Leicester Children and Young People’s Plan

2014 - 2017

Leicester Children’s Trust

Provides strategic leadership for Children’s Services across the city. The Trust brings together the Council, Health, Schools and Colleges, the Police and the Voluntary Sector. It provides a formalised link to other key partnerships and boards for the City such as the Local Safeguarding Children Board, Health and Wellbeing Board and the Oral Health Promotion Partnership. Together they plan how to achieve the best outcomes for Leicester’s children and young people.

Our visionWe believe that by working together, the key agencies in Leicester are increasingly effective at supporting and ensuring children, young people and their families are safe, healthy, achieving and aspiring to fulfil their potential. In doing so, this brings about great progress in lessening the effects of family poverty

The challenges we faceNationally, public sector budgets are under significant pressure. This is challenging for us in Leicester - it means less money to deliver services at a time when there is an increased demand on public services as families find themselves under significant strain. The public expectation of high quality service provision rightly remains and partners are working harder than ever to balance these issues.

Shared PrioritiesPartners face difficult choices about where to invest support and resources and therefore it’s important that they work together to agree joint priorities for the city and direct support. The Children and Young People’s Plan is a record of these collective priorities and is a reference point for partners developing their own strategies.

Delivering Quality ServicesWe want to ensure we develop and deliver quality services that are effective and efficient and that deliver what is needed at the time it’s needed.

To do this we need to:• Focusonevidencebasedactivities most likely to make a positive difference to people’s lives. • Prioritisethosemostinneed.• Worktodriveoutinequalities.• Involvepeople;beingresponsive and flexible to what service users tell us, actively involving young people in the way we design and offer services and support.• Manageidentifiedrisks.• Worktogether;co-ordinating activities within and across organisations in the city. The best way to face challenges is in partnership.

Measuring Performance Each priority has a number of identified leaders who will be responsible for co-ordinating activity in support of the priority and measuring and monitoring the impact of this work. The leaders will report back to the Children’s Trust on a regular basis.

The Children and Young People’s Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis and adjustments will be made as and when required.

Commitment to EqualityThe priorities of the plan are aligned with the council’s equality and diversity strategy and support the work of the council in addressing causes of inequality. The priorities outlined will enable us to deliver practical improvements, advance equality of opportunity, and improve life chances for children, young people and their families.

Leicester Children and Young People’s Plan 2014 - 2017

Leicester Children and Young People’s Plan 2014 - 2017

To achieve the best possible outcomes for Leicester’s children and young people, the Children’s Trust have agreed to focus on six priority areas. These are drawn from a number of existing strategies/plans that aim to improve outcomes for children and young people.

Leicester’s Children & Young People: Priorities for 2014-2017

SAFEGUARDING

Protect and promote the welfare of all children and

young people.

WORKFORCE

Develop a workforce that can work across

organisation boundaries.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Improve children’s health and reduce the gap between the most and least deprived and promote

emotional resilience.

ACHIEVMENT & ASPIRATION

Raise achievement to national averages &

higher; narrow the gap

between lowest achievers &

other children.

FAMILY POVERTY

Reduce and lessen the effects of

family poverty on children’s

life chances in Leicester.

EARLY HELP FOR VULNERABLE

GROUPS

Ensure that a co-ordinated approach to Early Help is

adopted through an offer of integrated support to vulnerable

children, young people and

families.

Stay Safe Development Programme

‘Closing the Gap’ Leicester’s

Joint Health & Wellbeing

Strategy 2013-16.

Oral Health Promotion Strategy 2014-17

Leicester Raising

Achievement Secondary

Delivery Plan 2013-14

Leicester Child

Poverty Commission

2013

Early Help Strategy

Children’s Workforce Strategy

Progress Report

Progress Report

Progress Report

Progress Report

Progress Report

Progress Report

ForfurtherinformationontheChildren’sTrust,itspartners,andtheirwork,includingtheChildren&YoungPeople’sPlan,please visit www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/social-care-health/young-peoplefamilies/support-services/childrenstrust

Key Achievements C&YPP 2011-2013 (Hyperlink)

Early Help

• Earlyhelpisaboutdealingwithproblemsearly on rather than waiting for things to become very difficult, before help is offered. We have establishedanEarlyHelpStrategyGrouptooverseeourEarlyHelpOffer.Thiswillensurethatservicesare integrated and targeted at those most in need.

• Anewidentitycardschemeforyoungcarers‘The young carers’ Identity card’ has been launched. This identifies young people as carersto let medical professionals know the person they care for has given permission for them to discuss crucial information such as their condition and medication. It also alerts emergency services if the carer is involved in an accident that there is someone at home dependant on them. This initiative is as a result of partnership working across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland with Barnados and the Leicestershire Partnership NHS.

Safeguarding

Achievement & Aspiration

• Wehaveseenimpressiveimprovementsinthe percentage of children who have ‘achieved a good level of achievement at foundation stage’ which has increased to 64%. Leicester’s rate of improvement for this measure is the third highest in the country.

• OurPrimaryresultshavebeenpositivetoo.75% of children in city schools achieved level 4 across all three areas assessed – reading, writing and mathematics. This is the first time ever that our primary results have matched national averages.

• TheCareleaversofferisnowagreed.Thisguide sets out the support and services that a young person can expect to receive as a care leaver aged 18+ who is the responsibility of Leicester City Council.

Health & Wellbeing

Family Poverty

• Wenowhaveabetterunderstandingofthestrengths and qualifications of the children’s workforce across the partnership. This has led to the development of joint training which has been delivered across agencies.

Workforce

• Since15July2013anewwayofworkingatthe‘front door’ of social work has led to an increase in contact from partner agencies wanting advice on how to deal with concerns. This work has resulted in an increased volume of initial contacts, but due to the quality of advice a drop in referrals andthereforesingleassessments.Athoroughweekly review of the front door work means we know the right and appropriate work is done with those families who need it. This is shown by the reduction of child protection queries (section 47) the council receives, and also proven cases of child protection status.

• Innovativeconsultationeventheldwithover100 children and young people from across the city about whether they feel safe and are safe living and growing up in Leicester. The event was organised by children and young people from our city participation groups and forums and attended by children and young people from our school and college councils. The event was a great success and we received a lot of information from those attending that will, going forward, assist is the reviewing and commissioning of our services

• Therehasbeenimprovedperformanceacrossall adoption activity. Leicester is performing better than the national average and there is a rise in the numbers of children being adopted.

• Wehavecontinuedtoreducethenumberofteenage pregnancies, achieving a massive 49.1% reduction from the 1998 baseline to 2012.

• AnOralHealthStrategyhasbeenlaunchedwhich will guide and co-ordinate services to improve oral health of children and young people in the City.

• Wehaveworkedwithfamiliesnewlyarrivedto Leicester to ensure the needs of their children are properly met.

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