Agenda item

The Committee had before it a joint report by the Directors of Education, Culture and Sport and Social Care and Wellbeing which sought Committee approval for a review of the planning and governance arrangements to support and strengthen the delivery of integrated children’s services.

The report advised that in 2009, the Children and Young People’s Strategic Planning Group (CYPSPG) reviewed the governance and planning to support the delivery of integrated children’s services in the city.  The review considered the governance and resource management arrangements in place locally to deliver the Integrated Children’s Services Plan, “For Aberdeen’s Children”.  One-to-one interviews were held with 20 members of the CYPSPG and the Children and Young People’s Services Management Group (CYPSMG), including Elected Members, the Education, Culture and Sport and Social Care and Wellbeing Directorates, NHS Grampian, Grampian Police and the Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations (ACVO) who represented the Third Sector.  As a result of this, the following recommendations had been put forward:-

·                    Improving outcomes for children and families;

·                    Overseeing the effective use of resources;

·                    The roles and accountabilities of partners in delivering improvements set out in the Integrated Children’s Services Plan;

·                    Effective consultation, engagement and involvement of key stakeholders;

·                    Supporting local capacity building and capability development;

·                    The governance and principles of the partnership; and

·                    Managing risks and exercising controls.

The proposals contained in the report before Committee for approval had been designed to relate specifically to these recommendations.

The report also advised of the large membership of both the Children and Young People’s Strategic Planning Group and the Children and Young People’s Service Management Group and noted that the large size of both groups was not conducive to effective strategic planning.  Following a meeting of representatives from key agencies, it had been agreed that governance and membership of the strategic planning structure should be designed around key outcomes, and that membership of the management group should be at a more senior level.  The management group would then remit work programmes to a small number of focused delivery sub-groups.

Finally, the report noted that the proposed strategic planning structure would take forward key messages from the Getting It Right For Every Child pathfinder model which was being developed in Highland Council in order to drive forward a change in practice.  A series of seminars led by the proposed Integrated Children’s Services Partnership and Management Group was to be arranged to deliver these key messages to staff.  Further to this, events would be organised for teams within localities and associated school groups to ensure the change in practice was embedded at all levels.

Appended to the report were structure diagrams showing the current and proposed governance structures for Integrated Children’s Services, as well as the proposed membership for the governance structure and a diagram detailing the committee reporting arrangements for the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership.

The report recommended:-

(a)       that Committee agree that the integrated children’s services strategic planning structure should be designed around key outcomes;

(b)       that the number of planning and working groups within the structure and the membership thereof, should be significantly slimmed down in order to assist an outcome focused approach;

(c)        that Committee approve the revised strategic planning structure and membership detailed at Appendix 1 to the report; and

(d)       that Committee note that a recommendation had been made to the Corporate Policy and Performance Committee that the Integrated Children’s Services Partnership replace the Children and Young People’s Strategic Planning Group as a Challenge Forum of The Aberdeen City Alliance to lead and coordinate the delivery of local improvement objectives to improve outcomes for children and young people within the Single Outcome Agreement.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations contained in the report.