CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Overview of the topics 16/02/10
• Childrens Trust Partnership Board
• Children Young People's Plan
• VCS representatives on Partnership Boards and
  Sub Boards
• Role of CFN
• Challenges of VCS reps
• Measuring success and impact

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• The Third Sector is key to delivering the
  ambitions to strengthen local accountability,
  shape better places and design and deliver
  services which meet the needs and aspirations of
  those who use them. The Government wants the
  best local partnership working with the third
  sector to be the rule not the exception,
  particularly through Local Strategic Partnerships
  (LSPs)
• Principles of representation
• Dept of Communities and Local Government

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Childrens Trust Partnership Board
• The Childrens Partnership Board is a body made
  up of statutory and voluntary community
  groups
• Membership includes
• Camden Council
• Metropolitan Police
• Learning Skills Council
• Connexions
• NHS
• Schools
• VCS
• Colleges
• Job Centre Plus
• GP rep
• Housing Adult Social Care
• Culture Environment

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Inter- Agency Governance and VCS involvement
• Camden has got a very strong governance
  arrangements
• Multi-agency working groups which have
  responsibility of delivering the ECM agenda
  Locally
• There is a very strong partnership with VCS in
  all levels

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People
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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Children and Young People's Plan
• Children and Young People's Plan 2009-2012 sets
  out strategic Plan for childrens services and
  delivers the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda in
  Camden , as required by Children Act 2004
• The Children and Young People's is divided
  into five key outcomes areas with key priorities
  for each Being Healthy, Staying Safe , Making
  a Positive contribution, Enjoining and
  Achieving and Achieving Economic Wellbeing and
  Quality of life.

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• VCS Representation on Childrens Trusts
• To strengthen the engagement of the VCS in the
  delivery of childrens services
• To increase the capacity of the VCS to engage in
  Children's Trusts at all levels
• To increase confidence and skills of VCS ensuring
  that VCS childrens services compete with other
  providers on a level playing field.
• Encourage collaboration and co-operation across
  the VCS and with strategic partners.

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• What do we mean by representation?
• Representation
• Refers to the process where one person or
• group of people is acting, speaking or being
  present
• on behalf of another person or group of people.
• Representee
• The person or body on whose behalf this is
• done.

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• VCS representatives
• Childrens Trust Partnership Board (CTPB) Sub
  Boards
• Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and Sub
  Boards
• Multi-agency Joint Planning and Commissioning
  Sub Board
• Work Force Strategy
• Parenting Strategy Group
• Integrated Working (IW)
• IYS Commissioning Group

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• VCS reps recruitment process
• All the VCS are recruited through Children and
  Families Network by the following
• Process
• First round
• Expression of Interest
• Second round
• Election through Children and families Network
  members
• Third round
• Short listing

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Principles for Voluntary Sector representatives
• To promote co-ownership of plans and services by
  users and communities, including advocating
  realistic timescales and processes to enable
  wider involvement.
• To ensure the views of the local voluntary sector
  have been consulted through its relevant network
  bodies (e.g. Children Families Network).
• To promote the development and use of the
  expertise and experience of the Voluntary
  Community Sector as service providers.
• To advocate for fairness and equality of
  opportunity in the commissioning process.
• To report to and be accountable to the voluntary
  sector through the relevant network body.
• To declare any organisational or personal
  interest when acting as a sector representative

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Support of VCS reps
• VCS reps are supported through the Joint
  Advisory group meetings of CFN
• Reimbursement facilities for the VCS reps
• Training
• induction

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People
Children and Families Network Structure (CFN)
Service users
Presentation on the service planning groups
Presentation on the service planning groups
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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Role of CFN
• Coordination of the VCS reps e.g.( arranging
  meetings, correspondences, circulation of info
  , producing notes of the meetings)
• Recruitment of the reps
• Facilitating induction meetings with the chairs
  of sub boards
• Facilitating information sharing between the
  reps
• Liaising with CSF link officer

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Challenges of VCS reps
• 1) Conflicting interests
• The golden rules
• Before each activity involving representation,
  consciously remind yourself which hat you have
  on and leave other hats outside.
• Where you note a conflict of interest, tell
  others at the meeting about this, and take their
  advice about how to proceed.
• If appropriate, take yourself out of the meeting
  while the issue which sparked your conflict of
  interest is discussed.
• If necessary, resign from one or other of your
  commissions

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Challenges of VCS reps( continuation)
• 2) Strategic Ability
• VCS need to demonstrate their strategic abilities
  through the way they communicate e.g. feeding
  back to CFN meetings, taking VCS view back to
  boards
• 3) Role Responsibilities
• VCS reps need to be aware of their role and
  responsibilities
• 4) Smaller Groups
• Hard to engage
• Lack of involvement and not showing up to the
  partnership meetings
• It harms the credibility of the sector
• Tighter recruitment process create danger of
  excluding groups
• 5) Attending Meetings
• VCS reps who cannot attend meetings should always
  try and arrange for some-one else to deputise. At
  the same time colleague from from the Council
  etc should understand that VCS have pressures on
  their time too

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Selection/election?
• Worksheet

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Measuring success and impact
• How could we evidence/demonstrate the
• impact of our role as a representative? What
• difference have we made?
• Good practice from CFN
• Workshop
• Minutes from meetings etc
• Evidence of positive outcomes for both the VCS
  and statutory sectors.

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CCEN Seminar- Children and Young People

• Mohamed Hussein
• Children and Families Network
• Development Worker
• Voluntary Action Camden
• Tel [phone]
• Email mhussein_at_vac.org.uk