Minutes for Knowsley Children and Families Board meeting, Sep 26 2011, 3.30PM official page

The Chairman, Councillor G A Wright, reported that Frank Gill had recently retired from his position as Principal of Knowsley Community College. He reported that Frank had provided an excellent service during his time as Principal of the College and wished him well in his retirement. It was further reported that Steve Logan had recently been appointed to the position of Principal at Knowsley Community College and would therefore be representing the College at the meetings of the Board.

To receive as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Knowsley Children and Families Board held on 23 May 2011.

What was this item about?

The minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 23 May 2011 were reported to Members for amendment and/or approval.

What was discussed?

In relation to Minute 22 (b) Youth Strategy – Merseyside Police it was reported that S.P.A.R.K had considered the Youth Strategy and the implications for Knowsley’s children and young people.

To address the implications for children and young people S.P.A.R.K would be developing a manifesto to action the challenges reflected in the Strategy. It was envisaged that the manifesto would be completed by the end of October.

In relation to Minute 22 (c), Emotional Health and Wellbeing and the Mental Health Strategy 2010 – 13 it was reported that the TAMHs toolkit had been developed and would be issued to schools to support children whose parents were experiencing mental health problems. It was further reported that the contract with Kooth, who provided mental health services across the Borough, was currently being re-negotiated. It was anticipated that the contract would incorporate support for children whose parents experience mental health issues.

What was agreed?

It was AGREED that the minutes of the meeting of the Knowsley Children and Families Board held on 23 May 2011 were received as a correct record.

What was this item about?

Board Members considered a report which provided an opportunity to comment and approve the Children and Families Strategic Plan 2011-14.

It was reported that the Plan aimed to reflect the change in approach endorsed by this Board, which focused on the collective planning on the needs of children and families. Furthermore, given the removal of regulations relating to the Children and Young People’s Plan’s the number of indicators contained within this Plan would be significantly reduced

The Board was informed that the Children and Families Strategic Plan 2011-14 intended to be an overarching strategy which set the strategic direction for delivering the outcomes for children, young people and families in the Borough. The Plan also built on the major improvements which had been achieved in the Children and Young People’s Plan 2007-11 Final Assessment.  Furthermore, in line with the Borough’s approach of developing policies centred on the family the Plan would be underpinned by these principles.

In this respect there would be three core priorities contained within the Strategic Plan, which included:-

• Priority One – Improving the life chances of children and families disadvantaged by poverty;
• Priority Two – Improving life chances for children with additional needs and vulnerable children and families; and
• Priority Three – Young People have skills and opportunities to achieve in learning, life and work.

It was further reported that the three priorities contained in the Strategic Plan would be underpinned by the Knowsley Child Health Strategy, the Knowsley Child and Family Life Chances Development Plan and the 7 challenges highlighted by the Commission on the Lives of Knowsley Young People.

What was discussed?

In this respect the following comments and questions were raised:-

(1)         It was recognised that there had been a significant shift in policy thinking with a focus on ‘just coping’ families.

(2)         The Strategic Plan was an outcomes focused framework and it was logical to take a thematic approach to achieve the priorities outlined within the Plan. Furthermore, the Plan would provide the Framework in which Partners could be held to account. 

(3)         It was reported that the Strategic Plan had been shared with Headteachers in Knowsley Schools who welcomed the Strategic Plan and recognised the need for Schools to take ownership of the Plan which would be achieved by including it within their Inclusion Strategy. Headteacher’s had also recognised the importance the Strategic Plan would have in supporting the commissioning arrangements and how they would need to structure their arrangements around the Strategic Plan.

(4)         The Strategic Plan would demonstrate a transparent audit trail between partner organisations.

(5)         The College fully supported the Strategic Plan, particularly supporting children with additional needs and providing young people with the skills to achieve in learning, life and work. However, the mechanism for reporting Partner’s contribution’s towards the Strategic Plan would be challenging.

(6)         It was important that the Board was able to demonstrate they were making a difference to the lives of children and young people in the Borough.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3a

What was this item about?

The Board considered a report which informed Members of the current arrangements in place for the assessment of children and families where additional need had been identified.

The CAF was a tool to enable early and effective gathering of information and assessment of children and young people who need additional services or help from more than one agency. It is a holistic consent-based needs assessment framework which records in a single place in a structured and consistent way. The CAF aimed to support the early identification of need and promote co-ordinated service provision.

It was reported that Knowsley was a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) early adopter and the partner agencies represented at the then Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership agreed the implementation of the CAF in Knowsley.

It was further reported that the Government was moving away from a nationally prescribed model of assessment, however they had a clear view that local areas should have suitable arrangements in place.

The Board was informed that the funding for the CAF posts had been limited short term funding, however, the Department for Children and Family Services had recognised the positive impact of the current arrangements for CAF and has committed resources to support the administration of CAF, including the maintenance of the CAF database and secured funds to fund an Integrated Duty Manager post to replace the CAF Manager. This funding would provide some resource to support CAF in Knowsley however it would not address all the risks identified in the report now submitted. 

In this respect the Board were presented with 5 options for their consideration, which included the following:-

Option One

To retain Early Intervention and CAF to aggress to ‘manage’ the risks identified without central coordination.

Option Two

To retain CAF Support Officer post(s) via secondments into a co-located one front door’ arrangement. To commit to seconding staff from partner organisations on a rolling programme for a period to be agreed (a minimum of a 12 month secondment would be recommended based on the learning from the current secondment arrangements).

Option Three

To retain the CAF Support Officer posts funded through a contributory partnership budget and to recruit to the posts.

Option Four

Development of a ‘virtual’ CAF team by the identification of CAF leads from each partner organisation who would be responsible for the performance management of CAF within their respective organisation and report directly to the Children and Families Board.

Option Five

To take the decision that Knowsley will cease to have co-ordinated, partnership agreed, specific arrangements in place for the early identification of need.

What was discussed?

The Board discussed in detail the consequences of removing the CAF arrangements and recognised the importance of ensuring local arrangements remained in place.

The Board also recognised that some partners had had greater involvement in the CAF process than others. Furthermore, the process adopted for the CAF had delivered improved quality assessments and had also increased the number of CAF’s produced, which had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3b

What was this item about?

The Board considered a report which provided Members with:-

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