Children and Young Peoples Strategic Partnership Group (CYPSPG)

							                Children and Families Trust
             5 – 7pm, Monday 16th March 2009
   Room M71, Town Hall, Mulberry Place (5 Clove Crescent,
                     London E14 2BG)

                                   MINUTES

Attending

Cllr Clair Hawkins, Lead Member for Children’s Services and CYPSPG Chair
Kevan Collins, Corporate Director, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets
Esther Trenchard-Mabere, Tower Hamlets PCT
Julia Burns, Headteacher, Mowlem School
Mark Taylorson, Parent Governor Clara Grant School
Mike Tyler, Director, Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership
Sarah Wilson, East London NHS Foundation Trust
Nicole Francis, Learning and Skills Council London East
Glenys Tolley, Director, Play Association Tower Hamlets
Martin Rew, Local Area Partnerships 5 and 6
Pete Grundy, Metropolitan Police
Fiona Humphrey, Tower Hamlets Housing Forum

Young People’s representatives
Faiza Mukith, (Deputy Young Mayor)

Voluntary Sector representatives
Pip Pinhorn, Toyhouse Libraries

Also attending
Laura Murdoch, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets
Shamsun Nessa, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets
Anthony Walters, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets

Apologies

Layla Richards, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets
Blossom Young, Children’s Services, LB Tower Hamlets
Shuel Ahmed (LAP Youth Representative)
Ajmol Ali, Parent Governor at Stepney Green School
Darren Wolf, City Gateway
Matthew Rayner, Headteacher, Stephen Hawking special primary school
Kenny Frederick, Headteacher, George Green’s School
Amjad Rahi, Local Area Partnerships 7 and 8
Veronica Neyer, Childrens’ Voice Project
Chief Inspector Robert Revill, Metropolitan Police
Alwen Williams, Tower Hamlets PCT Chief Executive




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Item 1:       Welcome, apologies and introductions

1.     Cllr Clair Hawkins welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the
focus of the meeting as being a session on the new three year Children and
Young People’s Plan.

Item 2:       Children and Young People’s Plan and LAA target mid year
              review 2008/09

2.    Anthony Walters introduced the summary performance report. He
reminded the group that at the last meeting they had requested a more
concise performance report, summarising the main risk areas and successes,
be brought back to this meeting.

3.     Cllr Hawkins thanked Anthony for presenting the information in this
helpful format. Some discussion then followed, particularly in relation to those
areas where performance was identified to be weak.

4.      Esther Trenchard-Mabere updated the group on some of the health
related indicators. For example, she informed the group that later data on
dental decay had become available which meant the target had been
achieved and the indicator was now green. In addition, she informed the
group that while obesity levels had reduced for children in the reception class,
it had increased for children in year 6. This indicator therefore remained red.

5.      Kevan Collins made the point that hard targets had been set and areas
identified as green were as important as the reds. He said the aim is that we
should be performing in line with the national top quartile within three years.
Anthony told the group that the red targets had been analysed by the theme
groups and informed the priorities in the new Children and Young People’s
Plan.

6.     Mark Taylorson asked a question relating to the percentage of social
care assessments completed. He asked whether the performance implied that
there was not enough resource to meet the target. Kevan highlighted some
work underway to engineer a new, more effective system with new, increased
resources. He told the group that achieving this target was not about bringing
in more people – although resources had been increased – but designing a
more effective system in terms of referrals. He also told the group that
according to police data Tower hamlets had the biggest growth in domestic
violence.

Item 3:       Session on the draft three years CYPP (2009/10 to 2011/12)

7.     Anthony outlined some of the steps taken to date to consult with
partners on the new CYPP. To date, the plan had been considered by the
PCT’s Professional Executive Committee and would be going to the Council’s
Cabinet for approval in April. He also reminded the group that consultation
had taken place with young people and the public had also been encouraged
to blog online on the new plan.


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Presentation by our young representative – Faiza Mukith

8.     Faiza Mukith presented findings from the action research carried out
with other young people on the priorities in the new CYPP. She told the group
that 11 young people had taken part in the exercise, all of which were aged
being 12 and 18. She said that young people had been asked which of the
themes should have the most investment. Young people responded as
follows:

   Enjoy and Achieve
   Stay Safe
   Make a Positive Contribution
   Be Healthy
   Achieve Economic Wellbeing

9.     When looking at the priorities within each of the themes, young people
thought that the ordering should be changed in some cases to reflect which
were the greater priorities. They also felt that some of wording could be cut
down.

Discussion Groups and Plenary

10.    The group was then divided into three smaller breakout groups and
asked to each look at two of the themes. Groups were asked to feedback
three key points from their discussion.

Group 1 feedback (Be Healthy and Stay Safe)

Be Healthy
  Amend the vision to “be healthy in body and mind”
  Consistency needed on whether we refer to children and young people or
   just children
  Obesity priority – divide up into 3 chunky activities of substance

Stay Safe
  Make more of safeguarding and child protection issues

Group 2 feedback (Enjoy and Achieve and Make a Positive Contribution)

   Still too much jargon
   Some activities are specific while others are more strategic - there should
    be more consistency
   Reduce the number of activities in the Make a Positive Contribution section
    of the plan

Group 3 (Achieve Economic Wellbeing and Excellent Children’s Services)

Achieve Economic Wellbeing
 The wording in this section needs to be reduced




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   Some suggestions made for targets for this theme e.g. progress of young
    people into employment

Excellent Children’s Services
 This section should be more Partnership rather than Council focused

11.    Following the group feedback Anthony mentioned the work that was
being done around the launch of the CYPP. Mark suggested that we needed
to be clear about who the target audience was for the launch and that there
needed to be something in it for people in order for them to be engaged. It
was also suggested that we needed to be better at celebrating our successes.

ACTION (for LBTH) – Anthony to ensure a communications strategy around
the launch is worked up, with the focus on a campaign rather than a one off
event


Item 4:       Implications of the statutory Children’s Trust guidance

12.    Anthony presented a paper setting out the implications of the guidance
issued in December 2008.

The group agreed the recommendations as follows:
 That representatives from Tower Hamlets College and Job Centre Plus be
   invited to join the group
 That the LBTH Service Head for Children’s Social Care and Service Head
   for Early Years, Children and Learning be invited to join the group
 That the name of the group be changed to Children and Families Trust

13.    Cllr Hawkins said there would be some implications from the Laming
report which this group would need to consider at a future meeting.

14.   There was also some discussion about attendance and that
expectations needed to be clearer about sending a representative if you were
unable to attend. Alongside this it was also suggested that a review of the
theme groups take place as the membership of some of them was felt to be
very Council heavy. With a new CYPP the importance of having the right
arrangements in place was highlighted.

ACTION (for LBTH) – Layla to ensure that terms of reference and Children
and Families Trust structure be brought back to the group, and that a review
of the theme groups takes place


Item 5:       Notes of previous meeting and AOB

15.    The notes of the previous meeting were agreed. Under AOB it was
agreed that the date of the next meeting (6th April) was too soon and that the
8th June meeting should be brought forward. It was agreed that the next



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meeting would take place on 11th May. Cllr Hawkins thanked everyone for
coming.

Date of next meeting

4.30pm – 6.30pm 11th May at Clifford Chance offices, 10 Upper Bank Street,
London E14 5JJ. Agenda and papers to be circulated 2 weeks in advance of
the meeting date.




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