Agenda item

The Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) sets out our partnership vision and priorities to support and help young people in Medway over the next 3 years. The plan has been based on consultation with children, young people, carried out through the Child Friendly Medway initiative. This plan applies to a wide range of organisations that are committed to making children’s lives better, including Children’s Services, Health, Police, Schools, and voluntary and community organisations. It is important that these organisations work together to better meet the challenges and utilise resources in an efficient and cost-effective way.

The Children and Young People’s Plan sets out the overarching direction we need to take in partnership to enable children and young people in Medway, to reach their full potential.

Discussion:

The Head of Improvement introduced the report which provided the draft Children and Young People’s Plan, which set out the partnership vision and priorities to support and help young people in Medway over the next three years.

Members then raised a number of comments and questions which included:

• Measuring progress – the view was expressed that Health and Wellbeing Board should not be the only body to monitor progress in delivering the plan, given its children and young people focus and that progress should also be scrutinised by this Committee. Officers were supportive of the Committee wanting to monitor progress of the Plan but explained that the Health and Wellbeing Board was also appropriate because of the partnership role in delivering the plan. It was also explained that the Improvement Board was multi-agency, but at a time when the Improvement Board was no longer needed, it was suggested that Medway may want to set up a Children and Young People Partnership Board to ensure cross partnerships.

• Children’s voice – in response to a question about how officers would ensure that the voice of young people would be heard, Officers confirmed it was a focus. Child Friendly events had been successful in bringing together groups of young people and their families, in seeking their views and it was important to continue and expand on those opportunities. 

• The voice of SEND children – concern was raised about how effectively the voice of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) would be heard and disappointment was raised in the Medway Parent and Carer Forum not being consulted on the CYPP.  Officers confirmed that consultation was done through partners via the Improvement Board and through the Child Friendly Medway work which had captured the views of a broad range of Medway’s children and young people, which they were confident had included children with SEND.  Officers confirmed they would welcome the opportunity to look at anything that may have been missed and undertook to liaise with the MPCF to ensure their views were reflected the plan.

• Wider partner detail – suggestion was made that the plan should include an explanation of school governors and it was also raised that dentistry and the difficulty for some young people in gaining appointments should be covered. Officers explained that the CYPP was an overarching high level plan for more focussed partner plans to sit underneath and, therefore, such detail might be better picked up within service plans which feed through. 

• Partnership working – reference was made to the risk identified in the report regarding the failure to align priorities with partners.  In response to a question about ensuring the plan was robust enough to work through transitional arrangements and also highlighted financial risk.  Officers explained that a partnership forum was important and confirmed that finance was a risk for all.  The strategic objectives were kept at a high level so partners could sign up to them, while recognising that resources may be limited and therefore partnership working that was developing would provide synergy and support the focus on bringing together resources etc to maximise delivery.

• Disadvantaged young people – concern was expressed about the levels of young people who were disadvantaged and whether a lack of early identification of need was a factor and with that in mind, felt the section of the plan relating to the best start in life, was not aspirational enough.  Officers explained that it had been important to know the base line in order to evaluate progress and added that the strategic objectives enabled partners to be aspirational in their own delivery and how they contribute to the plan’s objectives.  Officers also confirmed that the policies and plans that sat underneath the CYPP went much further in setting out how the Council, and its partners, worked to support different groups of young people, including those with SEND.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report and recommended that in addition to the Health and Wellbeing Board having a role in monitoring progress of the CYPP at a partnership level, the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee also be provided with the opportunity to scrutinise the Plan’s progress.