Contact: Kate Hart Tel: 01962 847107 E-Mail: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report outlines the plans in place to deliver additional earlier intervention services to the children and families of Hampshire by creating new locality teams and implementing the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).

1.2 This agenda is built on the aspirations and principles of "Every Child Matters" and is entirely consistent with and a direct result of the focus of improving outcomes for Hampshire's children and young people.

1.3 Plans to date include the roll out of locality teams in a phased way across Hampshire in 2007, and the management arrangements have been planned as part of the restructuring programme within the Children's Services Department.

1.4 The Executive Member for Children's Services is asked to consider and endorse the proposed way forward as being the optimum set of arrangements within which Hampshire can deliver improved children and family services.

2 Introduction

2.1 Every Child Matters was published in September 2003. It highlighted the need for a substantial Change for Children Programme which should be designed to "ensure that every child receives the universal services to which they are entitled and any additional services they need at the earliest opportunity" (DfES).

2.2 There are a number of strands to the programme which include workforce development, information sharing arrangements, and multi-agency working as well as earlier intervention.

2.3 This report is concerned with the way in which Hampshire has determined how it can best deliver this new agenda for early intervention and the structural arrangements that will facilitate that delivery.

3 Planning the Way Forward

3.1 The Change for Children Agenda has been supported by the Government with a considerable amount of detailed guidance and supplementary requirements with regard to all aspects of the overall programme. As part of the Government's support, there have been a range of opportunities to meet with other authorities, particularly those afforded Beacon or Pathfinder status, and to participate in regional fora to explore emerging findings on best practice.

3.2 In giving due thought to local arrangements, Hampshire has been afforded substantial support by a range of agencies in coming together regularly to understand and plan for the changes that the new agenda requires. This has been evidenced by the collaborative work done to produce the Children and Young People's Plan, and is demonstrated on an ongoing basis by the work of the Children's Services Partnership Board.

3.3 Throughout 2005, the Common Assessment Framework Steering Group met to plan the implementation of this new assessment tool (the CAF), and an inter-agency conference was held in November 2005 to facilitate learning and share ideas with representatives of a wide range of local services for children.

3.4 The CAF is designed to be used by a range of personnel working with children and families in a number of different agencies. Use of the CAF will enable a worker to identify at an early stage the additional needs that a child or family may have and the services that would appropriately meet those needs.

3.5 The aim of earlier intervention is to ensure that these services are made available at a point that is at a lower level of need than that which would generate a response from Children's Social Care. Inter-agency discussions confirmed that there needed to be a clear structure and resource that would support those staff undertaking a CAF and needing to access additional services as a result and this was endorsed by the experience of Pathfinder authorities.

3.6 A key element of the new arrangements is the establishment of the role of the lead professional, who could come from a number of professional backgrounds and would be someone known and trusted by the child and his family. The task of the lead professional is to be a single point of contact for children and their families, and to ensure that professional involvement is rationalised, co-ordinated and communicated effectively.

3.7 Early discussions highlighted the fact that personnel who would be working in this way may have little experience of co-ordinating services from different agencies for maximum effectiveness and thus would be in need of help and support in undertaking this role.

3.8 It was therefore concluded that there was a need for new structural arrangements to enable the delivery of services to meet needs identified through the CAF process.

4 New Approaches and New Principles

4.1 The thinking that has informed the plans for the way forward has in part been based on wide ranging national, regional and local discussions, but has also been based in the knowledge of finite resources and limited capacity. The approach also needs to reflect a new culture of working together to achieve the best outcomes.

4.2 Therefore it is agreed that the process should be one where the worker identifying the need would expect to maintain their part in seeking to meet it: the problem would not be "passed on" for some other worker to resolve but would be shared, so that assistance would come from other workers with the appropriate skill.

4.3 Similarly any staffing resource identified to operate at lower levels of need (early intervention) would not work on the previous social care model of taking on full responsibility for the work in hand. Rather, the model would be one of seeking to build capacity in universal services through support, specialist advice, consultancy, and perhaps some joint working with those workers who had originally identified that there were additional needs to be met.

4.4 There is a clear need for a co-ordination role to be taken at a local level so that the knowledge of needs and available resources is focussed in one place. This role would extend to the management of any resource available within the Children's Services Department, the setting of priorities, and the identification of service needs to inform joint commissioning. Whereas early Government guidance proposed a CAF co-ordinator role, more recently it has become clear that a management role is more appropriate for the range of accountabilities that would be necessary for the robust delivery of an early intervention service. The delivery mechanism proposed is that of a locality team, with its own manager.

5 Locality Team Personnel and Resources

5.1 The identification of a new team with a specific role and function has evolved in recent months as clarity about the available resource has been achieved; it has not been possible to address one without the other. In the same way, it has not been possible to consider the available resource in isolation; this has had intrinsic links to the plans for the new structure within the children and families branch and a number of inter-dependencies have been identified and have been the subject of detailed discussion.

5.2 The conclusions that have been reached as regards locality teams, and which are informed by resource issues, are that there will be one per District (District Council area) and a locality team manager will be identified for each team, which will be funded from within the existing children and families budget and will be achieved in many cases by redeployment of existing staff. The locality team manager will be an employee of, and will be managed by, HCC Children's Services.

5.3 Education Welfare Social Workers will be part of the locality teams. Other staff will give some of their time to the locality team to be used to help meet priorities identified in the team, but will also maintain substantive other roles and responsibilities so will have accountabilities to other managers for their other work - this will include educational psychologists, behaviour support staff, and in time social workers. A longer term aim is for the locality team to include staff from other agencies, for example primary mental health workers, and for these teams to develop as multi-disciplinary and then multi-agency teams.

5.4 In addition to the redeployment of existing staff time, a major new resource has been allocated by the Schools Forum which will allow for three new family support workers to be appointed to each locality team. This decision followed a report to Schools Forum on July 11 2006. This new resource will have a major impact on the teams' capacity to deliver services at an earlier intervention stage, and is a demonstration of the commitment of Hampshire schools to support the whole programme so that more children's needs can be met. The Schools Forum has also allocated additional resources to support the development of these teams through the planning and setting up stages, including the funding of project management time. This new resource, to be continued in 2007/08, has led to a major impetus on the plans for the new teams.

6 Project Management and Inter-Agency Involvement in Planning

6.1 As a result of the developments outlined above, there is now a structure to the project team which includes a Programme Manager, two Project Managers (one each for locality teams and CAF) and two Project Officers. These are temporary posts until March 2008, and post holders have been seconded from their permanent posts within the Department.

6.2 Additional administrative staff are supporting the programme, particularly the extensive training programme that is required to ensure that all concerned are briefed and prepared for the changes that will come about.

6.3 The oversight of the project comes from the Programme Board, supported by a county wide steering group. Locality team steering groups are being set up in each District area to address local arrangements and also to maximise communication to all relevant staff in all relevant agencies. The Board and all the steering groups are multi-agency, and the communications plan is a key development that is currently being addressed.

6.4 Inter-agency planning meetings have been held to consult on the role and function of the locality teams to ensure as broad a consensus as possible.

6.5 One of the key priorities of the Programme Board and other steering groups has been to ensure joint planning with other services where there are clear interfaces, such as Children's Centres, Extended Schools, Youth Inclusion Support Panels (YISP's), Parenting Support programmes etc.

7 Timescales

7.1 It is a Government requirement that the CAF which is an integral part of the locality team development is fully embedded and operational by the end of 2008. It has always been Hampshire's plan to have a phased roll out, District by District, because of the size of the change, the size of the County, and the need to maximise the availability of support (project staff) during the roll out phase. Implementation is thus scheduled to start from January 2007 and continue through the year with a target end date of March 2008. The lessons from the first roll outs are being evaluated and will be critical to the subsequent phases of the roll out, when it may be necessary to make some changes to current proposals.

7.2 The Phase One roll out areas, which are based on school clusters rather than full District Council areas, are Basingstoke (Fort Hill School Cluster), Rushmoor (Oak Farm School Cluster), Gosport (Brune Park School Cluster), and Havant (Leigh Park School Excellence Cluster). In addition the Targeted Youth Support Pathfinder in Test Valley (Alamein Ward) is included.

7.3 Areas have been chosen according to a range of considerations, which include the thinking about those areas where the JAR team might be focussing their visits in May 2007, but more importantly decisions have been taken to build on the strengths of inter-agency working to date.

8 Conclusions

8.1 Much research over the years, as well as the fundamental objectives of the Every Child Matters Programme, point to the need for children and families to have access to additional support as and when the need is first identified and not when problems have become entrenched.

8.2 Staff across Hampshire at all levels have embraced the aspirations of the new programme and have given time and expertise to joint planning of the way forward, in order that the objectives can be met.

8.3 These proposals represent the best use of existing capacity alongside new resources and the best achievable arrangements within which to deliver the new agenda.

8.4 The management arrangements reflect the District Council based structure for the new Department and the need to maximise inter-agency working.

9 Consultation

9.1 This report has sought to demonstrate that inter-agency planning and discussion has taken place throughout in as representative a way as possible.

10 Legal Implications

10.1 None.

11 Financial Implications

11.1 Some changes and developments will be achieved from within existing budgets, through changed arrangements.

11.2 The majority of the development will be funded by an agreed allocation of Schools Forum money, which represents a significant investment in this strategy.

12 Personnel Implications

12.1 New posts as funded by Schools Forum money will be subject to open recruitment once the job description and grade are finalised according to routine procedures.

12.2 Other posts will be filled through redeployment which is being addressed through the personnel process attaching to the restructuring of the Children's Services Department.

13 Impact Assessment

13.1 Race and Equality Impact Assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

13.2 The proposals contained in this report are designed to improve access to services from all sectors of the community.

14 Crime Prevention Issues

14.1 Early intervention services for children and young people are designed to meet a number of needs but this would include those young people who might be at risk of involvement in crime without additional support to them and their families.

15 Views of the Local County Councillor

15.1 The developments in this report will affect the whole County and thus to date there have been no separate consultations with local Members. However, Members will be involved and consulted about these arrangements, through the Hampshire Action Teams.

16 Recommendations

1 That the plans for the establishment of locality teams are endorsed.

2 That a further report be made to the Executive Member for Children's Services to highlight the evaluation of Phase One of the roll out and the implications for the future development of this service.

3 That Members should be consulted through the Hampshire Action Teams.

17 Link(s) to Corporate Strategy

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

Schools Forum 11 July 2006

Change for Children: Combined Reports

Report do the Director of Children's Services

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act