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Agenda item

Croydon's Partnership Early Help Strategy Update Report

Officer: Carolann James

Key decision: no

Decision:

The Leader of the Council has delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

 

RESOLVED to: 

 

1.    Note the progress made in development of Croydon’s Partnership Early Help Strategy and proposed plan for implementation.

 

2.    Endorse the Final Draft of the Partnership Early Help Strategy which will be considered for finalisation and agreement at the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board in September 2018.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning informed Members that the final draft of the Strategy would be agreed by the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board on 25 September 2018, and the aim of the Strategy was to strengthen provision for children and families by supporting them as early as possible.

 

Cabinet was asked to note that the name of the service in paragraph 3.7.10 of the report should read ‘Best Start Family Solutions Service’, a service that recognised and would support different families with different needs.

 

Zoe Harris, the Headteacher of Elmwood Infant School, stated that she had worked in all three localities and felt confident that the Strategy would meet the needs of children across the borough. It was recognised that often schools were the first point of contact for schools and could often provide advice as to which organisations could be contacted for additional support; including housing. Ms Harris stated that there was a responsibility for all partners to meet the needs of a family before they reached crises point and it was felt that the Strategy would provide clarity on how to provide the support at an early stage.

 

The Interim Head of Early Help informed Members that following the Ofsted inspection in 2017 there was a recognised need for an all age strategy and a significant amount of work had been undertaken to develop the Strategy by all partners. By working in localities, in partnership and with communities it was felt that families would be supported at an earlier stage before they reached crises point, and would support work to ensuring families were resilient.

 

Members were informed that work was ongoing on developing the performance frameworks and how matrixes for how the impact of the Strategy would be assessed. It was anticipated that analysis would be undertaken at the launch of the Strategy and that performance would be assessed quarterly and reviewed.

 

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning stated she was pleased to see that the Strategy had been developed as it was a key policy for delivering positive outcomes for families and would assist in budget savings. Furthermore, the Shadow Cabinet Member was pleased that the Strategy would be locally based and was all-age; however concerns were raised with regards to the partnership work and how it would be measured. It was noted that previous strategies had not been as successful due to the fragility of partnership work.

 

In response the Cabinet Member noted the concerns; however it was felt that the success of the Strategy would be due to all partners recognising it was the responsibility of all to meet the needs of the family, and all partners had been active in the development of the Strategy. It was noted that measuring the impact of the Strategy would be important and the framework would evolve as would the Strategy to ensure that the needs of the children in the borough were being met.

 

The Leader confirmed that the Chair of the Safeguarding Board was working with partners to ensure there was a robust plan in place ahead of the implementation date of September 2019, and there was a commitment to go beyond the statutory guidance to ensure the safeguarding of children.

 

Cabinet thanked officers and partners for their work in developing the Strategy.

 

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

 

RESOLVED to: 

 

1.    Note the progress made in development of Croydon’s Partnership Early Help Strategy and proposed plan for implementation.

 

2.    Endorse the Final Draft of the Partnership Early Help Strategy which will be considered for finalisation and agreement at the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board in September 2018.

Supporting documents: