MONITORING

Securing delivery of the priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan will happen on a number of levels.

The agencies involved in the Children’s Trust have overall responsibility for delivering the 10 priorities.

Who holds them to account?

The sponsors of our children and young peoples’ charter.

Who do they monitor to ensure delivery and how do they do that?

The Children’s Trust Board meets quarterly. It is chaired by the Leader of the Council. At each meeting part of the business is a set of standing reports, all designed to ensure that the Board can track the progress of key cross cutting issues: joint commissioning; safeguarding; workforce development; information sharing and assessment. An exception report is also presented which outlines progress on the implementation of the Children and Young People Plan and flags up any actions, which have not been achieved and the reasons for that.

The Children’s Trust Strategic Partnership has responsibility for driving forward delivery of the 10 priorities and overcoming any operational difficulties between agencies.

Who holds them to account?
The Children’s Trust Board.

Who do they monitor and how do they do it?
The Children’s Trust Strategic Partnership meets monthly. It is chaired by the Director of Children’s Services. At each meeting part of the business is a set of standing reports, all designed to ensure that the Strategic Partnership can track progress on the key cross cutting areas which will deliver the Change for Children and Young People agenda, and this enables the identification of barriers and solutions to integrated service delivery. Members also receive monthly updates on the progress of the implementation of the priorities contained within the Children and Young People’s Plan in respect of outcomes for children and young people. At each monthly meeting, two of the 12 aligned partnerships report on their work and their contribution to
achieving the ten priorities.

The Children’s Services Review Committee takes responsibility for assessing the Council’s performance
improvement framework and statutory Best Value obligations.

Who holds them to account?
Local democratic processes.

Who do they monitor and how do they do it?
They scrutinise Cabinet decisions, carry out policy review and development and have a key role in performance management and improvement of children’s services. There is a common framework for performance management used across the Council. The Children’s Services framework covers local and statutory Performance Indicators across all five outcomes and service management. Partners contribute to the quarterly reporting cycle, through which key areas for action are identified by the Council’s Executive Management Team and responded to by the Children’s Services Directorate. The outcomes of that quarterly process are reported to the Children’s Services Review Committee.

There are 12 partnerships aligned to the Children’s Trust arrangements. They are:

• 14-19 Partnership
• BSF Education Leadership Board
• CAHMS
• Connexions LMC
• Disabled Children and those with complex health needs
• Early Years and Childcare
• Extended Services
• MALAP
• Sunderland Youth Parliament
• Teenage Pregnancy Board
• YOS Board
• Young People’s Substance Misuse

Who holds them to account?
The Children’s Trust Strategic Partnership.

Who do they monitor and how do they do it?
Each of the partnerships have their own performance management arrangements based around key
performance indicators and plans. The exception to that is the Youth Parliament, whose formal work
programme continues to develop and accountability is through the annual state of the city debate.

Children’s Services Directorate in the Council has responsibility for delivering improved outcomes for all
children and young people in the city.

Who holds them to account?
The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services through weekly meetings with the leadership team and fortnightly
‘monitoring Fridays’ with key staff. The Council’s Executive Management Team through quarterly performance clinics. Ofsted through the Annual Performance Assessment.

Who do they monitor and how do they do it?
The Directorate’s strategic plan is drawn from five service plans. The performance monitoring of those service plans has a clear framework through team meetings and monthly reporting to the Children’s Services leadership team. An annual schedule covering statutory returns, local and statutory performance indicators, and other key areas of performance provides monthly agenda for leadership performance meetings.

Other agencies’ plans and strategies contain actions which will improve outcomes for children and young people and which are subject to individual agencies’ performance frameworks. Many of those actions are
contained within the children and young peoples’ plan and are reported upon through the structures listed
above.

Resourcing the CYPP

As part of the 2006/2007 Children and Young People’s Plan an exercise was undertaken to establish the resources that were being deployed by the Children’s Trust in delivering each of the priorities. This was viewed as good practice by the JAR Inspectors who state in their report that ‘… partners have made a realistic estimate of the cost of the work and thereby assure its delivery.’

This places the Children’s Trust in a good position to implement the revised requirements effective from October 2007 when regulations require that a resources section is included within the Children and Young People’s Plan.

By 2009 we will:

• Undertake a further exercise to fully cost the resources required to deliver the revised priorities. The financial requirements of the plan are delivered by prioritisation of resources available to all partners and agencies
• Present the costed CYPP along with supporting notes that explain the methodology and process to be
  adopted to the Children Trust
• Review planning guidance to ensure that as the Children’s Trust discuss and collate the priorities for 2008-9, the financial implications are fully costed at the time the priority is established, are linked to broader commissioning strategies and to wider implications for the Local Area Agreement (LAA)
• Ensure that the Children and Young People’s ‘Block’ of the LAA is consistent with the resource strategies outlined in the CYPP

Download a diagram of partnership and governance arrangements ( 1.15mb).