Meeting documents

To consider this report.

The Committee considered this report that provided the Committee with details of the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) a three year plan that had started in April 2016 that set out the actions the Council and its partners were taking to continue and sustain improvements in Children’s Services. The Plan followed a multi-agency approach, and was overseen by the Somerset Children’s Trust and had 7 improvement programmes, each managed by a  relevant Board to ensure improvement in those areas, as follows:

1.         Supporting children, families and communities to become more resilient

2.         Promoting healthy outcomes and giving children the best start in life

3.         Embedding a ‘Think Family’ approach

4.         Improving emotional health and wellbeing

5.         Building skills for life

6.         Providing help early and effectively

7.         Achieving effective multi-agency support for more vulnerable children and young people and developing an excellent children’s social work service. 

The Partnership Business Manager – Children’s Services, introduced the report and provided a very thorough overview of its contents, explaining the CYPP’s origins after the Council received a Direction Notice from the Secretary of State for Education in November 2015 requiring a three year CYPP to be developed and implemented which the Department for Education could then use to judge how effective and sustainable improvements in children’s social care functions had been.

It was explained by way of further background that the CYPP was the strategic plan for Somerset Children’s Trust, providing the focus for partners’ actions and investment and the means by which the Department for Education would measure improvement. An update of the plan was reported on a quarterly basis and the report contained details of Quarter 4 and the end of Year 1. The meeting therefore provided an opportunity to introduce Members to the CYPP and allow time for comments and questions on the progress at the end of the first year and to consider the actions set to progress the Plan into its second year.

Members heard about the data contained in the Executive Summary and particular explanation and attention was given to the areas that were showing as red and therefore missing target. In addition it was reported that measures were also being used to assess the delivery of the 7 improvement programmes and a set of overarching measures designed to assess ‘how we would know we had made a difference’, as this would be a likely method that Ofsted would use to gauge how effect policy changes brought about by the CYPP had been. 

The report was accepted. The Chairman encouraged Committee Members to consider the CYPP before the next meeting in July. He also expressed his desire for each Member of the Committee to become a volunteer champion, taking a specific interest in one of the 7 programmes. The Committee also requested that a glossary of acronyms be provided to aid understanding.