Voluntary Sector Children and Youth Forum
Minutes of the meeting held at Half Moon Young People’s Theatre,
Wednesday 23rd September 2009
Present: 26
Name
Organisation
e-mail
Vivien Thomas
Suzannah Walker
Glenys Tolley
Celina Clarke
Sue Rivett
Alia Sulaiman
Helal Ahmed
Parul Begum
Angela Michaels
Glyn Hockney
Michelle Vernon
Fiona Wyton
‘funmi Ekani
Pip Pinhorn
Marcus Duran
Rosana Hermosa
Imran Jamal
Mohammed Derek
Cox
Lauren Barnes
Elinor Middleton
Mark Hutching
Beth Knowles
Lucy Holliday
Chris Elwell
Amy Jones
Alex Nelson
Early Years Network Tower Hamlets
PATH, Play Association Tower Hamlets
PATH, Play Association Tower Hamlets
Tolerance In Diversity
Royal London Society for the Blind
Spitalfields City Farm
Poplar Harca
The Children’s Society
Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co.
NSPCC
NSPCC
Headliners
Refuge Tower Hamlets
Toyhouse Libraries
Toynbee Hall
SHS
BRAC UK
Christchurch Gardens Youth and
Community Centre
NAS
Doctors of the World (MDMUK)
BGMC/The Gap Project
The Prince’s Trust
The Prince’s Trust
Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co.
Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co.
Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1. Welcome & Introductions
Glenys Tolley welcomed everyone to the meeting. She thanked the Half Moon Young People’s Theatre
for hosting the meeting and asked Chris Elwell, the Director, to introduce the work of the Half Moon
Young People’s Theatre.
Half Moon Young People’s Theatre
The Half Moon Theatre used to be a repertory theatre based on Mile End Rd; they have been on White
Horse Road since 1994 and work with children and young people from 0-19. They hold a season of
plays from October to Easter and have 2 national tours of professional plays.
The next play is called Begin End which focuses on female relationships; their plays are not issue
based but focus on human stories that touch issues.
They are not just a theatre, 30% of their programme is professional work, and the rest is participatory:
 work with under 5s in 13 Children’s Centres
 Participatory work with parents and carers based on stories and ideas from the community. The
next play is Rip Fold Scrunch which was developed with Barkantine Day Nursery on the Isle of
Dogs.
 7 traditional youth theatres, one exclusively special needs, others inclusive
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

Family learning funded by Lloyds TSB for 2-5s
Extensive work in schools; Half Moon has a SLA with Tower Hamlets to work in schools on
workshops and programmes and they also are funded through extended schools
2. Apologies
Apologies were received from:
Linda St Louis, Amali Project; Philip Mathew, East London Connexions; Jo Everest, TH Community
Credit Union; Darren Wolf, City Gateway
3. Minutes of last meeting, 7th July 2009, and matters arising
The minutes of the meeting on 7th July 2009 were approved.
Matters Arising:
 CAF conference was held on 22nd July; feedback forms from practitioners suggested it was
successful. There is funding for another conference which will likely be held in Nov/Dec
probably in the evening.

Whilst we have had the opportunity to feedback commissioning experiences into the selfassessment workshops, it will still be beneficial to have links with the lead councillor for
procurement. Alex to follow up next week.

Training; Alex updated members on training programme organised as a result of the surveys:
first aid for child carers in October; finalising programme which will include Successful
Commissioning, Monitoring and Evaluating, Managing Volunteers and Fundraising with the
possibility of a further first aid course.

Change Up Consortium; Martin Reid on agenda

Third Sector Strategy; consultation has happened, draft revised strategy to be published soon
with an action plan, to include an extra action area around volunteers. Alex is on the Third
Sector Advisory Board which has met once; the LA was proposing to recruit a CVS director and
then TUPE them over to the newly set up CVS but listened to the group and now a facilitator will
be appointed to ensure a board is appointed which will then appoint a director.
Action required
Make links with Lead councillor for
Procurement
Revised Third Sector Strategy and action
plan to be emailed to VSCYF members
and comments collated
Whom responsible
Alex
Alex
4. Voluntary Sector Reps
There were some rep positions that were not filled last meeting, each nominee introduced themselves
and their organisation.
The following Voluntary Sector Representatives were elected:
Strategic Group
Be Healthy
No of
vacancies
2
Nominations
Elinor Middleton, Project London, Medicins du
Monde (Doctors of the World)
Stay safe (substitute when reps can’t attend
meetings)
1
Glyn Hockney, NSPCC
THINK FAMILY
1
Lauren Barnes, National Autistic society/TH
LSCB E-Safety working group (new)
1
Glyn Hockney, NSPCC
2
Emotional Health and Wellbeing
Commissioning Group
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As this had been advertised late with late
notification of info, it was decided to appoint at
the next forum meeting.
Muhammed Didar will be appointed as rep for Be Healthy ECM group at the next VSCYF meeting he
attends.
A workshop for reps had been held on 16th Sept; those who attended found it useful to consider how to
be as effective a rep as possible; the workshop highlighted issues that are relevant to the forum and
gave an overview of the groups in Tower Hamlets. There is a plan to hold another for reps who couldn’t
make it. Draft guidelines and a feedback sheet were produced and a suggestion that reps should meet
together at least 6 monthly.
Proactive Representation and evaluating impact of reps on boards: CYP Together and Children
England doing some research into the best way of evaluating reps impact on Children’s Trust, there will
be a meeting for all Children’s Trust reps with the equivalent of the VSCYF coordinator postholder
across London, in February. Results of research will be discussed at this meeting.
Feedback from steering groups will remain on the agenda as well as a slot in the eBulletin. Agreed to
ask Susan Acland-Hood about the possibility of more notice on agenda items and issues and also to
ask for a regular slot on each agenda for the voluntary sector.
Children and Families Trust (CAFT)
Each meeting of the CAFT considers questions set by an ECM theme group; they are sending these
questions out in advance of the meeting; it was decided to email these questions out to the forum and
collate the responses to present to each CAFT.
Action required
Voluntary Sector reps to fill in feedback
sheet and send to Alex
Info and mapping of all strategic groups
and reps to be circulated to VSCYF
members
Whom responsible
Voluntary Sector reps
Alex
5. Current developments and members’ items
Spark Centre: there are plans to change the use of this building to a Children’s Centre and it is
unknown how this will affect the groups that currently use space in the centre; the Spark centre
currently offers free space to many users and also has the advantage of being fully accessible. A users
meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of the 23rd September and more info will be available after
this. The works are due to start in January. There was a request for support for the organisations that
use the centre.
7. Susan Acland-Hood, Service Head, Strategy, Partnerships and Performance
[email protected]
020 7364 4187
Susan talked through her briefing:
Child Poverty Strategy
Tower Hamlets is a beacon authority for Child Poverty, they are now developing a cross-council piece
of work to lead to strategic commissioning to look at what can be done differently to make a difference
to child poverty in Tower Hamlets.
The networking map is taking the economic downturn and recession into account as far as possible, as
well as doing as much as it can to understand patterns.
A point was made that Tower Hamlets continues to be one of the highest areas with children suffering
from child poverty. The strategy will pull together services across the council and look at areas that will
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tackle causes of child poverty including employability, family factors, life experience etc. There is a
proposed multi-agency agreement over boroughs, eg Job Centre Plus, and coordination about
employment related services, not just services provided by the council.
Improving communications
Feedback from voluntary sector as to what info would be useful to the voluntary sector would be
valued, Susan recognised that it is not always what TH officers think it would need to be.
Commissioning
Children’s Centre provision will be re-commissioned for 2011. This will include voluntary sector groups
that are commissioned to do work in the children’s centres as well as the children centres. There was
discussion about whether there would be a blanket approach to the re-commissioning as there are
some children’s centres run by voluntary sector partners and the hope is that it shouldn’t just be those
children’s centres which have to go through the re-commissioning process. Susan said that that LBTH
needs to ensure that each service does the best possible with the money available, hence the recommissioning process linked in with longer contracts with possibility for renewal and she hopes that
Tower Hamlets Children’s Centres will also be open to the process. The point was made that it takes a
lot of management time to go through the re-commissioning process. It was also pointed out that at the
children’s centres strategic group, it was commented that the children’s centres provided by voluntary
sector partners are the best.
A comment was given about the changes to the use of the Spark Centre and the fear that voluntary
sector groups have about where they will be able to find fully-accessible, free space. Children’s Centres
are felt to be less accessible to voluntary sector and other user groups and are not being used by the
wider sector. There is a feeling that the plans to develop and change use of Spark Centre were not
conducted in public domain and therefore lacked transparency, with user groups feeling they were the
last to be told.
Other areas were discussed with Susan:
Representation on strategic boards
The members of VSCYF are trying to work out the best way of being as useful as possible on the
boards where they are reps. There has been an improvement from CAFT with agenda items going out
well enough in advance to consult, but this is not the case with other boards. Voluntary sector will
respond with a written response to CAFT in future.
There was a request that agenda and minutes be given out 2 weeks before meetings; Susan agreed
that it is good meeting discipline and requested information about boards which are particular offenders
so that this can be addressed. Tower Hamlets has no protocol and Susan agreed to look into this.
Changes in the leadership team in the Children, Schools and Families Directorate
 Kevan Collins is Acting Chief Executive; Tower Hamlets are in the process of appointing a new
Chief Executive, interviews are on 15 October.
 Isabel Cattermole is Acting Director of Children, Schools and Families.
 Helen Lincoln is the new Service Head for Social Care, she was previously in the London
Borough of Merton. She would be happy to come and speak to the forum.
 Helen Jenner has left, to become the Director of Children’s Services in Barking and Dagenham,
her post is being covered by Monica Forty.
 An advert has gone out for Service Head for 0-19 Achievement and Learning, which is part of a
restructuring. As a result, Carmel Littleton’s role is being deleted.
Integrated Youth Support Services
Susan will give an update at the next VSCYF meeting.
8. Feedback from reps
Make a positive contribution (as with all ECM groups this month) had completed the commissioning
self-assessment, it was useful for new reps to get to know people and fill in gaps of knowledge within
council.
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Children’s centres strategic steering group recently had a focus on voluntary sector involvement in
children’s centres. There isn’t a comprehensive overview of every voluntary sector group that is
involved. We will be organising a meeting for all voluntary sector groups involved in children’s centres.
Rosana Hermosa, Service Delivery Manager Tower Hamlets, School-Home Support, joined the
meeting. She had attended an Extended Services Steering group meeting prior to coming to the forum.
Rosana was formalised as a voluntary sector representative for Extended Services Steering group and
the Parental Engagement group.
Extended Services
91 out of 96 schools have achieved the full core offer for extended schools. The new enhanced offer
includes more emphasis on multi-agency working more for 2010/11. Steven Francis, Extended
Schools' Cluster Manager, is planning a series of workshops on sustainability and how schools can
sustain the work once the money runs out.
Action required
Meeting to be arranged for all voluntary
sector groups involved in children’s centres
Details of extended schools cluster
meetings to be put in next eBulletin
Whom responsible
Alex/Pip
Alex
9. Change Up Consortium Martin Reid
Unfortunately Martin was unable to come due to illness, this item to be put in next meeting’s agenda
10. Whole forum themed issue
Children’s Workforce Development
School-Home Support’s approach to workforce development:
Colin Michel, SHS Learning and Development Manager
[email protected]
020 7426 5033
Colin gave a presentation on SHS’s learning and development (attached). As part of the process, SHS
has developed the staff induction in line with the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC)
standards; they have benchmarked it against the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge and added
specific materials for learning mentors or parent support advisers. SHS gave their existing practitioners
a skills audit based on the Common Core and the National Occupational Standards and developed a
learning development programme using training, good practice and experienced practitioners.
Common Core Training
Gill Malcolm, LBTH
[email protected]
TH Learning & Development Team:
Maroof or Anna on 020 7364 6930 or Anna Klosowska [email protected]
The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge is part of the Every Child Matters agenda to develop the
workforce, particularly in the PVI (Private, Voluntary, Independent) Sector. The aim is to value and
accredit the learning people already have; staff often have a lot of experience, knowledge and
expertise but do not have anything to say they have it. The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge is
something that everyone who works within children’s services should know about; there are 6 areas
covered:
 Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child
 Multi-agency working
 Sharing information
 Effective communication and engagement
 Child and young person development
 Supporting transitions
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The Common Core training is part of a 2 year project, funded by CWDC, to support the PVI sector to
develop their workforce. It is accredited by Edexcel, pitched at level 2 and involves completing a two
day course and completing a workbook after the first day. Support is given and no-one has failed.
Next course dates:
12th October
17th November
One Children’s Workforce Tool
Ravinder Dhanjal, Workforce Development Manager, LBTH
[email protected]
020 7364 6930
Ravinder introduced the One Children’s Workforce Tool, a rainbow covering 8 different focus areas
(see presentation attached) developed by CWDC in conjunction with DCSF, to measure how well we
are working as a Children’s Trust in terms of integrated children’s services-health, children’s services,
police, voluntary sector etc. It is to be completed annually, and benchmark in 8 areas where Tower
Hamlets is on the scale, from not working well together to fully integrated.
Tower Hamlets wants to be seen as having a fully integrated workforce, and to know where their
strengths and weaknesses are. It will be developed into the workforce strategy for children’s services.
They would like as much information as possible, there were questionnaires available at the meeting
for staff to fill out. Contact Ravinder if you would like to complete one.
The completed rainbow for Tower Hamlets will be presented to the Children and Families Trust and
once accepted will be available to VSCYF. It is likely that some of the themes to be focused on in the
next 12 months will be:
 Common values and language, use of plain English and less acronyms
 What makes a good worker in children’s services
Funding is available for workforce development, see attached info with websites that have
information of where funding is available.
11. Date of next meeting
The next meeting was confirmed as Tuesday 24th November 2009, at a venue to be confirmed.
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