The Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) 2009 - 2010 is now available. The plan can be downloaded here ( 274kb).

It is a transformational plan providing continuity for the priorities and actions in the CYPP 2007/9 as well as setting out the planning process for establishing a 15-year strategy for the Children’s Trust.

This 2009/10 plan:

• reiterates the ethos and principles of Sunderland Children’s Trust and the context in which the Children’s Trust operates
• provides an overview of our review into the CYPP 2007-09
• identifies the priority outcome areas within the ten priorities of the Children’s Trust
• sets out the process for developing the 15 year commissioning strategy 2010-25

Partners are working together to improve outcomes for children and young people in the city.

In Sunderland there is:

• a Children’s Trust, which acts as a Board
• a Children’s Trust Strategic Partnership, which implements the policy and business of the Children’s Trust, and
• a network of partnerships that are aligned to the Children’s Trust

Each of these partnerships has developed a strategy, which aims to work towards the outcomes identified in the CYPP, as well as other linked areas identified by the partnership. These partnerships, known as Aligned Partnerships are:

• 14-19
• Early Years and Childcare
• Family and Parenting
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health
• Looked After Children
• Learning Difficulty& Disability
• Risk & Resilience (Teenage Pregnancy, Substance Misuse)
• Youth Board
• Youth Offending

Our priorities for 2009/10 are for children and young people to:

1. Be strong individuals, proud of their city and contribute to its future

• Mentoring and advocacy
• Involving disabled young people in the councils disability equality scheme
• Increasing the number of young people engaged in service design and delivery and those receiving accredited outcomes

2. Be aware of how their behaviour affects others and the importance of staying out of trouble

• Supporting those at risk or and those offending
• Supporting victims of crime

3. Make positive lifestyle choices

• Increasing the number of children and young people participating in physical activity and choosing a healthy diet – leading to a reduction in the rate of obesity
• Reducing substance misuse amongst young people
• Improving sexual health and reducing teenage pregnancy

4. Lead healthier lives

• Reducing mortality rates in children under the age of 1
• Improving prevention, early intervention and effective management of childhood diseases i.e. through improving MMR vaccination rate
• Support schools, colleges and children’s settings by extending the healthy schools programme, developing support to deliver the personal, social and health education curriculum, developing wellness drop-ins, healthy eating and physical activity

5. Feel good about themselves

• Promoting mental health and emotional well-being and monitoring the impact of service delivery

6. Be safe in the community, at school and at home

• Providing mentoring and advocacy
• Supporting parenting
• Tackling bullying
• Tackling racism
• Investigating children and young people’s fear of crime
• Improving road safety
• Improving rates of accidental injuries to children and young people

7. Achieve in their education

• Supporting children with Special Educational Needs
• Achieving improvements in results at Foundation Stage Profile, Key Stage 2, GCSEs
• Reducing surplus places as part of a school place planning review

8. Enjoy sport, leisure and play

• Providing accessible and quality play opportunities through for example, free play areas and new facilities, such as swimming pools
• Engaging more children and young people from BME groups (black and minority ethnic)
• Researching the impact that transport has on sport, leisure and play

9. Live in decent homes

• Homelessness
• Identifying the housing needs of children and young people from BME communities (black and minority ethnic communities) and those with LDD (learning difficulties and disability)

10. Get the right training, further education and jobs

• Providing opportunities for young people to access training, further education and employment through for example, work-based mentors for young people, training and support package for employers

Planning for the CYPP 2010-25

To help us plan for the 15 year commissioning strategy we are considering what is best for Sunderland and what direction the Government is giving us.

The progress already made towards the CYPP 2007-09, the views of all Children’s Trust partners and previous decisions made by the Trust, which are set out in the following documents:

• The CYPP 2007-09 annual report ( 432kb), published in June 2008
• The Evaluation and Feedback Report of the Children’s Trust Conference in November 2008 ( 51kb)
• The scoping paper ( 86kb) designed to set out the Children’s Trust’s approach to developing a 15 year strategy
• The draft project plan ( 23kb) to develop the 15 year strategy

We are taking into account national guidance. Three key national drivers have emerged that will shape the future of Children’s Services, namely The Children’s Plan, statutory guidance on the duty to cooperate, and the Government’s target to eradicate child poverty.

The Children’s Plan ( 588kb), now in its second year, is the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ (DCSF) 10-year strategy to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up in. The Children’s Plan is aligned with the Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework and a range of policies and strategies have been developed by DCSF to support Children’s Services and Children’s Trusts to achieve improved outcomes.

The Government is committed to reducing child poverty. This is likely to be supported through a Child Poverty Bill. Tackling the causes and consequences of poverty requires action across all of the five Every Child Matters outcomes, in order to support parents and their children across all local services. Eradicating child poverty requires a multi-faceted approach by the Children’s Trust partners, tackling poverty in the short term and breaking inter-generational cycles of disadvantage. The partnership arrangements necessary to take a strategic approach to tackling this wide range of issues should be embedded within the Children’s Trust, and as part of the wider work of the council and partners across the city.

The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill 2009 (ASCL Bill), announced in the Queen’s Speech in December 2008, is intended to promote excellence in schools and create a more customer driven skills and apprenticeship system. The Bill will cover school standards, tackling poor behaviour, realising potential, local involvement and national infrastructure.

Measures in the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 include preventing councils from placing children out of area inappropriately, strengthening the role of independent reviewing officers to monitor care arrangements and providing care leavers who go to university with a bursary. All of these measures will impact on Children’s Services.

Changes that are anticipated within Government, which will have an impact on Children’s Services and the Children’s Trust include:

• Functions of the Learning Skills Council (LSC) will be transferred to, and undertaken by a combination of local authorities and two new bodies: The Skills Funding Agency and Young People’s Learning Agency. Children’s Services will shape and drive the agenda with these two new bodies
• Responsibility for securing education for all 16-19 year olds will be transferred to local authorities
• Responsibility for securing education for young people in juvenile custody will be placed with local authorities.