Children Act 2004

Summary of comments received in the 1^st consultation period to December 2004.

1. The Local Authority, as the lead agency, is required to consult with partners on making the arrangements for implementation of the new requirements within the Act.

2. An initial consultation paper was made available in October 2004 and consultation ended in mid December 2004. The consultation paper sought the views of partner's in the following areas:-

· Performance measures that would reflect progress in meeting the 5 key objectives within the Act.

· How to implement the duty to cooperate (Section 10 of the Act) in relation to what services may be integrated at a local level, the nature of integration and the geographic focus of services.

· Principles that may be established to guide future joint working and service developments

· Developing a Children's Services plan by April 2006.

3. The consultation paper was widely discussed in Local Strategic Partnership meetings, at the Children and Young Persons Strategic Partnership, at the Board meetings of a number of Partners and also at Youth Councils and other participation events with young people. The paper was considered at Head Teacher conferences.

Performance measures

4. In general terms partners supported the view that a limited number (perhaps 10-15 in total) of performance measures should be identified as high level indicators to reflect progress being made against the 5 core objectives in the Children Act. There was common agreement that the measures should be drawn from existing performance indicators ensuring a balance from partner agencies reflecting health, education, child safety and community engagement.. Further guidance has now been made available on the performance assessment and inspection regime and this could influence the final selection of high level indicators. More detail proposals are to be included in the 2^nd consultation paper.

Locally integrated service delivery

5. Partners expressed agreement with developing locally integrated service teams where it could be shown that better advantage for consumers could be achieved within existing resources. There was general agreement that seeking to organise services around clusters of schools should be explored further and that co-location should be developed where possible. In particular many District Councils and LSPs commented that services might be organised within District Council boundaries and in general comments recognised that all partners will need to find ways of working across boundaries as joint working and the duty to cooperate is explored further.

There has been a recognition that fully integrated service teams, co-location of staff and integrated management arrangements will take some time to develop with all partners and an acknowledgement that opportunities for establishing joint working arrangements for some services may emerge sooner than for others.

More detailed proposals as to which services may be integrated at a local level and how those services may be organised will be included in the second consultation paper.

Principles to guide future developments

6. Partners expressed general agreement with the principles proposed to guide future developments, particularly in establishing a vision for future services.

Some partners were able to include consideration of the guidance on Section 10 of the Act- the duty to cooperate- in their comments.

This guidance establishes the key features to be addressed in establishing a partnership to develop services to children, summarised as follows:-

· Outcome, child and family focused services and processes

· Integrating services at the front line, including co-location and joint working arrangements

· Integrating processes and systems, including common assessment systems and information sharing.

· Integrated strategic co-operation, including planning, needs assessments joint commissioning and pooled resources.

· Interagency governance, including management arrangements, professional leadership and accountability.

The comments from partners and the later guidance will be used to shape more detailed proposals for consultation on the vision for services and the potential pace of developments.

Developing a Children's Services Plan - by April 2006.

7. Partners supported the proposal that a Children's Services Plan should be produced by April 2006. Many District Councils and LSPs proposed that the existing LSP structure might be explored as the potential vehicle to achieve interagency cooperation at a local level, whilst accepting that not all statutory partners were currently active within the LSP structure.

Consultation with PCTs has confirmed their support to developing Local Implementation Teams, within the context of the developing Child Health Clinical Network, to address implementation of the National Service Framework for services to Children and also the Children Act.

Many partners acknowledged that it may be necessary to agree interim arrangements to be able to develop a plan by April 2006 whilst longer term interagency planning structures emerge.

Many partners reinforced the need to ensure broad opportunities for young people and their cares to be fully engaged in any review of existing services and in framing future developments

Proposals on the likely focus for the content of the 1^st plan and the interim process to complete the work by April 2006 will be put forward in the 2^nd consultation paper.

Colin Hardy, Project Director, January 2005.