noted that there were three key reasons for establishing a CEF:

• To reaffirm the HSP’s commitment to community engagement
• To promote and share partnership understanding of principles and community engagement
• To identify and prioritise areas for development

There were several national and local drivers for forming the CEF including the Local Government and Involvement in Public Health Act and Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets.

The Board was advised that the HSP Performance Management Group (PMG) had established a multi agency sub group to lead on the delivery of the CEF. 

The first phase of the consultation process had now concluded and the second phase had to commenced on 5 March. This included publishing the consultation document on the Council’s website and circulating it to Voluntary and Community Sector groups for feedback. A questionnaire had also been circulated seeking specific comments in relation to the vision, definition and principles of the CEF. 

It was noted that the third phase would take place in the Autumn and would focus primarily on the development of the Action Plan.

Members of the Board representing community groups were encouraged to complete the online questionnaire and the Board was advised the closing date for submission was 21 April.

In response to concern that there may be duplication between the CEF and Compact, Board was advised that the Compact the was specific to the Community and Voluntary Sector and that the CEF had been Compact Proofed.

It was suggested that consideration should be given to developing the role that digital technology could play in engaging with local people and it was confirmed that the CEF provided for this.

The Board was advised that any queries that Board members had could be put to the Council’s Head of Corporate Policy who’s contact details were included within the agenda papers.

RESOLVED:

That the report and presentation be noted.

A verbal update will be provided.

A verbal update was provided on the progress that made been made in respect of the Joint Area Review (JAR) Action Plan.

The Board was advised that there had been a meeting between the Director of Children’s Services and the Inspector reviewing the JAR Action Plan and that, at present, the review was still ongoing.

The Inspector had requested that parts of the Action Plan were reformatted and that additional data was included. The final version of the Action Plan, reflecting these changes, would be submitted on 8 April.

The Chair requested that the final document was also circulated members of the Board once it had been submitted to Offsted.

RESOLVED:

1. That the verbal update provided be noted.

2. That once the JAR Action Plan had been submitted to Offsted it should also be circulated to members of the Board.

A verbal update will be provided by the Chair of the Early Childhood Forum and the Children and Young People’s Service lead for Play.

The Board received a presentation on the Play Strategy setting out its role and objectives.

The Haringey Play Strategy sat within the framework of the National Play Strategy, which formed part of the National Children’s Plan. The Government had placed a strong emphasis on improving and creating new opportunities for Play and as part of the national strategy it had invested £235M and created a new National Indicator Set for Local Authorities. This was also being reinforced by new Planning Guidance and guidance being issued to Children’s Trusts.  

At present work was being undertaken to form the new strategy and this would reflect the aspirations of the new Children and Young People’s Plan.

It was noted that sites were currently being identified under the ‘Play Builder’ scheme and that local Ward Councillors were being consulted with respect to this. It was suggested that it would be useful if a matrix were formed to ensure that the areas most in need were targeted.

The Chair thanked ? and ? for the presentation.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

The Board received a report setting out draft proposals for the creation of a Children’s Trust to replace the current Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board.

The JAR report that examined Haringey Children’s Services identified a need to improve governance arrangements for the Safeguarding of Children. Following on from these recommendations the Board had agreed that a Children’s Trust should be established to replace the existing Board and that a review should be undertaken of the other bodies and sub structures beneath this.

The Board considered the proposed Terms of Reference and options in relation to membership and the how the sub-structures beneath the Trust would operate.

Terms of Reference

In response to a query as to how the proposed Terms of References reflected the change in status to a Trust and the specific responsibilities were attached to Trust status; the Board was advised that the JAR had recommended that a Children’s Trust should be established as this provided a more robust and accountable body.

It was noted that the Audit Commission had recently published a report suggesting that Partnerships did not provide a strong enough mechanism to hold partners account. In order to ensure that individual partners were accountable for ensuring that decisions made by the Trust were implemented by their organisation the Audit Commission had considered that Children’s Trusts were a better vehicle for this. 

The Board was advised that the proposed Terms of Reference reflected emerging guidance and that responsibility for monitoring of Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets would be subsumed by the Trust.

In terms of Commissioning and the pooling of budgets this would be an issue for the Trust to consider and it would need to determine to what extent this should be done.

There was agreement that the Terms of Reference proposed were acceptable in principal.

Membership

The Chair noted that it had been originally intended that the membership of the existing CYPSP would be significantly reduced when it became a Children’s Trust. However, new legislation was likely to suggest that the membership of Trusts was widened; given this much of the membership remained the same, with limited changes proposed.

There was discussion around the proposed membership and there was a general consensus that there should be GP representation on the Trust and it was suggested that Clinical Executive Committee should be asked to nominate a representative.

The Board discussed proposals to include the CLF representatives within the sub-groups rather than the Trust itself. The Community and Voluntary Sector would continue to be represented by HAVCO and the CLF representatives would take on a more a more practical role within the sub-groups attached to the Trust. This approach would also avoid any conflict of interest in terms of Commissioning.

It was noted that if the sub-groups were formed on a regional basis the CLF would need to take this into consideration in their election process.  

There was agreement that the proposed Membership was broadly acceptable and that the position of Community Link Forum  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88.

A presentation will be provided by the Associate Director of Performance, NHS Haringey.

The Board received a verbal update from the Associate Director of Performance, NHS Haringey, on progress in addressing National Indicator (NI) 113: Prevalence of Chlamydia in Under Twenty One Year Olds.

The Board was advised that since the HSP meeting in November 2008, where the Partnership had focussed on how performance against this target could be improved, there had been a significant increase in the level of screenings carried out. One of the most successful actions taken by Partners was the introduction of screenings at CONEL and Haringey Sixth Form Centre.

At present only one secondary school in the Borough had agreed to hold screenings and it was agreed that the Council would contact secondary school heads to discussion this issue.

It was noted that a number of staff from the Youth Service had been trained by NHS staff on carrying out Chlamydia testing; however, to date, no tests had been carried out.

It was suggested that it would be more efficient to focus on improving screening in existing health centres rather than training people working in other areas to carry out the tests.

In response to a suggestion that a point of contact should be established by the Local Authority to liaise with the NHS on this issue, the Board was advised that the jointly appointed Director of Public Health was point of contact for this issue and that she fulfilled this role

The Chair requested that a report should be submitted to the Board setting out  progress to date against each of the actions put forward at the HSP meeting where this issue had been discussed.

RESOLVED:

1. That the verbal update provided be noted.

2. That the Director of Children’s Services should contact secondary school heads to encourage them to hold Chlamydia testing in their schools.

3. That the final version of the Action Plan should be circulated to the Board.

The Board received a report that provided an update on progress in preparing the new Children and Young People’s Plan (C&YPP).

Following the decision to form a Children’s Trust Board the current C&YPP had been extended to end in September 2009 rather than April 2009 in order to allow for the necessary adjustments to be made to reflect this.

The Board was advised that consultation begun and the results of this were available on the Council’s website. A Working Party had been established to produce the Strategy attached the C&YPP and a questionnaire had also been placed on the website seeking views on the strategy.

The Chair requested that a link to the questionnaire should be circulated to members of the Board.

There was agreement that a report should be submitted to the Board’s next meeting setting out how children and young people would be able to influence the C&YPP.  

It was noted that it had previously been agreed that there should be a review of what had been achieved under the previous C&YPP and that this should be reported to the Board.

RESOLVED:

1. That progress to date be noted.

2. That the questionnaire and consultation document referred to above should be circulated to members of the Board.

The Board received a report, requested at the previous meeting, which identified areas that fell outside the remit of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) in terms of monitoring and this issue was being addressed.

It was noted that since the introduction of the new LAA the Board had received quarterly updates on LAA targets; prior to this a scorecard had been presented to the Board setting out performance against key indicators that were matched to Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes.

The Board discussed how the areas identified might be monitored and there was agreement the new Children’s Trust Executive Performance Management Group (CTEPMG) should be tasked with monitoring these areas.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. That the new Children’s Trust Executive Performance Management Group (CTEPMG) should be tasked with monitoring areas of performance outside the Local Area Agreement.

The Board received a report that provided an update from each of the Forums.

In addition to the report provided the following additional updates were provided.

Early Childhood Forum

The Board was advised that

Five to Eleven Forum

Nothing to add.

Eleven to Nineteen Forum

Concerns raised earlier around the lack of provision for this age group, particularly in relation to post sixteen education (if the Forums were restructured on a geographical basis as proposed under in the earlier report considered by the Board) were echoed.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Each sector of the Partnership is invited to give a three minute oral update on the most prevalent issues around their sector. Longer items will need to be submitted as a short paper to be tabled at the meeting.

Given the length of discussion on earlier items the Board agreed that this item would not be taken.

To consider any new items of Urgent Business admitted under agenda Item 3 above.

No new items of Urgent Business were raised.

To consider any items of AOB.

The Board was advised by the Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) that once finalised the LSCB’s Work Programme would be circulated.

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

There was agreement that a rolling Work Plan should be formed and submitted to the Board at its next meeting.    

Proposed dates for meetings during 2009/10:

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

The dates set out below for future meetings were noted:

• 19 May 2009, 6.30pm, Civic Centre
• 14 July 2009, 6.30pm, Civic Centre
• 5 October 2009, 6.30pm, Civic Centre
• 17 December 2009, 6.30pm, Civic Centre
• 9 February 2010, 6.30pm, Civic Centre
• 15 April 2010, 6.30pm, Civic Centre