Frances Coupe – Head of Partnership Commissioning, CSF

Helen Foye – Commissioning Manager CSF

Charis Harbridge – St Albans Bereavement Network

Planning and commissioning Children’s Services :the future

What do we want to achieve?

• Better outcomes for all children and young people

• Focus on those children and families who are most vulnerable

• Allocation of resources where they can have the greatest impact

• Quality services that are safe and accessible • We want to know what works and what doesn’t

How effective planning and commissioning will

get us there….

• We use up to date data and needs analysis

• We will use open and transparent commissioning processes

• We will challenge historical funding patterns where appropriate

• We will monitor quality, access, equality and safeguarding

• We are building the capacity of the VCS

Key Drivers

• Hertfordshire Children’s Trust Partnership

• District Children’s Trust Partnerships

• Children and Young People's Plans (District and county)

• The Hertfordshire Compact

• Value for Money and Added Value

• Children’s Centres and Extended Schools

Commissioning in Hertfordshire – what's happening?

• VCS participation in funding decisions i.e. children's centres, Children's Targeted Services Fund, Prevention 513

• The District Children and Young Peoples Plan influences decision making

• Shift towards longer term contracts where possible

• Increasing role of children and young people in the commissioning process

• CSF continues to have a small grants programme – Children's Targeted Service Fund (CTSF) to support smaller community groups

• Specific actions on VCS Engage Action Plan linked to Area Based Grant (ABG)

VCS Funding allocations – a pattern of growth

• Overall the VCS are increasing share of funding through more open and transparent commissioning processes

• Focus on preventative services – what the VCS do best

• VCS performing well in new commissioning culture

PHASE 1 LEAD AGENCIES (No commissioning process)

66%

17%

17%

School/Further or Higher Education Health District/Borough Council

PHASE 2 LEAD AGENCIES

68%

7%

20%

5%

School/Further or Higher Education District/Borough Council Voluntary/Charity Private/Sole

PHASE 3 LEAD AGENCIES (3)

31%

3%63%

3%

School/Further or Higher Education Health Voluntary/Charity Private/Sole

Successful Prevention 513 Projects by Sector

62%5%

29%

2%

2%

Voluntary / Community

CSF

School

University

District Council

Challenges

• There isn’t enough money

• Shift from commitment to high level intervention to more investment in preventative services takes time

• Representation on partnership groups takes up time – it has to be worth it

• Government policy and priorities can change – new initiatives, short term cycles

Opportunities

• Representation on various HCTP groups

• Involvement in decision making about resources

• Opportunity to be involved in priority setting and shape future delivery

• Opportunity to develop workforce – lots of free training

St Albans City & Bereavement Network’s (SABN) on-going relationship with CSF

• Began in 2004 with the provision of annual awards of around £6,000 which provided valuable start up funds

• Helped SABN to think clearly about our project with children, what we could realistically achieve and what our objectives were

• Helped to shape the support of the project – setting up policies – recruitment procedures and quality measures

• Helped to develop evaluation procedures and made us think about how we could measure the ‘outcomes’ of our work

The Value of Monitoring

• Monitoring forms were daunting at first but over time we have valued the disciplines they encourage.

• Recording statistics and interpreting them

• Appreciating the success of a project and looking at weaknesses

• Helping us to plan services for the future

Children’s Targeted Services Fund – 2007

• SABN’s most successful application at a time of great financial hardship for our organisation

• We benefited from our partnership with other local organisations especially the St Albans District Children’s Trust Partnership and the SPACE programme

The Prevention 513 Fund – June 2008

• Difficult to find the time to do justice to the application because of unforeseen circumstances – form completed on staff days off

• The importance of having someone who really understands and cares about the project to write the application or have a major input

• The importance to SABN of receiving CORE funding rather than new project funding

• The helpfulness of the CSF team in clarifying what SABN could apply for

The Prevention 513 Fund – June 2008

• The value of children’s participation in goal setting within SABN – eg the recent memorial service

• The value of being honest about our existing funding

• The importance of the final contract in clarifying the agreement, setting achievable targets and ensuring the ongoing validity of our policies and procedures

So how can we help each other?

• What is the best way to communicate with you about funding, HCTP partnership news etc?

• How do you monitor your own services – can we learn from you about what works best?

• How do you share information with other VCS organisations about your services and service users?