Background to TAC
Since the December 2004 Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) the London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) has made significant progress in improving and transforming its services and business processes.
In December 2005, the Audit Commission recognised that LBL “is a council that is improving well and demonstrating a two-star overall performance.” The new Children and Young People's Service was established in October 2005 and since then, progress has been made in implementing an integrated service. The department has had a number of pilot schemes led by the Change Management division, while services have been co-located to facilitate improved joint working.
Furthermore, the feedback from the June 2006 Annual Performance Assessment scrutiny concluded that overall, the CYPS is “good” and that the capacity to improve is “excellent”. Our aim is to build on this success and achieve excellence in the CPA assessment in 2008.
In May 2006, the new administration set the organisation the challenge of meeting three priority outcomes:
- Delivering high quality services that focus on individuals' needs and represent value for money.
- Tackling inequality and social exclusion.
- Engaging more closely with Lambeth's citizens so that people's needs are listened to and acted upon including the views of children and young people themselves.
At the same time, Lambeth Primary Care Trust launched its Redesign to Improve initiative focusing on improving efficiency and effectiveness of services, and in particular looking at:
- further developing close working and integration with Lambeth Council
- a shift of health and social care services closer to where people live and work
- services for Children and Young people as one of the three strategic commissioning priorities, with its objective to ensure that the health and well being of all children and young people is promoted and delivered through a co-ordinated approach to prevention and early intervention. In particular, the focus is to support parents in special circumstances including vulnerable groups where there are complex needs.
To date, the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership has overseen the meeting of 4 out of 5 of the statutory requirements outlined by the DCSF and the National Change Agenda: Every Child Matters, often ahead of the statutory deadline:
- The appointment of a Director of Children's Service by 2006 (2008 at the latest). Phyllis Dunipace was appointed as Lambeth's Director of Children and Young People's Service in July 2005.
- Elect a lead member for Children's Services. Following Lambeth's joint member leadership arrangements, Sally Prentice was elected as the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People in May 2006 (Cllr Paul McGlone took on in this portfolio in March 2008).
- Establish a Local Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB) by October 2005. Lambeth's Local Safeguarding children's Board met for the first time in July 2005.
- Produce a high level strategic plan for Children & Young People. CYPSP published its first Children & Young People's Plan (CYPP) in April 2005.
The fifth and final requirement is for the partnership to establish Children Trust arrangements to support improved outcomes for Lambeth's Children and Young People. This requires the:
- integration of service delivery
- joint funding arrangements through the pooling of budgets
- joint commissioning arrangements.
The Children and Young People's strategic partnership have worked hard to achieve the progress to date. This success, the firm foundations and effective relationships between agencies will act as sound building blocks for the partnership to deliver the fifth and arguably the largest and most complex element of the Change for Children Programme.
The Team around the Child is intended to contribute to the corporate priorities by providing:
- opportunities for Children and Young People
- personalised Care
- better services for all users
- to bring about a shift in resources from specialist to preventative services.