Children's Trust Board *DISCONTINUED*

 

 

Children’s Trust Board – Isles of Scilly       

Terms of Reference Introduction: The Children’s Trust Board for the Isles of Scilly is charged with providing the strategic lead and co-ordination for the Children’s Trust as a whole.  The Board will enhance the full engagement of all agencies in the work of the Children’s Trust by encouraging a culture and framework through which partners feel confident in developing and delivering services on a multi-agency basis. Purpose: ·         To shape and improve children’s services across the Isles of Scilly ·         To drive continuous improvement in outcomes for children and young people ·         To promote access to facilities both on the Islands and on the mainland ·         To plan and commission services ·         To manage performance and delivery ·         To develop, publish and review the Children and Young People’s Plan for the Isles of Scilly Operating Principles: ·         All strategic commissioning decisions, particularly those involving more than one agency, will be made through the Children’s Trust ·         Partners will align individual plans to the Children and Young People’s Plan ·         Partners will align, and where appropriate, pool budgets to enable joint commissioning of services ·         The involvement and engagement of children, young people and their families will be a consistent part of the Children’s Trust work ·         Partners will work together actively to manage risk ·         The voice of service providers will always be considered in planning and commissioning decisions ·         Performance will be actively managed and challenged ·         Equality and diversity will be a consistent consideration across the Children’s Trust ·         Partners will act in accordance with any frameworks agreed by the Children’s Trust e.g. performance, communications, commissioning and information sharing Objectives

To lead partners in the development of the vision and strategy, for services for children and young people in the Isles of Scilly. This will be captured in the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) which the Children’s Trust has a statutory duty to produce. To lead, and hold accountable, all partners in the delivery and commitment to the CYPP, including those elements of the Local Area Agreement that are the responsibility of the Children’s Trust. To ensure that the safeguarding agenda for children and young people in the Isles of Scilly is delivered across the Trust, promoting the work of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Children Board and challenging activity supportively. To ensure appropriate delivery of effective, integrated and locally focused services for children and young people through joint commissioning and planning. This will include allocating and shifting resources, at a strategic level, to meet priorities and overcome gaps and barriers. To deliver value for money services by the effective use of joint commissioning through the pooling and aligning of partners’ resources with regular performance reporting. To secure effective consultation with children, young people and parents/carers when developing services. To develop a proactive framework and culture across stakeholders to determine priorities for future service developments, and by the work of the Trust to deliver these for children and young people.

Work Programme

directing the work of any sub-group that may be established approval of multi-agency strategies and plans agree overall resource requirements, initially to enable production of the Children and Young People’s Plan performance management, by exception, of key information around performance within children’s services and particularly with the delivery of the CYPP and LAA elements pertinent to the Children’s Trust

Accountability The Children’s Trust is accountable to current democratic and professional governance structures. Members of the Board will act within their delegated powers but also represent their agencies in terms of a commitment to developing and delivering services in a multi-agency way. The Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Services are accountable for ensuring Children’s Trust arrangements are in place, including the involvement of those key partners with a duty to co-operate Membership The following organisations’ representatives will be members on the Children’s Trust Board:

Lead Member for Children and Young People, Council of the Isles of Scilly Director of Children’s Services, Council of the Isles of Scilly Elected members of the Council of the Isles of Scilly (3) PCT (2) Police Chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Safeguarding Children Board (participating observer) Representative of the voluntary sector School representative GP Careers South-West Youth Offending Team Job Centre Plus Diocese Probation

The Chair of the Children’s Trust Board shall be the Lead Member for Children’s Services of the Council of the Isles of Scilly.  The Vice-Chair of the Board will be elected annually. Responsibilities of being a representative All members of the Children’s Trust will:

be clear who they are representing and their role feed in views of their host agency take back and act on decisions / issues from the Children’s Trust attend meetings regularly give adequate notice if unable to attend a meeting nominate and brief an alternate if unable to attend a meeting undertake work outside of meetings be adequately prepared for meetings respect others’ views and work together to come to a collective agreement adhere to the purpose and principles of the Children’s Trust (appendix 1 below)

Supporting Structure The Children’s Trust Board will be supported by an executive group.  Secretarial support will be provided by the Council of the Isles of Scilly.

Operating Procedures

The Board will meet quarterly for up to 3 hours. The Chair will have the right to invite representatives of other bodies to the Board to discuss particular issues where necessary. In accordance with statutory guidance there will be no quorum. An agenda and supporting papers will be circulated at least one week before each meeting (both electronically and in hard copy). Members with significant items for discussion must notify the Committee Secretary of the Council of the Isles of Scilly two weeks in advance of the meeting for them to be included on the agenda. Supporting details/evidence must be circulated a week in advance. Reports should not be tabled wherever possible. Minutes will be kept to record all decisions made by the Board. These will be made publicly available. The terms of reference will be reviewed at least annually.

  Conflicts of Interest Members and any representatives or substitutes with a personal, financial or service interest in a matter being discussed, must declare that interest at the beginning of the meeting or as soon as they become aware of the potential conflict. They will only be able to contribute to the discussion by invitation from the Chair. They will not be entitled to vote on that item. Date: May 2010 Review Date: May 2011 Signatures of members _______________________________