What is the Sunderland Children’s Trust?

“Working together to improve life chances and aspirations for each child and young person in Sunderland and to
narrow the gap in outcomes for our most vulnerable groups and families”

The Sunderland Children’s Trust is a multi-agency partnership working towards the shared vision above – to improve the lives of all young people in Sunderland and to prepare them well for adulthood. The Sunderland Children’s Trust works in partnership with other bodies including the Sunderland Safeguarding Children Board, the Early Implementer Health and Well-being Board and a variety of individual partnerships who have responsibility to deliver the priority outcomes of the Trust.

The Children’s Trust has agreed values and principles through which are the cornerstone of how the partnership works together and delivers improved outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Values:

• Put people first
• Be fair and open
• Act with integrity
• Strive to be the best

Principles:

• Celebrate the achievements of children and young people
• Have every child, young person and their family at the heart of all we do, and to build resilience in children and young people whilst supporting parents and carers to help improve outcomes for their children
• Create productive, locally accessible services through true multi-agency working
• Re-orientate systems, processes and services toward early intervention and prevention
• Create a workforce of trusted adults who are confident, capable and competent
• Embed a commissioning culture and framework of outcomes based accountability, underpinned by a commitment to pooling and aligning budgets and allocated resources to outcomes.

Partners:

• Sunderland City Council
• Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust
• City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
• Northumbria Police
• Northumbria Probation Board
• The University of Sunderland
• City of Sunderland College
• Voluntary and Community Sector
• Schools representatives

The Future for the Children's Trust and the Health and Well-being Board

In developing a future role for the Children’s Trust, the contribution that it makes to the Early Implementer Health and Well-being Board and the development of both the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be one of the key elements of the work of the Trust.

The Children’s Trust are well represented on the Early Implementer Health and Well-being Board through the Lead Member for Children and Young People, the Executive Director of Children’s Services, the Chair of the Sunderland PCT and the Director of Public Health.

The Children’s Trust also recently established a Health and Well-being Sub Group which will consult and comment on the emerging agenda and themes to ensure the successful implementation of a Public Health service in Sunderland.

Partnerships and governance arrangements