HeadStart Kent Programme Board
13th October 2015, 1.30pm, Oakwood House
Attendees: Alex Hassett, Canterbury Christ Church University. Andrew Heather, KCC. Angela
Ford, HeadStart Kent. Becca Pilcher, KCC. Carol Bentall, Young Kent. Catherine Read, KCC.
David Weiss, KCC. Eileen McKibbin, KCC. Ellie Ransley, HeadStart Kent. Elly De Decker, The Big
Lottery Fund. Florence Kroll, KCC. Grace Dennis, HeadStart Kent. Ian Macdonald, HeadStart
Kent. Jenny Gray, Kent Health Needs Education Service. Jo Tonkin, KCC. Jolanta Astle, The Big
Lottery Fund. Julia Paige, Kent Police. Julie Stones, CXK. Katherine Atkinson, KCC. Katie
Norton, Deloitte MSC Limited. Lauraine Griffiths, KCC. Louis Hurst, Amelix. Lucy Setterfield,
NWKNHF. Mary Hinton, Young Minds. Paul Dyer, NWKNHF. Sally Ward, Project Salus. Sarah
Hindle, KCC.
Apologies: Alex Holmes, Royal Harbour Academy. Dawn Ledingham, KCC. Hilary Alford, KCC.
Mark Janaway, KCC. Matt Stones, CAMHS. Russell Sauntry, Amelix.
Comments
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Introductions: David Weiss introduced attendees to this Programme Board meeting, saying
today will focus on developing our business case for Phase 3.
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Vision for Phase 3: Angela Ford outlined the Big Lottery’s vision for Phase 3. Phase 2 has been
focussing on 10-14 year olds’ resilience, Phase 3 will be 10-16 year olds at risk of mental ill-being:
Funded by the Big Lottery, the HeadStart programme aims to improve the mental well-being of
at-risk* 10 to 16 year-olds by investing up to £75m in up to 12 local partnerships. (See the Big
Lottery Vision for Phase Three on the HeadStart Kelsi pages).
Key questions:
How can we sustain this beyond our 5 year investment?
The Kent Emotional Health and Wellbeing Strategy is central to HeadStart’s mission.
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What have we learned from Phase 2?
A local coordinator has been the key to how well HeadStart has been implemented/understood
in the pilot areas. When young people and families are involved in the design of interventions,
they have been better accepted. Local context has played a big role in acceptance/success of
interventions. There is a need to develop an overarching outcomes framework for emotional
wellbeing so staff/agencies can ‘sign up’ to this. There needs to be a coherent system for
evidence based evaluation ensuring that each element of the system is clear on how they
evidence outcomes and impact.
The Young People’s Shadow Board: Ian Macdonald provided an update from the Shadow
Board which took place on the 7th October. A selection of young people from across Kent
attended and they wanted a re-cap of what has been going on during Phase 2. We asked young
people what should we do, who, where, how, what difference will it make for Phase 3? Young
people said they would like to see teachers and young people trained to support young people,
with awareness raising around mental health and information should be available to all young
people not just those in school. Young people should be involved in training and in the design.
Young people coproduced The Pledge, with the idea that young people sign up to behaviours to
support one another.
Support and Development Agenda: Katie Norton from Deloitte MSC Limited has been
Action
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appointed as our support and development representative in Kent. Katie said it has been
interesting to hear about the good work which has been going on in Kent and the ambition to
carry this on in Phase 3.
Katie provided the draft mission statement: “Young people and their families will be resilient and
have the knowledge and skills able to access support for their emotional wellbeing at a time and
place they need it and in a way which works for them.” Katie said “Young people” needs
unpacking. It was mentioned that “Resilience” needs including.
Carol Bentall said our mission statement is what we will be judged on, and the last section of the
statement is a big ask, how do we manage these expectations? Jo said for Phase 3 we do need to
be ambitious, we have an opportunity in Kent and we need to embed young people’s
participation in this. Does the phrasing need changing? Angela said we will refine the statement
and send out asap.
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Phase 3: Jo Tonkin said we need to work around young people’s emotional health and
wellbeing in Kent, metrics and outcomes tell is this (England benchmark). We are interested in
behavioural issues and how this links to emotional health, as well as trauma in the context of
adversity and how this links. Not all young people who are experiencing trauma do have
behavioural difficulties, so has their resilience been built? Self-harm evidence and work. The tree
is a metaphor for the universal approach the HeadStart programme wants to take (the roots are
the inputs, the trunk is the activities and the leaves are the outcomes). We want to ensure that
schools are safe and secure bases for all young people and families where they can build their
resilience and seek support, where professionals can identify and respond to emotional problems
early.
Grace
Sarah Hindle asked about applying the HeadStart approach to specific areas in individual districts
and streets. Jo said this could happen data wise, but the programme requirement is systemic
change of a whole system and then other places can learn from that model. Florence said
another discussion is needed regarding the area chosen for targeted HeadStart work. Katherine
Atkinson said about using each district through a small trial and then scaling up, would this mean
greater engagement. Elly said we will have to make choices within the budget and timeframes,
this is part of the challenge that they are putting to the partnerships, the programme has
different facets and layers to it, how do we make this work, geographically, schools, other factors
etc all result in choices and making the difference.
David asked how do we profile our targeted young people? We will need to map out these
options. Sally asked about DA; are we talking perpetrators and teen to parent violence too?
These young people could have suffered adversity years ago but are displaying it now, Jo said this
is what we do not want and want to target. Sarah said the environment which we work in and
young people experience is not constant, so changes will divert attention to other areas, so we
need clarity on who we are working with.
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Next Steps: The HeadStart Executive Group meeting will be on the 22nd October. We need to
put an options paper together and rough costings for a model (not a model) any suggested
models/thinking need providing quickly. Angela asked if anyone is interested in developing the
strategy with us, this is open to people who would like to be engaged as the Programme Board
does not meet very often (next meeting is the 28th January), we need to take a draft strategy to
the Children’s Health and Wellbeing Board in 6 weeks’ time. In January and February we need to
decide a specific 18 month implementation plan, which will be fully costed. We will look at the
wider refinements on the 21st December Executive Group meeting. We have young people’s full
day meetings and Big Lottery meetings coming up between now and February.
Angela