Children & Young People Now
June 2011
Comment
Christine Davies CBE – Director – C4EO
Ensuring children's safety and promoting their welfare continues to be a key challenge
for all agencies.
Those involved in safeguarding and child protection require access to up-to-date
knowledge and evidence of effective practice and C4EO has been at the forefront
of providing examples of best practice along with access to the latest research
and data.
Key to C4EO's approach is our tailored "peer-to-peer" support that offers
hands-on advice and help to build capacity and improve outcomes at the frontline.
It helps local authorities by enabling them to reflect on current practice and future
needs, clarify their ideas and approaches, develop strategy, deliver programmes
and, most importantly, improve outcomes for children and families.
The service includes safeguarding. Safeguarding peer-to-peer support can focus on
issues identified by local authorities themselves – areas they need to improve urgently
such as working with the local safeguarding children board. Alternatively, it can
be requested by local areas following a peer review or external inspection and be
used to support councils to make changes.
This support service, delivered by C4EO's team of sector specialists, is completely
bespoke and offered in partnership with Local Government Improvement and Development.
Meanwhile, C4EO has developed a process for testing whether local programmes actually
work. We share examples of validated practice with the sector and there are currently
over 130 and counting.
More recently, responding to the needs of the sector, we have asked services to
submit examples of innovative and emerging practice, which demonstrate the necessary
steps towards the transformation of children's services.
We hope these will help local authorities meet the challenges and grasp the opportunities
available in the current environment. They include both structural service redesign
and new ways of financing children's services.
Details can be found in the
local practice examples section of the C4EO website.
Making the difference
Wakefield Targeted youth support
Wakefield has reduced the number of young people entering the justice system with
a targeted support service
Wakefield’s Targeted Youth Support offers positive activities for young people with multiple issues
A service that offers extra support to vulnerable young people in Wakefield is helping
to reduce the number drawn into crime and help many make positive changes in their
lives.
The Targeted Youth Support (TYS) service for eight- to 19-year-olds is a partnership
between Wakefield Council and crime prevention charity Nacro, and an example of
promising practice highlighted by C4EO.
Young people with multiple issues are referred to the service, with cases examined
by one of three locality-based, multi-agency panels.
"There are panel meetings once a month," explains TYS practice manager
Mark Stead. "A range of partners sit round a table and try to work out the
best way to support young people and their families."
The bulk of referrals – about 80 per cent – come from schools but also GPs, social
housing providers, other council departments like family support and social services,
and the police. Young people can also self-refer.
On average the service, which has a range of specialist workers, gets 700 referrals
a year, with about 300 taken on formally.
"One thing we're proud of is we always find at least somewhere they can go
to if they're not appropriate for TYS," says Stead.
Support, which might include sexual health education, a substance misuse programme
or positive activities is co-ordinated by a lead professional.
Strong partnership work is a key factor in the scheme's success. Another is flexibility.
An example might be allowing a young person who is eligible for TYS to bring a friend
to an activity even if that friend is not eligible.
Wakefield has seen the number of first-time entrants to the criminal justice system
drop from 2,620 per 100,000 population in 2006/07 to 940 in 2009/10.
There was a 2.2 per cent reduction in the number of young people not in education,
employment or training in 2010/11 and a 15.8 per cent fall in the under-18 conception
rate between 2007 and 2009.
Key points
- Have an effective partnership arrangement that involves partnership working at strategic
level but also on the shop floor
- Designate lead professionals as a single point of contact for families
- Don’t get caught up in bureaucracy. Always keep the focus on supporting young people
and their families
- Innovate. You have got to be prepared to try new things
Need to know
Pupil absence Data broken down to a local level
Data on pupil absence can help schools and local authorities identify problems and
target support where it is needed.
The latest statistics – collected via the spring 2011 school census – show the overall
absence rate during the 2010 autumn term in schools in England dropped.
The rate of authorised absence was down on the previous year but the unauthorised
absence rate increased.
This local level data covers maintained primary and secondary schools, city technology
colleges and academies, and is broken down by type of school, number of persistent
absentees and number on track to becoming persistent absentees.
The most common reason for absence is illness. Other reasons include medical appointments,
religious reasons, and agreed leave for a family holiday.
Neighbourhood-level statistics for 2009/10 published this month provide useful detail
with information on pupil absence for small areas based on both the geographical
location of schools and where pupils live.
Some data is broken down by characteristics such as gender, eligibility for free
school meals and ethnic group, helping schools and local authorities to identify
where to target extra help.
Girls have higher overall levels of absence than boys in 268 – 82 per cent – of
local authority districts. The difference in overall absence between boys and girls
is largest in the South West and lowest in London.
Pupils eligible for free school meals have higher levels of absence in every local
authority area – apart from the City of London – than those who are not eligible.
The rate of unauthorised absence in schools in England during the 2010 autumn term was
1.04%
compared with 0.93 per cent the previous year
Source: 2011 school census
The number of persistent absentees in state-funded primary and secondary schools was
26,750
in the autumn term 2010
Source: 2011 school census
The percentage of absent sessions because of a family holiday not agreed with the school was
2.89%
in state-funded primary and secondary schools in England during autumn term 2010
Source: 2011 school census
Where to go next?
Childhood obesity
An overview of research on successful multi-agency and partnership approaches to preventing
and managing childhood obesity is now available on the C4EO website. The
Childhood Obesity Anthology looks at approaches to preventing childhood obesity
and treatment for children already overweight and obese. www.c4eo.org.uk/news
Safeguarding support
C4EO is now offering tailored "peer-to-peer" support around safeguarding,
working in partnership with Local Government Improvement and Development. The scheme
allows councils to get advice on improving safeguarding from experts who can work
alongside local safeguarding children boards. For more information and details on
how to apply, go to the "what we offer"
section of the C4EO website.
Children's centres
Children's services managers can assess the performance of local children's centres
with a new resource developed by C4EO.
The performance and accountability framework for children's centres helps
look at whether services are actually improving the lives of children and families
and are value for money.
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