Stoke-on-Trent Children and
Young People’s Strategic Partnership
Newsletter
Issue 12
April 2015
Developing priorities for
2016—19 It’s not that
far away!
In 2016, the partnership will publish a new
plan for children, young people and families
in Stoke-on-Trent. An integral part of the
planning process is an assessment of what
the current needs are for our children,
young people and families. This is done on
an ongoing basis through our Joint Strategic
Needs Assessment (JSNA). Partners work
together to produce a needs analysis on a
particular issue; or specific group of people
to analyse the impacts on their health and
wellbeing within the city. This is often done
before a strategy is produced or before an
important decision is made regarding a
service.
Recent needs assessments that have been
produced include:
 Ethnic minorities needs assessment for
Stoke-on-Trent
 Ethnicity of children and young people
 People with learning disabilities and
difficulties
 Children and families in poverty
 Children with mental health needs
We will soon start to gather information from
our JSNA to produce an overall needs
assessment for the city in readiness for the
planning process in the lead up to April
2016. This will help partners to identify key
priorities and actions to take forward for
2016-19. If you feel your organisation could
contribute to the JSNA please get in touch
with Keven Taylor on 01782 234823 or
email the JSNA mailbox
[email protected].
City’s care leavers get help to find work
Former care leaver welcomes additional support for young
people to find work when they leave council care. On Thursday
5th March Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s cabinet approved plans to
create a council-wide employability policy for care leavers.
The policy will see care leavers offered work tasters, work
experience placements apprenticeships and paid internships with
the city council to help boost their job prospects. New Directorate
Champions will also be identified within the council to help facilitate
support.
Sammey Joe, a care leaver who benefited from a work placement
with the council’s finance team, said she was happy to see the
scheme now rolled out so that others could benefit from the
opportunity in the same way she did.
The Bournemouth University student said: “It really does give care
leavers something that they can showcase and put on their CV.”
Sammey Joe was offered a six week placement in the council’s
finance department last year. She is now completing a further
placement at Fujitsu following a successful interview process she
says was helped by the council’s initial support.
She said: “As a care leaver I felt that I could have been severely
hindered in this stage had I not undertaken a placement with the
council. Growing up many of the other applicants would not have
faced hardship and would have been able to focus on career
development. The placement meant I was really able to do justice in
an interview.”
Councillor Gwen Hassall, cabinet member for social care, said: “It is
so important that as Corporate Parents we help to support our
young people when they are looking to leave care so that they can
develop the skills to support themselves.
“This Employability Policy will help to give some of our most
vulnerable young people the chance to gain work experience as
well as other skills needed to secure future work.
This not only benefits the individuals but also businesses and
society as a whole. These young people are the work force of the
future and it is important we help to harness their true potential.”
The city council will be holding an events day in April to start putting
the policy in place and will be working with partners to extend the
scheme wider than just the City Council.
Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963
Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015
2
All about the
Health Visiting Service
A child’s future and subsequent life chances begin in pregnancy and the early years of life.
Giving every child the best start in life is crucial to reducing health inequalities across the life
course. The foundations for human development – physical, intellectual and emotional – are
set in place during pregnancy and in early childhood.
Health visitors work with
families & communities to improve
access, experience, outcomes
and reduce health inequalities
4
5
6
Levels of service:
Your community
Universal
Universal plus
Universal partnership plus
Universal health reviews*:
Antenatal
New Baby
6—8 weeks
1 year
2—2 1/2 years
*mandated for 18 months
High impact areas:
Transition to parenthood
Maternal mental health
Breastfeeding
Healthy weight
Managing minor illness & accident
prevention
Healthy 2 year olds & school readiness
#healthvisiting
What happens during these early years has lifelong effects on
many aspects of health and wellbeing, educational achievement
and economic status. Universal and specialist public health
services for children are important in promoting the health and
wellbeing of all children and reducing inequalities.
The Health Visiting Service leads the delivery of the Healthy Child
Programme (0-5 years), a prevention and early intervention public
health programme that lies at the heart of the universal service for
children and families which aims to support parents at a crucial
stage of life, promote child development, improve child health
outcomes and ensure that families at risk are identified at the
earliest opportunity.
The health visiting service has recently been described as a “4 5 6
model” - the scope of the service has a 4 tier offer, includes the
delivery of 5 universal reviews (subject to parliamentary approval
these will be mandated for 18 months) and finally Health Visitors,
managers and commissioners all need to be able to evidence and
measure impact of services within the 6 high impact areas.
On 1st October 2015, children’s public health planning and
commissioning responsibilities for 0-5 year olds will transfer from
NHS England to local authorities as the final stage of the transfer of
public health responsibilities with the corresponding budget. For
further detail on this final stage of the public health transition see
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfer-of-0-5-childrens-public-health
FREE Early Education for two year
old children
Early Years Pupil Premium
(EYPP)
Do you know a child you is two years old or
approaching their second birthday? – they may be
eligible for a free funded early education place! Early
Education gives children the Best Start in life by giving
them the chance to make friends, try new things and
learn through play.
Stoke-on-Trent was one of just 7 local authorities
awarded DfE Early Implementer status for the
EYPP. The EYPP, paid to all schools and
childcare providers who deliver Early Education for
three and four year olds, at a rate of 53p per hour
per eligible child, making it worth more than £300
per year.
For more information, including details of the eligibility
criteria, please visit www.stoke.gov.uk/beststart or
contact the Family information Service Hub (FISH) on
01782 232200.
EYPP will be used to improve outcomes for eligible
children and was introduced during the Spring
term, ahead of national roll out of the entitlement
from April 2015. To find out more about EYPP,
please contact [email protected]
Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963
Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015
Ofsted inspection of school
improvement
Following a four-day visit to the
local authority in January, an
Ofsted report has been
published. The report both
highlights areas of good practice
and sets out areas where
improvements need to be made.
It praises the work of the innovative school improvement group
which brings senior council managers and primary and
secondary head teachers together to target school priorities.
Inspectors highlighted the way the local authority’s approach is
‘evolving well’ and creating a ‘more rigorous approach to
school improvement’.
The inspectors also found that:
 Special schools, pupil referral units and nurseries are
maintaining ‘good or outstanding inspection outcomes’
 Attendance, although below the national average, is
improving in primary and secondary schools
 Pupil attainment at Key Stage 2 has ‘improved consistently
for the last three years’
 Pupils are ‘making better progress and the achievement
gaps between disadvantaged and other pupils are closing’
 Although there is work to be done to narrow the gap
between national and regional percentages of good or
outstanding schools, intervention and support in primary
schools has been ‘effective’.
The report also identifies areas for improvement that the local
authority has already committed to addressing. Pupil and
school improvements need to happen quicker, pupil outcomes
in ‘most phases of education’ need to be better, timescales for
our targets need to be more realistic and the quality of school
governance needs to be consistent.
The local authority will take on board the findings and are
working very closely with schools to achieve continuous and
sustained improvements. The partnership between the council
and schools has never been better and is driving up the quality
of education.
3
News
Inspection dates for
the Single Inspection
Framework (SIF)
The dates that the Local
Authority SIF inspections will
commence in the summer
2015 programme are below.
Notification to the LA will be on
the Monday morning, with
inspectors arriving on site on
the Tuesday morning. Where a
Bank Holiday Monday falls in
week one, notification to the LA
will be on the Friday of the
preceding week. Where a Bank
Holiday falls within inspection
weeks three and four, on-site
inspection activity will take
place from Tuesday
1pm until Friday 1pm.
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13 April
11 May
22 May (due to the
Monday BH)
1 June
22 June
6 July
20 July
27 July
3 August
A new handbook is due to be
published regarding the revised
deployment arrangements.
Further information is available
on the Ofsted website.
Ambitious targets are set for improvements because the local
authority wants the best for our city’s young people.
Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963
Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
Newsletter Issue 11 April 2015
Work To Embed Early Help
Assessment (EHA) continues
across the city
What is Early Help?
 Preventing, or minimising the risk, of problems arising-usually
through universal services such as school, children’s centres,
youth work and health provision.
 Early intervention by supporting individuals, groups at high
risk or those showing early signs of a particular problem to try
to stop it occurring or escalating.
 Providing early help services that respond effectively to
needs, to redress the situation, stop problems getting worse
and improve outcomes.
Early Help Champions
 There are now over 200 Early Help Champions in place to
help support and train practitioners across the city to embed
and deliver early Help. At a recent champion’s meetings a
support package for practitioners that includes a good
example of an EH assessment, action plan, and information
about the use of the process was issued. All of these
examples have been collated along with a list of named
champions. This information can be accessed via the
Safeguarding Children Board website at
www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk

Does your organisation have a named champion ? If your
organisation has not yet identified a champion please contact
Claire Maxwell on 01782 231964 or email
[email protected] for further information. The dates of
the next Champions meetings are on the safeguarding board
website and once you have registered a champion you can
book on the next session.
Toolbox – Useful links and tools are available on the SCB
website: including Threshold Criteria for the Guide to Levels of
need for CYP and Families
For more information about Early Help go to
www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk
Family Information Service Hub
The city council operates a single point of access for services which
support children and families (Early Help) through the Family
Information Service Hub (FISH) on 01782 232200 or at
[email protected].
This service provides an easy way to access information and advice
on services available in Stoke-on-Trent. The team will also connect
you to Children’s Centres, Star, Youth Offending Service, Domestic
Violence Advice , Youth Development, Young Peoples Drug Project,
Educational Welfare, Young Carers, Families Matter and Family
Support. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 8.30-5.00pm. An
answerphone is available outside of theses hours.
4
Updates
In December, members of the CYP Strategic
Partnership approved amendments of the
“Declaration of Purpose, including Partnership
Governance Arrangements”. Over the past few
months several of the members have changed, to
find out who is your current rep please see full list
below:
SOT City Council:
Executive Director - Acting, People Services:
Louise Rees,
Lead Member for Social Care: Gwen Hassall
Cabinet member for Education: Shaun
Pender
Member of Overview and Scrutiny to be
confirmed
Director of Public Health: Amanda Fletcher
JobCentre Plus: Joy Hall
NHS England (Shropshire and Staffordshire Area
Team) - Stephanie Cook
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS
Trust: Joanne Barton
Post-16 sector and further education colleges:
Paul Mangnall
Royal Stoke University Hospital:
Nick Savage
Staffordshire and SOT Partnership NHS Trust:
Mel Brock
Staffordshire and SOT National Probation
Service: Angela Staplehurst
Staffordshire Police: Jane Hewitt
SOT Clinical Commissioning Group:
Dr Asuri Vasudevan
SOT Safeguarding Children Board: John Wood
(see page 5)
Schools
SAPH: Primary: to be confirmed
SASCAL: High and Special: Andrew Stanier
Voluntary Sector Karen Wilson from North Staffs Mind
Ideas for next edition? Please contact Claire Roberts on 231963
Information from the
Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
3
Safeguarding Children Board
Introduction to the new
Independent Chair
By way of background I
was born in Stoke-onTrent and having lived
and worked in
Staffordshire and Stokeon Trent all my life.
I have an insight into the
social, political and
economic environments.
I was formerly a police
officer with Staffordshire
Police and retired as acting Assistant Chief
Constable. Having worked for many years as
the Divisional Police Commander for Stoke-onTrent I have a broad experience of leading,
developing and sustaining effective collaborative
multi agency working arrangements in a variety
of complex and regulated environments.
Since leaving Staffordshire Police I have been
actively engaged in co-ordinating the work of the
Staffordshire Criminal Justice Board making links
to the wider network of community safety and
public protection partnerships. In addition I have
developed my understanding and support of the
Third Sector through my involvement as a Board
member with Brighter Futures.
I am delighted to have been appointed as
Independent Chair building on the excellent work
of Jackie Carnell, and am very much looking
forward to working with the wider safeguarding
partnership to help ensure that the young people
in Stoke-on-Trent are able to be happy, safe and
healthy and able to fulfil their potential as they
grow into adults.
SCB Membership
To find out who the Board member is for your
own organisation, visit the “What is the SCB?”
page on the SCB website.
Key Strategic Priorities
for 2015/ 18
The new key strategic priorities of the SCB for
2015 / 2018 are:
Child Sexual Abuse - including child sexual
exploitation; child trafficking; missing children; female
genital mutilation; honour based violence; youth
violence; and intra-familial abuse.
Neglect including the Toxic Trio - domestic abuse;
drug and alcohol misuse; and mental ill health
These priorities, along with the new Working
Together 2015 will form the basis of the sub
committee business plans and the new Training
strategy 2015/2018 (click on the link to view).
Working Together to
Safeguard Children
(March 2015)
HM Government issued a revision of “Working
Together…” in March, replacing the 2013 document. The
revised document contains some significant changes,
with particular reference to the following:
 Amendments to section 17, Children Act 1989
 Children with Disabilities
 Young Carers (incl. “Young Carers’ (Needs
Assessment) Regulations 2015”)
 Child Sexual Exploitation
 Young People in Custody
 Female Genital Mutilation
 Radicalisation
 Dealing with Allegations against Staff and
Volunteers
 Children with links to foreign countries
 Children returning home from care
Click on the links below for related guidance which was
issued in March 2015:
Working Together to Safeguard Children - March 2015:
What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused March 2015:
Keeping Children Safe in Education - March 2015:
Safeguarding Practitioners: Information-sharing Advice
March - 2015
Guidance specific to young people
Young Person’s Guide to Working Together to Safeguard
Children - March 2015:
Young Person’s Guide to Keeping Children Safe March
2015: