Developing a Children Young People and Families Alliance for Devon
1
Background
The Children Young People and Families Alliance will be ultimately responsible for setting the outcomes
and priorities for children, young people and families in Devon. It is planned that this will strengthen the coordination and oversight of the children and families agenda, something that was considered to be
inadequate by Ofsted in 2013. The Alliance will also be responsible for the development, implementation
and monitoring of a Children and Young People’s Plan.
2
Ensuring childrens and young peoples voices are heard
To truly improve outcomes for the most vulnerable young people, Devon’s decision makers must listen and
respond directly to their needs. Therefore we are developing a regular mechanism whereby our leaders can
meaningfully engage with children, young people, families and stakeholders to co-design action plans to
improve services and ultimately outcomes for all children, young people and families, including the most
vulnerable.
3
How are we achieving this?
It is important to note that as this process is one of continual co-design; we don’t have all the
answers and want to engage with you to identify what would work best, what already exists that we
can build on, and how can we make this truly meaningful for all involved?
Co-design with Partners: Over the last 3 months we have been engaging directly with our key partners to
gain their views on the best way of making The Alliance a success and securing their agreement to
engage. Some of the key messages so far have been;



Ensuring all organisations can be involved in the Alliance by making it accessible to all i.e. not in the
School holidays or weekends so Schools can be involved.
Ensuring we are realistic in what is trying to be achieved – not raising false expectations
Ensuring we make a difference and it doesn’t become a ‘talking shop’
Co-design with Children, young people and families: We have been engaging with as many groups of
children, young people and families as possible, including;
 Primary and Secondary Schools
 Youth Groups
 Children in Care Council
 Children’s Centres
 Mother and baby groups
Key messages from children, young people and families have been;





‘You need to have more ears!!!’
The event should happen near to me so I can go
It needs to be fun and if you want to talk to us use creative activities to do it – don’t be boring
Venues such as the Big Sheep, Crealy and Woodlands were all suggested
Have food, cake and ice-cream
This process of engagement will continue throughout the life of the Alliance as we will need to continually
review priorities, engagement mechanisms, securing appropriate representation etc
4
Who needs to be engaged?
All children, young people an families and partners working with them are invited to be members of
the Alliance, including (but not exclusively)
BME groups
Youth Parliament
LGBT groups
School Councils
Voluntary Sector Groups
Youth Groups
Community Sector
Children in Care Council
Early
Years
including
Special Interest Groups
Children’s Centre Advisory
Faith Groups
Boards
1
Existing children’s service
user groups
District Council leads
Providers of health, social
care and education services
CAFCASS
Family Court/ Judiciary
Parent/Carer groups
School Governors/ Heads
GP’s
Police
and
Crime
Commissioner
Fire Service
YOT
And all members of the
Executive Group – (see
below)
5. Children Young People & Families Alliance Executive Group
In order to ensure capacity to provide the strategic response to, and drive forward the decisions made by
The Alliance, an Executive Group will be required. Its main purpose will be to monitor implementation of
the Children and Young Peoples Plan and relevant commissioning strategies, oversee joint funding, make
best use of collective resources, determine sub-group arrangements and monitor impact for example Early
Help, Targeted Family Support and various other sub groups.
The Executive Group will meet at least every 3 months and will consist of the following membership
o Portfolio Holder Children and Young People for Devon County Council (Lead Member)
o Director for People (DCS)
o Director of Public Health
o Head of Children’s Social Work Service and Child Protection
o Head of Service for Education
o Police
o Clinical Commissioning Groups (NEW Devon and South Devon and Torbay CCG’s)
o VCS Representation
As it is the Statutory Responsibility of the DCS and Lead Member to ‘have a key leadership role both within
the local authority and working with other local agencies to improve outcomes for children and young
people (Statutory Guidance 2013), it is proposed that the Executive Group will be chaired by the DCC
Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People.
To ensure a democratic process we have used Voluntary Voice to secure a representative and a deputy
from the voluntary sector.
6. Accountability
The Alliance is ultimately accountable for setting priorities to improve outcomes for all children and young
people in Devon. It is accountable to the Health and Well-being Board and the Devon Safeguarding
Children’s Board to improve outcomes and to safeguard all children and young people.
The role of the Alliance will be to set direction and priority through the Children and Young Peoples
Plan, to hold each other to account for delivering these priorities and to review progress, working
together collaboratively where ever possible. The focus is not just on the most vulnerable children but
on all of Devon’s children. We will however want to set priorities together which ensure the most
vulnerable are provided the best possible life chances. The Executive group will provide capacity to
drive this agenda but the Alliance will be the leadership group.
7. How you can get involved in the co-design
We want the Alliance to be accessible to all and if you or groups you are working with would like to
become involved, please contact us via childrenfamiliesalliance-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
Representing the
Voluntary Sector
2