Lancashire Children and Young Peoples Strategic Partnership

							     Draft Terms of Reference for Pendle
            Local Trust Partnership




DRAFT 18 January 2008




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1.   Terms of Reference

     Pendle Local Children’s Trust Partnership will:

     (a)   act as the Pendle Partnership’s Children and Young People’s thematic
           group and fulfil Pendle’s Local Children’s Trust role within the Lancashire
           Children’s Trust arrangements;

     (b)   map, co-ordinate and identify the needs of children and young people who
           live in Pendle and to seek to bring added value to meeting those needs
           through encouraging local agencies to work together;

     (c)   listen to and where appropriate, act upon the views of children, young
           people, their families and carers;

     (d)   create a two-way relationship with Pendle’s Front-line Consortia in order
           to enable them to feed into and act upon strategic priorities and
           developments in Pendle;

     (e)   develop the Lancashire strategic vision for ensuring positive outcomes
           and the safeguarding of all children and young people in Pendle;

     (f)   work within the Every Child Matters framework to improve outcomes for
           children and young people in Pendle;

     (g)   co-ordinate the delivery of the elements of Pendle Partnership’s
           Sustainable Community Strategy that relate to children and young people;

     (h)   advise the Pendle Partnership Management Group on the strategic
           priorities for children and young people in Pendle;

     (i)   lead integrated working across all sectors that work with children, young
           people and families in Pendle;

     (j)   establish a cycle of assessment, monitoring and evaluation for the
           partnership's agenda and in particular monitor progress on meeting the
           Lancashire LAA targets for children and young people in so far as they
           relate to Pendle;

     (k)   promote, develop and implement integrated processes, such as the
           Common Assessment Framework;

     (l)   facilitate the implementation of the central government's agenda for
           children and young people on behalf of the Lancashire Children and
           Young People's Board, as it applies to Pendle.

2.   Accountability

     The organisations that attend the Local Trust Partnership on the partnership
     are accountable through their existing governance arrangements and are



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     mutually accountable as partners. The duty to co-operate partners are
     expected to meet the requirements of DCFS Statutory Guidance, as follows:

          secure and sustain the necessary changes to culture and practice so that
           services improve outcomes for all and are organised around children and
           young people’s needs;

          build and sustain an effective partnerships with and between those local
           and out-of-area bodies, including the private, voluntary and community
           sectors, who also provide children’s services in order to focus resources
           (financial, human, physical or any other resources) jointly on improving
           outcomes for children and young people.

     (Pendle Partnership also expects non-duty to cooperate members of the local
     Children’s Trust partnership to also seek to meet the above requirements)

     The Local Children’s Trust Partnership will be accountable to the Pendle
     Partnership Management Group for the delivery of the elements of Pendle
     Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy that relate to children and young
     people.

     This Local Trust Partnership will report to the Local Strategic Partnership and
     contribute to the performance management and evaluation function of the
     County Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership.

3.   Vision

     Pendle Local Children’s Trust Partnership has adopted the vision of the County
     Strategic Trust as follows:

     Together, we will provide excellent services where people live and which are
     tailored to local priorities. We will stand up for Lancashire's children, young
     people and their families, listen to what they say is important, and take
     appropriate action. We will let everyone know what we are doing to improve
     the outcomes for our children and young people.

     The key objective of the Pendle Local Children’s Trust Partnership will follow
     the objective of the children and young person’s section of Pendle’s Community
     Strategy, that is:

     “ to do all we can to give our children and young people the best start in life and
     the opportunities to achieve their full potential.”

4.   Membership

     (a)   All duty to co-operate partners under Section 10 of the Children Act 2004
           will be expected to be members of Pendle’s Local Children’s Trust
           Partnership. That is:

               The County Council


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               o Department of Children and Young People – Strategic Lead
               o Children’s Integrated Services
               o Education Standards and Inclusion
               o Integrated Youth Service
               o Library Services
               o Lancashire Local
               o District Partnership Officer
          Pendle Borough Council
               o Lead Member
               o Lead Officer
          Lancashire Constabulary
          The Probation Service
          The Primary Care Trust
          The Learning and Skills Council

      Members will be required to have sufficient authority to make
      recommendations on the re-shaping of services and allocation of
      resources on behalf of those organisations.

(b)   In addition to the duty to cooperate partners the following will be
      represented on the Local Children’s Trust Partnership:

          Pendle Leisure Trust
          A Secondary School Representative*
          A Primary School Representative*
          Special schools*
          An Early Years and Children’s Centre Representative*
          Nelson and Colne College
          Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service
          East Lancashire Hospitals Trust
          The Chair of the Front Line Consortia
          The Community, Voluntary and Faith Sector

      * These groupings will be asked to get together to nominate
      representatives.


(c)   The Local Children’s Trust Partnership will be able to ask others to attend
      meetings to deal with particular issues and can co-opt other members as
      appropriate.

(d)   The purpose of the Local Trust Partnerships is to enable the achievement
      of identified outcomes in a locality for children and young people. In order
      to do this, where possible, members of the LTP will need to hold high
      levels of discretion over the deployment of resources, staffing and
      budgets at a local level in order to contribute to the delivery of the
      Children and Young People’s Plan. Mandated deputies may attend when
      appropriate.




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(e)   The Local Children’s Trust Partnership is committed to listening to, and
      where appropriate, acting upon the views of children, young people and
      their parents and carers. It will find creative and innovative ways of
      engaging children and young people in order to enable their views to be
      heard.

(f)   It will be for the LTP to decide upon how business is conducted, including
      the establishment of task and finish groups.

(g)   The Local Children’s Trust Partnership will review its membership once a
      year to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. Any changes in membership
      will need to be approved by Pendle Partnership’s Management Group.

(h)   The Local Children’s Trust Partnership will meet a minimum of six times
      per year.




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