Meeting documents

To receive the report and presentation, which will include the interactive platform Mentimeter (attendees will go to www.menti.com to participate).

The Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board noted the Children and Young People’s Plan.

The Chair invited Fiona Phur, Partnership Business Manager at SCC, and Jasmine Wark, SSCP Business Manager, to introduce themselves and summarise their responsibilities.  Members of the Board and other attendees were invited to comment on the work around the Children and Young People’s Plan using Mentimeter. 

The Board was advised that in order to write the C&YP Plan, the views of the children and young people in Somerset we sought to identify what their priorities were; this was presented under the heading of "Hearing the Voice of Children and Young People in our Strategic Process".  It was noted that the children and young people also wanted to know what the members of the Health and Wellbeing Board thought about these priorities, so attendees provided input, with the suggestions including mental health, the environment, being connected, educational skills, opportunities for all, safety, being heard, community, sports and leisure, etc.  It was then explained how the voices of children and young people were heard in Somerset, which included a care forum with annual achievement awards, the Youth Parliament, Young Somerset, The Unstoppables and the Youth Forum (both SEN groups), and the Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP) as a whole.  Members of all of these groups met recently to discuss the cost-of living-crisis; they also work closely with commissioners (asking them to consider service users’ expressed needs), the police, Public Health, and the voluntary sector.  There are 40 organisations that meet quarterly.  The Youth Forum specifically was founded in May 2020 and includes children aged 10-18 years old who meet both on Zoom and in person with the SSCP.  In order to formulate the C&YP Plan, they started a year ago with a benchmark from the Youth Parliament, which includes input from the whole country, and extrapolated the voice from Somerset (there are 2500 in Somerset), referencing the climate, mental health, education, equality, sexual harassment and health, and the newly mentioned issues of domestic abuse and poverty. 

A short film was then introduced regarding the problem of how children can be supported when making an allegation of abuse or inappropriate behaviour; it was noted that previously there really weren’t the right tools available to deal with this, so Local Area Designated Officers who coordinate these investigations met with children and young people to get feedback on what would be helpful, and this short film is the result of that collaboration.  It was then discussed how the C&YP Plan aligns with the Improving Lives strategy, and the governance structure was explained (there are three partner agencies represented, which entails the Chief Accountable Officer for the ICB, the Chief Executive of Somerset County Council, and the Chief Constable of the Avon and Somerset Police, with the SSCP sitting below that along with a number of subgroups).  The C&YP Plan included three key rights for children (keeping children and young people safe, supporting physical and emotional health and resilience, and enabling young people to learn and thrive), as well as eight priorities (early help; safeguarding children from the pre-birth period through early childhood and the teenage years; all babies have the best start in life; better support for social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing; support for education and inclusion; reduce bullying and promote positive communities; poverty and homelessness; climate and transport).   Anyone who takes reports to the plan is asked to get feedback from young services users so that progress can be monitored, and in the recent Ofsted report our quality assurance processes were praised. The Plan was brought to the SCC Executive meeting in July, where the decision was to encourage all of our relevant partner agencies to formally endorse the C&YP Plan through their own executive arrangements.

A discussion then ensued, with Fiona asking attendees if there were areas where their organisations could assist the SCCP in achieving ins priorities, or if there were ways in which they could work more on listening to children and young people, and some of these ideas were input via Mentimeter, including making people aware of the plan (practitioners, decision-makers, children), supporting the facilities provided by the voluntary sector, ensuring professionals and agencies listen to children’s needs, involving children in everything we do, providing training and awareness around child safety, working with registered housing providers, improving mental health, changing the culture in schools regarding seeking help, taking bullying seriously, etc.  Cllr Heather Shearer thanked the presenters for the very helpful presentation and opined that professional curiosity needs to be encouraged; e.g., if an organisation is tasked with working with older people, there will also be families connected to them, and the views of those children and young people could also be considered. Cllr Janet Keen noted that early help is the most important key element in the stability of a child as he grows toward independence; it is the responsibility of the mother or principal carer, but at times homemaking assistance may be needed, which might be seen as an intrusion but which is necessary to ensure that the child progresses and has stability.  Fiona agreed, noting the case of a provider who has now engaged ten youth workers to support the vulnerable children and young people in families and guard them from getting involved in unhealthy activities, at the same time that other workers support the adults.  Cllr Mandy Chilcott observed that often different organisations pick up only certain bits of information, so Somerset is working to bring all of the information together for safeguarding children.  Julian Wooster, Director of Children’s Services, stated that the partnership around safeguarding is very strong and that he is very confident about the arrangements in place, but the question remains:  How welcoming is Somerset toward children and young people?  Some of them say that they don’t always feel welcome, and the solution must involve the collective community rather than the services, particularly with respect to children with special needs.  Parents of these children understandably want them to be protected, which is not always helpful in them progressing to adulthood.  Prof Trudi Grant declared that the engagement work that the SSCP does is wonderful, and we can all learn a lesson from it; Jonathan Higman added that the priorities in the C&YP Plan need to be at the centre of the Integrated Care System strategy.  The Chair thank everyone involved in the presentation.

The Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board noted the Children and Young People’s Plan.