Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Children's and Young People's Services Plan is a mandatory requirement under The Children Act 1989. It should be a three-year plan but the 2001/2 Plan was for one year as suggested by the draft Government guidance issued in March 2000. Final guidance was issued in May 2001. This guidance required a plan for all children who could experience social exclusion, not just those children 'in need' under the terms of The Children Act 1989.

1.2 There are nine other plans for targeted groups of children which need to be considered as parts of the Children's and Young People's Services Plan and 13 further plans which include socially disadvantaged children within their targeted population. The Plan thus cross-referenced or summarised 22 other plans.

1.3 This Review updates the 2001/2 Plan strategic objectives and inserts new targets.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Council Executive

2.1 endorse this review and recommends it to Council

2.2 delegates its publication to the Strategic Director of Social and Housing Services

Printed on recycled paper

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Publication costs are within Children & Family Service budget.

4 THE REPORT

The production of children's services plans by local authorities was made mandatory in the Children Act 1989 (amendment) (children's services planning) order 1996. Bath & North East Somerset's first Children's And Young People's Services Plan 1997-2000 was published in 1997 and reviewed during 1998 and 1999. An interim Plan was produced for 2000/1 because new government guidance was due. Draft guidance was issued in March 2000 and final guidance in May 2001. Therefore the 2001/2 Children's And Young People's Services Plan was also for only one year in the absence of definitive guidance.

4.2 There have been considerable changes in children's services planning since 1996. There has been an expansion of planning requirements from central government departments, requiring more service specific outcomes and detailed targets for service developments.

4.3 The drafting of the Children's And Young People's Services Plan was overseen by the Children's Joint Strategy Group (now the Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership) which reports to the Health and Social Care Partnership Board.

4.4 The decision to review the Interim Children's and Young People's Services Plan for 2002/3, rather than draft a new 3-year Plan, was taken by the Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership for the following reasons:

4.5 The Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership membership comprises:

· Lead officers for 14 plans which target children and young people

· Lead officers for other plans which affect children and young people

· Representatives from Health, the Police, the voluntary sector, equalities organisations and a Council Member.

5 CONSULTATION

5.1 A consultation event for the 01/02 Children's And Young People's Services Plan was held on 4 November 2000 for officers preparing contributory plans and other stakeholders including parents and young people.

5.2 All plans which contribute to the Children's And Young People's Services Plan have plans for participation of service users, and carers where appropriate, within them.

5.3 Innovative ways of involving and enabling Children and Young People to contribute to service planning and consultation are continually being explored. Examples of this are:-

(i) The Advocacy Project which works directly with looked after young people specifically to give them a voice in service planning.

(ii) "Total Respect", a training package for elected members and social services staff held recently, to enable them to understand how children and young people's voices could be heard within the local authority. This was facilitated by the Advocacy Project and run by some of the young people looked after by the Authority.

(iii) The annual "Get Life Awards Day" run each year to celebrate the achievements of young people in Bath & North East Somerset, attended by approximately 200 young people and many of their carers and staff from across the Authority. This provides a valuable opportunity to interact with and receive feedback from the young people involved.

5.4 The Children's Charter, which was initiated from work on the first Children's And Young People's Services Plan in 1997, has been adopted by Bath & North East Somerset

5.5 Extensive consultation carried out by the Connexions Service during the past year has been taken into account.

5.6 Extensive consultation for the Children's Fund application is planned for the summer of 2002, organised by The Children's Society in conjunction with the Youth Democracy Project and Barnardo's.

5.7 This report was sent to the Trades Unions for comment on 23 May 2002. Any comments received will be reported to the meeting.