The Chairman, Sue Harrison, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Carole Hegley, Sarah Mortimer, Gemma Williamson, Gavin Hughes-Rowlands, David Moreton, Olly Button,  Stephen Dawkins, Len Simkins and Shirley Crosbie.

(a)       Declaration of Substitutes – Where Board members, Councillors are unable to attend a meeting, a substitute agreed with the Chair may attend, speak and vote in their place for that meeting.

(b)       Declarations of Interest by all Members present of any personal interests in matters on the agenda.

(c)       Exclusion of Press and Public – To consider whether, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting when any of the following items are under consideration.

(a)  Declarations of substitutes

There were no declarations of substitutes.

(b)  Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest.

(c)  Exclusion of the press and public

There were no exempt items on the agenda.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Trust Board held on 26 September 2016.

AGREED

that the minutes of the last meeting held on 26 September 2016 be

confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Barbara Rooney to outline the progress made on the implementation of the integrated health and education review.

The Board received a report outlining the progress of the implementation of the integrated health and education review for children aged 2¹/₂ years.

The following points and comments were made:

·         feedback continued to be very positive on the school readiness work taking place

·         the next steps would include working with children not in formal early years settings such as private childminders

·         the role of the Health Visitor was recognised as crucial in this initiative.

AGREED:

to support and promote the continuing roll-out and uptake of the  Integrated Health and Education Review at 2¹/₂ years of age with all relevant partners and stakeholders.

Alan Caton to present the CBSCB Annual Report.

The Board received a report commenting on the effectiveness of work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Central Bedfordshire as described in the Annual Report for 31 March 2015 – 31 March 2016, which was appended to the report.

Points and comments included:

·         acknowledgement that some children were arriving from abroad and were not registered or recorded in any way and did not attend school. Those who attended school were properly recorded in the system, and were in a better position to be safeguarded than unregistered children.

·         the digital safety of children was of concern giving rise to a need for better liaison between schools and the police. This would be raised by the Chairman of the Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Board with Bedfordshire Police.

AGREED:

1.    to note the Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2015/16;

2.    For Board Members to act on the key messages for all stakeholders and partners – and take them back into their organisations.

Helen Redding to provide an update on work undertaken to refresh the Partnership Vision for Education.

The Board considered a report setting out the work undertaken to refresh the Partnership Vision for Education and the long, medium and short term priorities that had emerged from the schools clusters.

Points and comments included:

·         acknowledgement that the cluster system was a useful model which could be replicated elsewhere.

·         the importance of the key message that it was the responsibility of all partnership organisations, not only schools, to ensure that children were healthy, safe and happy.

AGREED

to note the progress being made on the refresh of the Partnership Vision for Education.

Amanda Coleman will present the quarterly monitoring report for Trust Board Members to review and challenge.

The Board received an update on Quarter Two progress in delivering the priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan (March 2015-March 2017).

The update included a summary of performance in respect of mothers and very young children (which included the latest ‘Good Level of Development’ results), older children (which included the latest data on Year 6 excess weight), and those moving towards adulthood (including care leavers in education, employment or training).

  The Board also considered as part of this item an update on the range of activities taking place across organisations and partners to improve children’s emotional resilience, mental health and wellbeing.

The discussion included points on:

·         the effective methods of engaging children in schools

·         using the school cluster model to encourage greater engagement including promoting the take up of the SHEU survey.

AGREED:

to acknowledge the progress in delivering priorities and targets, and the actions taken to address issues where performance was off-track for meeting targets.

Karen Oellermann to present a report setting out proposals for new strategic governance arrangements.

The Board received a report proposing a new set of governance arrangements to drive forward the integration of services in communities and support the delivery of improved outcomes for children and young people in Central Bedfordshire. Key drivers were to have provision in localities working with one plan and one key worker for each child; and to avoid duplication enabling the release of capacity from some key agencies.

The following points and comments were made:

·         It will be important to maintain a strategic focus on matters of importance through operating a work programme

·         A watching brief should be maintained on the interaction of the Children and Young People’s Board (Youth Central)  and the Children’s Leadership Board to ensure optimal outcomes

·         A general consensus was expressed that the proposed model could operate successfully.

AGREED

to support the proposals for the new set of governance arrangements.

In view of the above the Chairman acknowledged that this would be the last meeting of this Board. 

The Chairman expressed her thanks and those of the Vice-Chairman to all those who had taken part in the work of the Board. She commented that the Board had operated very successfully but many far-reaching changes had come into being since its inception which had led to the new approach in governance arrangements.

The Protocol for Joint Working between Strategic Boards includes that Chairs and partners will have an ongoing and direct relationship, communicating regularly.  This standing item is to provide members of Boards with an opportunity to update the Children’s Trust on any matters and to provide comment on any annual reports circulated.

There were no updates from other Boards.

The Forward Plan sets out future items for Board Members to note and consider.

The Forward Plan was noted.