Directorate Plan 2007/8 Final

1. David Brown. Director of Children and Young People’s services Directorate Plan 2007/8 Final Our Vision To make growing up in Walsall as good as it can be Our Mission To ensure all children and young people achieve their best levels of education, health and development and to support those who are most vulnerable. We will encourage children and young people to build on their achievements, develop and improve their confidence, self esteem and resilience. We will work in partnership with families and carers to give every child and young person the best opportunities for today and for their futures. .

2. introduction and contents Introduction from Executive Director What the plan covers Section Introduction Our values Who we are What we do Cabinet and scrutiny Links to other plans Key drivers for directorate plan Our community Directorate objectives Our key targets & priorities Our finances Value for Money Efficiency statement Our people Our path to excellence Achievements 2006/7 Page 2 3 4-6 7-9 10 11 12 13 14 15-24 26 28 30 31 34 35 This Directorate Plan shows how we are going to improve outcomes for Children and Young People in Walsall during 2007-8 by transforming our service delivery arrangements through our Change for Children Programme and Children and Young Peoples Plan. The Plan is built upon a very successful base where the Audit Commission and Children and Young People’s Inspectorates have praised us for the very significant progress we have made in Walsall. However, they, like us, rightly provide further challenges for the next phase, which are covered in this plan. Part of our work is to see the bigger picture, the longer term. Our work, as we move towards more integrated service delivery, focusing on workforce development and the governance issues inherent in Children’s Trusts, is to be aware that we are planning for 10 to 20 years in the future when the children currently in early years will have moved through our schools and other services into adulthood. That they have the skills and self-confidence to make this transition successfully is part of our task. To achieve such ambitious aims, we all have leadership role, in working with many partners outside of the council to bring about the cultural and organisational change that Change for Children requires. Finally, the plan also covers our corporate responsibilities for Procurement and Communications and Print and Design. David Brown

3. Our Values and Principles

4. who we are This shows the senior management team for our directorate. Each of these managers has specific responsibility for taking forward parts of our directorate plan and for ensuring their service area delivers the performance targets set. David Brown Executive Director Carole Evans Executive Director Pauline Pilkington Assistant Director Targeted & Specialist Services Melanie Harmitt Head of Finance Education Walsall Assistant Director Procurement (from April 07) Louise Hughes Assistant Director Universal Services Julie Black HR Account manager Strategy & Governance Darrell Harman Print & Design Kevin Williams Sue Dalley Performance Management Interim Communications Manager Tony Moran Corporate procurement Lawrence Brazier Finance, HR and performance management support are provided to the directorate from the Corporate Services Directorate

5. DAVID BROWN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LOUISE HUGHES ASSISTANT DIRECTOR UNIVERSAL SERVICES PAULINE PILKINGTON ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SPECIALIST SERVICES PARTNERSHIP PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION SERVICES STRATEGIC MANAGER WALSALL CHILDREN’S TRUST Jacqui Reid HOS YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICES (Vacant) HOS PREVENTION & LOCAL SERVICES Carol Boughton HOS VULNERABLE CHILDREN Lesley Walker Anne Thompson HOS CORPORATE PARENTING David Bovell HOS SAFEGUARDING Kay Child YOUTH SERVICE Andy Driver YOS Pat Jennings ISA CAF EXTENDED SERVICES LAC SERVICE FAMILY PLACE- MENTS RESIDENTIAL SERVICES FIRST RESPONSE ASSESSMENT AND INCLUSION DISABILITY SERVICES REVIEW CP SAFEGUARDING BOARD SAFE RECRUITMENT

6. what we do The Children and Young Peoples directorate is responsible for three distinct functions covering many crucial services PARTNERSHIP LEADERSHIP Our role is to lead, initiate and ensure effectiveness of partnership to improve outcomes for Children and Young People Support Partnership structures Children's Trust Safeguarding Children's Workforce Development CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICES Our role isprovide integrated and localised services that focus on prevention to promote the five outcomes Universal & locality Services; includes Education, Young Peoples Services, Parent Partnership, Prevention and Local services, Children's Trust Targeted and specialist services; includes Vulnerable Children, Corporate Parenting and Safeguarding and Performance Management. COUNCIL WIDE SERVICES Our role is to provide key services to the entire council Procurement Print & Design Communications

7. My Walsall My Future – Our new service delivery model • Together with our key partners, we are remodelling services to ensure that the right support is available at the right time in settings appropriate to the child and his or her family. This is our ‘change for children’ programme, which will deliver children's trust arrangements in 2008. • At the root of our service delivery model is our wish to ensure ; • We build the capacity for earlier intervention and better protection within a growing range of easily accessible flexible services for all children located in universal settings such as children’s centres, local youth provision, schools health centres • Further develop our partnership with schools that focuses on raising achievement across Walsall • By offering timely and appropriate support, consequently reduce the demand for intensive, statutory and complex interventions. • Prompt and appropriate response to referrals through an clearly understood partnership referral pathway based on the multi agency ‘child concern model’, with an early identification of additional needs through timely assessment and the provision of services that meet those needs • A safe and reliable framework for the protection and safeguarding of children • Fulfilment of the corporate parenting role providing stability and improved life chances for looked after children • Support to young people who require additional help to avoid offending behaviour to enable them to make a positive contribution in their communities • Further integration of services and a profound cultural change across staff from different professions who will work within localities through increasing joint commissioning sustained by aligned and pooled budgets with increasing levels of delegated funding.

8. Service delivery model Universal and Prevention Targeted and Specialist Child focused local services – Children’s Centres Schools Youth Provision SAFEGUARDING and specialist services Vulnerable children Corporate Parenting Targeted Additional support CAF Schools Step Down arrangements Level 2 Level 0-1 Level 3 Child Concern Model

9. Education Priorities Our priorities for services to support schools, provided by our partner Education Walsall, are; • Improve the quality of learning and teaching, raise attainment and increase participation and progress at all levels to achieve the Education Walsall targets and move towards meeting the Government targets. • Enhance learning opportunities for all children and young people through the provision of a curriculum that is personalised to individual needs • Improve the quality of leadership and management at all levels across all schools in Walsall • In partnership with other agencies develop and implement a Walsall-wide multi-agency strategy and single plan for children and young people

10. cabinet and scrutiny The Council‘s cabinet is responsible for most decisions on council services. Each cabinet member has political responsibility for a portfolio of services. The main cabinet portfolio holders for our directorate are shown here. The council also has scrutiny and performance panels charged with overseeing the work of the directorate. The chairman of this committee is also shown. Councillor Tom Ansell- Communications and Print & Design Councillor Zahid Ali - Children and Young Peoples services Photo of portfolio holder Photo of portfolio holder Photo of portfolio holder Councillor Marco Longhi - Procurement Photo of portfolio holder Councillor Eddie Hughes – Corporate Parenting Photo of portfolio holder Photo of scrutiny chair Councillor Rose Martin – Teenage pregnancy Councillor Mohammed Arif Chairman of the Children & Young people’s Scrutiny and Performance Panel

11. links to other plans The directorate plan is one of many affecting what we do. This page demonstrates the links with the corporate plan for the council through to the next level of service delivery. Partner Plans Neighbourhood Agreements Community Plan LAA Corporate Plan Children and Young Peoples Plan LSGB Business Plan Directorate Plan Specialist Services AD Plan Universal Services AD Plan Procurement AD Plan Young Peoples Services (inc YOS and Youth Service Plans) Procurement Service Plan Vulnerable Children Plan Children's Trust Plan Communications Service Plan Corporate Parenting Plan Safeguarding Plan Education Excellence in Walsall Plan Print & Design Service Plan Partnership Performance Management Plan Prevention and local services Plan

12. key drivers for the directorate plan This section explains some of the key issues which are driving change in our directorate and which we need to give special attention to this year. What’s the issue? Why is it important?

13. our community

14. directorate objectives These are the overall objectives we have for the year, based on the key drivers detailed previously. Contributing Plans Our objectives Outcome Lead by

15. Directorateheadline improvement targets The scope of this plan is so wide as to make the selection of a few Performance Improvement targets largely symbolic. Our partnership scorecard contains over 80 performance indicators that we manage each quarter . Our 4 LAA stretched targets are shown below

16. The Every Child Matters 5 outcomes are our main driver, these each have 5 objectives which then cascade into our service plans as priorities where appropriate The APA actions will be our priorities during 2007/8. They will be monitored regularly by the Directorate Management Team and reported to members. our prioritiesObjective 1 1.1 Be healthy The next 5 pages describes each outcome in more detail 1.2 Staying Safe Objective 1; To continually improve the ECM 5 Outcomes 1.3 Enjoy and Achieve Healthy & Caring, Excellent schools, safe & secure 1.4 Make a positive contribution 1.5 Economic well being

17. Objective 1.1 Be Healthy

18. Objective 1.2 Stay Safe

19. Objective 1.3 Enjoy and achieve

20. Objective 1.4 Making a positive contribution

21. Objective 1.5 Economic well being

22. Cascading ECM into Council Directorates and Partner agencies strategic plans

23. our prioritiesobjective 2 On these pages we show the actions and projects which will help us achieve our directorate objectives. These actions will be our directorate priorities during 2007/8. They will be monitored regularly by the Leadership Team and reported to members. Priorities for 2007/8 These are connected to the next level of plan in your directorate 2.1 Listening to and engaging with CYP to improve our services LH , PP 2.2 Deliver Change for Children Programme LH , PP AD Proc Plan Exc in Walsall 2.3 Joint Governance Integrating strategic and operational decision making (eg; Children and Young peoples executive group) LH Transform services to children and young people through the C4C programme 2.4 Joint Commissioning Deciding, jointly, what services give best outcomes (eg NRF) PP, LH, Corporate Support Services Plans 2.5 Shared processes and systems Joining up our systems with key partners eg; CAF, ISA LH,PP, Corporate Transformation Plan 2.6 Integrated services (& localisation) Developing new integrated teams (eg; YOT,CAMHS) and locality teams (eg; Darlaston project PP, LH, Corporate Transformation Plan Healthy & Caring, Excellent schools, safe & secure 2.7 Ensure services develop to meet the growing and diverse needs of BME & other disadvantaged communities ALL

24. our prioritiesobjective 3 Priorities for 2007/8 These are connected to the next level of plan in your directorate 3.1 Creating Futures – Black Country Challenge LH 3.2 Deliver robust revised CYPP (linked to Joint Commissioning Strategy Obj2) LH,PP 3.3 Roll out coordinated partnership performance management system for the CYPP and agency priority targets PP< LH, Exc in Walsall, Q&PM Partnership planning and performance management 3.4 Deliver our LAA and in particular our stretched targets PP, LH 3.5 Ensure effective leadership of whole system PP,LH Transform Walsall into Excellent authority PP, LH 3.6 Change culture and focus from separate organisations to ‘team around the child’ PP, LH 3.7 Reduce Looked After Children numbers

25. our prioritiesobjective 4 Priorities for 2007/8 These are connected to the next level of plan in your directorate 4.1 Deliver VFM improvement project ALL 4.2 Deliver Integrated Workforce plan across the partnership that addresses skill change, recruitment & retention and sickness absence Transform Walsall into Excellent authority PP, LH, HR Plan, CS 4.3 Ensure that ICT systems support service efficiency and effectiveness Transformation Plan PP,LH Good Management and Value for Money 4.4 Ensure asset management support service improvement LH 4.5 Improve social care and education commissioning process and adhere to legislative changes PP, LH, 4.6 Deliver procurement savings target and Corporate procurement planning process Promote positive image of the council PP, LH, 4.6 Ensure JAR preparation is used to enhance performance and engage corporate support ALL ALL

26. our finances

27. our finances

28. Value for Money • We are committed to improve outcomes for children and young people while improving efficiency. Our strategy comprises; • Measuring the impact of our work on outcomes as perceived by children and young people who we support • Setting high level targets (based on the ratio of our spend per child and average PAF band score) for the Directorate and service areas • Reviewing our productivity (ie; ratio of inputs to outputs) • Improving procurement across the council • Improving our ‘service mix’ (increasing the use of lower cost more effective services such as foster care) • Benchmarking our unit costs and activity with other councils

29. our efficiency statement

31. our people

32. our people

33. Training and development Training and staff development for the children’s social care workforce in 2007/2008 shall be provided in response to specific drivers as identified against each of the strands below. . • Modular Integrated Training Programme (currently delivered by ISWA) – VCI recommendation/APA 3125 ‘to possess an appropriately qualified and trained workforce’ ( programme includes single agency child protection training). • Multi-Agency Child Protection Training Plan (Walsall Local Safeguarding Children Board) – VCI/guidance ‘Working together to safeguard Children – Ch. 4’. • NVQ3 Award H & SC– APA 3123. • Health & Safety – Care Standards Act 2000 - (Children’s Residential Services). • PQ arrangements (holders of SW qualification) currently being delivered through PQ1 – APA 3124 and PQSW (PQ 2-6) – (CPD & Recruitment & Retention Strategy). (To be confirmed by GSCC). • Practice Learning Opportunities (SW student placements) – PI PAF59. (to be linked to PQ arrangements). • Induction – guidelines National Induction Standards (CWDC 10/2006). • Evidence Based Assessments (A & I service) – best practice P.I. A1 Placement Stability . • Attachment Theory & Children with Complex Problems (LAC service) – best practice P.I. A1 Placement Stability. • Specific external conferences/training. • Preparation for the Children’s Trust Modernization Agenda/Integrated Children’s Workforce - VCI recommendation/Children Act 2004. • ODSC will also be required to support mandatory training needs of approved foster carers. • Modular & Multi-Agency programmes are open to all the workforce (100%), access to other training as identified by service areas – budget forecast for all projected training activity may be loosely based upon the forecast for 2006/2007, that being £252,000. our people

34. our path to excellence Excellence means ‘growing up in Walsall is as good as it can be’. That children and young people tell us that we listen to them and provide support that enables them to exceed their expectations. Key success in our path to excellence: • Overall the third most improved authority at Key Stage 2 (age 11) between 2002 and 2006, and the 29th most improved authority in the Country at Key Stage 3. • High numbers of children in care are placed with permanent adoptive families placing Walsall within the top 25 of all 150 English local authorities. • Walsall has achieved the top national performance for ensuring children leaving care are in employment, education or training. • We rank in the top 10 out of 150 councils based on our social care performance indicators and our performance is improving while we are reducing expenditure. Further steps; • Our Change for Children Transformation programme will provide integrated governance and service delivery, emphasising localities, across the partnership so that services are organised around the needs of children • We will manage performance across the partnership to deliver our improvement targets • We will improve our value for money by measuring outcomes and effective budget management • We will ensure our workforce and services meets the needs of our growing Black and Minority Ethnic population

35. Achievements on priorities 2006/7 This provides an update on progress to our priorities in last years plan

36. achievements 2006/7 The directorate produced some major improvements in 2006/7. Here is a selection of these. A fuller Review of Achievement is available on the intranet site.

37. SMART Priority Actions 2007-8

38. Strategic Risks RISK Score Action • Change for Children 20 Programme Management • Education commissioning 20 Project Management • LAC Numbers and cost 20 Project Management • JAR 20 Project Management • Capital/assets 18 Property Board • Partnership PM 15 Project Management • Workforce Development 15 Project Management • Procurement transformation 15 Project Management • IT Impact on Partnership 15 Project Management

39. Our Cabinet pledges Make our schools great • We will increase the number of young people obtaining 5+ A*-C or equivalent including English and Maths from 1333 to 1510 (13.3% increase) • We will spend at least £15 million on improving the quality of school buildings Make it easier to access local services • By March 2008 we will deliver a further seven Children's Centres across the borough, increasing the total to sixteen.