Councillors from the Partnership Overview and Scrutiny Committee visited Hafod Primary School earlier this week.

Welcome to the school!

The purpose of the visit was to follow up their scrutiny of Swansea Local Service Board. Specifically the idea was to test some of the things they had been told about the Local Service Board’s Prevention and Early Intervention Programme by seeing how it actually worked on the ground.  Hafod School was an ideal place to do this as it is involved in a number of initiatives associated with the project including Team around the Family, ‘So to Do’ and Restorative Practice.

The visit, which was hosted by Head Teacher Rachael Webb and Chair of Governors Beverley Hopkins, included the opportunity to meet with children and staff as well as a number of ‘police friends’ who have been working in partnership with the school on a number of projects.

Indian dancing

A special assembly gave the councillors the chance to see the school’s photo story, to hear a presentation by the children on the school’s rights based approach, to take part in what might be the coolest school song ever and to see a display of Indian dancing that even some of the staff spontaneously joined in with!

There is clearly a special atmosphere at this school which has more than its fair share of social challenges. This was evident from arrival when we were greeted by very confident and capable children rather than by the staff. The layout of the school and lively way it has been decorated (by staff in their spare time) all reflected the commitment to a rights based approach and the desire to make the best use of every space.

The schools work in the community and with families is also striking and it here that the whole issue of partnership working comes to the fore. Here is a brief description of the So to Do project (from the CYP website) that is a key part of this:

The ‘So to Do’ part of the project was able to offer immediate responses to some of the community issues – increased policing of parks, joint work with Trading Standards officers to visit shops selling liquor, a police presence at the school enabling young people the opportunity of establishing a rapport with the officer, a youth night, Holiday activities etc

A number of key points about partnership working on the ground emerged during the visit:

• The school had fully embraced the frameworks agreed at strategic partnership level – in particular those agreed by the Children and Young People Partnership
• There was clearly enthusiasm for the partnership project – Head Teacher Rachael Webb described it as ‘the best partnership project I have ever been involved in’
• The role of the Police was clearly critical particularly their willingness to embrace a new way of working. This positive culture change was lead from the top and reflected a willingness to push the decisions made at partnership level down though the organisation
• There was a feeling that the relationship with the strategic level was two way with issues such as information sharing, for example, being taken up and that there was a ‘sea change’ on this issue 
• There were still some difficulties – joint working with social services was not yet all that had been hoped for although this was improving
• There was some anxiety about imminent changes to the current partnership model of working given that the current structure seemed to be working so well
• The desire to always get to the root problems that children faced was likely to generate new work for partner agencies – this was not seen so much as a problem but as an inevitable consequence of ‘doing things the right way’
• The school’s involvement in ‘So to Do’ is part of a pilot – there was a recognition that support might be less if it was rolled out more widely

Everything about Hafod School was certainly impressive and overall the visit confirmed the difference that partnership working, in terms of this project at least, was making on the ground.

Clls Jeff Jones and Janet Thomas with Inspector Mitch Davies and Chair of Governors Beverley Hopkins

The scrutiny councillors reviewing support for carers in Swansea met with the Crossroads Young Carers Project earlier today.  The councillors were impressed by the hard work of the project workers – Donna and Sarah – to reach and support young people who have a caring role. 

The project offers support for young people who find themselves helping to look after a family member who has a long-term illness, disability, suffers from a mental health issue or a problem related to drugs or alcohol.

The Young Carers Project can: find out what the young carer needs; provide counselling, information & support; offer transport to youth clubs & activities; help others like school, understand a young carers’ situation; help with accessing local facilities; give practical support; help develop life skills; give breaks from caring and provide opportunities to meet new friends.

The project is funded in large part by a grant from Children in Need although this funding comes to an end next year.  The Young Carers Project also has  small grants from Neath Port Talbot Cymorth monies and Swansea Council.  The Project also has access to Grants for Young Carers from Swansea Council Social Services which can be used to pay for things equipment, extra tuition and activities.  The project also receives charitable donations.

72 young carers from Swansea are registered with the young carers project but this figure is not a true reflection of the numbers of young people who are in a caring role in the City and County of Swansea.  The 2001 Census identified 800 young carers in Swansea but this did not include in its definition of caring, mental health issues or drug & alcohol problems.

Some recent work has been done on identifying the numbers of young carers in comprehensive schools across Swansea and numbers were estimated at 900.

The project workers told the councillors that they have to use eligibility criteria to assess young carers for specific support like the young carers youth club and that the project runs a waiting list for the youth club.  Expansion of the youth club for young carers is not possible at the moment because of financial constraints. 

The councillors learned though that once a young carer is assessed the Young Carers Project draws up an action plan to help them and to sign post them to other services and support. 

The councillors were pleased to hear that the majority of young carers registered with the project were planning on going onto to further education rather than opting to become full time carers.  The councillors felt that this was such an important project which offered such valuable support services for young carers.

The councillors will meet with the Cabinet Member for Social Services tomorrow and will no doubt raise many of these issues with him.

The Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny completed a review of literacy across schools in swansea last year and have,  for their meeting on 23rd January, asked for an update on the progress made in relation to the recommendations that were agreed by Cabinet on  7th April 2011.

The Board will be keen to discuss progress in relation to, for example:

• Developing a broader strategy for literacy that stretches from early years into adulthood
• Improving the standard of literacy teaching across schools by ensuring every teacher is a ‘teacher of literacy’
• Encourage schools to develop partnerships with parents/carers/families by providing information about how they can help to develop their child’s literacy skills.
• Encourage school governing bodies to ensure that all governors in schools are clear of their role and responsibilities for each child in a school in terms of raising standard

This is the first of the progress reports on the literacy recommendation and depending on progress made the Board may wish to ask for a further update in about six months.

The Board recently welcomed delegates from Mannheim Council, including their Mayor, Dr Peter Kurtz and the Deputy Mayor, Christian Specht.  Representatives from the Social Democrats, Liberal Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Green party also accompanied them, along with a number of officers.  They met with the Chair of the Board, Councillor Darren Price, before the meeting to discuss how Councillors are involved with performance issues.

The main agenda item was a comprehensive presentation by Jeremy Stephens, the Council’s Head of Performance & Strategic Projects, on the new strategic planning framework and partnership / regional working.  He was looking for the Board’s view on how they wanted to be involved and engage in the process.

A brief update was given on progress towards single status, but the Board decided that it wanted to have a more in depth presentation at the next meeting on 6th February.  A short presentation was given on the draft strategic equality plan and the annual equality and diversity review for 2010 – 2011.  Councillors requested further information on how the City & County of Swansea compares with other local authorities.  Board members were advised on the 4 current proposals for ICT services.  The Board also agreed to hold a special meeting in February to look at the details of the budget proposals before they go to Cabinet.  The papers for the meeting can be found here.

Councillors on the Health Social Care & Well Being overview and scrutiny board questioned the new director of Social Services, Phil Hodgson, and the new Head of Child & Family Services, David Howes on the issue of support for carers.  The board is currently reviewing how the Council and its partners identify and support carers, including young carers.

The Board wanted to know how both Phil and David planned to meet the two challenges of the predicted increase in the numbers of people becoming carers and needing support as the population gets older and lives longer and how this would be achieved within existing or smaller budgets.

Both Phil and David agreed that there needed to be  greater integration and smarter, closer working between Adult Social Services and Child & Family Services.  This would help both departments avoid overlap of work and duplication and  help to really get the most out of the money available in the budget for the services.   Phil also stressed the importance of working across the different parts of the Council like Education, the Youth Service and Culture & Leisure to maximise support for young carers and carers. 

Opportunities for closer working didn’t just stop within the Council’s own departments, Phil said that he and his team were looking at opportunities with health and voluntary sector organisations. 

On the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010 the councillors learned that officers had attended training workshops organised by the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.  It was important that the Council was involved in things like this to raise awareness amongst health colleagues of the way in which the Council’s own support services for carers were delivered in the community.

The Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010 has some funding available for education and training for the health sector on how to recognise carers and support them.  Phil stressed how important it would be to use the money effectively and that any training should involve carers and carers’ perspectives.

David Howes suggested that another area within support for carers which needed to be examined was carers assessments and whether our own processes were robust enough and complied with our responsibilities. 

The councillors were also interested to understand the geographical spread and prevalence of carers across Swansea to see if resources could be better targetted toward areas of need.  At the moment, this kind of data doesn’t exist but the councillors were keen that this was highlighted in their review report and that it form the basis of a recommendation. 

The councillors will meet with the Crossroads Young Carers Project tomorrow and the Cabinet Member, Nick Tregoning, on Wednesday.  After this the councillors have 2 more evidence gathering sessions before beginning work on their final report and recommendations.