Q1. What is the purpose of the Children & Young People's Plan?

The Children and Young People’s Plan [CYPP] is the single, strategic, overarching plan for all services for children and young people in Sunderland.

The Plan covers services for all children and young people in the area aged 0-19, those over 19 receiving services, including leaving care, and those over 19 and under 25 with learning difficulties. The local authority has the duty to prepare the Plan, jointly with all relevant partners.

The purpose of the Sunderland Children and Young People’s Plan is to make sure that all those who work with children and young people in Sunderland are working collaboratively to achieve the shared vision and improved outcomes in the most effective and efficient way.

The Plan uses needs assessment and resource mapping and sets out how outcomes for all children will be improved locally. The Plan gives priority to early intervention, family support and preventative services. It provides the strategic framework within which services will be planned, commissioned and delivered to meet the needs of all children and young people.

The Plan has a key role to play in setting out the Children’s Trust’s resource requirements for improving outcomes and in providing a link to service and budget strategies across agencies.

Key stakeholders will need to show in individual agency plans, how they will contribute to the overarching strategic objectives and outcomes for children.

Q2. How was the plan produced?

In preparing this Plan the Children’s Trust agreed the following process:

• Set up a CYPP Project Team to co-ordinate the work
• Allocate lead officers to take responsibility for each section of the plan and each of the 5 ECM outcomes
• Undertake consultation with groups of children and young people around their priorities
• Establish a multi-agency Planning Network representing statutory and voluntary sector stakeholders to be the leads in their agency on contributing to the plan
• Run a series of planning events to include as wide a range of agency involvement as possible
• Allocate funds to establish a Children’s Trust Website and develop a web-based Children and Young People’s Plan

Q3. How were the priorities decided?

Within the Every Child Matters (ECM) Change for Children Programme local authorities and their partners, in preparing the Children and Young People’s Plan, are required to carry out a needs assessment. The needs assessment provided the evidence base for setting priorities and actions that will contribute to improvement within the five outcomes. Government guidance describes need as “ …whatever is missing and has to be provided if the gap between the current situation and the desired outcome is to be reduced or closed.”

A needs assessment exercise was devised and a data collection grid sent out to organisations in Sunderland identified as providing services to children and young people. This exercise asked for children and young people’s needs to be identified, the evidence for these needs and how it was gathered to be stated, and current outcomes in relation to these needs to be analysed. All identified needs were required to be recorded, whether or not these were being met within current service provision.

The second part of the exercise was to record the ways in which children and young people are involved in defining their own needs, and the information received indicated a substantial range of high quality participatory activities being organised across the City.

The returned data was collated for each ECM outcome and the results used in conjunction with information from other sources to contribute to the setting of our priorities in the Sunderland Children and Young People’s Plan. Other information used in deciding the priorities was:

• our Performance against existing indictors and targets
• Consultation with children and young people about the ECM outcomes and locally their priorities
• Post Ofsted Action Plan
• Annual Performance Assessment (April 2005)
• Assessment indicators and judgements from the Joint Area Review Guidance
• Local Profile Data [see Question 6 below]

Q4. Why did we have to write a plan?

Being a high performing Local Authority, we were not compelled to produce a CYPP. However, we believe it is good practice to have a single, strategic plan to improve outcomes for all children and young people in the city. The Laming Report identified a number of weaknesses in Children’s Services in some areas. The most significant for the future shape of services are:

• Lack of accountability
• Poor co-ordination of service’s provision across agencies
• Failure to share information
• Weak management of services
• Lack of training

“Every Child Matters; Change for Children” sets out the Government’s vision for children’s services, including a number of measures to address the above issues. This vision is based on the development of national and local arrangements where there is:

• Clear accountability for services
• Integration of key services around the needs of children, in particular, education, social care, health, youth justice and Connexions.

The Government’s preferred model for achieving service integration is a Children’s Trust that will commission services and may provide them directly or contract with public, private or voluntary sector organisations. Part of these arrangements includes having a Children and Young People’s Plan.

Q5. What are the main policy documents driving the work around improving children and young people’s services?

Since ECM and Children Act 2004, the flow of transformational policy and guidance has been intense. Some key examples include:

• Every Child Matters ‘Change for Children’
• a new framework for inspecting schools
• the 2005 Education Act to secure ‘the new relationship with schools’ and the DfES five-year strategy for children and learners
• guidance on the role of the Director and Lead Member of Children’s Services
• the new Ofsted framework for inspecting Children’s Services, including the joint area review (JAR) performance judgements and the annual performance assessment
• guidance on the ‘duty to co-operate to improve the well-being of children’
• the Children (contact) and Adoption Bill
• the white paper on the education of 14–19-year-olds
• regulations and guidance on the Children and Young People’s Plan
• guidance on the duty to promote the educational achievement of looked after children
• the Common Assessment Framework
• Common Core Skills guidance
• guidance on the duty to safeguard and promote welfare
• guidance on the implementation of the eleven National Service Framework core standards for Children and Young People and Maternity Services
• the Extended Schools Prospectus: access to opportunities and services for all
• the youth green paper: Youth Matters
• Youth Matters; next steps
• CPA, the harder test – Audit Commission.
• 2005 Schools White Paper
• Choice for Parents a 10 year strategy for childcare
• Working together to safeguard children 2006
• Joint planning and commissioning framework

Q6. What are the key issues for children and young people in Sunderland?

ENVIRONMENT

• Sunderland has high poverty and deprivation levels compared to many other local authorities, particularly as measured by Child Poverty and Income Deprivation. The City of Sunderland rates between 7th to 37th out of 354 local authorities in the government’s 2004 Index of Multiple Deprivation. (The IMD ranks authorities using seven categories: income; employment; health deprivation and disability; education; skills and training; barriers to housing and services; crime; and living environment.). As expected the proportion of children receiving free school meals is above the national average.

• The population, 282,700, is continuing to fall. The number on the pupil roll in Sunderland schools has declined from 47,028 in 2004 to 45,974 in 2005.

• The minority ethnic population is small but growing, with the largest (1,154) being Bangladeshi with 570 of school age (1.2% of the school population). The number of asylum seeking families has risen from 132 in 2002 to 179 in 2005.

• Unemployment at 4.3% is above the national figure of 2.8%. Based on information obtained from schools in January 2005, 23.0% primary pupils in Sunderland (16.9% nationally) and 16.3% secondary pupils in Sunderland (14.0% nationally) are eligible for free school meals.

• High ratio of children killed or seriously injured on roads. There were 34 children of the 121 people killed or seriously injured on roads in Sunderland in 2003. The child killed or seriously injured ratio (KSI) per 100,000 in Sunderland was 62, compared with 48 in the Tyne and Wear area, and 36 nationally. In terms of child pedestrian (27 incidents) KSI per 100,000 Sunderland has a ratio of 50 and this is well above the regional figure of 31 and the national figure of 21. The figures indicate that the higher rate of child KSI in Sunderland for 2003 is attributable to the higher child pedestrian casualty rate. The provisional figure for 2004 in Sunderland has reduced to 18. Child pedestrian casualties will continue to be monitored. A council-wide action plan for improvement is in place.

• In Sunderland, 29% of adults have low literacy levels and 31% low numeracy levels. In some wards, over 40% of adults have basic skills needs against a national average of 24% (Basic Skills Agency 2001). Sunderland Basic Skills Strategy Group is working to engage 19,780 learners on literacy, numeracy and ESOL programmes between 2004–2007 and ensure that 13,194 learners achieve target Skills for Life qualifications. This is a key aim of the Learning Chapter in the Sunderland Strategy.

• In 2002, 59.5% of social housing was failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard. In 2004, the figure was 4.2% and in 2005, 2.7%, reflecting the efforts of Sunderland Housing Group in the intervening period. In 2002 a private sector stock condition survey revealed that 7.8% of properties were unfit or in poor repair. A probability exercise has estimated that there are 57.4% of vulnerable households in the private sector in non-decent homes. Plan options for two areas of the City where there are particularly high numbers of unsatisfactory private sector dwellings are being developed with English Partnerships. Over the past three years, there have been a number of achievements in relation to improving housing standards in the owner occupied and private rented sectors. These include the commencement of a renewal programme, a financial assistance policy for those in worst housing and greatest need/vulnerability, establishment of a citywide mediation service and landlord forum and voluntary accreditation scheme.

• Sunderland has 87 Super Output Areas in the top 20% nationally. 46.1% of residents are adversely affected and experience some degree of deprivation. The ten most deprived areas are in the geographical communities of Southwick, Hendon, Pallion, Hetton and Sandhill. The same communities are reflected on an analysis of income deprivation affecting children.
  

HEALTH

• There is increasing evidence that the early stages of adult poor health originate in early life so a healthy childhood is likely to lead to improved adult health. Over the three years between 2000 and 2002, the infant mortality rate in Sunderland was 6.1 per 1,000 live births, slightly higher than the England position whilst the proportion of low birth weight births (<2500g) amongst children rose to 9.3% in 2002, a level significantly higher than the national rate. During 2002 9.3% of babies were born with a birth weight less than 2500 grams compared with the England rate of 8.1%, whilst 19.6% of mothers were still breastfeeding at the Health Visitor’s primary visit.

• In terms of health indicators, 48.2% of the City’s population are in the 10% worst super output areas in the country with 10.9% of the working age population claiming incapacity benefit compared to 6.7% nationally. In general, those individuals in higher socio economic groups experience better health and longer lives.

• Sunderland has maintained steady progress towards the reduction of under 18 conceptions. The latest figure for 2004 has shown a significant decrease to 51.3 per 1000, which means a reduction of -18.7% since the 1998 baseline was set. This is despite the unexpected increase in 2003 figures.  A review of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and service delivery is currently being undertaken to ensure that future action will continue to be targeted at those groups and settings most in need of support.

• Nationally and locally there has been an increase in Sexually Transmitted Infections, although age related incidences are unknown.

• Nationally approximately 14% of children aged 12-15 smoke and 34% had at least one alcoholic drink in the week prior to the survey. (Health Related Behaviour Survey 2004).

• Smoking in households with young children is very high. Between April 2003 and March 2004, 25.3% of women continued to smoke during pregnancy.

• Immunisation rates have been decreasing year on year but rates are still above target, and above the national average. Local refugees and asylum seekers have low immunisation but this is usually due to the country from which they originate.

• While dental health has been improving year on year children in Sunderland have on average 2.05 missing, filled or damaged teeth (MDFT) compared to 1.47 nationally. Childhood dental health is strongly associated with social class, where those with a higher MDFT live in the most deprived areas of the City.

• Evidence suggests the mental health needs of young people are increasing with 1 in 10 children aged 5-16 having a clinically recognisable disorder and 1 in 4 having emotional distress, significantly higher in areas of multiple deprivation.

EDUCATION

• There is a tradition of high levels of nursery education provision and take up by 3 year olds has increased from 85% in January 2003 to 92% in January 2005. In March 2003 there were 6 childcare places per 100 children in the City compared with 14 nationally. Since then there has been a 14.0% increase in the percentage change in childcare settings compared with 7.5% nationally. Foundation Stage profile results in 2005 reveal that there are fewer children meeting the early learning goals in all areas of learning compared to national figures and this is most noticeable in personal, social and emotional development.

• In 2004 at Key Stage 1 (age 7) attainment was broadly in line with the national average. The provisional results for 2005 indicate that Sunderland is 2% points below the national average in reading and mathematics and 3% points below in writing for level 2 or above.

• The rate of improvement at Key Stage 2 (age 11) was greater than the national average and attainment. For percentage level 4 or above in English, Sunderland is now only 1% in mathematics 2% below the national average and is in line with the national average for science.

• Key Stage 3 results have improved in 2005 for English, mathematics and science. The rate of improvement is above the national average for mathematics and science, however Sunderland is still well below the national average for % level 5 or above in English (5% points below), maths (4% below) and science (5% below national average).

• The rate of improvement at GCSE/GNVQ or equivalent (age 16) was greater than the national rate for %5+A*-C grades. 44.2% of pupils gained 5+A*-C in 2004 and this has increased to 51.2% in 2005, however Sunderland is still 5.3% points below the national average. The performance indicator results at 1+A*-G is 0.8% points below the national figures but 5+A*-G including English and mathematics is 2.6% points below the national average. The performance of minority ethnic pupils at GCSE/GNVQ equivalent has improved dramatically with the percentage of Bangladeshi pupils achieving 5+A*-C growing from 7% in 2002, 29% in 2003, 35% in 2004 and 41.4% in 2005.

• The attainment at A/AS level or equivalent (average points score per candidate) is broadly in line with the national average for 2005. This was a great improvement since 2002 when attainment was 19.1 points below the national average.

• At all Key Stages there is a gender difference in attainment where girls generally outperform boys and is more noticeable in the Foundation Stage Profile (personal, social and emotional development; communication, language and literacy); Key Stage 1 (reading and writing); Key Stage 2 (reading, writing and English); Key Stage 3 (reading, writing and English) %5+A*-C, %5+A*-G including English and mathematics grades, average points score per candidate at GCSE; and average points score per candidate at GCE/VCE A/AS.

• Attendance rates in Sunderland schools have improved in 2005 and are broadly in line with the national average. Unauthorised absence rates have increased in primary, secondary and special schools. Authorised absence has improved though rates are greater than the national average

• The rate of exclusions has decreased and fairs better than the national average. There has been significant change in permanent exclusions where the number of children excluded has fallen from 58 in 2002, 44 in 2003 and 6 in 2004, in 2005 it increased to 15. There were no permanent exclusions during the autumn term 2005.

• Based on the 2004 MORI poll within Sunderland, 94% of the population is satisfied with Primary schools and 87% satisfied with Secondary schools. Sunderland’s results generally compare well, and the satisfaction ratings for both types of schools are the highest encountered recently. However, satisfaction with facilities for young people in Sunderland (22%) is lower levels than elsewhere.

• 1.5% of primary pupils in Sunderland have SEN statements and this is broadly in line with the national figure of 1.6%. 2.1% of secondary schools pupils in Sunderland have SEN statements and nationally it is 2.3% figure and this reflects Sunderland’s inclusion policy.

• In 2004, 85.5% of young people participated in Employment Education and Training (EET). In 2005, it has increased to 88.5% (Connexions Activity Survey, November 2005). This confirms the increasing trend over recent years (7.1% increase since 2002) and participation in education and training is currently estimated to be only 1% below the national average. Alongside increased participation we have seen improved achievement in work-based learning and at ‘A’ Level. We now need to focus efforts on the curriculum entitlement at Entry – Level 2, reflecting the comprehensive post-16 intake that the City now enjoys. Many young people who participate in higher education progress to local universities and a high percentage of these are students at the University of Sunderland.

• Surplus school places in Sunderland are still an issue. The main challenge continues to be the continuing decline in pupil numbers. Over 3,000 places had been removed since the beginning of the second phase of review in January 2003 (School Organisation Plan). Currently the percentage of Sunderland primary sector schools with 25% or more surplus places has decreased from 14.7% in 2003/04 to 10.7% in 2004/05. The percentage of Sunderland secondary schools with 25% or more surplus places has decreased from 22.2% in 2003/04 to 16.7% in 2004/05.
  

SOCIAL CARE

• Increasing youth homelessness and the problems facing young people accessing appropriate and reasonable accommodation is a key issue in Sunderland as well as regionally. There is a Young Persons’ Accommodation Strategy in place to address the shortfall.

• Crime in the City is above the national average, as is drug and alcohol misuse and domestic violence. These impact on young people as perpetrators and victims. There is a robust Safer Sunderland Partnership with tight targets and action plans to achieve change. The Young Persons Substance Misuse Partnership is currently formulating its Strategy and delivery plan.

• There has been an increase in the number of families presenting to Children’s Social Care Services with ‘acute stress’ or ‘family dysfunction’ [695 in March 04; 827 in Jan 05].

• Findings indicate a need to ensure that support services to children and families are enhanced to meet the increased need. These services range across statutory, voluntary and community sectors.

• The levels of ‘stress’ and ‘dysfunction’ indicate the need for improved earlier intervention, prevention and public understanding and access to support services.

• There are increasing numbers of children under the age of 5 becoming looked after by the local authority.

• The attainment of looked after children at all key stages and GCSE/GNVQ equivalent has been steadily increasing. In 2004 GCSE/GNVQ equivalent looked after children results were greater than the national average in the performance indicators 5+A*-C, 5+A-G* and 1+A*-G. 16.7% gained 5+A*-C in 2004 compared to 13.8% in 2003. In 2005 it has decreased to only 12.5%.

• There is increasing evidence of the risk or detrimental impact on outcomes for children and young people from adult/parent activity in relation to domestic violence, misuse of drugs and alcohol, and mental ill-health.

• More children are being diagnosed with severe and complex disabilities and are living at home. More children are being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. This is having an impact on current demand for services and will also affect the level and type of demand for services in the future.