Issue - items at meetings - Brighton & Hove Draft Early Help Strategy

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

RESOLVED – (1) That the Draft Early Help Strategy will be shared with all partners as part of an extensive consultation;

(2) That the Committee considers and comments upon the Draft Early Help Strategy;

(3).A final version of strategy will be launched and agreed in November; and

(4) The strategy will be supported by an action plan with key milestones that will be monitored by the Children & Young People’s Partnership Forum, annual reports on press will be presented to the Children & Young People Committee.

29.1    The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Children’s Services detailing the Draft Early Help Strategy 2013-17. The Draft Strategy itself was attached as an appendix to the report. The strategy and all the actions that came out of it would support the whole partnership of children’s services to work together to refocus the local authority’s activity on Early Help and to reduce the need for use of high cost specialist services.

29.2    In Brighton and Hove a strategy has been devised to support the widespread recognition that it was better to identify and deal with problems early rather than respond when difficulties become acute and when action by services may be less effective and more expensive. There is a belief that preventing problems by building resilience and reducing risk factors via universal and Early Help services, a broad set of support which aimed to increase the protective factors helps to decrease the risk factors facing children, young people and families. It was noted that following consultation on the strategy it would be finalised, agreed and launched on 5 November.

29.3    Graham Bartlett, Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board stated that he welcomed the approach being taken and the opportunity for partners to have input into the strategy and to work together to deliver better outcomes for vulnerable young people in across the city. As the level of child protection in the city was at higher levels than in some other areas the strategy seeks it also sought to achieve better interventions.

29.4    Rachel Travers, Amaze concurred seeking clarification as to how funding would be targeted to drive the strategy in future. The Executive Director, Children’s Services explained that this was an on-going piece of work. It was anticipated that it would be possible to reduce costs to other budgets over a period of several years by investing in a range of early help interventions. This work needed to be evidence based and no decision to move monies to/from other budgets would be made in the short term and there was a need to dovetail with other priorities for example in relation to NEETs.

29.5    The Chair stated that not all authorities operated an early help strategy similar to that used in Brighton & Hove. Whilst no one was complacent about the structures in place they appeared to work well and to provide a firm basis for further refinement and improvement.

29.6    Councillor Simson referred to the financial support put into place to fund the strategy and enquired how the £60,000 to fund a co-ordinator and admin support would be used. It was explained that this would be made available to support a range of partnerships and projects to support vulnerable children within schools. She considered it was important to have measures in place to challenge and re-assess what was being delivered.

29.7    Councillor Wealls welcomed the report stating that he hoped that the strategy would build on the collaborative models already in place. He asked whether the option of using different models or outsourcing some elements of its delivery had been explored. He was aware that in the delivery of adult social care a number of different models had been explored. Reference was made to the work of Child Poverty Task Group and it was explained that its work was now included in the stronger families programme.

29.8    The Chair, Councillor Shanks explained that schools were being encouraged and supported in re-focusing their work as necessary. The Executive Director explained that a broad based multi-agency approach would continue to be used in moving the strategy forward.

29.10  Rachel Travers,Amaze, explained that alternative models were used in the city, by the Community Voluntary Sector (CVS) for example stating that it was important that there was input from the third sector. It was noted that the CVS was fully involved in the process and had been given the opportunity to provide input into the final document.

29.11  RESOLVED – (1) That the Draft Early Help Strategy will be shared with all partners as part of an extensive consultation;

(2) That the Committee considers and comments upon the Draft Early Help Strategy;

(3).A final version of strategy will be launched and agreed in November; and

(4) The strategy will be supported by an action plan with key milestones that will be monitored by the Children & Young People’s Partnership Forum, annual reports on press will be presented to the Children & Young People Committee.