Children and Young People

 

In Newcastle, the Children and Young People’s Theme of the Sustainable Communities Strategy is delivered by Children’s Services working with partners represented as part of the Children’s Trust.

The Children Act 2004 introduced the role Director of Children’s Services and Lead Member for Children’s Services as well as a statutory requirement for agencies to co-operate and work together to improve outcomes for children and young people. The Apprenticeships, Skills and Learning Act 2009 made these arrangements statutory, requiring Local Authorities to establish Children’s Trust Boards to manage the arrangements, led by the Director of Children’s Services.

In Newcastle, the Children’s Trust Board is the theme management board for the Children and Young People theme and has the following members:   

The Children Act 2004 also placed a duty on Children’s Trusts to develop Children and Young People’s Plans setting out the priorities to improve outcomes for all children and young people in the area, benchmarked against a set of outcome measures, contained in the Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework.     

The Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework

The Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework identifies 5 outcome areas which, if met, are likely to result in more children and young people achieving their full potential.     

The 5 ECM outcomes are:

Be Healthy

Children and young people:

·        Are physically healthy

·        Are mentally and emotionally healthy

·        Are sexually healthy

·        Have healthy lifestyles

·        Choose not to take illegal drugs

Stay Safe

Children and young people:

·        Are safe from maltreatment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation

·        Are safe from accidental injury and death

·        Are safe from bullying and discrimination

·        Are safe from crime and anti-social behaviour in and out of school

·        Have security, stability and are cared for

Enjoy and Achieve

Children and young people:

·        Are ready for school

·        Attend and enjoy school

·        Achieve stretching national educational standards at primary school

·        Achieve personal and social development and enjoy recreation

·        Achieve stretching national educational standards at secondary school

Make a Positive Contribution

Children and young people:

·        Engage in decision making and support the community and environment

·        Engage in law abiding and positive behaviour in and out of school  

·        Develop positive relationships and choose not to bully and discriminate

·        Develop self confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges

·        Develop enterprising behaviour

Achieve Economic Wellbeing

Children and young people:

·        Engage in further education, employment or training on leaving school

·        Are ready for employment

·        Live in decent homes and sustainable communities

·        Have access to transport and material goods

·        Live in households free from low income  

Delivering on the ECM Outcomes Framework

All existing services for children, young people and their families are focused on delivering the ECM outcomes in whatever role they perform. For many services this will be achieved through day to day business as usual using service planning processes to support them in reviewing services to ensure that they are contributing to the achievement of outcomes for children, young people and their families. In some instances however the ultimate achievement of the outcomes may be dependant on a new piece of work, a capital project, a feasibility study, a pilot or some other time limited activity that may impact on how day to day business is delivered. Any activity of this nature will be a part of the Children’s Services Directorate Portfolio of programmes and projects. 

Programme and Project Management in the Children and Young People Theme

The programmes and projects within this theme are those which are, in the main, led by the Council. However, most of them will be delivered with involvement of key partners where relevant to a particular project.  A delivery map has been developed which shows all of the programmes and projects managed under the Children and Young People Theme by the Children’s Trust Board.

Any projects in the Children and young people’s theme are approved, overseen and monitored by the Children’s Services Directorate Programme Board on behalf of the Children’s Trust Board and regular reports are taken to the Children’s Trust Board identifying:

·        New/developing Projects at various stages of the gateway

·        Projects which are red or amber on the rag rating

·        Risks/issues which need the support of the CTB to resolve

·        Project stage reviews

·        Project Close reports and summary of lessons learned. 

The membership of the Children’s Services Directorate Programme Board is as follows: