Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
REPORT TO THE CHILDREN and YOUNG PEOPLE’S 0-19+
PARTNERSHIP BOARD MEETING TO BE HELD ON 21ST
SEPTEMBER 2007
REPORT FROM:
Brian Taylor
Associate Head Teacher, CYPD
Dawn Walton
Senior Manager, EYECS, CYPD
DATE: 3 Sept 2007
SUBJECT:
Communicating the Children and Families ‘Offer’ through Service Districts
ALREADY CONSIDERED BY :
N/A
SUMMARY:
This report provides an overview of the progress made by the ‘Offer’ project group
in planning how the children and families ‘offer’ will be communicated to children,
young people and parents in Service Districts.
The ‘Offer’ provides a unique package of integrated services to a child, young
person and its family dictated by their level of need, at any specific point in their
journey from 0-19.
CYPP:
How does this work contribute to delivery of the objectives within the Children and
Young People’s Plan?
The ‘Offer' working group contributes to the broader targets outlined in the Children
and Young People’s Plan. Focusing on increasing and developing our
understanding of the needs of our customers, is essential to the development of
high quality integrated services through effective partnership working in Service
Districts.
Communication of the ‘Offer’ will be informed by a detailed analysis of how our
customers access advice information and support, this in turn will be measured by
the take up of services across Districts and the overall improvements across the
five outcomes.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PARTNERS AND SHEFFIELD FIRST:
Improved integrated working to deliver a joined up ‘Offer’.
Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the members of the 0-19+ Partnership Board:

note the progress made by the ‘Offer’ working group and proposal for
citywide communication,

note that communication of the Children and Families ‘Offer’ is multidimensional and needs to be set within a context of
o Parental participation
o Children & Young People’s participation
o Customer evaluation and consultation

note that the Communication and Consultation in the ‘Offer; are part of new
broader statutory requirements introduced by the Childcare Act 2006
o Information Duty
o Sufficiency Duty
BACKGROUND PAPERS:
Parenting Strategy
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/education/services-to-schools/eyecs/parenting-matters---sheffieldparenting-strat
Childcare Strategy
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/education/services-to-schools/eyecs/sheffield-childcare-strategy-200608
Sheffield Information Link (SIL) Report to Localities Advisory Group
Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
1.
Purpose of the Report
This report provides the 0-19+ Board with an overview of how the
communication of the ‘Offer’ will be delivered to Parents, Children & Young
People in Sheffield.
2.
Background
2.1
In September 2005, the Local Delivery Change Management Group was set
up to lead on the implementation of Service Districts. A working party was
established to develop the constantly evolving Every Child Matters Offer for
Sheffield’s children, young people and families. Specific details about ‘The
Offer’ have been developed alongside the vision for Service Districts and
locality working throughout the two-year period to date. Similarly, our
Parenting Strategy has also been developed.
More recently to ensure parents are fully supported in making informed
choices for their children, the Executive Director for the Children and Young
People’s Directorate has commissioned the working group to formally
communicate the ‘Offer’ to children, young people and families across the
city.
2.2
However, it is necessary to understand how this communication exists within
the context of our already effective information service providers and the
new statutory duties placed on Local Authorities to provide a comprehensive
range of information to parents, children and young people:
The Childcare Act Duty 12 Draft Guidance requires:





the provision of comprehensive information and support to parents
which reflects their needs/local communities needs and can be easily
accessed from not only CIS type services but also from Children’s
Centres in different media and formats
reaching out to disadvantaged families to overcome barriers to access,
providing brokerage services to assist parents who need additional
support to access services
ensuring information is available for services for disabled children
providing parents with choices on how and when they can access
information
enabling parents to become informed consumers and to exercise
choice.
Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
3.
Present Information Services
3.1
In Sheffield we already have a broad range of tailored information services
both in the city centre and locality based. These services not only cover
information, advice and support to families on children’s service issues, but
also co-exist with a broader range of other information providers that cover
housing, health, and other community services.
To ensure access to information continues to be a priority, it is important to
consider families and their broader information and advice needs, therefore
building on existing services is essential.
3.2
SIL - Sheffield Information Link (formerly Children’s Information Service CIS) are the main provider of information to families regarding Children’s
Services, this was recently extended to include the delivery of the Children’s
Services Directory on behalf of the City Council.
The knowledge and expertise of this voluntary sector organisation, has been
utilised to inform the communication of the Children and Families ‘Offer’.
SIL have played a key role on the offer working group, and have already had
an external evaluation on the effectiveness of their work.
3.3
The Connexions Service and Sheffield Futures have also played a
significant role in providing information to young people and their families,
and therefore are a major contributor in the information network provision.
4.
Proposal for Communicating the ‘Offer’ Citywide
4.1
Aspects of the ‘Offer’ are already linked into an effective communications
strategy. Continual improvement of access to information needs to be built
into the strategy through consultation with parents, children and young
people. The Children and Young People’s Multi Agency Planning (MAP)
Group will be instrumental in evaluating and reshaping information services,
to ensure that improvement is measured against the impact on improved
outcomes for children and young people.
The Parenting MAP Group to be established this later this year will have the
same function for informing information strategy and assessing impact.
Whilst an extensive range of media are used to carry the message about
new services and new ways of working to the families of Sheffield, it was
acknowledged that a citywide distribution would have a positive impact.
4.2
The ‘Offer’ working group’s primary objective is to communicate a full range
of multi-agency services to 120,000 families. It is proposed that to enhance
the existing information provision, there would be a full-page article in the
publication of ‘Your Sheffield’ delivered to every household in the city.
Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
The article will include the contact details of SIL who have 20 years
experience of disseminating information to customers. SIL will become our
signposting agency, linking with existing city council, health and other
customer services.
5.
Locality Based Information Hubs
5.1
Alongside city centre based information provision, there is a planned
approach to providing information services.
Statutory Duty - The Information Duty includes the requirement to deliver
locally based information services through Children’s Centres and Extended
Schools.
By 2010, there will be 38 Children’s Centres covering every neighbourhood
in Sheffield, and all Primary Schools will provide signposting or tailored
information services.
5.2
SIL have already been involved with piloting locally based information
services in Children’s Centres and will be extending the good practice
already established in these settings.
Working in partnership with SIL, Job Centre Plus and Citizens Advice
Bureau, the City Council, through its Children’s Centres and Extended
Schools, will roll out and evaluate the impact of these developments.
6.
Performance Management
6.1
The City Council, through Early Years Education and Childcare Service
(EYECS) has a contract with SIL. This is monitored on a quarterly basis.
Understanding the needs of families, and shaping our services to provide a
more customer focussed approach, is a key Council priority. Children’s
Services have been through an extensive change programme, and the
journey to redesign services is in the early stages. There is still a great deal
to learn both nationally and locally.
Providing accessible information to families is high priority, but equally it is
essential that we learn from what families tell us about the services they
require and receive. This information is important if we are to develop
Service District multi-agency teams that are flexible to the diverse needs of
our communities.
Sheffield Children and Young People’s
0-19+ Partnership Board
6.2
The Sufficiency Duty introduced in the Childcare Act 2006, makes it a
Statutory requirement that Local Authorities assess the childcare market.
This process includes a tri-annual consultation with parents, supported by
an annual audit and smaller scale surveys.
The methodology applied to this process can be adapted to inform
developments of a wide range of service planning.
This information, together with SIL’s local evaluations, and the broad
consultation conducted by the PCT, will help to inform future integrated
working practices.
7.
Summary
This report has provided an overview of the progress made by the ‘Offer’
Working Group, in planning how the children and families ‘Offer’ will be
communicated to children, young people and parents in Service Districts.
8.
Recommendations
That the members of the 0-19+ Partnership Board:



note the progress made by the ‘Offer’ working group and it’s proposal for
citywide communication.
note that communication of the Children and Families ‘Offer’ is multidimensional and needs to be set within a context of
o Parental participation
o Children & Young People’s participation
o Customer evaluation and consultation
note that the Communication and Consultation in the ‘Offer; are part of new
broader statutory requirements introduced by the Childcare Act 2006
o Information Duty
o Sufficiency Duty