Agenda and minutes

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business.  (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear.  New items will be dealt with at Item 15 below)

None

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

None

To approve the minutes of the Haringey Children & Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board meeting held on 12 June 2006 (ATTACHED).  

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the last meeting of the HSP on 13 March 2006 be agreed and signed by the Chair.

Paper on emerging themes from public consultation for information from Haringey Chief Executive’s Policy, Partnership and Consultation Team (ATTACHED). 

There was a session led by Janette Gedge Wallace, Haringey Council’s Corporate Consultation Manager, on the renewal of the Council’s Sustainable Community Strategy which partners were invited to engage with. The Board were presented with the findings of a public consultation event which focussed on four main questions (What’s good about Haringey? What three things would make Haringey better? What should Haringey be like in 10 years time? And What concerns do you have?).

The Board was then asked to consider the most prevalent themes that it would like to see in the renewed Community Strategy. The Board considered how partnership working could work better for the benefit of the borough and its communities and considered some of the barriers to this.

RESOLVED

(i)                 That the Board will receive feedback on the process of the Community Strategy at a future meeting.

Director of the Children and Young People’s Service.

Sharon Shoesmith, Director of The Children and Young People’s Service, gave an outline of the Key Stage (KS) 2 and 3 results – and talked about the projections of results expected up until 2008 where it was aimed to match the English average which would require a greater focus on the entire A -G achieving cohort. Ms Shoesmith also highlighted the gaps between the local schools’ averages and the national averages for each of the core subjects, and noted that particular attention had been paid to the looked after children cohort (some 31 children in 2006). In the KS3 cohort, science had shown itself to be a weakness across the borough. In KS2, an east/west gap had emerged which would prove challenging to rectify despite over half of the schools achieving above the national average overall. The core subjects (Maths, English and Science) had shown similar patterns in terms of their results. There had been four schools where results were under 50% now had formal intervention measures to rectify the problems.

Ms Shoesmith highlighted an upward trend in terms of attendance levels in the secondary schools cohort, stating however that primary schools had recorded a downward trend. The Board heard that truanting with parents had been highlighted as a problem in addition to holidays during term time. The Chair informed the Board that there had been a number of cases of truancy that had gone to the courts which indicated a tough line on the issue and had improved the situation somewhat but that this was necessarily a sustainable improvement measure.

Report of the Haringey Chief Executive’s Policy, Partnership and Consultation Team (ATTACHED).

Nilam Popat, Principal Policy Officer Haringey Council, informed the Board about the Children and Young People’s Block  of the LAA. The Board were also informed of the Special HSP LAA workshop that would take place on 18 September in order to draft the draft LAA ahead of submitting to Government Officer of London. The overarching issues to capture in the LAA would be:

(i)                 Economic diversity and prosperity

(ii)               A focus on young people (14-24)

(iii)             Narrowing the gap between East and West of the borough.

The Board were also introduced to the types of targets used in the LAAs, namely, mandatory (targets already set), optional (targets and indicators set by the Partnerships), and stretch (either mandatory or optional targets that can stretch performance by setting tougher target than those outlined by the government and can achieve pump priming funding). The Board would be expected to consider at length the stretch targets with a view to identifying a mixture of those that have worked well in the past, and those that will require experimental/new planning.

The Board considered at length the mandatory outcomes framework, highlighting that all of the indicators had been encapsulated in the recently published Changing Lives document.

RESOLVED:

That the Partnership Board:

·      agree the mandatory outcomes framework including baselines and 3 year targets;

·      that partners provide relevant information to fill in the gaps in data or, if not available, an indication of when this will be available;

·      discuss and agree the optional indicators and, where relevant, the alignment of partner funding;

·      note the funding streams and amounts that will be pooled nationally;

·      partners provide relevant information where there are gaps in funding information;

·      agree which stretch target/s will be the priority

·      consider if they wish to request any enabling measures.

That the Board will agree a second draft at its next meeting.

Report of Haringey Environmental Services, Assistant Director (Recreation Services) (ATTACHED).

John Morris, Assistant Director, Environmental Services made a presentation to the Board on the new scheme of sport scholarships. He explained the rationale of the scholarship scheme noting that many young athletes “drop out” of sport due to financial reason. Mr Morris outlined what the scheme would offer including access to sports specific training facilities and high quality coaching.

Mr Morris stated that the scholarships would not be restricted to one-year and thus funding would be maintained for years with links to the post-16 cohort. He also stated that the focus would not be primarily football, but that many other sports would be encouraged especially where capacity existed within the borough (boxing was a potential sport which has strong roots in Haringey) and this would be established during the pilot year – during which it was hoped 50% of applications would be from females. The Board raised issues around selectivitivty of take-up, as well as ensuring that learning support worked in tandem with sports activities.

Mr Morris would take away the comments of the Board, noting its general supports – and would be seeking extra funding opportunities from partner agencies.

RESOLVED:

That the Board agree to the following recommendations:

·      To note the content of the Report and for Partners to consider any possibilities for contributing to the scheme.

·      To endorse and support the pilot project, and receive future reports on performance.

Report of the Haringey Council Head of Community Safety (ATTACHED).

Jean Croot, Safer Communities Manager, Haringey Council, gave an outline of the Review and main conclusions drawn especially in relation to the Every Child Matters agenda.

RESOLVED:

That the Board agree to the following recommendations:

·      To note the findings and recommendations of the Review.

·      To note how the Review supports Changing Lives, and in particular its potential contribution to priority eight in the Stay Safe outcome and the specific commitment to reduce alcohol and drug misuse amongst young people.

Report of the Director of Children, Young People and Families Services, Haringey TPCT.

Claire Wright, of the Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT),  tabled an update on the financial plan of the PCT which highlighted that £350k had been saved from the Children’s Service budget – whilst illustrating how the losses had been reallocated. Ms Wright stated that the savings had not been without impact, but that the impacts had been minimalised due to the robustness of the savings. Councillor Meehan asked what effect the proposed £2.2m cuts would have on the PCT’s Children’s Services. In response, Ms Wright explained that the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been involved in extensive scrutiny of the proposed top-slicing cuts and had made recommendations on the negative impacts that it would have. Whilst absolute reassurance could not be given as to the impacts upon child protection  within Haringey, it was stated that this issue was being kept under close scrutiny, and that the PCT was taking the issues very seriously, as were all other partner agencies. Councillor Meehan’s concerns, on behalf of the Council, were expressed, and he would be reiterating them to the Chair of the PCT accordingly whilst offering to work together to ensure an effective way forward. Paul Head asked for a briefing on what was actually being spent where after the cuts had been made. It was agreed that this would be given for information at the next meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED:

That the Board receive information on the spending proposals post top-slicing cuts to the PCT budgets.

Presentation from the Director of the Children and Young People’s Service.

Sharon Shoesmith, Director of The Children and Young People’s Service, gave a very brief verbal update on the results of the recent Joint Area Review of the Children and Young People’s Service. Further and more comprehensive feedback would be provided on 21 September 2006, but the general feedback was broadly a very pleasing picture with concerns on the Youth Service. Partners would receive a copy of the press released scheduled for 9 October 2006.

Presentation from the Head of Community Safety, Haringey Council.

Jean Croot, Safer Communities Manager and Head of Youth Offending Service, reported that the YOS had received positive initial feedback from its recent inspection. ON the whole the Service was considered to be well managed both strategically and operationally.

RESOLVED:

The Board gave its recognition of a good job done during the JAR and recorded its thanks for the professional work done.

Report of the Director of the Children and Young People’s Service.

This Item was deferred to the next meeting of the Board.

·      The Board was reminded about the Haringey Children and Young  People’s Strategic Partnership’s 2^nd Annual Conference focussing on the Changing Lives agenda. This would take place on Wednesday 27 September 2006 between 9am and 4pm at Alexandra Palace.

None.

·     20 November 2006 at 6:30pm

·     22 January 2007 at 6:30pm

·     12 March 2007 at 6:30pm

·     14 May 2007 at 6.30pm

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS:  Partners wishing to put forward items for a future agenda are asked to contact Nicolas Mattis, Principal Support Officer (Council) at nicolas.mattis@haringey.gov.uk