Agenda item

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide an introduction to the Panel’s new Scrutiny Topic – Locality Working (from a Children’s Services perspective).

 

The Panel will be asked to consider how it wishes to proceed with the review.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, and G Field, Director of Environment and Community Services, were in attendance to provide the Panel with an introduction to the Panel’s new scrutiny topic ‘Locality Working from a Children’s Services Perspective’.

 

The Director of Environment and Community Services provided a presentation to accompany the report previously circulated with the agenda, giving a flavour of what locality working was and the current arrangements.

 

The Panel heard that Locality Working was a new way of working in which the local authority delivered services in partnership with other organisations and the community in which it was based.  The Council’s Executive approved proposals, on 8 October 2019, to implement locality working in two pilot areas – Newport and North Ormesby.  The rationale behind selecting the two areas was detailed in the submitted report.

 

Evidence showed that there were many benefits of having multi-agency teams working from a single location within the community it served, including:-

 

·        reduction in the number of referrals

·        improved information sharing

·        increased pro-activeness and intervention at an earlier stage

·        improved access for the local community with one single reference/contact point for advice/services

·        raised morale and awareness within the community

 

In terms of improving the lives of children and young people and their families within the pilot areas, locality working aimed to:-

 

·        Increase detailed understanding of the needs of children and young people across the Council and partner organisations.

·        Better understanding of the needs of children within those communities across the Council.

·        Understand the key influences and inter-relationships that affect children’s lives within those communities.

·        Engage children and young people in the development of their community.

·        Provide support and services for young people from within their locality where possible, in line with demand.

·        Increase awareness and knowledge of support available to children and young people within the community.

 

The over-arching objectives of locality working included: improving public perception within both localities – making residents feel safer; reducing recorded crime and anti-social behaviour; improving outcomes for children, young people and their families; improving the physical environment; building stronger communities; and making the population healthier.

 

The Panel was informed that locality working in the pilot areas had been delayed by approximately one year due to Covid, however, some demand modelling had been undertaken and initial resources had been identified.  This would be kept under review and monitored and was detailed in the report. 

 

The total number of staff identified to work within the Newport locality team was 43 and 24 for North Ormesby. The Locality Work Teams would be made up of local authority staff from Environment, Community Safety, Public Protection, Education EMAT, Adult Social Care, Early Help Team, Children’s Social Care, Revenues and Benefits; Public Health and partner agencies including Thirteen Housing, and Cleveland Police.

 

The Locality Working Team for Newport would be based at the Co-operative Buildings, Linthorpe Road and the North Ormesby Team would be based at the North Ormesby Hub.  It was hoped that teams would move into their new accommodation by October 2021. 

 

Action plans for each pilot locality had been developed between all partners and a range of formal working groups had been established, including: daily joint Police briefings; joint multi-agency patrols and visits and monthly meetings of a vulnerable adults group, children and families group, environmental working group, making people feel safe meetings and a community resilience group involving voluntary and community groups.

 

The Panel was advised that, in summary, the Council had a vision for locality working and a key driver was to work jointly with partners to deliver significant benefits.  Some demand modelling had been undertaken and some level of locality working had already commenced.  Staff would start to move into the new locality accommodation in October.  The approach to locality working would be monitored and refined where appropriate and the impact of the pilots would start to become apparent within the next six to seven months.

 

During discussion, the following issues were raised:-

 

·        A Panel Member queried whether additional staffing would need to be provided by the Council for the locality hubs.  In response it was stated that this was currently an unknown, however, the benefits of collective working should include increased output with improved service delivery in those areas with a long term goal of reducing demand.  In terms of Children’s Services, it was anticipated that the Social Workers based in the pilot areas would specialise in working in those communities and their caseloads would eventually be made up of cases from within the locality only.  The benefits of this would be that Social Workers would get to know the area and the people enabling stronger relationships.  In essence the work would remain but would be distributed in a different way.

 

·        In response to a query regarding engaging with children and young people, it was confirmed that it would be crucial for young people’s voices to be heard in order to know their needs and wishes.  There would be a range of engagement activity depending on the issues being explored but it was anticipated that this would include outreach work and focus groups to gain a better understanding on a broader level.  A Panel Member commented that he had spoken to groups of youths congregating within his own Ward to ask what they would like to see in the area and many had expressed an interest in seeing a boxing club.  The Director responded that Street Wardens, Community Protection and Police were working closely together to come up with solutions to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and part of that would be to engage with young people to help shape their communities.

 

·        In terms of rolling out locality working to other areas, the Panel was advised that the pilots in Newport and North Ormesby were approximately one year behind schedule due to Covid, however, the pilots would be evaluated and if it was working as well as anticipated, the model would be rolled out at some stage in the future.

 

The Chair thanked the Director for his presentation and the information provided.

 

AGREED that the information provided be noted and considered in the context of the Panel’s new scrutiny review ‘Locality Working from a Children’s Services Perspective’.