1. CONSULT CHILDREN
Children's involvement in children and young people's plans is vital'says Andrew Cozens, strategic adviser at the Improvement and DevelopmentAgency (IDeA). "Children have a lot to say about the experience ofreceiving services," he adds.
For Telford & Wrekin Council, involvement of children has includedsignificant input from its 28-strong young people's forum, which carriedout a survey asking children for their views on school, the communityand national issues. It found their main concerns were around facilitiesand recreation, bullying, transport and school canteens, all topics thathave been included in Telford's plan.
The London Borough of Southwark is another council to ensure childrenare involved in its plan. The council used existing data to assesschildren's views of services. But it also carried out research to fillgaps in its knowledge.
Stuart Edwards, the borough's Every Child Matters project manager, saysthis extra research identified the need to provide children with moreinformation about setting up a business, which is now being consideredfor inclusion in Southwark's revised plan.
2. DON'T FORGET DISABILITY
Guidance from the Department for Education and Skills says it is vitalthat councils' consultation with children does not exclude their areas'most vulnerable groups.
5. NEEDS ANALYSIS
But, according to the Every Disabled Child Matters Off the Radar survey,which looked at 20 plans, three quarters failed to involve and consultchildren with disabilities.
A spokesman for Ofsted says this is an area inspectors are paying closeattention to and will be looking for clear evidence that "the needs ofthese groups are adequately addressed".
Cozens adds that consultation with disabled children is especially vitalas improvements in services for children with disabilities and theirfamilies have been identified as part of this year's ComprehensiveSpending Review.
Telford & Wrekin is one of a number of councils that has recognised thatthe participation of disabled children can be improved. Children withdisabilities are already involved through the council's young people'sforum, but plans are now under way to develop a specific forum forchildren with disabilities, whose views will feed into future reviews ofits children and young people's plan.
3. AGENCY LINKS
Professionals across several agencies and departments need to beinvolved in drafting and reviewing plans. And this does not mean justthose in the children's directorate, according to England's children'scommissioner Al Aynsley-Green and the DfES. The department's guidancerecommends involving professionals from planning and regeneration,housing, leisure, health, training and youth justice.
Mark Rogers, corporate director of education and children's services atSolihull Metropolitan Borough Council, says this level of partnershipworking requires robust organisation between agencies, and Solihull isseeking to address this through its joint planning and commissioningunit for children's services, which is currently being set up. This willalso link the council with local health body Solihull Care Trust.
Involving partners is important for South Tyneside too, according toAmanda Bradley, the council's head of early intervention andsafeguarding, who gives the example of a recent joint consultation itcarried out with Connexions on the needs of school leavers.
She says: "One of the students told the Connexions representative theythought they were crap and told them why. This was useful in helping uswith the plan and helping our agencies improve services."
Steve Barton, assistant director for quality and performance at Brighton& Hove, also agrees that it is vital that professionals from alldepartments are involved and that the plan is not seen as merely a pieceof work for children's services professionals to carry out. "Somethinglike tackling child poverty covers our colleagues in transport andeconomic development, so we need to be working together," he says.
4. COVER THE FUTURE
The DfES recommends that plans should cover three years and be reviewedannually, which makes it important that councils can show a clearstrategy.
One way that Southwark has sought to focus on the future has beenthrough its results-based approach.
Edwards explains: "For an issue such as teenage pregnancy, we will lookat the topic and the key events needed to help that service. This helpsfocus our minds on priorities and show clearly in the plan where we needto improve and what the plan in the longer term is."
But Bradley warns that although it is important to cover the future,councils should avoid becoming over ambitious and looking too far beyondthe three years covered.
She says: "In our experience, our priority is the coming year. While forsome areas we can have three-year plans in place, it is very difficultto predict what will happen for a period like 10 years."
The National Federation for Educational Research published a study of 75plans last year. It recommends that councils clearly show how theypropose to develop their plans over a number of years, perhaps through aseparate section called "where next?".
Geoff Gee, head of the federation's information service, says: "We knowfrom speaking to officers that many of them expect their plan to changesignificantly over the next couple of years. As such, somewhere in theplan a statement about 'what we will be doing to improve and update theplan' would be helpful."
According to the DfES's guidance, a thorough needs assessment is vitalto ensuring the success of plans.
This guidance says good needs assessment must "measure the pattern ofoutcomes for children against national data," be "rigorous and honest"and ensure it provides solid evidence of how services can beimproved.
"Are services in the right location and is there suitable transport?"are some of the questions the guidance recommends needs assessmentsanswer.
Rogers says such a needs assessment is vital to Solihull's plan as ithelps the council predict where areas of need may emerge and addressthem before problems arise.
He says: "Our research shows we have a falling population of childrenand young people, but a rising number of children with complex needs. Weneed to be able to see where these trends are happening and highlightthat in the plan."
Sue Rowley, Telford's planning and performance senior manager, revealsthe council's needs assessment has a similar emphasis on identifyingareas of weakness.
"This targeting of resources is integral to the planning process anddepends upon accurate and wide-ranging analysis of need," she adds.
6. DIRECTOR INPUT
Children and young people's plans come under the remit of the directorof children's services and the lead member for children.
Both need to be closely involved in the drafting of the plan.
DfES guidance says top-level involvement is vital because the plan is "asingle, strategic, overarching plan for all services" and it thereforeneeds to be co-ordinated by senior figures with good access to decisionmakers across departments and outside agencies.
The guidance adds that when it comes to liaising with other agencies,chief executives "can play an important part in bringing partnerstogether".
At Brighton & Hove City Council senior figures are assigned to manageits plan. The authority's director of children's services, David Hawker,takes an overseeing role and Barton handles direct management.
And at South Tyneside, Bradley, one of four service heads within thecouncil's children's and young people's directorate, is leading thedevelopment and review of the plan.
7. FOCUS ON RESULTS
In November last year a number of bodies including the IDeA and DfESinvited US management expert Mark Friedman to speak at events aimed atchildren's services leaders. Friedman's methods focus on producing aclear set of objectives and it was thought this fitted well with theEvery Child Matters agenda.
Solihull has already adopted his methods for its plan. Rogers says thatthe council was particularly attracted to Friedman's focus on settingtargets that are "achievable and realistic".
Friedman's methods are just one way of developing a results-basedapproach. Brighton & Hove has adopted a system based on what Bartoncalls "priorities and actions". This involves highlighting priorities ineach of the Every Child Matters outcomes and the actions that need to betaken to address them. For example, under enjoy and achieve, Brighton &Hove has highlighted "improving learning activities outside school".
8. MAKE IT LOOK GOOD
While Ofsted has said its inspectors will not be judging thepresentation of plans, Cozens believes this is still an area wherecouncils need to pay close attention. He explains that often it is"easier to describe how you want to improve things with pictures,drawings and simple text".
A report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England lastyear also highlighted the need to develop a children's version of theplan, which it said should be "effectively communicated as a succinct,yet widely owned document".
South Tyneside Council is one authority that has taken this onboard.
Bradley says an initiative to develop a pop-up book version of the planaimed at pre-school children is being "actively considered". Sheexplains: "There are parts of the plan that are relevant to very youngchildren and it is important that they are aware of the importance ofthese areas."
FURTHER INFORMATION
New children and young people's plans regulations came into force on 19February. For more information on how they supplement existing guidancevisit:
- www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strategy/planningandcommissioning/cypp
- www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/pims-data/summaries/analysis-of-cypp-2006.cfm
