Agenda item

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 representatives should be considered during discussion around how the sub groups would operate.

Children’s Trust Executive Performance Management Group

The Chair advised that this body would take an overview of reporting arrangements between the Trust, its sub-groups and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).  It would also have the ability to take decisions in certain circumstances and ensure that decisions made at meetings were taken forward. 

There was a general consensus that a Children’s Trust PMG should be established. 

Supporting Sub Groups 

The Board discussed the proposed options for the format of the sub-groups supporting the Children’s Trust.

Concern was expressed around whether the sub-groups were intended to act in a delivery or advisory capacity and there was agreement that clarity was required with respect to this before the composition of the sub-groups could be agreed.

It was noted that if the sub-groups were formed on a geographical basis the current focus on fourteen to eighteen provision may be lost. There was agreement that this and post sixteen education in particular, would need to be looked at

There was agreement that a workshop session should be organised prior to the next meeting of the Board to look at this issue in more detail and to consider the proposed Membership and Terms of Reference in more detail.

RESOLVED:

1. That the proposals contained within the report be approved.

2. That a half day session should be organised for members of the Board to discuss the issues raised above in more detail.