Posted By: Irene Davidson
Date Posted: 06/10/2008

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Children, Schools & Families Portfolio.

Members of Council this is my first report of the new year and my officers and myself have put together as much information as possible so that Members are fully informed of what is happening within my portfolio.

Youth Offending Team

The Council’s support for the Youth Offending Team’s reparation work has increased capacity and more young people who have offended or who are at risk of offending have taken part in work to put something back into the community. Already new projects have begun. Examples of work undertaken include painting the border railings at Middleton Cemetery, doing maintenance work at the Remembrance Garden at Rochdale Cemetery and painting the Bowling Pavilion at Milnrow Park.

The Youth Service has increased significantly the work that it does with young people at weekends. 61 young people took part the Heywood Friday Night Youth/Sports Project Celebration in June and over 100 young people regularly attend the Friday night activities at the Jack Talbot Sports Centre. Also in June, some 300 young people in 36 teams took part in the Sunday 5 a-side football tournament held at Springhill School. At national level, our Member of the Youth Parliament, Usman Nawaz spoke in the House of Lords as part of an event raising issues of concern to young people. Internationally, the Youth Service has supported young people in an exchange with the Adolf Reichmann School in Bielefeld.

Working with New Heart for Heywood, Derby Street Sure Start Centre was formally opened in June and, in July, Moorhouse Sure Start Centre had its formal opening. Our Sure Start Centres are exciting investments that directly benefit local families.

Over the last two months each Township has been discussing how to use the £2 million capital investment we have won through the Play Pathfinder bid. Good quality play is very important for children and their families and, although there are lots of competing priorities, the additional facilities will give us some substantial improvements in play opportunities.

In April, Better Choices, the new provider of Connexions services in the Borough took over the service delivery. The number of young people aged 16-19 who are not in education, employment or training has fallen over the last year and we are determined that this reduction will continue. Better Choices also provides Connexions Services in Manchester, Salford and Tameside and I now represent Rochdale on the Better Choices Connexions Board. We can learn from working alongside other Boroughs and, from the last Board meeting, there were instances where they could also learn from practice in Rochdale.

Visit to the Halle Orchestra

I have recently attended a ‘mini’ presentation for the young people who have just recently completed the second Halle project. I found the whole experience a positive one and it was great to have the opportunity to recognise the achievements of young people, especially those who are subject to YOT orders.

There were six young people who completed the project which consisted of seven sessions, one at the Halle in Manchester the other six at Champness Hall. There were three Halle staff involved who helped the young people to write the words and music. The kids were shown how to play instruments, which included drums guitars and the piano and how to put down the harmonies. Apparently one of the singers has been described as having ‘some promise’ with his singing ability. This particular project was funded through Mr Ainscough of Ainscough Group of Companies.

The plan for the coming year is to secure funding to not only allow them to continue with this excellent project but also evaluate its effectiveness.They hope to do this with the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire who have evaluated similar youth justice arts projects and are keen to engage with them.

None of the young people involved have re-offended and together their attendance and that of their families, they all found it a positive and worthwhile experience.

Primary Capital Programme

The Primary Capital Programme ‘Strategy for Change’ has been agreed by Cabinet and passed to the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) for approval. We hope to undertake 10 major primary school rebuilding/remodelling projects across the Borough between 2009-10 and 2012-13 with a total value of around £30m. Officers have begun preliminary discussions with the schools involved and the Dioceses, with further detailed planning work on the early projects to be undertaken during the autumn term. Designs are expected to be finalised for the first schemes in spring 2009, with building work expected to begin later that summer. All of this is subject to DCSF approval, which we expect to receive in September.

Building Schools for the Future

The Building Schools for the Future Programme is a £200 million Programme to transform education across the Borough's entire secondary school estate, supported by investment in buildings and ICT provision. The Outline Business Case for the BSF Programme received Government approval on 21st May 2008 and procurement of the Programme was formally commenced on 29th May 2008. The Programme is on track, with initial expressions of interest from potential bidders received on 9th July.

Post 16 Centre Progress

We have just heard that the Secretary of State has approved the LSC application for the establishment of the Rochdale 6th Form College. The papers have now been placed before Parliament to enable the incorporation of the college with effect from the beginning of August. This will mean the college comes into being as a legal entity from that date. LSC are currently completing the appointment process for Governors of the new College. The recruitment process for the Principal Designate will begin in the Autumn Term.

Rochdale 6th Form College is still on course for a September 2010 opening although the timescale remains tight.

The LSC Regional Board also supported the capital funding to enable Hopwood Hall College to substantially remodel its accommodation including a rebuilding programme on the St Mary’s Gate site and are recommending that this is approved by the LSC National Capital Committee on 17th July. The LSC has been very complimentary about the way in which the significant capital sums available through BSF, Post-16 Competition Funding and LSC Capital Funding are being integrated into a coherent strategy for reorganisation and renewal within the Borough. We are very optimistic that both capital projects will be approved. When the Hopwood Hall Project is completed in September 2011, the two sister colleges will provide superb state of the art facilities for the learners of Rochdale.

School Budgets

Currently Rochdale has no schools in deficit and this is the first time since 1997/8.

This has been made possible by close working with schools, ensuring that budget difficulties are highlighted at the earliest opportunity.

The recent introduction of three year budgets has also enabled schools and the schools’ finance team to anticipate schools at risk, particularly in the context of falling rolls in primary schools, ensuring that appropriate action is taken or planned so that budgets are balanced.

Supporting Young People in Pennines

Pennines Township has recently reinvigorated its ‘Supporting Young People’ multi-agency meeting to improve facilities and opportunities for the children and young people in Pennines. As Portfolio Holder for Children Schools and Families I was delighted to be asked to Chair this meeting.

Identified as a priority in the Pennines Township Plan, children and young people in the area deserve to have access to a range of facilities that are well run and affordable.

From January this year the meeting has allowed representatives from the public, private, community and voluntary sector to share information, look at funding opportunities and address issues of concern.

§ The group have identified community transport is a big barrier to providing activities in the area and is looking at ways to get affordable community transport available in Pennines.

§ Pursuing training for volunteers – e.g. mini bus training.

§ Lobbying for quicker and more effective CRB checks

§ Highlighted the need for more detached youth work to combat anti- social behaviour and youth nuisance which lead to the allocation of 10k from Pennines Township Committee.

The group is really pleased with what has been achieved so far but intends to reach out to more providers for young people to see how they can support them.

A mapping event is being arranged for around the third week in September to look at how providers for children and young people in Pennines can get further support. The event will look at what providers have to offer and what they need in order to provide a better service. Working together and sharing information will help identify where resources can be shared, what gaps can be filled and what issues still need addressing as a future priority.

Wider Opportunities Project

I attended a session at Heybrook School Tuesday, 8th July with Mr Fred Bowker, Head of the Music Service, to listen to the young people of the school who after a 10 week session with the Music Service for an hour a week gave a concert to the whole school. Can I congratulate all the young people, teachers and all the Music Service for an excellent afternoon. Over time every primary school child that wants, should have the opportunity to learn to use a musical instrument and we hope that in Rochdale this will be the case. This also means that every child from all backgrounds will or should have a chance to perform, play an instrument or sing and I look forward to every school in the Rochdale Borough becoming a musical school. (I hope all in the Council agree with me).

Middleton Youth Forum

On Monday the 7th July I was invited to Alkrington Primary School to give out certificates to a group of young people from Middleton who had taken part in the Middleton Area Youth Forum run by Zaward Maboob from the Youth Empowerment Team. Can I thank everyone involved for their kindness I had a very interesting afternoon, I wish them all the best for the future, they are a wonderful group of young people.

I would also like to wish Zaward all the best as he will be leaving the Empowerment Team and moving to floor seven in September to become the Children’s Champion. All the best in your new position.

Children’s Social Care.

1. Sickness absence reduced in Children’s Social Care by 48.6% over the 4 years (2004-2008) as a result of:-

o Application of procedures

o Managers taking rigorous approach.

o Support from Attendance Advisor and Diagnostic Health Solutions (DHS).

o Effective Leadership within the service.

2. Balanced budget achieved for the third year running. Reducing our use of external residential care placements was a major factor in achieving this.

3. Improved safeguarding practice has resulted in a recent significant increase in the numbers of children coming into care. (Number of children coming in November 07 – April 08 = 83. Number of children leaving care for same period was 38). 76% of those children coming into care have been 10 years and under and all have been placed within families.

There has been a small increase in the use of external foster placement. The overall total of numbers of children in care was 365 at the end of June 08. This compares to 327 at the same time last year. Despite this increase our numbers of children in care are close to the average compared to our statistical neighbours.

Over the last 4 weeks the numbers of children in care has stabilised. The impact of this increase and the service response is currently being assessed.

Update for Members on the progress of ContactPoint

From 21st October 2008 ContactPoint will be available to 17 Early Adopter LAs (including Rochdale) and 2 National Partners. What this actually means is that the Rochdale ContactPoint Team will be trained on the live system and then begin the lengthy process of approx 12 months of training over 1400 identified practitioners within the children’s workforce across all sectors, such as social care, health and education. Prior to ContactPoint System training, practitioners are required to have attended Information Sharing Training and a ContactPoint Awareness Training session as well as having a current Enhanced CRB in place.From 21st October 2008 ContactPoint will be fed by 4 National Data Sources including data from Department of Work and Pensions, GP data from the NHS and School Census Data from DCSF. Data more local to Rochdale will also begin to be linked directly to ContactPoint over the 12 months beginning December 2008. Local data sources include Social Care, Education, Connexions, Children’s Centres, Early Break and Health.

So for the first 12 months that ContactPoint is available we will see the numbers of practitioners trained on the system and the number of National and Local Data Sources increasing gradually. This will, therefore, increase the richness of the data within ContactPoint over time.Being ready for the 21st October involves a lot of commitment and work from our Partner Agencies and plans are progressing well to make all the relevant changes to current processes, procedures and policies to make reference to ContactPoint. These involve changes from HR and IT right down to practitioner processes.Recent figures indicate that users of ContactPoint will include 28% from schools, 18% from PCT and 15% from Social Care. As schools are anticipated to be the largest percentage of users we need to have the full backing and co-operation of schools and Head teachers especially around the attendance required for training. Schools will be contacted with dates in September/October when ContactPoint Awareness Sessions will be booked specifically for schools. A member of the team went down to London to an Early Adopter meeting specifically to meet with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families – Kevin Brennan. He was extremely pleased with how the implementation plans are going with Early Adoptors and spent a couple of hours with us discussing elements of the project that we are currently working on.

Feedback from other recent events for partners included a ContactPoint Event for Independent Schools at which Kevin Sartain from Beech House attended. Most Independent Schools have done little or no work towards preparation for ContactPoint. But Rochdale were, by far, outstanding in this area and Kevin praised our recent work with them to the National Team. I

f you require any further information re the ContactPoint please contact Bernadette Gee on Extension 5693.

Lastly, I would like to congratulate a young lady from Wardle, Jessica Timperley, the Deputy Children’s Champion for Rochdale, who was successfully chosen to go to the International Children’s Conference in Geneva. Whilst there she met with the UN Committee and passed on to them what our young people have to say about human rights. I hope Council will agree with me what she has done proves to us all that we should be proud of our young people in Rochdale.

Councillor Irene Davidson