Agenda and minutes

To appoint the Chair of the CYPSPB for the municipal year 2007/8. (In making the appointment, Board Members are asked to note Paragraph 4.2 of the Terms of Reference, which appears at Agenda Item 12 below).

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Liz Santry be appointed as Chair of the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board for the next Municipal Year.

To elect the Chair of the CYPSPB for the municipal year 2007/8.

RESOLVED:

That Sue Baker be elected as Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board for the next Municipal Year.

Apologies were received on behalf of the following members:

Councillor Nilgun Canver

Councillor Emma Jones                   -substituted by Councillor Toni Mallett

Pam Constantinides

Maria Collins                                     -substituted by Devala Dookun

Lenny Kinnear

Sean Walker

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 and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board meeting held on 27 March 2007, and 14 May 2007.

RESOLVED:  

That, subject to the amendments set out below, the minutes of the meetings held on 27 March and 14 May 2007 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

27 March 2007

Minute 9         It was agreed that the minute should be amended to reflect that  the workshop referred to was being held for Health Visitors and Midwifes and other relevant key officers, rather than Board Members and that the workshop was being arranged by the PCT.

16 May 2007

Minute 5         This should be amended to reflect that the HTPCT would share the summary of the audit report in relation to the service, rather than the whole document.

A discussion about the development of provision for young people.  Partners are asked to come prepared with brief information (one side of A4) about services and activities they provide or commission for young people and ideas on encouraging positive activities for young people.  A copy of the summary of Youth Matters - Next Steps (the Government’s response to consultation on its Youth Matters proposals) is being circulated with this agenda. Information on services and activities for young people in Haringey is available in the Review of Changing Lives (especially priorities 15, 16 & 17).

The Board received a presentation regarding the development of services for young people in the Borough. A draft document was also circulated, which drew together the services provided by various groups, with the intention of providing better integrated Youth Services. This was supplemented by information that Board members had brought with them on their services for young people.

The Board was advised of a number of initiatives and actions currently taking place including:

• The launch in August of a website dedicated to young people, which had been developed and designed over the last six months and designed in consultation with members of the Young Council. It was intended that the website would provide a forum for discussion and information for young people on issues affecting them.

• Summer University Scheme –this was a London wide initiative that provided a diverse range of courses for young people during the school holidays. Within the first ten days of the scheme being launched over 750 people had registered to take part.

• Involving young people in consultation and decision making in relation to issues that were likely to affect them was recognised as being important and ways of facilitating this were being identified with partners. Providing feedback on outcomes where young people had been consulted was also essential.

Following the presentation, it was noted that since the last inspection of the Youth Service, officers had focussed closely on areas where improvement was required. There was concern that this may have led to an emphasis on past issues, rather than issues currently affecting the service. One of the growing issues facing partners was the radicalisation of young people and this was an area that would need to be addressed and discussed by the Board.

It was also suggested that the issue of children acting as carers and the pressure this placed upon children should be considered by the Board. 

The Board broke into smaller groups for fifteen minutes to discuss the following questions:

• What more needs to be done?
• How can we ensure the appropriate action is taken?
• How will we know when work is completed?
• Who do we need to work with?

Each group gave a summary of discussion it had in relation to the questions above. Amongst the points raised the following emerged as the most commonly discussed:

• Creating safe community areas for young people –many young people considered that they did not have ‘safe’ areas where they could gather. In order to address this work should be carried out to identify areas ‘safe’ areas could be created.

• Young Carers –children caring for parents or siblings often required support and the Board considered that this was an area that partners should look at in more detail.

• Information Sharing –it was noted that one of the key purposes of the Partnership was sharing information and there was a general consensus that mechanisms should be established for sharing information with partners.

• Targets –there was concern that targets needed to be more focussed in order to produce  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Board was presented with the Performance Indicators (PIs) in relation to Changing Lives and the Local Area Agreement (LAA). Included within the PIs were the three LAA Stretch Targets.

A summary was given of the areas where targets had been out or under performed. Four PIs in relation to education remained red and it was noted that information in relation to these targets could only be updated annually when exam results were published. It was anticipated that the RAG status for Primary Schools was likely to become green once results were published.

The target in relation to smoking in pregnancy remained red and had deteriorated by 1% since the Board’s last meeting. This target was significantly higher than the national target in relation to smoking in pregnancy. Given this, it was considered unlikely that the target would be achieved. Work was being carried out with the North Middlesex Hospital to reduce the number of women smoking during pregnancy and members of the Board were invited to put forward any ideas for work that could be done with partners to assist in this.

The Board discussed this target and it was noted that due to changes in the population and the different attitudes towards smoking amongst people from different ethnic backgrounds, more expectant mothers smoked than in previous years. It was suggested that it might be more useful if this indicator was reviewed as it was a proxy only for the Board’s concern, which related to the reduction of the level of infant mortality and low birth weights in general. There was agreement that targets should be realistic and achievable in order to have value. It was agreed that a letter should be drafted on behalf of the Leader setting out the Board’s concerns regarding the target in relation to smoking during pregnancy.

Concerns were raised that action previously agreed by the Board in relation to infant mortality in Northumberland Park had not been taken forward. 

The Board received the programme for Changing Lives: The Haringey Children and Young People’s Plan 2007/08. The programme had been updated and in addition to the twenty priorities identified last year, ten cross-cutting areas had been identified within multi-agency plans, as part of the planned transition to achieving more cross-cutting planning and aligned and shared budgets.

It was envisaged that progress could quickly be made in relation to four of the ten areas that had been identified, in order to reduce the gap with national figures. These included:

• Improving the health and well-being of children and young people, reflected in the number of schools achieving Healthy School status.
• Reducing the number of young people aged 16-19 not in either education, employment or training of some kind.
• Raising standards at Key Stage 2
• Reducing teenage conceptions and supporting teenage parents to provide better life chances for their children.  

Two of the ten areas had been selected in order to build upon multi-agency work to achieve a greater impact in relation to:

• Increasing the number of 19 year olds with Level 2 and 3 qualifications, with a view to reducing the level of unemployment in the Borough.
• Improving the lives and life chances for children and/or young people with disabilities, additional needs and mental health needs.

A further two of the ten areas had been included because a strong impact was required in relation to new developments:

• Improving the choice and opportunities available to children and young people through information, advice and guidance
• Improving the lives and life chances for children and/or young people through affordable childcare for children aged from 0 to 14 years.

The two final areas that would be focussed on were addressing concerns regarding serious violence amongst young people by building up existing multi-agency work and consolidating and building upon outcomes for children in the care of the Local Authority.

Multi agency action plans were being compiled, in consultation with partners, in relation to each of the ten areas identified and progress against these would be reported to the Board on a regular basis. The deadline for the production of the plans was the end of August.

RESOLVED:

i)                    To note the updated document

ii)                  That the Action Plans be presented to the Board at its next meeting

The draft Children and Young People’s Health Services Commissioning Strategy was tabled at the meeting.

The Board was advised that the document had recently been completed and that the PCT had been keen to circulate it amongst members at the earliest opportunity. Given the size and importance of the document there was agreement that it should be discussed at the Board’s next meeting to allow members to consider it in more detail.

RESOLVED:

i)                    That the draft Children and Young People’s Health Services Commissioning Strategy be considered at the Board’s next meeting and that a presentation should be given by the PCT.

Each sector of the Partnership will be invited to give a three minute oral update on the most prevalent issues coming from the respective sectors. Longer items will need to be submitted as a short paper to be tabled for noting at the meeting.

There was an opportunity for each of the partners to give a three minute oral update to the group.

HAVCO:

The Board was advised that the Children and Young People’s Theme Group had met during the previous week to elect a Chairman and representatives, who would be attending the Board’s next meeting.

PCT:

The Board was informed that the draft Commissioning Strategy (previously circulated) formed part of the larger Commissioning Strategy, which would be finalised at the end of September. If members of the Board wished to make any comment on the document these should be received by the 7th September.

A summary of the larger Commissioning Strategy would be circulated to Board members prior to the next meeting. The Board was advised that a summary of the document was available on the PCT’s website.

Representatives from the PCT would be available to make presentations on the proposals to any relevant body if requested.

POLICE:

The Board was advised that a multi-agency group was being established to address the issue of violent crime amongst young people. Commander O’Brien had already had preliminary discussions with the Leader and Chief Executive of the Council to discuss this issue.  

SAFER COMMUNITIES:

The Board was advised that a new substance misuse service was being formed. The importance of giving early consideration to future grant and funding streams, in order to ensure stability of services was noted.

RESOLVED:

To note the oral updates provided.

To approve the Board’s Terms of Reference and Membership for 2007/8.

The Board was presented with an amended version of it’s Terms of Reference for consideration and adoption.

The Board discussed the proposed amendments and there was a general consensus that the Terms of Reference should be brought back to the Board’s next meeting following further amendments in the areas discussed.

RESOLVED:

That the Terms of Reference should be amended and brought back to the Board for approval at its next meeting in October.

To select the Board’s representative to the Haringey Strategic Partnership for 2007/8.

RESOLVED:

That Sharon Shoesmith be appointed as the Board’s representative on the Haringey Strategic Partnership for 2007/08.

None.

To consider any new items admitted under Item 4 above.

None.

·     8 October 2007, 6:30pm

·     10 December 2007, 6:30pm

·     5 February 2008, 6:30pm

·     1 April 2008, 6:30pm

·     6 May 2008, 6:30pm

The date of the next meeting of the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board was confirmed as follows:

8 October 2007, at 6.30pm.

Partners should submit proposed agenda items for the next meeting (8 October 2007) to the Patricia Walker, Principal Policy Officer  (patricia.walker@haringey.gov.uk) no later than 3 September 2007.

Partners wishing to put forward items for future agendas were asked to contact Xanthe Barker, Principal Committee Co-ordinator at: xanthe.barker@haringey.gov.uk

STRATEGIC FOCUS ITEMS:      

Disability: Impact of our services on children with disabilities.

RESOLVED:

i) That the Strategic Focus Item for the next meeting would be:

Disability: Impact of our services on children and disabilities

ii) That the Strategic Item for December’s meeting would be:

Primary Care Strategy: Does the Strategy adequately address the needs of children and young people?