How did we develop our Children and Young People's Plan?
We set up a working group with members from organisations within the Nottinghamshire Children's Trust. This group co-ordinated the development of our Plan in three stages. At all stages, we consulted with our workforce and with children, young people and families.
Stage One: Finding out more about what is happening now
Our starting point was to get a view of how we are working together as a Children's Trust, including the things that we do well and the things that we could do better. To do this we used information about the lives of children and young people in Nottinghamshire and about how well our services support them.
Stage Two: Identifying our improvement priorities – what we want to achieve
We used the information from stage one to decide on our ten improvement priorities for Nottinghamshire. We also looked at national Government requirements, including what we have to do by law. We considered the Local Area Agreement (LAA). This identifies priorities for the wider Nottinghamshire Partnership. Seven of the LAA priorities relate directly to children and young people and have been included in our Plan.
We held a workforce conference in October 2008. Representatives from across our Children's Trust attended. Participants identified how we could work more closely together to deliver better services.
Stage Three: Developing our action plans
The next stage was to decide on the action needed to achieve our improvement priorities. We deliver services across seven districts or boroughs in Nottinghamshire. We consulted with the workforce in each district or borough to identify what we could do locally to achieve our improvement priorities. We also talked to children, young people and families about our improvement priorities and our planned action. We used this information to produce action plans describing what we will do to make sure we achieve our ten improvement priorities.
What information did we have about the lives of children and young people?
In April 2008, the Joint Strategic Needs Association (JSNA) was published by Nottinghamshire County Council and the two Primary Care Trusts that are responsible for health care in the County. This includes information about how well children and young people are doing in learning and about how healthy they are. It also includes information about how safe children in Nottinghamshire are, and information about those children and young poeple who get involved in criminal or anti-social behaviour.
How did we know what children, young people and families wanted?
The Tellus 3 Survey (2008) was carried out nationally by OFSTED, using a sample of children and young people in schools. It provides information about what children in Nottinghamshire think about their lives, and compares this to national averages.
We have also carried out smaller, local surveys about the views of children, young people, parents and carers. We have consulted poeple about their views through focus groups and talking to individuals.
How did We know how well our services were doing?
In May 2008, OFSTED carried out a Joint Area Review (JAR), which assessed our performance as a Children's Trust.
Every year, OFSTED carries out an Annual Performance Assessment (APA) of Nottinghamshire County Council's Children and Young People's Services. The most recent assessment was published in December 2008.
In September 2008, our Children's Trust carried out a Review of our 2007-2009 Children and Young People's Plan. This identified our progress and further action needed.
In October 2008, the Nottinghamshire Children's Trust produced a JAR Improvement Plan, identifying actions to be taken to improve our services.
