Return to Agenda

DRAFT
ITEM CH5

CABINET – 7 MARCH 2006

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S PLAN

Report by Director for Children, Young People & Families

Introduction

1. On 18 October 2005, the Cabinet approved a draft of the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) for wide public consultation. The CYPP responds to the new statutory requirement to produce a single, strategic plan for all services for children and young people provided by the local authority and all relevant partners.
2. Accompanying this report are:
   
   

1. an updated version of the CYPP, amended in the light of consultation feedback (limited circulation – see paragraph 3 below);
2. a summary of the CYPP (Annex 1);(download as .doc file)
3. a summary of feedback received through the consultation process (Annex 2);;(download as .doc file)
4. report of feedback from children and young people (Annex 3).;(download as .doc file)
   
   (Annex 4 - download as .doc file)
   
   
3. The CYPP is one of those strategic plans which comprise the Council’s Budget & Policy Framework and therefore must be approved by Council. A draft of this report is to be considered by the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee on 28 February and their advice will be reported to the Cabinet. The draft CYPP is circulated only to members of the Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet, but copies are in the Members’ Resource Centre and are on public deposit. A revised version of the Plan taking into account the Cabinet’s decisions will be circulated to all members for the 4 April Council meeting.
   
   (CH5 - Oxfordshire Children & Young People's Plan - download as .doc file)
   

Consultation Process

4. The draft CYPP has been developed in consultation with a wide range of service users. Work on the Plan has been led by a Project Board, including the Chief Executive of the County Council and the Chief Executive of Oxford City PCT on behalf of all Oxfordshire PCTs. A multi-agency Children and Young People’s Plan Leads group has been established to oversee the development of the Plan. There has been good engagement from a wide range of partners.
5. There has been significant engagement of children, young people, parents and carers, initially in the development of the draft Plan and subsequently through wide consultation. A Children and Young People’s version of the Plan has been produced.
6. The draft Plan was circulated to a wide range of statutory and non statutory agencies, including schools, District Councils, Parish Councils, Diocesan Authorities, Health Services, Learning and Skills Council, Police, Colleges of Further Education, voluntary sector providers, Connexions, Children’s Fund, Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership, Drug and Alcohol Action Team, Youth Offending Team, the Strategic Health Authority, the Local Strategic Partnership, the Probation Service, and local Magistrates.
7. There have been a number of consultation meetings to inform the development of the Plan, including:

• CYPP Leads group regular meetings and Awayday;
• multi-agency workshops in relation to each of the five outcomes of the Plan and in relation to vulnerable groups of children;
• meetings of County and District Councils and PCT and NHS Trust Executives and Chairs;
• voluntary sector workshop;
• meetings of District Council Lead Members for Children;
• briefings for Headteachers and Chairs of Governors;
• Oxfordshire Connexions Partnership;
• District Council Cabinet /Executive meetings;
• Oxford Safer Communities Partnership.

8. The School Organisation Committee [considered the draft Plan at its meeting on 17 February 2006 and its comments are included in Annex 2] (download as .doc file).

Feedback

9. A total of 384 responses to the consultation were received. The breakdown of responses is as follows:

Children and Young People	Private, Community and Voluntary Sector	Public	County Council	Health	District and Parish Councils	Other
309	16	11	15	8	16	9

10. The majority of responses indicate support for the proposals in the Plan. A summary of the feedback is provided at Annex 2 (download as .doc file). A full transcript of detailed feedback is available in the Members’ Resource Centre.
11. Consultation feedback highlighted particular support for:

• the engagement of children and young people in the future development of services;
• proposals to address the problem of bullying;
• the strong focus on early intervention and prevention to support children and families before difficulties become intractable;
• the proposed arrangements for greater integration and co-ordination of services from across different services and agencies;
• commitment to greater engagement of the voluntary, community and private sectors;
• the focus on increasing access to play and recreation opportunities for children and young people;
• the development of local services through Children’s Centres and Extended Schools;
• the development of more flexible curriculum and vocational options for 14-19 year olds;
• the strategy to improve multi-agency support to meet the needs of children and young people with behavioural difficulties.

12. Areas of concern included:

• the need to ensure a balance between the needs of all young people and the needs of those who are vulnerable;
• the need for a greater focus on engagement of the voluntary sector as equal partners in the delivery of services;
• the need to strengthen the engagement of, and support for, families throughout the Plan;
• the need to include support for particular groups of children, including asylum seekers, children in prison;
• the need to ensure that services are affordable and accessible across a rural county, including addressing transport issues;
• the importance of adequate housing in ensuring that children are healthy and achieve their potential;
• the need to address environmental issues, including safe streets and neighbourhoods, and safe places to play.
• the need to ensure adequate funding is allocated to implement the Plan.

13. 309 children and young people fed back their views as part of the consultation process. They were aged between 5 and 20, came from all parts of the county and were consulted through school councils, youth centres and clubs, youth forums, respite centres, District Council forums, PCTs, children’s panels and voluntary organisations. See Annex 3 (download as .doc file) for a detailed report of the feedback from children and young people.
14. Some of the main themes which have emerged are:

• the paramount value of involving children and young people in decision-making and finding solutions to difficulties and the need to maintain and strengthen this in the future development of our services;
• the need for better support to tackle the problem of bullying, including everyone taking it seriously and young people having somewhere safe to go and someone to talk to;
• the importance of safe, well-lit neighbourhoods streets, parks, playgrounds and transport;
• the importance to children and young people of relationships with adults based on mutual respect and with sufficient time to listen to and understand each other;
• the need to increase access to play, leisure and youth services, including youth clubs opening longer and with better facilities;
• the need for early practical support for children and young people when things start to go wrong, e.g. young people to talk to with similar experiences, practical support for parents;
• the need for better information in many of different forms about support that is available;
• the need to make lessons in schools more relevant, practical and fun and to give young people more positive encouragement and recognition for their achievements.

15. Over 270 parents provided feedback through questionnaires and face to face meetings as part of the Best Value Review of Children’s Services. A detailed report has been produced of the feedback. More recently the Parents and Carers Sounding Board met to feedback further views. Some of the main themes which have emerged are:

• health visitors, schools, GPs and family centres are key points of contact for parents;
• listen to parents’ expertise and stop blaming parents;
• provide multi-skilled parent supporters who can work with parents short or long term;
• look at what’s best for the whole family;
• provide information about sources of help as a right whenever a parent or professional is concerned about a child;
• develop more family friendliness in services
• provide one person who understand the child’s need and stays involved
• a significant number of parents said they had to get to a crisis before they received help;
• the vast majority of parents said things had got better as a result of the help they received;
• parents particularly valued the support of the voluntary sector;
• parents of disabled children highlight the need for more respite support;
• parents who had experienced parenting programmes valued them and recommended them to others.

16. The Plan has been amended to take account of the feedback received throughout the consultation process, including that from children, young people, families and the wide range of agencies and partners consulted.

Implementation and Performance Management Arrangements

17. The Plan has a clear focus on the outcomes to be achieved for children and young people in Oxfordshire and the actions to achieve these. The Plan includes:

• an analysis of current performance in relation to the five outcomes for children and young people and also in relation to three particular vulnerable groups of young people;
• the priorities for improvement in each area;
• the performance targets to be achieved to address these priorities.

18. Local Area Agreement targets for children and young people are incorporated in the Plan.
19. Two officers (one from within the Council as Children’s Services Authority and one from a partner agency) have been identified for each of the five outcomes for children and young people in the Plan. These lead officers are responsible, on behalf of all agencies, for monitoring the implementation of the Plan and securing the necessary improvements in outcomes for children and young people. The CYPP leads are supported by a wider group of lead professionals who have been identified, again on behalf of all agencies, to monitor the implementation of each of the sub-sections of the Plan. It is proposed that a Member Champion is nominated for each of the CYPP outcomes.
20. The CYPP leads will provide regular reports to the Children and Young People’s Partnership on progress in implementing the Plan and the impact on outcomes. Where there are barriers to progress, and outcomes are not improving, this will be reported to the Children and Young People’s Board for resolution by the key decision-makers for services for children and young people in Oxfordshire. The Children and Young People’s Board will report directly to the Public Services Board, as well as to the Cabinets/Executives of the County and District Councils and PCT Boards.

Resource Implications

21. The Plan describes in detail the resources which will be allocated to implement the proposals in the Plan. There is much which can be achieved by realigning services and working together more effectively. There are other areas where the County has already been allocated additional grant or other funding and there are opportunities for aligning or pooling funding between agencies.
22. The Council has allocated significant additional resources to implement the Plan from April 2006, including funding in relation to:

• the development of an integrated ICT system for children;
• establishing local multi-disciplinary teams throughout Oxfordshire;
• maintaining and strengthening the work undertaken to date on engaging children and young people;
• increasing resources for the youth service and for youth activities;
• addressing pressures in children’s social care budgets.

23. Subject to consideration of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee’s advice, the Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. RECOMMEND the Council to approve the Children and Young People’s Plan, subject to any final editorial adjustments by the Director for Children, Young People & Families in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families;
2. request officers to inform the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee periodically on progress in implementing the Plan to enable the Committee to review and advise on elements of the implementation programme as they see relevant.