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ITEM CA7

CABINET - 18 OCTOBER 2005

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S PLAN

Report by the Director for Learning & Culture

1. On 22 June 2005, the Cabinet approved a draft outline Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) for consultation and further development. The report to the Cabinet in June set out the background to the CYPP, including the processes involved and the machinery put in place for consultation and engagement. This report presents an updated version of the draft CYPP, which the Cabinet is asked to approve for wider consultation.

Feedback and Development Work

2. Since the report to Cabinet in June the CYPP Leads Group has met regularly and there has been good engagement from a wide range of partners, including colleagues in the directorates, Youth Offending Team, police, district councils and health services. The district councils have each nominated a senior lead officer to work with the County Council on the development of the Plan.
3. The CYPP Leads Group has organised a number of multi-agency workshops, including voluntary sector partners, to work on the different aspects of the Plan:

Make a Positive Contribution: 14 July 2005
Enjoy and Achieve: 18 July 2005
Achieve Economic Well-being: 12 September 2005
Stay Safe: 19 September 2005
Children with SEN/Disabilities: 4 October 2005
Be Healthy: 11 October 2005

4. The Director for Learning & Culture has held five briefing meetings for Headteachers and Chairs of Governors to discuss the draft Plan and receive their feedback. Children and young people and parents and carers are continuing to feed into the process through district councils, sounding boards and youth fora - their engagement in the development of the CYPP is key to its success.
5. In accordance with the undertaking given by the Cabinet Members for Children & Young People at the 22 June meeting, the draft outline CYPP was presented to the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee on 27 September. The Committee made a number of comments:

• that more emphasis was still needed in the Plan around play and recreation and having fun in and out of school;
• that the Plan needed to take account of disadvantaged children & young people in rural areas and the rural issues surrounding them;
• the Committee, noting that a health workshop had been set up to discuss health issues, expressed concern that 37% of 5 year olds in Oxfordshire had serious dental problems;
• that using a web-based format for the Plan did not necessarily make it user friendly;
• to ask the Cabinet to ensure that the targets in the Plan were balanced for early attainment;
• that the delivery and implementation of the Plan was key to its success and to ask the Cabinet to ensure that all parties were engaged;
• that emphasis should be given to the development of self esteem and confidence in children & young people.

6. These comments, together with other feedback to date, have been reflected in the updated draft CYPP now presented, which contains a number of amendments to the version presented to the Cabinet in June, in particular:

7. Government guidance is clear that the CYPP should include a statement of how the use of resources will contribute to the improvement of outcomes for children and young people. The statement should give sufficient confidence that the outcomes are affordable and not merely a set of aspirations. Annex 1 (download as .doc file) of the Plan provides an initial statement of how resources will be deployed to achieve the outcomes in the Plan and highlights the areas where additional investment is likely to be required.
   
   (Annex 2 - download as .doc file)
   
8. The Local Area Agreement section on Children & Young People is based on key priorities from the CYPP, where a concerted partnership approach will help us to improve outcomes for children and young people. This provides an opportunity to look more radically at how we join up our services to achieve this.

Next Steps

9. It is intended that, subject to any remaining changes to the draft Plan which may be needed in the light of feedback from the workshops, Scrutiny and Cabinet, the planned wide consultation with partner agencies, other stakeholders and the public generally will commence on 1 November 2005. As indicated in the June report, we will ensure the participation of children and young people, parents and carers, using (among other means) the Sounding Board approach which was established as part of the Best Value Review of Children’s Services.
10. It is planned to hold a members’ seminar in November 2005 to look in detail at the draft CYPP. It is intended that the seminar will be open to all members of the County Council, as well as PCT non-executive directors and district council members.
11. Further development work will take place in the light of the consultation responses which, together with the Plan in its proposed "final" form, will be brought back via the 28 February Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee to the Cabinet on 7 March, and thence to full Council for adoption on 4 April.

RECOMMENDATION

12. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED, subject to any remaining changes to the draft Plan which the Director for Learning & Culture may identify as needed in the light of feedback from the workshops, Scrutiny and Cabinet, to approve the draft Plan for consultation.