Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 25^th February 2008, having been printed and circulated, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

It was confirmed that no public questions had been received.

The Minutes of the Executive Board and the Executive Board Sub-Committee relating to the Children and Young People Policy and Performance Board were submitted for information.

 

RESOLVED: That the Minutes be noted.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People which advised Members on the health of children in Halton relative to other boroughs, identified current actions to address health in children and suggested approaches to closing the gap in health inequalities.

 

Dr Dympna Edwards – Deputy Director of Public Health for children for Halton and St Helens PCT addressed the Board and reported that the North West Public Health Observatory recently compiled a range of health indicators for children. The Observatory combined fifty outcome indicators for children into a single index. Halton came 42^nd out of 43 for the combined health indicator. It showed that health of children in Halton was poor relative to other areas with similar levels of deprivation.

 

The report outlined that Halton did have high risk factors for poor child health, for example lone parents, low income, families on benefits, education and obesity, higher hospital admissions and uptake of treatment services and lower uptake of preventative services. However, it was reported that health was improving in many areas and services were responding to health needs. Challenges had arisen over the last few years, which included the increase in childhood obesity and alcohol use in young people.

 

Members were advised of the causes of poor health and actions to improve health. It was reported that Halton was well advanced in developing Children’s Trust arrangements, with health staff from the Primary Care Trust, supporting well and vulnerable children, now being supported via new Partnership arrangements with the local authority as part of the Children’s Trust arrangements. This would help integrated planning and delivery of services with better outcomes for children and families.

 

It was noted should current trends continue then the health of children would improve in many areas although the gap between Halton and the rest of the country would remain. Health effects relating to obesity and risk taking behaviour such as alcohol and sexual health would be likely to increase. It was noted that a stepped change was needed in order to reverse this trend. A number of approaches suggested were outlined within the report.

 

The Board held a wide-ranging discussion regarding issues relating to the amount of take-aways in town centres and near school areas, the effects of local planning decisions, increase in leisure activities available for children, the need to educate parents and young children and the work carried out by school forums in relation to a working group to promote positive actions that could be taken.

 

The Board suggested a more detailed analysis be brought back to the next Board where Members could have an informed debate regarding all the issues and possibilities available.

 

RESOLVED: That Members consider the issues contained in the report and approaches identified in paragraph 4.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director - Children and Young People which outlined the draft Primary Strategy for Change (PSC) that had been developed as part of the Primary Capital Programme (PCP).

 

It was reported that it was a requirement for all authorities to develop a PCP. As part of the programme all local authorities must produce a PSC, which must be formally endorsed by the Council, the Diocesan Authorities and the majority of primary schools.

 

It was advised that the PSC for Halton had been developed following consultation with primary schools, Diocesan colleagues and a range of other partners. Three dedicated sessions had been held with Primary Headteachers and an Extended Services Working Group had met to consider opportunities for local and extended services to be offered through primary schools. Chairs of Governors and Halton Association of Governors had also been consulted along with colleagues from other Departments across the Council such as Environment and Health and Community.

 

It was reported that a draft of the PSC had been circulated and placed on both the internet and intranet and sent to Departments across the Council. It was advised that the Authority must develop a strategic approach to capital investment for primary schools over 14 years. For 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 the indicative primary capital funding was £8.4m. Funding from 2011/2012 would be subject to public spending review.

 

It was noted that the submission to the Department for Children Schools and Families on 16^th June 2008 must name and provide costings for the school project that would be undertaken within the first two years of funding. In Halton a re-organisation of primary provision had yet to be undertaken for the first two years of funding therefore, projects had been proposed which would not prejudice this project. The proposed project for 2009/2010 and 2010/1011 was detailed in the report.

 

 The DCSF minimum requirement from PCP for Halton stated that eight schools were to be removed or rebuilt through PCP, twenty schools were to be remodelled through PCP and twenty-nine schools were to be maintained.

 

RESOLVED: That the Board support the Halton Primary Strategy for Change.

The Board received the report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People, which outlined the planning and delivery of Phase 3 Children’s Centres. It was reported that the third phase of the Government’s Children’s Centre programme would complete the national roll out of children’s centres offering universal access to integrated services.

 

The Board noted the recommendation that certain Halton children centre sites should be combined.  The rationale for combining these centres was primarily due to the low reach figures and the lack of need for full day care in some phase 2 areas as detailed in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2008.  Members were advised of the proposal to reduce the number of full children’s centres from 12 to 8.

 

It was noted all Phase 3 children’s centres would be situated outside the most disadvantaged areas and would therefore offer a less intensive level of support than those Phase 1 and 2 centres serving families in the 30% most disadvantaged areas. However, even in the most affluent areas of the Borough there would be families with young children at risk of social exclusion. Local authorities would have a greater flexibility in deciding what services should be provided in the more affluent areas based on an assessment of local need.

 

The Board was advised of areas not covered by existing children’s centre reach, which so far were Beechwood, Heath and Daresbury within Runcorn and Farnworth and Birchfield within Widnes. It was proposed that a range of options would be explored.

 

It was reported that the original guidance concerning Phase 3 centre delivery required a further two children’s centres with a combined “reach” of 1,426 children under five, predominantly serving families who were not living in the areas ranked in the 30% most deprived super-output areas. 

 

The Board was advised that the proposal was for the development of two satellite centres to link to two existing centres to work together to extend their “reach” and provide access to the full core services. 

 

It was noted that the development of the centres in Phase 3 was supported by capital funding only of £521,866. The Board noted the need for a survey of demographic trends and requested that a subsequent paper be brought back to a Board in order to identify where gaps were in the profile.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)              that the Board support the recommendations concerning the alterations to designation details for Phase 1 and 2 Children’s Centres as detailed in the report;  and

 

(2)             the Board consider options to be explored in Phase 3.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People, regarding the successful bid for Halton to be awarded “Play Builder Status”. It was reported that in February 2008 Halton was 1 of 85 local authorities to be selected to apply for Play Pathfinder/ Play Builder Status. Bids were submitted to the Department for Children, Schools and Families on 17^th March 2008. Halton was informed on the 31^st March 2008 that it had been successful in its application and awarded “Play Builder Status”.

 

The Board was advised that Play Builder status was a capital programme to transform or build new play areas in Halton. The Play Builder programme was a high profile driver of the Government’s “Play Strategy” and was a key element of the Government’s commitment to a national drive for increased communities as part of the “Children’s Plan”.

 

It was noted that from June 2008, Halton’s priorities would be set out in its Local Area Agreement. The Government had made it clear to local authorities that play was now a national priority by building it into this new performance framework, using children’s views as the driver for local delivery and from April 2009 an indicator would be included on what children think about the parks and play areas in their local area.

 

The Board noted that as a result of the awarding of “Play Builder Status”, Halton would receive Capital Funding of £1.1m from 2008 – 2011 and revenue funding of £15,000 per annum for three years to refurbish or improve existing play areas or, where appropriate, build new play areas up to a total of 20 to 25 areas.

 

It was reported that there was a Halton Play Partnership which currently reported directly to the Universal Task Group and through that group to the Integrated Commissioning Partnership and Children and Young People’s Alliance Board. Members were advised that to successfully implement the Play Builder Programme it would be necessary to have in place an effective process and criteria for the consultation and commissioning of capital/play area proposals and an effective project team to manage the programme and projects.

 

The Board agreed to delegate these works to be carried out by the Halton Play Partnership. However, it was noted that the Board would need to be involved in considering the siting of the play areas. In response it was noted that consultations would have to be carried out on the options and reports would be brought back to the Board  and suitability strategy would be implemented.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)              the awarding of “Play Builder Status” be noted,

 

(2)              the Board approve that the Halton Play Partnership manage the delivery of the Play Builder programme; and

 

(3)       an appropriate model for the consultation, commissioning and management of play area development proposals is established.

The Board received a report of the Strategic Director Children and Young People, which outlined background information on the Education and Inspection Bill.

 

Members were advised that the Bill would seek to:

 

• Raise the age young people stay in education or training, with a duty on young people to participate and on parents to assist their children to participate;

 

• Set out duties on employers to release young people for the equivalent of one day a week to undertake training elsewhere (where the employer did not provide their own training);

 

• Introduce a duty on local authorities to ensure that young people participated and to provide the support service currently known as Connexions;

 

• Required local authorities to assess the education and training needs of young people aged 16 to 19 with special educational needs; and

 

• It would seek to require the Learning and Skills Council to secure the proper provision of courses for learners over the age of 19.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

1)                 consideration be given to the impact of the Bill;  and

 

2)                 consideration be given to a response to the consultation paper “Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver”.

The Board considered the Annual Report for the Children and Young People Policy and Performance Board. The report outlined the membership and responsibilities, the review of the year, work programme for 2008/2009 and safeguarding. The Chairman thanked all the Officers and Members involved  in producing an incredible amount of work throughout the year.

 

RESOLVED: That the PPB agree and endorse the Annual Report for the purpose of its adoption at a forthcoming meeting of the full Council.

The Board considered a report regarding the progress against service plan objectives and performance targets, performance trends/comparisons and factors affecting the services during the 4^th quarter for:

 

• Specialist Services;
• Universal and Learning Services;
• Community Services; and
• Business Planning and Resources.

 

RESOLVED: That the 4^th quarter year-end performance monitoring report be received.