Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People providing an update on the arrangements for Children’s Trust Arrangements in Halton.

It was advised that the establishment of Children’s Trust Arrangements in each local authority area was a requirement of the Children Act 2004 and the accompanying Statutory Guidance on Inter-Agency Co-operation to Improve the Wellbeing of Children: Children’s Trusts. Each local authority was required to have Children’s Trust Arrangements in place by April 2008, led by the Local Authority, but acting as an inclusive partnership, in order to secure the success of meeting outcomes for children, young people and families.

The Children and Young People’s Alliance Board had been established in September 2005 as part of a new strategic planning structure, which aimed to progress the Every Child Matters agenda and integration through partnership working. At the same time, arrangements had been made for the establishment of a number of children’s mini-trusts to pilot various aspects of the integration agenda, with a view to using the learning from the mini-trusts to inform future Children’s Trust Arrangements. This was effectively the Children’s Trust in Halton.

The Board was advised that there had been a number of developments since the original strategic planning structure was agreed and these were outlined for consideration. In particular, it was advised that modifications were intended to be made to the Alliance Board structures in order to aid and improve working within the Children's Trust Arrangements from April onwards. A copy of the revised structure was attached at Appendix 1 of the report for Members’ information.

In addition, Members were advised that, at the same time as the structure of the Halton Children’s Trust Arrangements was being agreed, the further alignment of health services with the Council’s Children and Young People Department was planned. The two processes were complementary, with the Children’s Trust Arrangements as the key strategic body and the Children and Young People Directorate as the central delivery mechanism for integrated services using common processes.

Three areas of integration were under development and these were outlined in the report. It was advised that all of these integration processes would develop the principle of “Teams Around The Child”.

The Board noted:

·                    that this was a re-alignment of Children’s services so that there was a better arrangement for the people of the Borough;

·                    the Alliance Board (Children's Trust Arrangement) would act as the Governance Body for the Primary Care Trust and Council and other partners;

·                    this proposal was to be considered by the Executive Board on 6th March 2008;

·                    a range of NHS staff was to be aligned within the Council to work in an integrated way. Although there was no more capacity, it was expected that work would be carried out more efficiently/effectively. A reduction in waiting lists could not be guaranteed; however, this arrangement would assist in the prioritisation;

·                    an assessment facility had been put in place to link with learning and equipment could be loaned whilst aid was awaited;

·                    services were being integrated in order to improve communication and it was vital that the Board monitored relevant aspects of the Local Area Agreement and Work Neighbourhood Fund, and considered its relationship with the Local Strategic Partnership;

·                    “Arrangements” would be put into place at the appropriate time following the meeting of the Executive Board on 6th March, subject to agreement - this was expected to be the end of April;

·                    a review of all levels of the Children and Young People Directorate was to be carried out over the forthcoming year with a further report to be submitted to the Board in April 2009;

·                    there was a full complement of Educational Psychologists due to cover arrangements being in place;

·                    there were to be three lines of NHS accountability:

(1)   the NHS would continue to be accountable for NHS staff professional development;

(2)   day-to-day NHS services would be re-aligned under the management of the Council and the Children and Young People Directorate; and

(3)   governance would remain with the NHS via the Director of Commissioning/Children’s Trust Arrangements;

·                    it was expected that this new arrangement would result in extra capacity in that services would be focused on those who needed them most; and

·                    Members requested to receive information from the Halton Safeguarding Children Board (HSCB) in order that the impact it was having could be assessed vis a vis the Children’s Trust Arrangements.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the progress towards the establishment of Children’s Trust Arrangements be noted; and

(2) the Halton Safeguarding Board be requested to provide the Policy and Performance Board with a copy of the minutes of its meetings as a further means of scrutinising Safeguarding in the Borough.