HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. The purpose of this paper is to identify the framework for developing local partnerships to support the work of the Hampshire Children's Trust. Changes to the present arrangements are necessary in order to comply with proposed new legislation, which will confirm a duty on all schools and colleges to cooperate in improving outcomes for children and young people.

1.2. This paper confirms the approach to guide the development of local arrangements to ensure that all schools and colleges have a direct involvement in local interagency partnerships.

1.3. The paper confirms the purpose and functions of local partnerships at a summary level and includes the time scale intended for these developments

2. Contextual information

2.1 The Children's Trust Board on the 1^st July 2009 considered options for the development of Local Partnerships to ensure an opportunity for each school and college to undertake their duty to cooperate in improving outcomes for children and young people.

2.2 The present arrangements are based upon the 11 District Council areas and include a broad range of partners. These partnerships have achieved considerable success in ensuring a focus on the Children and Young People's Plan at a local level and It is intended that the work of these partnerships is integrated with the revised arrangements to ensure all schools are engaged. Over time it is envisaged there will be opportunities to rationalise a number of partnership arrangements to ensure an efficient use of the capacity of senior leaders and managers.

2.3 The Children's Trust Board agreed that future arrangements should be based upon an opportunity for each school to be involved, rather than for there to be representative arrangements. This is likely to lead to in the order of 25-30 local partnerships in view of the number of schools and other partners to be involved and arrangements must be made to ensure coherence with District Council boundaries and to maintain links with Local Strategic Partnerships.

2.4 This report proposes arrangements for further discussion with all partners in order that the Standing Conference on the 5^th November 2009 can consider the future shape, scale and function of local partnerships.

2.5 It is intended that the structure, membership and function of local partnerships is determined by the end of December 2009, that revised arrangements begin to emerge early in 2010 and that by April 2010 each partnership has agreed a local action plan to address priorities within the Children and Young People's Plan.

3. Drivers for change

3.1 The key drivers for change are set out in consultation on 21^st century schools, the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Bill.

3.2 Additionally the Audit Commission report `Improving Governance and Resource Management in Children's Trusts' is of relevance and Ofsted guidance on inspecting and monitoring partnerships sets out the way in which the effectiveness of trust arrangements will be inspected

3.3 The key issues include :-

· duty upon all schools, academies and colleges to cooperate

· strengthening of the accountability of Children's Services to ensure there are local arrangements to support a Children's Trust

· the duty of all partners to implement the Children and Young People's Plan

· responsibility of Children's Services to provide the necessary leadership, direction and challenge to all partners to improve outcomes

· accountability for a broader set of outcomes, with schools at the centre, including partnerships for educational and broader social care purposes

· creating capacity through partnerships and integrated working

extension of the duty to co-operate to schools

· development of `21^st century schools' as the hub for service co-ordination for all children within a community

· need to align the work of local children's services partnerships with Local Strategic Partnerships and the delivery of Local Area Agreement targets

3.4 Within the context of the CAA, future inspection of partnership arrangements will focus on 5 key areas as summarised below

· has the Local Children's Partnership developed and promoted a child and family centred, outcome led vision for all children and young people, including progress against the children and young people's plan?

· does the Local Children's Partnership have robust arrangements for inter-agency governance in place, with effective links to the Hampshire's Children's Trust Board?

· has the Local Children's Partnership pooled or aligned budgets and developed joint commissioning opportunities?

· does the Local Children's Partnership enable effective joint working sustained by shared language and processes?

· how effective is the Local Children's Partnership in developing and promoting integrated front line delivery organised around the child, young person or family rather than professional or institutional boundaries?

4. Purpose and functions of local partnerships

4.1 The purpose of a Children's Trust is to improve the wellbeing of all children, improving their prospects for the future and redressing inequalities between the most disadvantaged and their peers.

4.2 The key functions of local partnerships are summarised below

· Ensure educational inclusion

· strengthening local networks to enable effective integrated working across children's services in an area

· developing a detailed level of intelligence and understanding of outcomes for children and young people within an area in order to promote a focus on the needs of local communities - including the sharing of data to support needs assessment and performance management

· identifying the contribution, of local partners, to the priorities of the county Children and Young People's Plan through the development of local plans

· strengthening the links between local partners and the Hampshire Children's Trust

· monitoring, managing and reporting performance against the local children and young people's plan, including providing support and challenge within the partnership and meeting the reporting requirements of the county Children's Trust

· ensuring the participation of children and young people in service design, delivery and evaluation, in line with Hampshire County Council's Participation Strategy

· over time, taking direct responsibility for the improvement of agreed and defined outcomes, such as reducing teenage conceptions and the proportion of young people not in employment, education or training

· over time, directly co-ordinating or managing key activities around early intervention and prevention.

4.3 The core membership of each Local Children's Trust Partnership is anticipated to include:-

· Senior leaders from all schools, academies, sixth form and further education colleges

· District and Borough Councils

· Managers and commissioners of NHS services

· Local Hampshire County Council Children's Services Department managers - including all District Managers who will support and challenge local partnerships

· Local co-ordinators of children's centres, parent support and other services.

· Involvement from other organisations as necessary. e.g. related to crime reduction

· the voluntary sector - most likely through the Voluntary Sector Alliance membership

5. Consultation

5.1 Arrangements are being made to brief and consult with all partners , including Head Teachers and College Principals, during September and October 2009 in order that the shape and scale of local partnerships can be determined towards the end of the year.

5.2 It is anticipated that the Standing Conference on the 5^th November will be able to consider the future arrangements and a performance management framework in some detail.

6. Legal Implications

6.1 It will be necessary to put in place governance arrangements for local partnerships to ensure that partners can pool and align budgets and resources to agreed priorities.

6.2 It is possible that the governance arrangements established for 14-19 consortia and for Extended Services can be adapted for this purpose and final arrangements will be developed and put in place by early 2010.

7. Financial implications

7.1. In general terms it is intended that local partnerships will have an ability to influence partners in the use of resources and also to directly manage services and delegated budgets and pool existing resources.

7.2. Some local Grants, including the final phase of the Childrens Fund Grant, are currently coordinated by existing local partnerships and these arrangements will be integrated with the proposed revised partnerships as progress is made in establishing governance and partnership agreements.

7.3. The revised arrangements will be established in a way that includes the potential to devolve budgets although initially, in 2010/11, it is anticipated that partnerships will consider pooling existing budgets and identifying where direct management arrangements would yield best advantage in improving outcomes.

7.4. Any consideration to devolve budgets to local partnerships will be considered as the budget for 2011/12 is developed.

8. Performance

8.1. The proposed arrangements will ensure that Hampshire is compliant with the new duty for all schools and colleges to cooperate in improving outcomes for all children and young people.

8.2. The focus of local partnerships upon the targets for improvement within the Children and Young People's Plan will assist the Children's Trust in developing more integrated service delivery arrangements and in managing and monitoring local performance

8.3. It is anticipated the arrangements will in due course be subject to Ofsted inspection and a quality assurance framework is being developed, which will include a self assessment audit by partnerships against agreed standards.

9. Recommendations

9.1. That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services approves the general structure, purpose and function of Local Partnerships

9.2. That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services notes the arrangements to develop Local Partnerships and receives progress reports at future meetings.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Race and equality issues have been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. The arrangements will ensure consistency of approach at a local level with Local Strategic Partnerships and Partnerships will ensure a focus on agreed LAA targets , including crime and disorder.

3. Climate Change:

3.1 No adverse implications have been identified