Minutes of Hart Local Children’s Partnership Meeting 9 – 16.6.11
Present: Sue Rafter (Acting Chair), Cathy Smith, Sheila Hornby, Rachel Johnson,
Lynne Meechan, Councillor Jenny Radley, Lucy Ellis, Cheryl Edwards, Liv Stokkan,
Matthew Irving, Jill King, Stuart Adlam, June Bing, Alison Woolley, Kyle Jonathan,
Mark Jackman.
1.
Welcome and Introductions
The Acting Chair welcomed those present and asked all members to introduce
themselves. The Acting Chair had been asked by Lynn Martin to conduct the meeting
in her absence.
2.
Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from:
Lynn Martin (Interim Chair), John Stacey (District Manager Children and Families),
Cara Parker, John Faulkner, Lee Culhane, Sally Woods, Carl Westby, Christine
Slaymaker, Marion Skilbeck and Ahley Pugh.
3.
Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the last meeting dated 31 March 2011 were agreed by all present.
Action from Meeting 8
Member affiliation to groups/committees – The clerk had received affiliation lists
from members as requested. Due to the reorganisation of agencies and departments
within Hampshire some members were unable to submit their affiliation list until their
new job roles had been established.
Information sharing – No further information had been received item - to be carried
forward to the next meeting.
Action: District Manger Education and Inclusion
HT Cluster Reps – to be discussed as agenda item
Children Centre Consultation – The Interim Chair had submitted a letter on behalf
of the Hart LCP and had circulated this to all members prior to submission. The letter
was submitted in time for the deadline.
Youth Voice – Members had been requested to submit reports on pupil participation
within their organisations. Lynne Meechan presented the feedback from the
responses received on behalf of Lee Culhane.
Four responses had been received:
Farnborough 6th Form College – facilitated student voice, used electronic
questionnaires, elected student subject representatives, initiated focus groups and
encouraged students to record their levels of satisfaction of progress.
Hook Junior School – Engaged pupils in the School Council, held mock elections,
included pupil participation in the school development plan, issued questionnaires for
pupil opinion and exit surveys for Y6 pupils.
Fleet Fire Flies - As the pupils were under 5 participation was mainly via the parents.
Participation included a parent’s forum, suggestion box, feedback events and a
wishing line.
Hart District Council – Feedback from users was limited due to legislative constraints.
Further comments regarding pupil participation from service users were welcomed
and members were request to email any further responses to Lee Culhane.
Action Additional examples of pupil participation to be emailed to Lee Culhane
before the next meeting on 7th July.
Hart LCP Funding - please see main agenda item
Pen Portraits – Members had submitted pen portraits to the Clerk. As with
affiliation lists some members were awaiting their new role descriptions within their
departments before submitting a pen portrait.
Cost of preventative work –social development bonds – ongoing, no further
information available at the time of the meeting.
Action: Cheryl Edwards to update LCP members when information regarding
the social development bonds became available.
5.
Hart LCP Budget Figures
The clerk had previously circulated a document showing budget spend to date. The
Hart LCP had received £22,659 which needed to be committed by the end of July
2011. Members had been asked to submit grant bids for consideration by the LCP
members.
6.
Hart Transition Funding
A grant bid application had been received from Yateley School and previously
circulated to all members. Responses to the grant application had been received and
circulated. Yateley School had filed a reply to the responses received which had also
been circulated prior to the meeting.
In addition to the Yateley grant application for funding Mark Jackman made a
presentation to the Hart LCP members regarding his proposal for funding for an LCP
co-ordinator role for the Hart LCP.
He told those present that it had become apparent that the role of the LCP was
developing and that the LCP should be active in a number of areas. He told those
present that it would be difficult for the LCP Chair to manage the development of the
LCP effectively and to be able to deliver the action plan. He felt that the work in
other areas by the LCP was more developed and in these areas the LCP’s had already
employed co-ordinators. A suitable candidate would be more able to seek additional
funding and write bids. He felt that members of the LCP would feel more satisfied if
they knew that after attendance at a meeting the co-ordinator would be able to focus
on the key priorities, tell LCP members the options available and allow the LCP to
achieve its aims.
The Acting Chair asked those present for their comments on the proposal to employ
an LCP co-ordinator.
Liv Stokkan commented that co-ordinators had been employed for extended schools
and these had worked successfully as they were able to liaise with leadership teams in
schools and external agencies. This enabled the service that they offered to be
strengthened. It was agreed that this type of role could be undertaken by an LCP coordinator but it was essential that if someone was employed they would work across
the three clusters of schools.
It was agreed that if approved an LCP co-ordinator should evaluate what services are
currently offered what services are no longer required and which services should be
sought to enable the LCP to deliver its key priorities and would meet the needs of the
clusters.
Mark Jackman suggested this role could be for a one day week post. A suggestion
was made that there could be opportunities for the LCP co-ordinator to be shared
amongst other LCP’s but after discussion it was agreed that local knowledge was vital
and the Hart area had a peculiarity and uniqueness as it had many areas of affluence
but also areas of deprivation.
Comment was made that both the Gosport and Havant LCP’s were employing a coordinator and this ensured feedback from service users and showcased good practice.
However comments were made about their size and the funding available to them. A
Hart Coordinator on 1 day per week would have to potentially liaise with the same
number of agencies and parties.
A question was raised as to who the employer would be for the Hart LCP. It was
thought that a co-ordinator could be attached to an agency or school within the LCP.
The grant application form from Yateley School had been previously circulated and
members of the meeting were told that the Parent Support Adviser (PSA) at present
offers a personal service to parents and carers’ of young people using successful
strategies to support all aspects of children’s behaviour. Data supported the success
of the work that the PSA conducted. Improvements were made with pupil attendance
and behaviour and this had had positive impact on whole families. It was hoped that
by continuing to employ a PSA the service already offered could be maintained and
the PSA would work across Hart supporting schools, children’s centres and the Hart
Neighbourhood Centre. Alternative funding had to be sought to support the PSA role
and schools were not able to contribute due to budgetary constraints. Funding was
required for the period of September 2011 to March 2012 to ensure continuity of
service. Further funding would be required from March 2012 onwards but there was
not such urgency for this as there was time to seek alternative funding.
Action: Lynn Meechan to email Clerk with Role Profile of LCP co-ordinator
role from the Gosport area if possible.
Costings to be provided by Mark Jackman for the provision of a LCP coordinator for the Hart LCP by 7 July 2011
The Acting Chair told those present that a further grant bid would be submitted by
Robert Mays cluster to support the Youth Programme Manager from the Hart
Neighbourhood Centre to provide support for vulnerable families and students across
the cluster schools. Exact costings had not been finalised. The Early Years and
Childcare services expressed interest in this project
The Acting Chair asked those present to submit grant applications to the Clerk by 30 th
June to enable the applications to be circulated prior to the meeting on 7th July this
will ensure appropriate transparency before final decisions were made.
Action: Grant Funding Applications to be submitted to the Clerk by 30th June
for circulation and comment
7.
Progress for success bid application
Cheryl Edwards had submitted a bid for funding for the above programme which
supports children in Y11 where they have no college place of job upon leaving
school. A similar programme ran last year and was a success.
The skills offered to the young people helped to prepare them for work and gave them
life skills.
Cheryl Edwards reported that her bid had been successful and in fact funding had
been given to support 18 young people instead of 12 for a period of 6 weeks.
Thanks were given to Cheryl Edwards for her work on this bid and congratulations
were given to her for her success with this bid.
Action: All Hart Secondary Schools to evaluate which pupils would benefit from
this scheme and inform Cheryl Edwards.
8.
Integrated Youth Support Services
A sub group would be meeting on 23rd June to discuss youth provision as there had
been a reduction in services from the youth service, connexions, youth evening work
and no support to track NEET’s.
It was not clear how the £90,000 commissioning money could be accessed at this
stage and if grant bids were required whom they should be directed to.
At present funding is directed to 16-18 in care leavers, statemented young people,
teenage mums, and young people with mental health issues and those with substance
misuse issues.
The money allocated at present is not sufficient to reproduce the support already in
place but if additional funding is sought from the voluntary sector, councils and
LCP’s collectively the funding could become more purposeful.
Action: Template used by other areas regarding funding to be sent to Clerk for
distribution.
Clarification to be sought from John Stacey or Sally Woods regarding the
£90,000 funding for youth provision.
Members of the meeting were referred to the document ‘Further Guidance for Local
Children’s Partnerships on future Commissioning of Youth Support Services 6 June
2011 and the procurement cycle contained therein. The Acting Chair told those
present that more information would be available after the sub group meeting had
taken place but in the meantime the timeframes for the future commissioning for
youth support services was tight and reading of the above document would be advised
before the next LCP meeting.
9.
Membership of the LCP
The Clerk had circulated an update membership list however some names and role
were still required to complete the list.
Action: All members to inform the Clerk if the name/title of the person
representing their organisation on the LCP needed updating.
10.
Future Meeting Dates
The next Hart LCP meeting is scheduled for 7th July at 3.00pm to be held at Hart
Leisure Centre, Hitches Lane, Fleet GU51 5HS
11.
AOB
Local Development Framework – Councillor Radley
Councillor Radley circulated a document which identified further development of
homes within the area. She highlighted how the increase in the building of homes
would have consequences for the numbers of children in schools and decisions
regarding the building of new schools would need to be made. Councillor Radley
expressed concerns over the consequence for hard to reach groups and service
families who need lots of support and that the Council had a statutory duty to provide
places however there was no statutory funding to address this. She highlighted that
there is a huge gap in the pre school provision of places and funding if often
disproportionally allocated.
Councillor Radley had sent an email to members of the LCP prior to the meeting with
a link to the local development framework steering group minutes, core strategy
preferred approach for consultation and the core strategy development plan document.
The documents contained key messages and members were urged to read them.
Mi-Voice – Lynne Meechan
Lynne Meechan had previously circulated a letter regarding Mi-Voice on behalf of the
participation team. Mi-Voice is a secure online survey tool which can be used to
conduct questionnaires and polls online. She told those present that there were still
places on the training course to use this tool and interested parties should contact
Lynne directly to be included on the training. Liv Stokkhan requested a place on the
course.
Action : Members of LCP interested in attending Mi-Voice Training to contact
Lynn Meechan.
Actions for meeting on 7th July 2011
All representatives to provide evaluation of what their service has provided or
achieved this year against the action plan, funding used and impact of funding
use.
Action: All members to email the clerk by 30th June with the above information
for the Interim Chair to provide a report to the Children’s Trust Board.