Issue - items at meetings - Performance Improvement Report

Report of the Director of Children’s Services (copy attached).

1.       That the data and analysis in the PIR be noted and the action being taken to improve performance be agreed.

2.       That it be noted and agreed that the new duties and governance arrangements emerging from the The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, along with the emerging performance management arrangements corporately, will inform and shape the performance management arrangements for the Children and Young People’s Trust.

3.       In view of 2.2 above, that it be noted and agreed that the performance reporting framework for the new Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) should be developed in January 2010 in light of these changes, with a view to a bi-annual CYPP report being presented to the Board on March 22, 2010 covering the period up to December 2009.

43.1    The Board considered a report of the Director of Children’s Services concerning the performance improvement report, which presented the information for the financial year 2009/10 to date (for copy see minute book).

43.2    The Senior Performance Development Manager highlighted the overall positive information contained in the report. He noted the early signs of improvement in relation to teenage pregnancy and considered this was due to the significant impact that the strategy had made. He referred to the deterioration in NEET figures and indicated that it appeared that these figures were relatively lower if compared with neighbouring authorities. He pointed out, however, that this could be accounted for by the fact that young people may have found training and employment out of the area and, where that was the case, they were not counted in local figures.

43.3    The Senior Manager also referred to child protection figures. He explained that the rise in referrals had been happening for the last couple of years and one of the reasons for this rise might have been due to more integrated services

43.4    Councillor Hawkes indicated that she was pleased with the information on pregnancy figures and accepted this was due to the integrated work between partners. She referred to the information on NEET and noted that it was disappointing that other authorities might be taking credit for local young people who were registered with out of area agencies.

43.5    Graham Bartlett, Sussex Police, drew attention to the fact that where NEET figures were concerned, the requirement also was that young people needed to complete 16 hours in order to be EET.

43.6    The Director of Children’s Services considered that there was a need to re-focus on this matter and test out the different hypothesis where NEET figures and information were concerned. She noted that all partners might need to contribute to this work.

43.6    Councillor Fryer sought clarification on attendance figures and how they were recorded in relation to school closures and study leave. The Senior Secondary and Special Schools Adviser explained that there were national rules on this issue; that, if due to snow closure, a school chose to close completely, no record of absence was registered. However, where a school opens partially to a specific group of children, as it might happen for Year 11 pupils for example, and a student did not turn up, this was counted as absence. She also clarified that study leave was no longer a criteria used since two years ago and was now classified as absence.

43.7    Alan McCarthy, PCT, referred to the information on obesity performance and enquired whether anything could be done with schools to encourage and get school children interested in running in future marathons.

43.8    The Assistant Director, Learning, Schools & Skills, stated that many of the local primary schools already operated running clubs. The Youth Council representatives also suggested that youth centres might be a good alternative place to promote such sport practices, since pupils in current schools were already dealing with some work pressure and doing so much on other areas.

43.9    RESOLVED - That, having considered the information and the reasons set out in the report, The Board accepted the following recommendations:

(1)      That the data and analysis in the PIR be noted and the action being taken to improve performance be agreed.

2.       That it be noted and agreed that the new duties and governance arrangements emerging from the The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, along with the emerging performance management arrangements corporately, will inform and shape the performance management arrangements for the Children and Young People’s Trust.

(3)      In view of 2.2 above, that it be noted and agreed that the performance reporting framework for the new Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) should be developed in January 2010 in light of these changes, with a view to a bi-annual CYPP report being presented to the Board on March 22, 2010 covering the period up to December 2009.