Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Forum
A response from the Special Educational Consortium
Background
Established in January 2012, this Forum will seek to ensure that the issues
that matter to children and young people are embedded into the new health
systems. The Children’s and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum is
jointly chaired by Professor Ian Lewis, Alder Hey Children’s Trust, and
Christine Lenehan, Director at the Council for Disabled Children.
SEC’s role is to ensure that considerations of how the health needs of
children and young people will be met within education settings and how the
health service can contribute to educational outcomes. The vast majority of
work on outcomes has been coordinated by the Council for Disabled
Children.
Key points from SEC on outcomes

SEC supports outcome measures that recognise the impact of good
health on good educational outcomes. These indicators are most
visible in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. This gives the
Director of Public Health an important role in developing integrated
services.

School absence is a particularly welcome indicator. SEC recommends
that this indicator is broken down further to include schools absence of
children with long-term conditions, disabled children etc…

In the same way that patient-reported outcome measures are used,
asking children about their experience of school could help to inform
indicators such as ‘school readiness’. The “tell us” survey would be a
useful starting point.

Mental health has a particular impact on children’s educational
outcomes and is often to linked with children who are categorised as
having ‘behavioural, emotional and social difficulties’. A greater
recognition of this link would be welcomed.
Key points from SEC on structure
Relationship with Local Offer

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment is a needs assessment that
must directly inform the development of the Local Offer; Health and
Wellbeing Boards should have some form of duty to cooperate in the
formulation of the local offer. The assessment should engage
education providers.

The Local offer and joint health and wellbeing strategies are closely
linked; the joint health and wellbeing strategies will determine what is
in the Local Offer.

The duty to cooperate is a lever on Clinical Commissioning Groups to
support delivery of the Local Offer.
Engaging education providers

Schools Forums will play a key role in developing the local pattern of
provision as this the place where agreement about what schools will
provide from their delegated SEN budgets is established – the
‘education’ part of the local offer. These agreements need should not
be reached in isolation and should involve the Children's Trust Boards
and/or Health and Wellbeing Board.

Legally, education providers are tied in more closely with Children's
Trust Boards than Health and Wellbeing Boards.

The roles of the Director of Public Health and The Director of Children’s
Services are central to this whole process. They have legal duties that
cut across health, social care and education. The new statutory
guidance for Director of Children’s Services is clear on their cross
cutting responsibilities.
Children's Trust Boards

The overlapping legal duties on Children's Trust Boards and Health and
Wellbeing Boards needs to be resolved.

Local areas need to be clear about the practical responsibilities of
Children's Trust Boards and Health and Wellbeing Boards in their area,
particularly in relation to the Local Offer.

Some functions of Health and Wellbeing Boards could be delegated to
Children's Trust Boards; alternatively Children's Trust Boards could
become a formal part of Health and Wellbeing Boards.
Matthew Dodd, April 2012
Funding block for all children, pupils and students aged 0-25 with high support needs
Schools Forum
schools and
colleges
Key local authority
personnel
- Director of Children’s
services (legal
responsibility for social
care and education)
- Director of Public Health
(legal responsibility for
public health)
Local offer
Duty to Cooperate
- health
Children’s Trust
Board
- social care
Duty to Cooperate
- etc…
Clinical
Commissioning
Groups
Joint Strategic
Needs Assessments
Health and
Wellbeing Board
- education
+
joint health and
wellbeing strategies
Annex1: Glossary of Key terms
Clinical Commissioning Groups, formally known as GP Consortia, will
directly commission health services. There may be multiple Clinical
Commissioning Groups in a single local area.
Health and Wellbeing Boards will take a strategic overview of local need.
They are organised by local authorities and include representatives from
local authorities and health services.
The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and strategy is drawn up by
Health and Wellbeing Boards. This informs the commissioning decisions of
Clinical Commissioning Groups
The duty to cooperate under Section 10 of the Children’s Act 2004
requires health, social care, education services, and others, to work together
in the interests of children. The duty to cooperate is being transferred to
Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Children's Trust Boards are a legal requirement and re responsible for
coordinating the joint working required by the duty to cooperate. In many
areas, Children's Trust Boards are becoming sub-groups of Health and
Wellbeing Boards.
The Local Offer is a proposal in the SEN and Disability Green Paper Support
and Aspiration. The idea of a Local Offer is that local authorities and other
services clearly set out the services available to support disabled children
and children with SEN in a particular area.
Schools Forums are made up of local school representatives and have a
role in relation to agreeing the distribution of school funding. The local
distribution of school funding has important implications in the agreement of
the education part of the Local Offer. Changes to Schools Forum
arrangements are being put in place to support the school funding changes
in 2013-14.