Agenda item

(Item 8 - Report by Director, Strategy, Policy and Performance)

(Mrs J Ackroyd, Trust Development Manager, was in attendance for this and the following item)

1.      Mrs Ackroyd introduced the report and set out national and local developments since the issue was last reported to the Board in December 2007.  The KCC had been identified as the Children’s Services Authority and so had the lead responsibility for bringing in the changes in the National Children’s Plan – ‘Building Brighter Futures’.  Children’s Trusts were the mechanism by which the aspirations in ‘Building Brighter Futures’ would be achieved.  Mrs Ackroyd pointed out three key aspects of the new changes:

         (a)    They emphasised the need to use schools as a medium by which to address the issues;

         (b)    They emphasised the role of the family and the need to support the family as a whole unit; and

         (c)     Changes would be phased over a period of time so they could mature and develop, to affect long term and lasting change.

2.      Arising from discussion, and from Mrs Ackroyd’s and Mr Mitchell’s responses to questions put by Members, the following points were highlighted:-

         (a)    The 23 school clusters in Kent were being used as a basis for Local Children’s Services Partnerships (LCSPs) to keep schools at the centre of developments and to take advantage of existing relationships and networks.  This method had been chosen as a good model in Kent, and other local authorities which had not based their arrangements around schools had found that, to be effective, they had had to change their arrangements to follow this model.

         (b)    Similarly, good engagement and inclusion of parents and families had proven vital to the success of the new arrangements.

         (c)     The new Children’s Trusts arrangements had three threads:

                  i        they changed the way in which professionals worked together to deliver services;

                  ii       they produced a range of new services which had arisen from this new joint working; and

                  iii      they led to the establishment of new Children’s Centres (of which, 8 were planned for Kent by the end of 2008).

         (d)    Pathfinder Projects which had run across the County had now produced measurable results and had shown how the new arrangements could work.  The final evaluation of Pathfinder Projects was due to be published in June 2008.  

         (e)    Members expressed a range of individual views about how Trusts would relate to and impact upon the respective roles of CFEPOC and the Children’s Champions Board, and how the Trusts’ work should be scrutinised, and expressed concerns that the role and profile of the Board should be protected from being eroded. Mrs Ackroyd assured Members that Member engagement had been a well debated issue around other local authorities as the Trust arrangements had developed. 

         (f)      Members also expressed concern that some detail of how the new arrangements would work was, as yet, unknown, but would need to be known before they could see and judge the whole and how it fitted together and impacted upon the role of Members. Members expressed anxiety that a single, prescriptive template should not be imposed, as one size did not fit all.  Mrs Ackroyd reassured Members that it was not the intention to impose a standard template.

         (g)    Leading on from the views expressed in (e) above, Members were keen to fit the review of the Board’s Terms of Reference into the timetable of the incoming KCT arrangements.

3.      RESOLVED that the information set out in the report, and the clarification given in response to Members’ questions and views, be noted, with thanks.