"Working together to achieve better outcomes for children and young people"
North Lincolnshire is one of 35 areas that developed a Pathfinder Children's Trust and which is now moving towards a full Children's Trust.
Children's trusts are part of Government proposals to make significant changes to the way in which services are delivered by all agenices working with vulnerable children and young people.
Work has already begun around the development of multi-agency frameworks and services. Partner agencies include North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust, Children and Young People's Service's, schools, Connexions, the Police and Fire and Rescue Services, and voluntary and community organisations.
You can find out more about the Government's plans for improving services for children and young people on the Every Child Matters website.
North Lincolnshire was approved to develop and implement a Pathfinder Children's Trust from 2003-2006. Work has continued building on the Pathfinder as we move towards a full Children's Trust to develop joined-up services with partner organisations.
The North Lincolnshire Children’s Trust Pathfinder had identified five priority areas. These were:
- Behaviour
- Young People’s substance misuse
- Safeguarding
- Children’s centres
- Disabilities
The Children’s Trust development group has worked on budget arrangements for services related to these priority areas. They have been incorporated into the Children and Young People's Plan 2006-2009 that was published in 2006 and reviewed in 2007.
We have been considering ‘pooling’ budgets. But it may not be necessary to pool all budgets related to these areas. The group has written a strategy to regulate how services will be commissioned through the Children's Board.
Each of the five priority areas had a group known as the ‘service collaborative’. Their role was to map existing services and needs. This helped inform the commissioning process. Some joined-up services already exist. Their work has been discussed to see how it could be included in the service collaborative.
The chair of each service collaborative/ steering group sits on the Children’s Board/ Children's Board Executive Group. This has informed the commissioning process.