Agenda
For enquiries on this agenda, please contact: Ann Sweeney 020 8547 4629 [email protected]
This agenda is available on: www.kingston.gov.uk
Published on 8 September 2015
JOINT COMMITTEE FOR ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN
Date: Wednesday 16 SEPTEMBER 2015
Time: 10:30 am
Place: Guildhall, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 1EU
LB Richmond Lord True Co Chair Councillor Tony Arbour Councillor Paul Hodgins RB Kingston Councillor Kevin Davis Co Chair Councillor Eric Humphrey Councillor Margaret Thompson
Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting
The meeting will be chaired by Councillor Kevin Davis, the host borough Co Chair
This agenda is available to view on: www.kingston.gov.uk You can also access this agenda through the Modern.gov app or by scanning the QR code with your smartphone.
EMERGENCY EVACUATION ARRANGEMENTS
On hearing the alarm please leave the building by the nearest available fire exit.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND ATTENDANCE OF ALTERNATE MEMBERS
DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS
Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests and any other non- pecuniary interests (personal interests) relevant to items on this agenda .
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Up to 30 minutes is set aside to hear public representations and /or respond to questions. Notice of questions or representations to be submitted must be received by 12 noon on Tuesday 15 September 2015 – by Ann Sweeney, Democratic Support at Guildhall, Kingston upon Thames or e mail [email protected] or telephone – 0208 547 4629. A written response will be given on any items not reached within the 30 minutes.
Agenda
1. MINUTES Appendix A To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 13 April 2015.
2. RESERVED MATTERS PROCESS Appendix B
3. AFC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2014-15 Appendix C
4. BUSINESS PLAN AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Appendix D
5. URGENT ITEMS AUTHORISED BY THE CHAIR
Please note
The meeting will be followed by a workshop for Members which is anticipated to end at 12:30.
This workshop is not open to the public.
A1 Appendix A
JOINT COMMITTEE FOR ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN
13 APRIL 2015
11:15 am – 12:12 pm
Representing Councillor Kevin Davies Co-Chair (in the Chair) Royal Borough of Leader of the Council Kingston upon Thames
Councillor Andrea Craig Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
Councillor Margaret Thompson Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
Lord True Co-Chair London Borough of Leader of the Council Richmond upon Thames
Councillor Tony Arbour London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
* Councillor Paul Hodgins London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
* Absent
Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Paul Hodgins.
David Groves – Chair of the AfC Board also attended.
Officers
RBK RuT AfC Bruce McDonald Gillian Norton Nick Whitfield Scott Herbertson Mandy Skinner Paul Bettles Leigh Whitehouse
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST - None
26. Minutes
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 2 May 2015 are confirmed as a correct record.
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27. ANNUAL REFRESH OF COMMISSIONING INTENTIONS Appendix A
The approach to this year’s refresh of commissioning intentions for Children’s Services, which fed into the budget-setting process was set out.
The findings arising from the refresh discussion on needs analysis and intelligence were attached as Annex I and had been agreed by Children’s Commissioning Board in February 2015. Very few significant changes were identified; one example being the impact of the SEND reforms which will require amendments to performance measures and are forecast to result in increased levels of demand. Changes in relation to the delivery of SEN Transport will also need to be reflected in the service specification.
As part of the discussion on current joint working arrangements, the practical implications of the protocols (for Procurement, Communications etc.) which sit as annexes to the specification had been reviewed. In this review the Councils highlighted some aspects where greater and earlier visibility of information and data produced by AfC would be beneficial, together with a few areas where AfC is not yet fully compliant with the existing specification; for example the provision of quality assurance updates.
The review also noted areas where changes have been agreed which will require retrospective contract variations; for example, AfC are now providing a breast- feeding support service on Richmond’s behalf. In relation to support services, the SLA for ICT is due to be signed and some property leases are still outstanding; once completed, these will need to be addressed through a contract variation.
Performance measures and targets were reviewed in detail to identify areas where changes were needed. The majority of changes to the measures were to clarify minor points or to reflect policy/process changes, e.g. the change from SEN statements to EHC plans. A few targets were amended, in most cases in order to align Richmond and Kingston. Where target levels were being increased or reduced, either by AfC or the Councils a clear justification was required.
Resolved that the contract variations and minor changes to the commissioning intentions identified through the annual refresh process and agreed by the Children’s Commissioning Board are noted.
28. AfC Financial Strategy 2014-15 Appendix B
The latest information on the expected financial outturn for AfC for the financial year 2014/15, the company’s first year of operation was reported. This includes the treatment of the ‘set up costs’ incurred in bringing the company into being, as well as the trading position for the year.
The year end projected outturn is an overspend of £19,000 after the implementation of change controls totalling £1.525m (£0.426m RBK and £1.099m LBR) relating to Safeguarding, Looked After Children and SEN Transport. The arrangements for the sharing and management of financial risk within the contracts between the Councils and with AFC provide for different treatments for different aspects of financial risk. The change control mechanisms provide a means
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of returning financial risk to the host council. Where a risk/reward position is taken on a particular change control area, or on those areas of income and expenditure outside of the change control scope, financial risk is shared between the two councils as owners.
The Councils are proposing to transfer set up costs of £1.4m to the company in the year, which will leave a net deficit to be carried forward at year end. This will be offset against future profits. The Councils have also underwritten these set up costs in their own accounts, and AfC is able to ‘bid back’ to the Councils for investment funds equal to the value of any in year trading surplus it makes, either this year or in future years for the reinvestment of these surpluses in children’s services.
Further set up costs, likely to exceed £0.5m, are considered necessary in 2015/16 as part of work to create a single IT network and integrated desktop for AfC staff. Both Councils will need to consider the business case for this and, if agreed, how this work should be funded.
Resolved that:
1. the projected AfC trading outturn of a small overspend of £19k and the Change Controls agreed by each Council are noted;
2. the approach to the charging of “set up costs” is agreed and the further requirement for IT investment is noted;
3. the arrangements for financial risk sharing are noted.
29. AfC Budget 2015/16 Appendix C
A report considered by the AfC’s Board of Directors in January describing the basis upon which the budget for Achieving for Children was set for 2015/16 and outlining a draft medium term financial plan was presented. This report has also been considered by the Operational Children’s Group, the Children’s Commissioning Board and by both Councils as part of their Budget Reports .
The budget backdrop is of increased demand for local services and significant budget pressures due to the reductions in central government grant for both Councils. AfC’s budget is made up of core Richmond and Kingston funding, government grants and income generation. The detail of this funding, efficiency savings, the Forward Look and key risks were included in the report.
Whilst there are no formal changes to this budget, as indicated in the previous item – Minute 28 - both Councils have agreed increases to AfC’s 2014/15 funding through the Change Control process for social care expenditure and SEN transport. These items will be reviewed in early 2015/16 with a view to introducing necessary Change Controls in Quarter 1 and future budget setting as referred to in the Joint Commissioning Cycle.
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Resolved that the budget as set out in the report is agreed as required by item 9 of Schedule 3 - Reserved Matters of the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA).
30. Financial Plan 2015/16 - Update Appendix D
An update to the Financial Plan for AfC for the financial year 2015/16 for approval of the Committee and adoption by the Councils as the Members of AfC was considered.
The Plan for 2014/15 was approved by the Joint Committee at its meeting on 5 December and subsequently adopted as a Reserved Matter.
The Plan has been reviewed for 2015/16 through discussions between finance staff at both Councils and AfC and the only changes proposed are in relation to the approved banks AfC can invest in and the limits in each. The changes to the approved banks/financial institutions are:
a) Both Nat West and Lloyds Banks are removed from the list of banks that AfC can make investments in for the 2015/16 Financial year, and
b) Nationwide Building Society is added to the list.
AfC and the Councils still intend that AfC should eventually have three banks/building societies to invest in but are satisfied that AfC can operate efficiently with two – Nationwide and Svenska Handelsbanken. If a suitable opportunity arises to add an additional bank with the appropriate levels of risk and compatibility with both Councils' own treasury policies and approvals, any change to the Plan will be reported to the Joint Committee and adopted as a Reserved Matter.
Resolved that the Financial Plan set out on paragraphs 26 to 34 is agreed for formal adoption by the Members of AfC as a Reserved Matter.
31. Meeting Dates 2015-16
The dates for the municipal year May 2015-16 agreed as part of the process for both Councils’ meeting calendars were noted.
As discussed at the last meeting the aim is to use two dates for formal Committee meetings and two as workshops.
The 17 June date is proposed as a workshop to look at issues and implications arising from policy announcements post the parliamentary election
Resolved that
1 a meeting start time of 10:30am is agreed;
2 the dates for the four meetings in the 2015-16 municipal year are noted and are arranged on the basis of two formal Joint Committee business meetings and two workshops. 4 A5 JOINT COMMITTEE FOR ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN 13 APRIL 2015
As previously agreed meeting venues will alternate between Kingston and Richmond
Signed…………………………………………………….Date………………… Chair
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ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN JOINT COMMITTEE
DATE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2015
REPORT OF: LEAD COMMISSIONERS FOR CHILDRENS’ SERVICES
SUBJECT: RESERVED MATTERS
1. Introduction
The governance arrangements for Achieving for Children have been reviewed following its first year of operation. This has included a review of the Reserved Matters to ensure they are fit for purpose. This report makes recommendations for some amendments to the Reserved Matters which clarify points of detail.
2. RECOMMENDATION
That the Joint Committee agree the Reserved Matters as detailed in Appendix 1.
3. DETAIL
Some changes are proposed to the reserved matters as detailed in Appendix 1 attached. The Appendix also contains explanatory notes which identify:
• Whether the reserved matter is a statutory requirement • Examples of when a decision becomes a matter for the owners • The route by which agreement of the owners will be obtained • How the reserved matters support the control function of the owners, which must be demonstrated in order to maintain the Teckal exemption from competitive tender.
3.1. Reserved Matter 3
This has been re-drafted to separately identify the financial limits which apply when AfC is:
a) buying supplies and services from third parties.
b) entering into contracts to provide services to third parties.
This now provides a clearer scheme which sets out the limits of capital expenditure to ensure major assets are not owned by AfC (because of the asset lock) and identifies limits designed to manage risk related to trading by AfC and impact on the Teckal exemption.
3.2. Reserved Matter 6
The word “Company” has been added to clarify that this applies to all the Directors of the Company whether they are Council, executive or non executive Directors. B2
3.3. Reserved Matter 12
An additional clause has been added to cover the risks related to entering onto partnerships for trading purposes. The Trading Opportunity Evaluation Process which is designed to identify and manage the risks associated with trading is attached at Appendix 2 for information.
Changes to the Reserved Matters agreed by the Joint Committee will require a change to the Inter-Authority Agreement, which will be dealt with by way of a Deed of Variation to the Contract.
4. Contact: Mandy Skinner, AD, Commissioning Corporate Policy & Strategy, LBR [email protected]
020-8891-7929
APPENDIX 1 MATTERS RESERVED TO THE MEMBERS (OWNERS OF THE COMPANY)
AND
EXPLANATORY NOTES
All Reserved Matters shall be considered at general meetings of the Company and shall only be effective if approved unanimously by the Members.
The following matters are Reserved Matters unless (where relevant) they have been approved in advance by the Members under the Business Plan or Financial Plan.
References in this schedule to the Company include any subsidiary of the Company from time to time and references to amounts will be deemed to be the aggregate for the Company and all such subsidiaries.
Reserved Matter Note B3
1. Permit the registration of any New For example to widen or change the ownership to include another local authority. This would Member of the Company. substantially impact on current joint arrangements and would require both Councils’ (LBR Cabinet / RBK Adults and Children’s Committee) agreement.
2. Vary, in any respect, these Articles or This is a requirement of Section 21 of the Companies Act 2006. the rights attaching to any of the shares in the Company. There are no shares so this only applies to the Articles. These are substantially standard articles for a CIC.
Variation will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders.
3a Enter into any arrangement, contract or This is about AfC buying services. AfC should identify in advance that it may enter into a contract transaction resulting in expenditure either greater than £10 million and specifically include this in the Business Plan. This will apply to re- with a capital value greater than £10,000 procuring existing contracts as well as new contracts. This will link to AfC’s register of contracts. or revenue value greater than £10 million. Any expenditure of such revenue by the Capital expenditure Company being less than £10 million For capital expenditure the limit is set to £10K to ensure major assets are not owned by AfC (because shall be subject to the Company’s own of the asset lock). Financial Regulations and shall be Example 1 – if AfC rented or hired equipment for an extended period within its revenue budget, subject to prior approval within the accounting rules could categorise this as a capital transaction (acquiring an asset). The Councils Business Plan and operating revenue would need to be aware of the implications of such transactions and approve them as part of their budget, which shall be approved by the Teckal control. This will be agreed via consultation with the Leaders. members in accordance with the Reserved Matters. Revenue expenditure The limit of £10m revenue value has been used help provide evidence that the Councils are exercising their control function which supports the Teckal exemption. In practice this means: B4 Example 2- if AfC entered into a contract for 6 years with expenditure of £1.7 million per annum (total £10.2m). Even though this may be within existing budgets and is approved in the Business Plan under item 9, as it is over £10m this will be a reserved matter and need consultation with the Leaders and agreement of the owners.
3b Enter into any arrangement, contract or This is about AfC selling services to third parties – i.e. any body other than the two Councils. transaction where the company is providing services to third parties The Councils need to know and be assured that the Company is not in breach of the Teckal exemption without following the Trading with regards to its trading position. Opportunity Evaluation Process as AfC will keep track of its income from trading and will not breach the agreed limit. (see separate advice produced by the members. Such note on Teckal exemption and the agreed income limit.). arrangements, contracts or transactions shall also be subject to prior approval In calculating the contract value, the total is the amount of the contract over the whole period, including within the Business Plan, which shall be the effect of any option to extend the contract. approved by the members in
accordance with the Reserved Matters. All proposals to enter into a contract to supply services are subject to the Trading Opportunity Evaluation Process which will identify the risks that need to be addressed. (see note). The Councils will then take a view on a de-minimis level for which they are content for AfC to enter into contracts to supply. For example, the Councils may decide to have the following kinds of limits: 1) Total value up to £500k – no input required by the Councils
2) Total value > £500k and up to £5 million – AfC produce risk assessment report to OCG and, depending on their view of the risks: a) Commissioners can agree to AfC to AfC entering the contract or b) Refer to CCB, who have the discretion to either decide or refer to the members as a reserved matter. Such discretion will be used to deal with matters that are politically sensitive (or unusual) as indicated in the TOEP diagram
3) Total value >£5 million – AfC produce risk assessment and this is considered by OCG, CCB B5 and requires Council approval as a Reserved Matter.
4. Enter into any borrowing, credit facility or This could relate to either budget issues for wider consideration by the Councils or an administrative / investment arrangement (other than trade technical matter that has no budget issues but the Councils need to approve in exercising their control credit in the ordinary course of business) function to support the Teckal exemption that has not been approved by the members under the Financial Plan. For example: AfC will have two or more ‘deposit accounts’ with banks in order to manage its cash flow without
regular (almost daily) recourse to the Councils – setting these up and any subsequent changes to these arrangements will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders.
5. Deal with any surpluses of the Company. If there are any surpluses it is the owners, (i.e. the Councils) who decide which areas of AfC will use it.
Surpluses will be dealt with in the normal course of contract management and yearly budget adjustment.
Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders.
6. Appoint or remove any Company Appointment of Directors is covered by Article 22 and all Directors are appointed by the members, Directors*. although the method of appointment depends on which type of Director it is.
The removal of any Directors is a requirement of Section 168 of the Companies Act 2006.
Removal of Directors is dealt with in Article 23, which says that a Director can be removed by the members after they have unanimously agreed to do so. In the definitions Director is defined as a Director of the Company, so this relates to all the Directors, either council, executive or non-executive directors.
Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders.
7. Agree any terms for any Directors (but Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders. B6 for the avoidance of doubt this does not include the terms and conditions of employment of Executive Directors as defined in the Articles of Association of the Company).
8. Appoint or remove any auditor of the This is a requirement of Section 510 of the Companies Act 2006 Company. Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders.
9. Adopt or amend the Business Plan in In terms of reference of the Joint Committee. respect of each financial year, which for the avoidance of doubt shall Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders, following consideration by the Joint include the adoption and amendment Committee of an operating revenue budget for the To note that relevant matters approved in advance by the Members under the Business Plan or
financial year to which it relates. Financial Plan will not need to be considered a second time as reserved matters.
10 Adopt or amend the Financial Plan. In terms of reference of the Joint Committee
Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders, following consideration by the Joint Committee
11. Agree any change in employment Will require consultation with and agreement of the Leaders. terms and conditions which would be inconsistent with the National Joint Council National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service and any changes to the pay and grading structure of the chief executive post of the Company.
12 Form any subsidiary of the Company The purpose of the RM is to show the Councils exert the same or largely the same control over AfC as B7 or acquire shares in any other if it was still a council department. company or participate in any partnership or joint venture with a view The assumption is that partnership denotes a legal partnership in this context and will apply to any to providing services to third parties partnership / joint venture activity, not only to the provision of or delivery of services. without being subject to the Trading This RM does not apply to collaborative working unless it will result in the provision/delivery of services Opportunity Evaluation Process as between the parties. prescribed by the members. All proposals to enter into a contract to supply services are subject to the Trading Opportunity Evaluation Process which will identify the risks that need to be addressed. (see separate note). Some suggested monetary limits are suggested in the note to the reserved matter 3a above. But apart from monetary risk the Councils will want to ensure reputational risk is managed. Any partnership or joint venture must be specifically flagged as part of the process for evaluating trading opportunities and will be considered by the OCG and escalated in line with the potential risk to the Councils, to CCB and
Leaders of the Councils if necessary.
13. Amalgamate or merge with any other This would substantially impact on current joint arrangements and so requires a Cabinet / Adults and company or business undertaking. Children’s Committee recommendation.
14. Sell or dispose in any way whatsoever, This would substantially impact on current joint arrangements and so requires a Cabinet / Adults and any part of the business of the Children’s Committee recommendation. Company.
15. Enter into any arrangement, contract Related to future direction of the Company. or transaction within, ancillary or incidental to the ordinary course of the Requires a Cabinet / Adults and Children’s Committee recommendation. Company's business or is otherwise than on arm's length terms. B8 16. Pass any resolution for the winding up Would substantially impact on current joint arrangements. of the Company or present any petition for the administration of the Company, Requires a Cabinet / Adults and Children’s Committee recommendation. other than where the Company is insolvent.
*The DCS is the Chief Executive of AfC and as such automatically a member of the Board. He / she can be removed as a Company Director as a result of this RM, but this will not affect the employment status of the DCS. Any change in this is covered by the terms and conditions of their employment.
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APPENDIX 2
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ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN JOINT COMMITTEE
DATE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2015
REPORT OF: FINANCIAL CONTROLLER AfC
SUBJECT: ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS
1. SUMMARY
1.1 AfC’s first annual report and accounts has been approved by the company's board of directors and audited, and is submitted to the Joint Committee for information. The document was also considered by the Operational Commissioning Group at its meeting on 17 August and the Children’s Commissioning Board on 28 August.
2. RECOMMENDATION The Joint Committee is recommended to receive and consider the Annual Report and Accounts
3. BASIS OF PREPARATION AND CONTENT 3.1 The annual report and accounts has been prepared to meet the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the accounts element has also been prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standards (IASs). The accounting standards are the same as used by local authorities and the presentation of AfC’s accounts is similar to that of both Councils, so officers and Members will be familiar with the appearance and content of this part of the document. 3.2 In relation to the annual report element, the content, though not the order and presentation of information, is largely prescribed by the Companies Act 2006. Apart from the financial statements, the other components of the annual report are: Strategic • To provide context for the related financial statements. • To provide insight into the entity’s business model and its main objectives and strategy. • To describe the principal risks the entity faces and how they might affect its future prospects. • To provide an analysis of the entity’s past performance. • To provide signposting to show the location of complementary information. Corporate Governance • To provide information necessary to explain how the composition and organisation of the entity’s governance structures supports the achievement of the entity’s objectives. Directors’ Remuneration • To set out all elements of the entity’s directors’ remuneration policy and key factors that were taken into account in setting the policy.
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• To report on how the directors’ remuneration policy has been implemented. • To set out amounts awarded to directors and provide details on the link between the entity’s performance and directors’ remuneration The formal Remuneration Report is only mandatory for quoted companies (for UK companies this means they are listed on the official stock exchange) but relevant information is included in the Directors’ Report section for transparency. Directors’ Report • To provide other statutory / regulatory information about the entity. There are specific reporting requirements within each of these components although not all apply to AfC as it is not a public company.
4 AUDIT APPROVAL 4.1 Both the ‘annual report’ elements and the financial statements have been audited by the company’s external auditor, Grant Thornton UK LLP, and ‘signed off’ on the 19 th August. 4.2 In relation to the audit of the financial statements, the auditors have reported the findings of their audit which were considered, alongside management’s responses, by AfC's Audit and Risk Committee on 15 th July. The AfC Board approved the accounts and the annual report (including the strategic report and directors’ report) at its meeting, also on the 15 th July, subject to any outstanding minor matters that were still subject to review by the auditor for which the Board delegated approval to the Chair and Chief Executive. These amendments were finalised and approved prior to the auditor signing on the 19 th August. 4.3 For electronic publication the document is being formatted and published in the normal AfC style format to improve presentation.
5 COMMUNITY INTEREST REPORT 5.1 As a Community Interest Company (CIC), AfC is required to submit an annual report to the CIC regulator separately to the annual report required under the Companies Act 2006. The format of this report is specified as a CIC 34 return with additional supporting information provided as attachments. The purpose if the report is to demonstrate four aspects that the regulator will review to satisfy AfC’s continuing registration as a CIC: a) Description of the company’s activities and impact b) Consultation with stakeholders c) Director’s remuneration d) Transfer of assets other than for full consideration 5.2 The CIC return is currently in draft and will be finalised shortly for submission. A copy of the latest draft is attached for information – the CIC 34 is not audited. Annex 1
6 GOVERNANCE – REPORTING TO THE COMPANY’S OWNERS 6.1 The main purpose of company annual reports is to report to members of the company (shareholders/owners) and every company is required to send a copy of its annual report and accounts for each financial year to every
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member of the company. Public companies are also required to present their annual report and accounts to the members of the company in general meeting (usually the AGM). 6.2 There are no specific requirements within AfC’s governance arrangements for the manner in which the Annual Report and Accounts should be reported to the Councils as members of the company. Although consideration of the annual report and accounts is an ‘ownership’ matter in relation to the requirements of the companies act, and also in terms of the content of the document, it is felt that, in view of the status of this document, it should be presented to the OCG and CCB prior to the Joint Committee. A copy of the draft annual report and accounts is attached. Annex 2
7 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 None arising from this report.
8 BACKGROUND PAPERS
8.1 None
9 CONTACT:
Chris Smith Financial Controller 020 8891 7243 [email protected]
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ANNEX 1
CIC 34 Community Interest Company Report
For official use (Please leave blank)
Please Company Name in Achieving for Children Community Interest Company complete in full typescript, or in bold black capitals. Company Number 08878185
Year Ending March 2015
This template illustrates what the Regulator of Community Interest Companies considers to be best practice for completing a simplified community interest company report. All such reports must be delivered in accordance with section 34 of the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and contain the information required by Part 7 of the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005. For further guidance see chapter 8 of the Regulator’s guidance notes and the alternate example provided for a more complex company with more detailed notes.
PART 1 - GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY’S ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT In the space provided below, please insert a general account of the company’s activities in the financial year to which the report relates, including a fair and accurate description of how they have benefited the community, or section of the community, which the company is intended to serve.
Achieving for Children is a community interest company created by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide their children’s services. The company has been formed by bringing together all the services that support children and families from the two founding Councils. It is the first entire children’s service in the UK to spin-out from a local authority. As a community interest company, Achieving for Children is governed by the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005. The community interest model means that the assets of the company, including any profits we make, are locked into the company and there are restrictions on how they can be used. In essence they can only be reinvested in services for children and their families in Kingston and Richmond or used to reduce the cost of those services. A social audit report is attached which sets out our activities and our achievements over the past year and how they have benefited the community.
(If applicable, please just state “A social audit report covering these points is attached”). (Please continue on separate continuation sheet if necessary.) C6
PART 2 – CONSULTATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS – Please indicate who the company’s stakeholders are; how the stakeholders have been consulted and what action, if any, has the company taken in response to feedback from its consultations? If there has been no consultation, this should be made clear.
Achieving for Children’s key stakeholders are the children, young people and families that we serve in Kingston and Richmond. Other stakeholders include Achieving for Children employees and key partners. We are committed to consulting with our stakeholders and where required, taking action in response to feedback. Indeed, one of our company values is that ‘we are a listening and learning organisation. The attached social audit report sets out the consultation activity we have undertaken as part of the completion of our Business Plan projects.
A social audit report covering these points is attached.
(If applicable, please just state “A social audit report covering these points is attached”). PART 3 – DIRECTORS’ REMUNERATION – if you have provided full details in your accounts you need not reproduce it here. Please clearly identify the information within the accounts and confirm that, “There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed” (See example with full notes). If no remuneration was received you must state that “no remuneration was received” below.
Full details of our Directors’ remuneration are set out in our annual accounts.
PART 4 – TRANSFERS OF ASSETS OTHER THAN FOR FULL CONSIDERATION – Please insert full details of any transfers of assets other than for full consideration e.g. Donations to outside bodies. If this does not apply you must state that “no transfer of assets other than for full consideration has been made” below.
No transfer of assets other than for full consideration has been made.
(Please continue on separate continuation sheet if necessary.)
(N.B. Please enclose a cheque for £15 payable to Companies House) C7
PART 5 – SIGNATORY
The original report must be signed by a director or secretary of the company Signed Date
Office held (tick as appropriate) Director
You do not have to give any contact Nick Whitfield information in the box opposite but if you do, it will help the Registrar of Companies to contact you if there is a query on the form. The contact information that you give will be visible to searchers of the public record. Achieving for Children Chief Executive
Telephone: Kingston- 020 8547 5286/ Richmond- 020 8891 7507 DX Number- N/A DX Exchange- N/A
When you have completed and signed the form, please send it to the Registrar of Companies at: For companies registered in England and Wales: Companies House, Crown Way, Cardiff, CF14 3UZ DX 33050 Cardiff
For companies registered in Scotland: Companies House, 4th Floor, Edinburgh Quay 2, 139 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, EH3 9FF DX 235 Edinburgh or LP – 4 Edinburgh 2
For companies registered in Northern Ireland: Companies House, 2nd Floor, The Linenhall, 32-38 Linenhall Street, Belfast, BT2 8BG
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Achieving for Children
CIC34: Community Interest Company Report
Social Audit Report
Achieving for Children Community Interest Company Registered in England and Wales as a Private Limited Company Registered Office – Gifford House, 67c St Helier Avenue, Morden, SM4 6HY Registration Number 08878185 www.achievingforchildren.org.uk
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Introduction
This report has been produced to satisfy the requirements of the CIC34 Community Interest Report. It sets out our activities and our achievements during 2014-15 and how these have benefited the children, young people and families who we serve. It includes examples of the consultation we have undertaken with our stakeholders- including children, young people and families.
Our achievements against our 2014-15 objectives
The following section in our annual report sets out our some of our achievements against our 2014-15 objectives and highlights case studies of best practice.
Ensuring the effectiveness of early help services for vulnerable children
• The Team around the Child model has been embedded across Early Help and Children’s Social Care ensuring families experience a seamless journey through our services. To support this, we have established a range of processes, protocols and procedures and have delivered multi-agency training and development to ensure that we always take an integrated approach based on the needs of the children and families we work with. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is just one of the tools we use to assess the needs of children and young people. During 2014-15, we completed 1,131 CAFs in Kingston and 1,819 CAFs in Richmond. • Since October 2014, specialist mental health workers have formed part of the Single Point of Access (SPA), which is the front door for all referrals into children’s services. This new practice enables appropriate and timely referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) at Tier 2 and 3. Referrals into the SPA have mainly been generated by GPs and schools; young people can also self-refer to the service. • The Strengthening Families Team has worked together with the police, health services and schools to improve the outcomes for families living in complex circumstances. Using the Team Around the Child approach and targeted interventions to tackle school absence and crime, Achieving for Children managed to engage its target number of families for the three year national programme, by increasing opportunities for 225 families in Kingston and 190 families in Richmond.
CASE STUDY: USING OUR TEAM AROUND THE CHILD MODEL TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE YOUNG PEOPLE Our Team Around the Child model provides dedicated support to a growing number of young people and their families across both Kingston and Richmond.
‘Katie is a young person with mental health issues who has suffered from alcohol and substance misuse and has not attended school for two years. Her parents have experienced difficulties getting help for Katie as they feel children’s services were slow to recognise her serious mental health problems. There was a long wait to find a viable option to help her, with several false starts. This is an area of improvement for us moving forward.
Now, Katie’s parents are pleased with the support that both they and Katie have received from Achieving for Children. When Katie had a period of crisis, the Adolescent Resource Team (ART) immediately took action and arranged respite care. Her parents said that the respite care has, “definitely bolstered Katie and showed her there is a different way to handle things. It gave her the stability to make the life-changing decision to straighten out her life. It has also allowed us as parents C11
to get back on an even keel and helped us to always respond properly to Katie. It has also allowed us to work, as before that we could never leave Katie alone. We are operating now as a normal family”.
Katie now has a Statement of Special Educational Need and an Education, Health and Care Plan which means she is able to access additional funding to help her to get the support she needs. She is also being supported to access activities that will hopefully help her to integrate into normal teenage life.’
Safeguarding children and young people from harm through effective and early intervention
• A Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) has been established as part of the SPA. Information sharing protocols are in place with all partners so that intelligence about vulnerable children and young people can be shared in an open and timely manner. Clear roles and responsibilities are in place so that all staff in the MASH, and those that interact with it, are clear about expectations. Governance arrangements at all levels have been agreed. Benchmarking data with the London Councils for the MASH indicates that Achieving for Children is appropriately applying thresholds and making accurate and timely referral decisions about children at risk of harm. During 2014-15, 96% of contacts to the SPA in Kingston and 95% of contacts to the SPA in Richmond resulted in decisions being made within 24 hours. • A joint Child Protection Conference Service was launched in April 2014. The team of four Child Protection Conference Chairs have streamlined the service now to ensure that shorter and more effective conferences take place. Information on conference activity is collated and so key information about the effectiveness of child protection conferences can be shared and analysed by LSCB in order to make continual improvements. More young people now attend their conferences. 95% of initial Child Protection Conferences in Kingston and 83% in Richmond were held within timescale.
CASE STUDY: ESTABLISHING ANNUAL VULNERABLE CHILDREN CONVERSATIONS WITH SCHOOLS We have begun to implement a programme of annual conversations with schools to enable us to share information and to join up the support we provide for vulnerable pupils. 24 schools across Kingston and Richmond were visited during 2014-15 by members of the Senior Leadership Team.
Pip Utting, Interim Headteacher at Knollmead Primary School in Kingston said, “I found the vulnerable children’s conversation really valuable. The Associate Director for SEND and the Director for Children’s Social Care in Kingston attended and listened to some concerns I had for children in my school and then, within a short period of time, let me know what they had done to resolve them.“
Providing more effective support and opportunities for children looked after
• The Virtual School Head role is fully integrated into the school networks in Kingston and Richmond to better support the educational needs of looked-after children. The Head has jointly launched a Pupil Premium Policy and is in the process of implementing Welfare Call, which will monitor the school attendance and educational progress of looked-after children. This will also include support from the Educational Psychology Service. In 2014, 92% of looked-after children in Kingston and 99% of looked- after children in Richmond had an up-to-date Personal Education Plan to support their educational achievement. We are also proud that no looked-after children were permanently excluded from school during the year. The most up-to-date exam results show that in both Kingston and Richmond, looked-after children exceeded the national and London averages for attaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths. In Kingston, 22% of looked-after children and, in C12
Richmond, 60% of looked-after children achieved this milestone, compared to a London average of just 18% and a national average of 15%.
CASE STUDY: SUPPORTING LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN TO FIND PERMANENT, SAFE AND SECURE HOMES Wherever possible, Achieving for Children aims to find permanent, safe and secure homes for looked-after children.
In Kingston, a child’s grandmother was successfully supported, as an alternative carer, to provide permanency for her grandchild who was supported by Achieving for Children as a child in need. The grandmother said, “I’ve always been here for my granddaughter and want to make sure she’s safe and happy.”
In Richmond, a child in need was supported to return home to live with his mother after a previous breakdown in their relationship. The mother said, “I would like to thank Achieving for Children so, so much for working with my son. It was a very hard seven months being without my boy. With your help and encouragement, and belief in my son, he is back where he belongs. Thank you so much.”
Ensuring sufficient school and childcare places
• The Castlenau area of Barnes is classed as an area of relative deprivation with a high proportion of socially-rented accommodation and children in poverty. Almost a third of pupils in the area attends a state-funded school and is eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant. Gaps in childcare provision in the area had been identified in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment in 2014 and so it was vital that high quality and locally accessible childcare was created. Working in partnership with the London Early Years Foundation and Richmond Housing Partnership, Achieving for Children secured £10,000 to set up a new nursery in Jenner Hall in Barnes. The new nursery has generated at least eight new childcare places for disadvantaged two-year-olds as well as offering 15 hours of nursery education for three and four-year- olds. The new setting will be ready to accept children from September 2015. • Achieving for Children have worked in partnership with a number of free schools to create new school places in Kingston and Richmond. Twickenham Primary Academy, proposed by GEMS Education, will open in Heathgate House on Twickenham Green in September 2015. The school will provide 60 reception class places. No site could be secured for Richmond Bridge Primary School, proposed by Bellevue and Place Education Trust (BPET), within the St Margaret's and East Twickenham area in time for a September 2015 opening; however, a site has been secured in central Richmond which will be named Deer Park Primary School and is planned to open in September 2015. The school will provide 30 reception class places in 2015 rising to 60 places in 2017. Work is also ongoing to secure a site to enable the opening of a two-form entry primary school in St Margaret's and East Twickenham in September 2016. • During 2014, we enabled 95% of resident families in Kingston and 94% of resident families in Richmond to send their child to one of their preferred primary schools. 96% of resident families in Kingston and 94% of resident families in Richmond were also able to send their child to one of their preferred secondary schools.
Supporting high educational achievement in schools
• Universal Free School Meals were introduced by the Government for all pupils aged five to eight. We managed the re-development of 37 school kitchens in just five months to deliver the additional meals. This contributed to a 55% rise in the provision of nutritious school meals for children from 112,000 meals each month in November 2013 to 205,000 meals in November 2014. This means that we support the C13
delivery of 10,250 meals served each day to local school children. • We created a Pupil Benefits Service to identify pupils eligible for Free Schools Meals and therefore additional Pupil Premium Funding. For those schools that signed up to the service, we identified and registered 415 new Free School Meal pupils and in total £536,900 of Pupil Premium Funding was accessed by schools. Over the next six years £3,221,400 worth of additional funding will be generated for those schools. • The expansion of SPA[RK] contributed to high standards of attainment in both Kingston and Richmond across all Key Stages, with pupil progress above the national average. National rankings in both boroughs also continue to remain high. In 2014, Richmond was ranked 2nd in the country (87%) and Kingston 11th (84%) for pupils achieving Level 4 or above in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at Key Stage 2. Both Kingston (70%) and Richmond (64%) were above national averages (57%) for the achievement of five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths and the percentage of pupils attaining the English Baccalaureate in Kingston (43%) and Richmond (38%) was significantly higher than national averages (23%). • One of the key focuses for SPA[RK] has been to reduce attainment gaps. In 2014, we narrowed the attainment gap in a number of areas including between pupils with English as an Additional Language and their peers at Key Stage 1 in Kingston (the gap is 0% points and narrower than the national gap) and boys and girls at Key Stage 2 (the gap is 1% point and is in line with the national gap) in Richmond. Figures showed however, that in 2014 there were still some areas requiring improvement. For example, in 2015- 16, we have identified narrowing the attainment gap between pupils eligible for Pupil Premium Funding and their peers as a priority. Currently, there is a gap in Kingston at both the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 4 and in Richmond at both the Early Years Foundation Stage and at Key Stage 1. Exam results for 2014-15 are due in July 2015 and we hope they will demonstrate improvement in all areas.
Supporting young people in their transition to adulthood and employment
• We held the first Achieving for Children Careers Fair - The World of Work Roadshow - as part of National Careers Week 2014. More than 700 young people attended, mainly pupils from Kingston and Richmond schools, but also young people who are not in education, employment or training. Over 40 exhibitors, including employers and training providers, talked to the attendees about graduate, training and employment opportunities. The event was supported by Councillors and by 15 schools, 13 local training providers and 29 employers, both large and small.
CASE STUDY: SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD Our Way to Work apprenticeship programme successfully employed 99 learners: 56 apprenticeship starters and 27 achievers.
Daisy-Mae Dalton is a young person that has benefited from an apprenticeship. Having left school and while living in a hostel, she was unsure about what she wanted to do in the future. Having successfully applied for an apprenticeship, and despite financial and personal difficulties, Daisy-Mae was supported to achieve the qualification on time, even picking up the Apprentice of the Month Award along the way. The Way to Work team helped Daisy-Mae to get an interview for a role at Richmond Council for which she was successful. Daisy-Mae said, “this opportunity really helped me, as I live on my own, and I would have found it extremely hard to cope without employment and continued support. Thank you so much to everyone that has helped me to get to this point and improve my life.”
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Implementing the national special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms
• We have provided families with greater choice and control over the services they receive, allowing them to tailor provision to meet their own unique needs. Personal budgets are now available for parents so that they can directly purchase services to support their children. We also have established a single assessment process to establish children’s special educational needs and implemented Education, Health and Care Plans to ensure these needs are supported effectively. Documents explaining and supporting the single assessment process have been developed in partnership with parents and with our Young Champions. • We have developed a fully integrated service for children and young people with disabilities in Kingston and Richmond led by the Associate Director of SEND. The new service incorporates services for disabled children, children with SEN and children with mental and emotional health needs.
CASE STUDY: PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE DESIGN OF THE SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEED LOCAL OFFER “Achieving for Children’s Local Offer is a living, organic repository of services and support for all families of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – whether or not they have a Statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Whilst the Local Offer is funded and facilitated by Achieving for Children it ‘belongs’ to families. That’s the key. That’s what makes it so good. From the outset, families in Kingston and Richmond have been involved. Now we have a live website, it will be easier for families to search for the services and support they need.
Achieving for Children's Local Offer will, over time, provide parents, carers and young people with a single point of query for information, advice and support. And the best thing about it is that we are all doing this together- a truly collaborative effort!”
Romany Wood- Robinson, a parent of a child with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Chair of Richmond SEND Family Voice
Improving workforce development and planning
• We have established an annual work survey and, in June 2014, we distributed our first annual survey to hear the views of our workforce. The results demonstrate that staff feel motivated and supported at work and have a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve for children and their families. Given that Achieving for Children represents a new model of service delivery, it is encouraging that staff feel that are able to contribute ideas and suggestions to improve services, and that they are empowered to come up with innovative solutions to problems. It is particularly positive that three quarters of our staff reported that their work gives them a feeling of personal achievement. Some areas for improvement were also identified, including ensuring that we are able to recruit and retain the right staff now and in the future.
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CASE STUDY: IMPROVING STAFF ENGAGEMENT THROUGH A STAFF COUNCIL Achieving for Children has established a Staff Council to represent the workforce on various issues, including streamlining our business processes to maximise our efficiency, empowering and practically supporting staff to develop their ideas for growing the business, and leading on a programme of team-building social activities. Members of staff nominated themselves to serve on the Staff Council; the first meeting was held in April 2015.
One of the new Staff Council members said, “I’m really excited to be involved with the Staff Council and am looking forward to representing the views of my colleagues. It’s a good learning opportunity for me and enables me to get to know other staff, whilst ensuring that the views of employees are taken into account as the company grows and develops.”
9. Securing new business opportunities to sustain frontline services
• Achieving for Children successfully bid for a contract with the Department for Education to become one of their team of Improvement Advisers. We are one of six advisers assigned to provide support and challenge to local authorities whose safeguarding services have been judged inadequate by Ofsted. This work will enable us to share some of the experience we have gained from successfully improving safeguarding services in Kingston. • We have also been awarded a total of £1.1 million from the Government to develop teams of highly- skilled practitioners to work closely with young people experiencing a family breakdown. The money will also be used to train specialist foster carers with the skills to support children and young people with the most severe emotional or behavioural problems.
10. Integrating business systems and develop an effective business infrastructure
• We have integrated a number of our business systems and processes and embraced new technology to help staff to work flexibly and remotely. IPads have been provided to key employees and Google technology has been rolled out across the organisation enabling information to be more easily shared.
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C17 ANNEX 2
Registration Number 08878185
Achieving for Children Community Interest Company
Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
2014-15
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Contents Chair of the Board of Directors’ Statement ...... 4 STRATEGIC REPORT ...... 5 1. Chief Executive’s Review of the Year ...... 5 2. Our vision ...... 7 3. How has being a company made a difference? ...... 8 4. Our achievements against our 2014-15 objectives ...... 10 DIRECTORS’ REPORT ...... 15 5. Our company, our governance arrangements and our risk management ...... 15 5.1 Achieving for Children as an entity ...... 15 5.2 Governance ...... 18 5.3 Risks and Risk Management ...... 23 5.4 Financial and Audit Information ...... 25 5.5 Directors’ Responsibilities ...... 25 FINANCIAL REVIEW AND FUTURE PLANS ...... 27 6. Our Finances...... 27 7. Looking Forward ...... 29 8. Financial Accounts and Independent Auditor’s Report ...... 30 THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...... 35 NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...... 39 GLOSSARY OF TERMS ...... 75
This Annual Report summarises the performance of Achieving for Children for the period between 5 February 2014 and 31 March 2015 and is authorised for issue by the Board.
Nick Whitfield Chief Executive
Achieving for Children Community Interest Company Registered in England and Wales as a Private Limited Company Registered Office – Gifford House, 67c St Helier Avenue, Morden, SM4 6HY Registration Number 08878185 www.achievingforchildren.org.uk
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Chair of the Board of Directors’ Statement
I am delighted to introduce and to welcome you to Achieving for Children’s first Annual Report.
The past year has been a time of significant change. Our company was formed by bringing together the education and children’s services of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The two Councils now commission us to deliver their children’s services.
Our focus over the past year has been on establishing the foundations of the company while maintaining high quality services. We have integrated the workforce and redesigned the majority of our services, the new structures are now becoming embedded and show considerable efficiencies and improvement in delivery.
We are growing and developing as a business and we have submitted a number of formal tenders to deliver services for other local authorities. We have successfully won consultancy work with the Department for Education to provide improvement advice to local authorities who have been rated as inadequate in their Ofsted inspections.
We have faced a number of challenges during 2014-15, not least the competing pressures of establishing a new company yet managing the existing delivery of children’s services within a tight financial framework. The financial challenge will only continue to get tougher as we move into 2015-16; however, through effective financial management, as well as innovative and creative thinking, we are confident we will continue to deliver high quality services in a cost effective manner.
We also remain determined to continue to improve children’s social care services in Kingston which received an inadequate judgement following an Ofsted inspection in 2012 and was issued with a Notice to Improve by the Department for Education. A follow-up inspection in 2013 concluded that services remained inadequate but noted that good and steady progress had been made to improve safeguarding arrangements. This was confirmed in a review by the Department for Education in January 2015.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our employees and partners for their hard work and dedication over the past 12 months. I truly believe that the progress we have made as a company would not have been possible without the often tireless efforts of our workforce and as a Board, we are extremely grateful for this.
Looking forward, we know we will face many challenges but are confident that we can continue to deliver on our promise to help children to live safe, happy and successful lives.
David Groves, Chair of Board of Directors
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STRATEGIC REPORT
1. Chief Executive’s Review of the Year
It has been an exciting year for us: one of great change and not insignificant challenge. Achieving for Children was the first entire children’s services in the UK to spin out from a local authority. At the heart of the Councils’ decision to set us up was a belief that we could create a bold, unique and more responsive company committed to, and entirely focused on, improving the lives of children, young people and their families.
We believe that we can do more as Achieving for Children than we would have been able to do if we had stayed as separate local authority services, with speedier decision-making and openness to new business opportunities.
We have now combined the workforce of the two directorates into one organisation and integrated many of the services into single structures. This has brought immediate benefits for residents. Examples are seen in the co-located integrated disabled children’s service, the youth activity centre at Albany Park in Kingston, and the excellent youth facilities that are provided in Richmond. All of these can now be accessed by children from across the two boroughs.
It has also provided benefits in terms of addressing national agendas. For example, we have implemented a single approach to the prioritisation of the integration of education, health and social care services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and we are proud that the quality of our Local Offer for children and young people with SEND has been recognised. We have also had a 100% success in meeting our targets for our joint refined offer to vulnerable and complex families through a joined-up Strengthening Families programme.
Locally, we have focused on improvement in the quality in children’s social care as a first priority for the company. We have been able to ensure the delivery of sufficient nursery education and school places to meet forecasted demand, and have supported schools to maintain high levels of educational achievement whilst reducing gaps in attainment that previously existed between vulnerable children and their peers.
The expansion of the School Performance Alliance for Richmond and Kingston (SPA[RK]) has facilitated the creation of new relationships and encouraged more schools to work together. As a result, we have more schools graded as good and outstanding than ever before. We have worked hard with partners to improve the quality of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) to ensure that safeguarding practice is scrutinised and held to account across the full partnership. This work has been facilitated and well supported by the new independent chair of the LSCBs.
Importantly for us, children and young people have been more engaged than ever in helping us shape services. They have assisted in the recruitment of staff for Achieving for Children through the Recruits Crew; produced a training programme to help professionals become more aware of the needs of young carers; and worked with the LSCBs to raise awareness about teenage relationship abuse.
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None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedication of our employees who have worked relentlessly to create this new venture while continuing to ensure ‘business as usual’ in supporting children, young people and their families. For this I would like to express my sincere thanks.
In the years ahead, more challenges will undoubtedly present themselves. There will be a sharper focus on financial efficiency as public expenditure reduces and our delivery model will be tested as we integrate services further. We will seek to deliver provision closer to the communities we serve and to generate more income through the provision of services to others. Recent Ofsted inspections of children’s services have also demonstrated a much tougher inspection regime, with an increasing number of local authorities requiring improvement. We are working hard to ensure the company is prepared for inspection by continually focusing on improving the quality of services, responding to feedback from the children, young people, families and partners we work with, and learning lessons from three local Serious Case Reviews. We will also work with our partners to create innovative solutions to increasing demands for social care services. This includes delivering a foster care improvement programme funded by the Department for Education to broaden the range of foster care placements for the most vulnerable young people.
We are confident that our second year in business will be as successful as our first and that our new company will continue to think in a creative way to find new ways of realising its vision to improve the lives of children, young people and their families in Kingston and Richmond.
Nick Whitfield, Chief Executive of Achieving for Children
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2. Our vision
Helping children to live safe, happy and successful lives.
To help deliver this vision, we have created a set of values for the organisation that will guide our decision- making and the way that we work with children, young people, families and partners. Our values are:
• We put children and young people first • We work in partnership to improve our services • We focus on quality and innovation • We are a listening and learning organisation • We champion inclusion and value diversity
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3. How has being a company made a difference?
From the outset we said that we wanted Achieving for Children to be different. Not just for the sake of being different but because we wanted to make a positive change to the lives of children and young people. We said that being a company would allow us to achieve this and would encourage us to think and act differently. We said we wanted to make decisions more quickly; work with our local partners to find creative solutions to shared challenges; listen to children and young people and involve them more in developing our services; retain a highly-skilled and motivated workforce; and bring in new expertise through our Board of Directors. So, how did we do in our first year?
We said we wanted to make decisions more quickly – so….
• We moved resources within Achieving for Children to meet the demand for additional Children’s Centre activities in Richmond, rather than seeking growth funding from the two Councils. • We set up our Bureaucracy Busting workshops, led by the Deputy Chief Executive. As a result we organised joint supervision between Early Help and Children’s Social Care to improve practice, we clarified step-up and step-down processes, and we asked social workers to simplify consent processes so that they were fit for purpose.
We said we wanted to be innovative – so…
• We joined the Frontline Social Work Programme and are busy training eight social workers. We will train a further eight next year. • Based on feedback from employees, we delegated budgets to frontline workers so that they could spend money on the things that would make the greatest difference to children. • We created a Business Academy to enable employees to come up with and develop income- generating ideas.
We said that we wanted to work with our partners to find creative solutions – so….
• We created SPA [RK], our alliance of schools, to help them support pupils to reach even higher levels of achievement and attainment. • We are creating Achieving for Children Outreach with our schools to promote their successful teaching and learning strategies to schools in other local authorities. • We cultivated partnerships with organisations, such as Chessington World of Adventures, who helped us celebrate the achievements of our looked-after children and care leavers. • We worked with Apple and John Lewis to look at innovation in IT and improvement in customer service, and to help us to think and act more like a business in the commercial world. • We created formal partnerships with organisations in the voluntary sector, such as the YMCA, to enable us to bid for work that requires expertise that we do not have in-house.
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We said we wanted to give employees a distinct voice – so…
• We established a Staff Awards Scheme to reward the best employees in the organisation, with decisions made by staff and not managers. • At the request of our employees, we established a Staff Council that works with our Senior Leadership Team to deliver continuing change and improvement in our services. • We reduced our caseloads for frontline staff to ensure that they could focus on providing high- quality support for the children they work with.
We said we want to hear from and involve children and young people, so…
• We asked children and young people to fundraise for those more vulnerable than themselves and achieved over £83,000 for our Philippines and Ebola campaigns. • We invested early in a joint participation team to work across Kingston and Richmond to ensure children and young people have a meaningful voice. • We worked with children and young people on the Children in Care Council to fund a programme of training for professionals led by looked- after children themselves.
Our employees said that we needed to retain the right staff – so…
• We funded over 60 of employees to attend external training courses ranging from short courses to degrees and post-graduate professional qualifications. • We have identified employees with the potential to manage at the next level and encouraged others to move between boroughs to take advantage of opportunities for promotion.
We said we would bring in new expertise with a Board of Independent Directors, so…
• We appointed Non-Executive Independent Directors (NEIDs) with the purpose of keeping us focused on our key values and ambitions. • Board Members act as advocates for employees, for example lobbying to protect key worker housing for employees. • As we look to the future, Board Members can help us to identify suitable business opportunities, and to think and act more like a business.
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4. Our achievements against our 2014-15 objectives
The following section in our annual report sets out our some of our achievements and our progress against the ten objectives we identified in our Business Plan for 2014-15.
Ensuring the effectiveness of early help services for vulnerable children
• The Team around the Child model has been embedded across Early Help and Children’s Social Care ensuring families experience a seamless journey through our services. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is just one of the tools we use to assess the needs of children and young people. During 2014-15, we completed 1,131 CAFs in Kingston and 1,819 CAFs in Richmond. • Since October 2014, specialist mental health workers have formed part of the Single Point of Access (SPA), which is the front door for all referrals into children’s services. This new practice enables appropriate and timely referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). • The Strengthening Families Team has worked together with the police, health services and schools to improve the outcomes for families living in complex circumstances. Using the Team around the Child approach and targeted interventions to tackle school absence and crime, we met our national targets by increasing opportunities for 225 families in Kingston and 190 families in Richmond.
KATIE
Katie has mental health problems and was involved in alcohol and substance misuse, which has meant that she has not regularly attended school for two years. When Katie had a period of crisis, the Adolescent Resource Team (ART) immediately took action and arranged respite care. Her parents said that the respite care has, “definitely bolstered Katie and showed her there is a different way to handle things. It gave her the stability to make the life-changing decision to straighten out her life. It has also allowed us as parents to get back on an even keel and helped us to always respond properly to Katie. It has also allowed us to work, as before that we could never leave Katie alone. We are operating now as a normal family”.
Safeguarding children and young people from harm through effective and early intervention
• A Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) has been established as part of the SPA and we have put in place information sharing protocols with all partners so that intelligence about vulnerable children and young people can be shared in an open and timely manner. Benchmarking data from London Councils indicates that Achieving for Children is appropriately applying MASH thresholds and making accurate and timely referral decisions about children at risk of harm. During 2014-15, 96% of contacts to the SPA in Kingston and 95% of contacts to the SPA in Richmond resulted in appropriate decisions being made within 24 hours. The company aims to achieve 100%.
• A new and streamlined joint Child Protection Conference Service was launched in April 2014 to ensure that shorter and more effective conferences take place to protect children from harm. More young people now attend their conferences and 95% of initial Child Protection Conferences in Kingston and 83% in Richmond were held within timescale. The company aims to achieve 100%.
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KNOLLMEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL
We have implemented a programme of conversations with local schools to help senior managers to understand how to better support individual children in the schools who are in need of help and protection. 24 conversations were held with schools across Kingston and Richmond during the year. These were led by members of the Senior Leadership Team supported by experienced social care practitioners.
Pip Utting, Headteacher at Knollmead Primary School in Kingston said, “I found the vulnerable children’s conversation really valuable. The Associate Director for SEND and the Director for Children’s Social Care in Kingston attended and listened to some concerns I had for children in my school and then, within a short period of time, let me know what they had done to resolve them.“
Providing more effective support and opportunities for children looked after
• The Virtual School Head role, which oversees academic progress of looked after children, is fully integrated into the school networks in Kingston and Richmond to better support the educational needs of looked-after children. In 2014, 92% of looked-after children in Kingston and 99% of looked- after children in Richmond had an up-to-date Personal Education Plan to support their educational achievement. We are also proud that no looked-after children were permanently excluded from school during the year. The most up-to-date exam results show that in both Kingston and Richmond, looked-after children exceeded the national and London averages for attaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths. In Kingston, 22% of looked-after children and, in Richmond, 60% of looked-after children achieved this milestone, compared to a London average of just 18% and a national average of 15%.
Ensuring sufficient school and childcare places
• Working in partnership with the London Early Years Foundation and Richmond Housing Partnership, Achieving for Children secured £10,000 to set up a new nursery in Jenner Hall in Barnes to serve an area of relative deprivation in which there is a high proportion of socially-rented accommodation and children in poverty. Gaps in childcare provision in the area had been identified in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment in 2014 and so it was vital that high quality and locally accessible childcare was created. The new nursery has generated at least eight new childcare places for disadvantaged two-year-olds as well as offering 15 hours of nursery education for three and four-year-olds. • In Kingston, Kingston Community School, proposed by Chapel Street, will open in the former NHS clinic in Acre Road in September 2015 and provide 60 reception class places per year, prior to its move to its permanent site in Coombe Road, Norbiton, in September 2017; and The Kingston Academy, proposed by Kingston Educational Trust, will open at the North Kingston Centre site in September 2015 and provide 180 year 7 places per year. • In Richmond, Twickenham Primary Academy, proposed by GEMS Education, will open in Heathgate House near Twickenham Green in September 2015 and provide 60 reception class places per year;
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Deer Park, proposed by Bellevue and Place Education Trust, will open at Richmond Adult Community College in September 2015 and provide 30 reception class places in 2015 and 2016, rising to 60 places in 2017 when it moves to its permanent site in Lower Mortlake Road; and Turing House, proposed by the Russell Education Trust, will open in Livingston House, Teddington, and provide 100 year 7 places in 2015, 2016 and 2017, rising to 150 in 2018 when it moves to its permanent site. • During 2014, 95% of resident families in Kingston and 94% of resident families in Richmond were able to send their child to one of their preferred primary schools. 96% of resident families in Kingston and 94% of resident families in Richmond were also able to send their child to one of their preferred secondary schools.
Supporting high educational achievement in schools
• High standards of attainment were achieved in both Kingston and Richmond across all Key Stages, with pupil progress above the national average. National rankings in both boroughs also continue to remain high. In 2014, Richmond was ranked 2nd in the country (87%) and Kingston 11th (84%) for pupils achieving Level 4 or above in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at Key Stage 2. Both Kingston (70%) and Richmond (64%) were above national averages (57%) for the achievement of five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths. The percentage of pupils attaining the English Baccalaureate in Kingston (43%) and Richmond (38%) was also significantly higher than national averages (23%). • In 2014, we narrowed the gap in attainment in a number of areas including between pupils with English as an Additional Language and their peers at Key Stage 1 in Kingston and between boys and girls at Key Stage 2 in Richmond. • We created a Pupil Benefits Service to identify pupils eligible for Free Schools Meals and Pupil Premium Funding. For those schools that signed up to the service, we helped to identify and register 415 new pupils and bring in £536,900 in additional Pupil Premium Funding that schools are able to use to improve educational attainment.
Supporting young people in their transition to adulthood and employment
• We held the first Achieving for Children Careers Fair - The World of Work Roadshow - as part of National Careers Week 2014. More than 700 young people attended including young people who are not in education, employment or training. Over 40 exhibitors, employers and training providers talked to the attendees about graduate, training and employment opportunities. The event was supported by 15 schools, 13 local training providers and 29 employers, both large and small. • We have extended our Way to Work apprenticeship programme to provide more opportunities for young people to engage in work-based training. 99 learners have been engaged in the programme in 2014/15: this includes 56 apprenticeship starters and 27 young adults who completed their apprenticeships and moved into work.
Implementing the national special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms
• Personal budgets are now available for parents so that they can directly purchase services to support their children who have SEND. This enables families to have greater choice and control over the services they receive, allowing them to tailor provision to meet their own unique needs.
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• We have established a single assessment process, in partnership with parents and our SEND Young Champions, to identify children’s special educational needs and implemented Education, Health and Care Plans to ensure these needs are supported effectively and in a coordinated way. • We have developed a fully integrated service for children and young people with disabilities in Kingston and Richmond led by the Associate Director of SEND. The new service incorporates services for disabled children, children with SEN and children with mental and emotional health needs.
SEND LOCAL OFFER http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/
“Achieving for Children’s Local Offer is a living, organic repository of services and support for all families of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – whether or not they have a Statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Whilst the Local Offer is funded and facilitated by Achieving for Children it ‘belongs’ to families. That’s the key. That’s what makes it so good. From the outset, families in Kingston and Richmond have been involved. Now we have a live website, it will be easier for families to search for the services and support they need. And the best thing about it is that we are all doing this together- a truly collaborative effort!”
Romany Wood- Robinson, a parent of a child with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Chair of Richmond SEND Family Voice
Improving workforce development and planning
• In June 2014, we distributed our first annual survey to hear the views of our workforce. The results demonstrate that staff feel motivated and supported at work and have a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve for children and their families. Given that Achieving for Children represents a new model of service delivery, it is encouraging that staff feel that they are able to contribute ideas and suggestions to improve services, and that they are empowered to come up with innovative solutions to problems. It is particularly positive that three quarters of our staff reported that their work gives them a feeling of personal achievement. Some areas for improvement were identified, including ensuring that we are able to recruit and retain the right staff now and in the future.
STAFF COUNCIL
Achieving for Children has established a self- nominated Staff Council to represent the workforce on a range of issues, including streamlining our business processes to maximise our efficiency, empowering and practically supporting staff to develop their ideas for growing the business, and leading on a programme of team-building social activities.
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One of the new Staff Council members said, “I’m really excited to be involved with the Staff Council and am looking forward to representing the views of my colleagues. It’s a good learning opportunity for me and enables me to get to know other staff, whilst ensuring that the views of employees are taken into account as the company grows and develops.”
Securing new business opportunities to sustain frontline services
• Achieving for Children successfully bid for a contract with the Department for Education to become one of their team of Improvement Advisers. We are one of six advisers assigned to provide support and challenge to local authorities whose safeguarding services have been judged inadequate by Ofsted. This work will enable us to share some of the experience we have gained from successfully improving safeguarding services in Kingston. • We have been awarded a total of £1.1 million from the Government to develop teams of highly- skilled practitioners to work closely with young people experiencing a family breakdown. The funding will also be used to train specialist foster carers with the skills to support children and young people with the most severe emotional or behavioural problems.
Integrating business systems and develop an effective business infrastructure
• We have integrated a number of our business systems and processes and embraced new technology to help staff to work flexibly and remotely. IPads have been provided to key employees and Google technology has been rolled out across the organisation enabling information to be more easily shared.
Risks, finances and future developments
Principal risks and uncertainties The information on pages 24, 25 and 26 (section 5.3 Risks and Risk Management) sets out the key risks of the company and how these are mitigated.
Financial performance and position at year end The information on pages 28 and 29 (section 6. Our Finances) summarises the financial performance of the company for the year and describes its future financial plans.
Signed on behalf of the Board:
David Groves Chair of the Board of Directors
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DIRECTORS’ REPORT 5. Our company, our governance arrangements and our risk management
5.1 Achieving for Children as an entity
We deliver a full range of education and children’s services to children and families in Kingston and Richmond. Our service offer falls into six areas.
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The diagram sets out the specific business areas within each service. Taken together, these business areas describe the focus of our work and outline how we will deliver our vision of ensuring that all children and young people achieve safe, happy and successful lives.
Early Help Social Care Education SEN and Disabilities Improvement Finance and Resources
•Childcare •Educational •Financial planning •Statutory •School place planning •ICT and business psychology •Early years education assessments and •School admissions systems •Accountancy •Special educational management •Children's centres care planning •Student services •Performance analysis needs •Schools' finance •Family support •Services for looked- •School improvement •Quality assurance •Integrated services •School building •Targeted youth after children and •School leadership •Strategy and policy support care leavers for children with development development development disabilities •School attendance •Fostering •Service improvement •Company Secretary •Alternative education •Emotional health and •Education welfare •Adoption •Commissioning provision wellbeing •Youth services •Governor support •Workforce development •Substance misuse •Apprenticeships and services access to •Marking and •Youth offending employment communications services •Business C32 development •Child protection conferencing •Independent Reviewing Officers •Management support to the Local Safeguarding Children Boards
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Our workforce In 2014-15 we employed 647 full-time equivalent staff from a broad range of professional disciplines including social work, teaching, health services and public sector management. We have brought professionals together into locality-based teams which means they are better able to work collaboratively to build services around the needs of children, so that families receive the right support from the right professional at the right time.
We are committed to ensuring that our workforce represents the diversity of the children and young people that we work with. We are also committed to the hiring, continuing employment and training, career development and promotion of disabled persons. In 2014-15:
• 6% of our employees declared that they have a disability. This compares to 2.7% of residents in Kingston and 2.5% of residents in Richmond who are receiving Disability Living Allowance and compares to 12.0% of residents in Kingston and 11.0% of residents in Richmond who stated they have a limiting long-term illness in the 2011 Census. • 16% of our employees are from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. This compares to a BAME population of 36.9% in Kingston and 28.6% in Richmond. • 75.9% of our employees (including those who are agency, casual and short-term) are female. • 73% of staff who earn at least £50,000 per annum are female.
To ensure our employees are kept informed, consulted and involved in the development of the company we have established a number of regular communication channels. Staff News briefings are sent out to all employees weekly, as is a blog by the Chief Executive. An Extended Senior Leadership Team meeting is held every month which brings together the Achieving for Children Senior Leadership Team with all managers from the company. Managers then feedback any relevant information to employees through team meetings and supervision. The work of the Board of Directors is shared with employees through the meeting summary that is produced shortly after each Board meeting to inform them of what has been considered and discussed. The NEIDs also regularly visit service areas to meet and speak to employees and to enable them to maintain an understanding of service delivery.
A Staff Council has been established during 2014-15 to represent the workforce on various issues including streamlining our business processes to maximise our efficiency, empowering and practically supporting staff to develop their ideas for growing the business, and leading on a programme of team-building social activities. Members of staff nominated themselves to serve on the Staff Council; the first meeting was held in April 2015. We also have a number of other staff engagement mechanisms in development such as the Business Academy which will seek to harness and grow the entrepreneurial ideas of employees.
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Our partners We know that excellent children’s services cannot be delivered in isolation and so we have worked with a range of organisations such as health services, the police and schools to make sure our services are relevant and responsible. The Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team have represented children’s services on a number of statutory partnership bodies including the Health and Wellbeing Boards and Community Safety Partnerships. We have also provided professional advice and business support to the Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
Central to our commitment to partnership working is the way in which we engage with children and young people. We know that children and young people are best supported if they are able to shape and determine the services they and their families receive. Our Engagement Strategy sets out how we will ‘work together so that children, young people, parents and carers have the opportunity to influence the design, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of services with the aim of better meeting their needs.’
5.2 Governance
Ownership The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are the joint owners of Achieving for Children, which is limited by guarantee. Their responsibilities and the ownership decisions they must make are set out in an inter-authority agreement. The Councils fulfil their ownership role through a Joint Committee. The Committee is responsible for ensuring that the company operates and develops in accordance with the wishes of both Councils. Decisions about the services that are commissioned from Achieving for Children are delegated to a Children’s Commissioning Board. An Operational Commissioning Group is responsible for monitoring how well the company performs in terms of financial management and the services we provide.
Financial Governance Arrangements The Council owners exert a degree of financial control over the company. In particular the owners have to approve:
• The company’s business plan, including its budget • The company’s financial plan (effectively its treasury plan) and any borrowing, credit facility or investment arrangements • Any contract for revenue expenditure that has a total value of more than £10 million or any capital investment of more than £10,000
In addition, the Councils provide funding to the company through a Revolving Credit Facility. This is a short- term loan facility that provides working capital, investment finance and funds any losses for the company. The Councils closely monitor the company’s operational and financial performance and also approve any additional business that the company enters into. The primary monitoring of the company’s business is undertaken by officers from both Councils responsible for commissioning children’s services from the company (the Operational Commissioning Group) which meets with the company monthly.
As a community interest company Achieving for Children is governed by the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005, in addition to
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the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 as a company limited by guarantee. The company is established as a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation and seeks to provide value for money services to the Councils – any surplus that is made is earmarked for investment in children’s services. The company trades primarily with its parent Councils and other entities involved in providing children’s services within the UK, and the company is domiciled in the UK for tax purposes. The company does not make any donations or provide any support to political parties.
Board of Directors The Board comprises of two executive directors, two non-executive directors that are serving officers of the Councils (Council appointed directors) and four non-executive independent directors. All directors were in post for the whole of 2014/15 except for Dame Moira Gibb and Jane Spencer (from 18 September 2014) and Gill Holmes (from 3 March 2015). The Councils, as owners of the company, reserve the power to appoint all directors.
The governance arrangements for the company are set out in its Articles of Association. These explain how we operate as a company and how decisions are made. Board Directors are appointed for the skills and experience that they bring to the company. They have responsibility for overseeing the management of Achieving for Children and for providing advice to the owners on its future direction and strategy. Each of the four Non-Executive Independent Directors also leads on a particular service area or priority. They regularly visit services to meet with employees and service-users in order to ensure strong performance and progress against objectives.
Nick Whitfield Achieving for Children Chief Executive; and Council Appointed Executive Director Robert Henderson Achieving for Children Deputy Chief Executive; and Council Appointed Executive Director Cathy Kerr Council Appointed Non-Executive Director- Richmond Leigh Whitehouse Council Appointed Non-Executive Director- Kingston David Groves Non-Executive Independent Director; and Chair of the Board of Directors Moira Gibb Non-Executive Independent Director; Chair of the Remuneration Committee; and Board lead on Children’s Social Care Gill Holmes Non-Executive Independent Director; and Board lead on Business Development Jane Spencer Non-Executive Independent Director; and Board lead on Education Services
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Board Committee Meetings and Attendance The Board has established an Audit and Risk Committee to liaise with the company’s internal and external auditors and advise the Board on audit and risk matters. The Committee has reviewed risk management and assurance and the company’s risk register and has received regular updates on progress of the internal audit plan that provides assurance against any significant control weaknesses
Meetings of the Board and Committees were held during 2014/15 as follows:
Board of Directors Audit and Risk Committee 28 April 2014 20 May 2014 12 June 2014 12 June 2014
21 July 2014* 28 July 2014 * 22 September 2014 22 September 2014 23 October 2014 11 December 2014 18 December 2014 27 January 2015 5 March 2015*
Denotes a ‘virtual’ meeting in which decisions were taken electronically (by email) in accordance with the Articles of Association.
The following table shows the attendance at meetings in 2014/15:
Attendance at Board of Directors Attendance at Audit and Risk Committee Potential Actual Potential Actual Nick Whitfield* 9 9 N/A N/A Robert Henderson* 9 8 N/A N/A Cathy Kerr # 9 8 4 2 Leigh Whitehouse # 9 9 4 4 David Groves 9 8 4 3 Jane Spencer 4 4 3 3 Moira Gibb 4 4 3 1 Gill Holmes 0 0 1 1 *Executive Directors are not member of the Audit and Risk Committee # Nominated substitutes can attend for Council Appointed Directors
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Remuneration of Directors During 2014/15 the three categories of directors each had different arrangements for setting their remuneration:
a) Executive Directors – these were employed directly by the two Councils that own Achieving for Children and their terms of employment and remuneration are determined by the employing Council(s). b) Non-Executive Directors appointed by the Councils – these are employed by the two Councils and are executive directors for their respective Councils. Their terms of employments are determined by the employing Council and relates to their service to the Council. Their service on the Board of Achieving for Children is not remunerated and no costs are charged to the company for their services. c) Non-Executive Independent Directors are part time directors of Achieving for Children and their remuneration is based on a daily rate that includes attendance at Board and Committee meetings and associated work. Their appointment and terms are decisions that, under that governance arrangements put in place between the Councils (as owners) and the company, have to be taken by the owners in general meeting.
Thus, for 2014/15 and at the current time, the Board does not decide on the remuneration of any of the Directors of Achieving for Children.
Executive Directors Nick Whitfield is employed by Richmond and Kingston Councils as their joint Director of Children’s Services, which is a statutory appointment. He is seconded to Achieving for Children as Chief Executive and Executive Director. His appointment, remuneration and terms of employment are determined by both Councils and the costs are shared by the Councils.
Robert Henderson was employed by Richmond Council prior to the launch of Achieving for Children and was seconded to the organisation from 1 April 2014 as part of his duties require him to undertakes statutory child care functions which could not be delegated by the Council on 1 April. For the whole of 2014/15 Robert was employed by Richmond Council which was responsible for determining his terms of employment and salary.
The remuneration of these two Directors for 2014/15 was: Robert Nick Whitfield Henderson £ £ Salary 148,263 90,608 National Insurance 18,200 10,148 Pension Benefits 25,798 15,766 Car allowance / travel expenses 621 0 Total Remuneration paid by the 192,882 116,522 parent Councils Both officers are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) which is a defined benefit scheme under which they are required to make contributions related to salary.
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Council Officers appointed as Non-Executive directors of Achieving for Children Cathy Kerr is Director of Adults and Community Services for Richmond Council and Leigh Whitehouse is Director of Finance for Kingston Council. Both serve as Non-Executive Directors for Achieving for Children as part of their duties to their Councils, for which they receive no additional remuneration. They are not remunerated by Achieving for Children nor does the company bear any charge for their services as Directors. The remuneration of both officers is published in the accounts for their respective Councils (details will be provided via links to each Council’s accounts when these are published).
Non-Executive Independent Directors These Directors are appointed, and their remuneration agreed, by the Councils acting as the owners of the company in general meeting. Their remuneration is based on a daily rate of £495 and covers all meetings and preparation work. The remuneration for each Director in 2014/15 was:
Basic National Total Allowance Insurance
£ £ £ David Groves 13,117 1,535 14,652 Dame Moira Gibb 1,485 113 1,598 Gill Holmes 0 0 0 Jane Spencer 3,218 353 3,571 Total 17,820 2,001 19,821
No other remuneration, taxable benefits of pension benefits were paid to these Directors in 2014/15. Gill Holmes did not claim any allowance as her employment contract does not allow remuneration in her NEID capacity.
Senior Leadership Team The Board of Directors has delegated the responsibility for the day to day running of Achieving for Children to the Chief Executive and his Senior Leadership Team (SLT). These delegations are detailed in a Scheme of Delegation. The SLT are responsible for ensuring the company achieves the ambitions and strategy set by the Board of Directors, and delivers the best possible services for children and their families in line with our contract with the commissioning Councils.
Only Nick Whitfield and Rob Henderson are Board Directors, the other SLT members have the term ‘director’ in their job title. Senior Leadership Team Nick Whitfield Chief Executive Robert Henderson Deputy Chief Executive Sylvia Chew Kingston Director of Social Care Alison Twynam Richmond Director of Social Care Graham Willett Director of Education Services Paul Bettles Director of Finance and Resources Ian Dodds Director of Standards and Improvement Charis Penfold Associate Director of Early Help Simon James Associate Director of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities
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The remuneration of each member of the Senior Leadership Team who were not Board Directors in 2014/15 was:
Remunerating National Pension Expenses and Salary Total body Insurance Benefits Allowances
£ £ £ £ £ £ Paul Bettles AFC 86,489 9,672 13,406 40 109,607 Ian Dodds AFC 90,608 10,201 14,044 0 114,853 Simon James AFC 78,568 8,579 12,178 50 99,375 Charis Penfold AFC 81,854 9,033 12,687 99 103,673 Graham Willett AFC 99,220 11,542 15,379 2,345 128,486 Alison Twynam LB Richmond 90,608 10,241 15,677 0 116,526 Sylvia Chew RB Kingston 93,420 10,629 14,480 16 118,545 Total Remuneration 620,767 69,897 97,851 2,550 791,065
Review of Governance and Internal Control In 2014-15, Achieving for Children has reviewed its governance arrangements as part of the preparations for the publication of the Annual Governance Statement by each of the owning Councils. All Senior Leadership Team members have completed an Internal Control Effectiveness Statement for their service areas which sets out the control mechanisms in place to ensure that internal control is high quality and proportionate. The Chief Executive has reviewed these statements and has used them to produce a Control Assurance Statement. This process was also informed by an independent audit of governance arrangements which provided substantial assurance that the company has effective controls in operation.
5.3 Risks and Risk Management
Our risk management framework helps to ensure we identify and manage key risks that could affect our ability to deliver our objectives. This reduces uncertainty and allows the company to be innovative and to manage change effectively. The management of risk is embedded in our day to day business activities, and well-established processes and policies are in place. All of our employees have a role in reducing risk through our internal control framework. Risks are recorded in a risk register and are regularly reviewed by the Senior Leadership Team and the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board of Directors. The Committee maintains oversight of the organisation’s risk management, internal control and value for money framework.
The risk register includes strategic and operational risks. Strategic risks are the direct responsibility of the Senior Leadership Team and concern the overall direction of the company and ensuring it remains sustainable. Operational risks concern day to day activities which need to be managed in order for services to be delivered. They are managed by individual service managers and are regularly reported to service directors. The risk register is regularly reported to the Board of Directors.
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Details of the company’s financial instrument risks are set out in note 21 of our accounts. These are not regarded as material to an understanding of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the company.
Risk Description Impact of Risk Risk Mitigation Fail to identify Children and young • Clear mechanisms for reporting concerns about a child and children and young people suffer neglect, robust protocols and management supervision in place to people in need of abuse or sexual support social workers to assess children’s needs and make exploitation and there is help and protection timely and effective decisions a lack of trust in the • Regular performance management, scrutiny and quality and fail to provide company for failing to assurance to test the appropriateness of decision-making services to ensure keep children and young • Robust strategy in place to prevent child sexual exploitation they are properly people safe from harm and multi-agency tools established to identify children at protected from risk of sexual exploitation alongside multi-agency harm or sexual arrangements to care for those at risk of sexual exploitation exploitation or who have been subject to sexual exploitation Failure to recruit Unable to effectively • Recruitment and Retention Group established with a clear and retain staff in support children, young action plan for the recruitment and retention of key key service areas people and families due workers such as social care to increased costs from • Terms and conditions and revised pay scales developed to employing locum ensure we are an employer of choice workers, poor staff • Enhanced Learning and development pathways and morale attributable to improved Continuing Professional Development increased workloads and opportunities a lack of consistent service delivery as a result of high staff turnover Unable to sustain Reduction in non- • Clear budget management to ensure services are fully the same level of statutory services costed and affordable service delivery and necessary and we are • Change control procedures available to request additional achieve the unable to meet existing funding if need and demand grows objectives in our contractual obligations • Continual focus on improving services and making them Business Plan more efficient
Lack of compliance Inability to meet • Clear business planning and prioritisation processes in with statutory and statutory requirements place and project management support offered regulatory and contract obligations • Regular conversations with Councils about capacity to requirements resulting in the failure of deliver and respond. the company Insufficient Unable to meet financial • Business Development Strategy in place progress in securing targets to offset • Training and support procured from experts in the field new business and efficiency savings and to • Invested resource to develop and expand the work area generating income grow the company, thereby rendering the trading body model as unsustainable
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Risk Description Impact of Risk Risk Mitigation Lack of a fully Negative impact on • The Business Systems Team lead the integration of services integrated ICT efficiency, productivity including system integration with allocated project business systems and service delivery management support through duplication of and business • Three year ICT Strategy and Action Plan developed based business processes, on a ‘best of breed’ approach processes that inaccessible information • Governance in place through the Business Systems effectively support and poor information Improvement Board which provides regular highlight the delivery of sharing and information reports to the Senior Leadership Team and has a clear services governance risks communications plan in place
5.4 Financial and Audit Information and Future Plans
Sections 6, 7 and 8 set out the financial review, forward view and Independent Auditor’s Report. The financial statements for the period ending 31 March 2015 (Statement of Accounts) are set out from page 34 onwards.
5.5 Directors’ Responsibilities
The directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report that includes the Strategic Report and Directors’ Report, and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Accordingly, the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. Under company law the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs and profit or loss of the company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; • make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; • state whether IFRSs as adopted by the EU have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the Group and parent company Financial Statements respectively; and • prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.
The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Furthermore, the Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the Company’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of Financial Statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. The directors are responsible for preparing the annual report in accordance with applicable law and regulations. The directors consider that the annual report and financial statements, when taken as a whole, is fair, balanced and understandable.
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Each of the Directors, who are identified on page 20, are responsible for preparing the annual report and financial statements. In particular, each of the Directors confirms that to the best of their knowledge: • The statement of accounts, which have been prepared in accordance with IFRSs, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and loss of the company; • The Strategic Report, contained in pages 5 to 15 and the Directors’ Report, contained in pages 16 to 27, together set out a fair review of the development and performance of the business and position of the company and describe the principal risks that it faces; • So far as each Director is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which Grant Thornton UK LLP are unaware; and • They have taken all steps they ought to have taken as a Director in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that Grant Thornton UK LLP are aware of that information.
Signed on behalf of the Board:
David Groves Chair of the Board of Directors
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FINANCIAL REVIEW AND FUTURE PLANS 6. Our Finances
The company was incorporated on 5 February 2014 and commenced trading on 1 April 2014. Its revenue for its first trading year was £102.1 million of which £91.1million (89%) was in respect of its contract for the provision and operation of children’s services to the Councils.
Management Accounting Report In relation to its management accounts and segmental reporting (Note 9 to the Accounts) and its financial performance reporting to its parent Councils, the company incurred costs on agency transactions of £29.3 million (as described in Note 6 to the accounts) direct expenditure of £132.9 million that resulted in an overspend against its budget of £142,000. In addition the company incurred one-off set up costs of £1.4 million which is reported to the Councils as a net overspend of £1,546,000.
Financial Statements For the reporting period the company incurred a loss of £22.369 million which is attributable in equal proportion to its parent Councils. The loss comprises:
£000 Trading loss from continuing operations 2,541 Other comprehensive expense (re- measurement of net defined benefit liability) 5,301 7,752 One-off items of expense Company set up costs 1,404 Transfer of Net Pension Liability 13,213 14,617 22,369
The Statement of Financial Position, or balance sheet, includes a net pension liability of £20.480 million. The majority of the company’s employees are members of the Local Government pension Scheme (LGPS) which is a defined benefit scheme. When the company started trading on 1 April 2014, the majority of its staff transferred their employment from the Councils into the company under TUPE, which included transferring their membership of the LGPS to the company. The company is an employer in the LGPS scheme, within the two pension funds administered by both Councils.
The net pension liability at 31 March 2015 is calculated under the provisions of IAS19 whereas the employer’s pension contributions that the company actually makes to the pension funds are based on an actuarial valuation undertaken under the rules of the LGPS. The company’s contributions are re-assessed at each triennial valuation for pension funds in the LGPS and the next valuation is due as at 31 March 2016.
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The company’s financial assets comprises only of the following categories:
• Cash and cash equivalents; • Current borrowing from its owners; and • Trade and other receivables and payables
Financial Support from the Company’s Owners The Councils are contracted with the company for a minimum period of seven years (from 1 April 2014) with an option to extend the contract period by another five years. The contract price is agreed annually to take into account changes in service requirements, inflationary and other cost pressures on the company, and the need for efficiency savings to be identified so that the company can deliver value for money and contribute to both Councils’ overall financial targets.
In addition to the annual review of the contract price, the company can request additional funding under a ‘change control’ provision in the contract when the company is faced with additional costs, for example from increases in the number of children requiring services.
In terms of its liquidity, the company can borrow from the Councils under the Revolving Credit Facility of £30 million. This provides funding to the company to cover cash flow, losses and any investment requirements.
Future Financial Plans The company has prepared a Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) which forecasts its income and expenditure and financial risks over the next 4 years (to 31 March 2019). The primary purpose of the MTFP is to demonstrate to the parent Councils that the company has adequate financial plans, including efficiency savings, to meet its budget over the medium term.
As part of its commitment to providing value for money in the provision of children’s services, the company has made efficiency savings of £2.9 million in 2014/15 and has budgeted for £2.7 million savings in 2015/16. These savings have been included in the company’s financial plans and budgets for each financial year and have been approved by the parent Councils. The company is already planning for savings in 2016/17 of £2.8 million and is currently undertaking a more fundamental review of its services that is aimed at providing more efficient delivery of services and will contribute to efficiency savings from 2017/18 and beyond.
Going Concern The track record of the company and its management in delivering savings together with existing and future plans and the financial support of the parent Councils provide the company with sufficient evidence to judge that it is trading as a going concern.
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7. Looking Forward
2015/16: Consolidation In 2015/16 our focus will be on establishing Achieving for Children as a new business in the market, whilst continuing to deliver safe and high quality services for children and their families. We will have ensured the sustainability and continued improvement of services for children in Kingston and Richmond by developing a new locality-based delivery model for our early help and social care services. We will also have maintained our reputation as an excellent provider of educational support services.
Developing our business will require additional commercial skills and business development capability within the organisation. We will have a strong understanding of the services we are able to competitively offer to the market, which builds on the services that we successfully trade to local schools. Our employees will be creative and capable of developing and extending a service offer that is evidence-based and attractive to potential commissioners. We will have secured two or three new business opportunities and will be working successfully in commercial partnerships with other local authorities or public bodies. This could be consultancy for other local authorities or the delivery of individual commissioned services. The Achieving for Children brand will be recognised as a trusted provider of safe and high quality services and we will be able to talk confidently about our successes and achievements. Local children and their families will be accustomed to Achieving for Children as their service provider and their satisfaction with our services will be high. They will also be more confident in demanding the services they need and in shaping the development and delivery of those services.
2016/17: Diversification In 2016/17 our focus will be on growing our business so that we are a recognised and trusted provider of educational support and children’s services to schools, local authorities and other public sector bodies. We will have a developing track-record of delivering high quality and competitively-priced services that deliver the results and outcomes required by our clients. We will be an excellent commercial partner and will be proud of the positive outcomes and high levels of customer satisfaction that we achieve.
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8. Financial Accounts and Independent Auditor’s Report
Introduction These Accounts have been compiled in line with International Financial Reporting Standards and cover the period from 5 February 2014, when the company was registered, to 31 March 2015. The Accounts have been audited by Grant Thornton UK LLP. For transparency purposes the following table details the fees payable to Grant Thornton for the 2014/15 financial year.
Description 2014/15 £000 Annual audit fee 28 One off first year audit fee 3 Total Fees payable to the auditor for the audit of the company’s annual Accounts 31
Taxation compliance services (Corporation Tax) 5
Grant Thornton UK LLP is constituted as a limited liability partnership in accordance with the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2000. The aggregate liability of the firm, its partners, agents and employees, or any of them, is limited to £2 million.
The financial accounts and disclosures are set out in the company’s Statement of Accounts that follow the Auditor’s Report.
Auditor’s Report The report by Achieving for Children’s independent auditor on the financial statements for the period ending 31 March 2015 is set out on the following page.
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Independent auditor's report to the members of Achieving for Children Community Interest Company
We have audited the financial statements of Achieving for Children Community Interest Company for the period ended 31 March 2015 which comprise the statement of comprehensive income, the statement of changes in equity, the statement of financial position, the statement of cashflows, and the related notes. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union.
This report is made solely to the company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Respective responsibilities of directors and auditor As explained more fully in the Directors' Responsibilities Statement set out on pages 26-27, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view. Our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). Those standards require us to comply with the Auditing Practices Board’s Ethical Standards for Auditors.
Scope of the audit of the financial statements A description of the scope of an audit of financial statements is provided on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uk/auditscopeukprivate.
Opinion on financial statements In our opinion the financial statements: • give a true and fair view of the state of the company's affairs as at 31 March 2015 and of its loss for the period then ended; • have been properly prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union; and • have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
Opinion on other matter prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our opinion the information given in the Strategic Report and Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements.
Matters on which we are required to report by exception We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: • adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or • the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or • certain disclosures of directors' remuneration specified by law are not made; or • we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
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Christian Heeger Senior Statutory Auditor for and on behalf of Grant Thornton UK LLP Statutory Auditor, Chartered Accountants Gatwick Date: 19 August 2015
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ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS
5th FEBRUARY 2014 – 31 MARCH 2015
Audited Published July 2015
http://www.achievingforchildren.org.uk/
C50 TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………………...35 STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2015…….35 STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2015……………….36 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION AS AT 31 MARCH 2015……………………………………………37 STATEMENT OF CASHFLOWS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 31 MARCH 2015………………………….38 NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS………………………………………………………………………..39 Note 1 General Information and Statement of Compliance with IFRS……………………..40 Note 2 Significant Accounting Policies, Estimates and Judgements…………………………40 Note 3 Material and Exceptional Items of Income and Expense ……………….…………...42 Note 4 Acquisitions and Disposals ……………………………….………...... 43 Note 5 Employee Benefits………………………………………………….…………………………………….44 Note 6 Agency Transactions ………………………………………………..………………………………….50 Note 7 Revenue and Other Income……………………………………………………..……………………50 Note 8 Other Expenses………………………………………………………………….………………………….51 Note 9 Segment Reporting…………………………………………………………….…...... 52 Note 10 Non Current Assets …….…………………………………………………………...... 54 Note 11 Leases ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….55 Note 12 Financial Assets and Liabilities……………………………………………..……………………….56 Note 13 Trade and Other Receivables…………………………………………………………………………56 Note 14 Cash and Cash Equivalents…………………………………………………..…...... 57 Note 15 Trade and Other Payables……………………………………………………………………………..57 Note 16 Other Liabilities ……………………………………………………………….……………………………57 Note 17 Finance Costs and Finance Income………………………………………………………..………58 Note 18 Corporation Tax ……………………………………………………………………………………………58 Note 19 Non Cash Flow Adjustments and Changes in Working Capital………..…..………..59 Note 20 Related Party Transactions…………………………………………………..…...... 59 Note 21 Contingent Assets and Liabilities……………………………………………..………………..….61 Note 22 Financial Instruments Risk …………………………………………………...... ……………………62 Note 23 Fair Value Measurement ……………………………………………………….……………………..63 Note 24 Capital Management Policies and Procedures……………………………………………….64 Note 25 Post Reporting Events……………………………………………………………………………………64 Note 26 Authorisation of Financial Statements…………………………………………………………..64 Note 27 Accounting Policies …………………………………………………………………………………..…..65
GLOSSARY OF TERMS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….75
C51 THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2015
This statement measures the Company’s performance for the period and shows the accounting profit or loss in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Trading One-Off One-Off Total Company Set up Transfer in of Costs Net Pension Liability
2014/15 2014/15 2014/15 2014/15 £000 £000 £000 £000 Revenue 7 96,337 0 0 96,337 Other income 7 5,812 0 0 5,812 Employee benefits 5 -29,938 0 -13,213 -43,151 Depreciation 10 -38 0 0 -38 Other expenses 8 -73,916 0 0 -73,916 One off set up costs 0 -1,404 0 -1,404 Operating Profit / (Loss) -1,743 -1,404 -13,213 -16,360
Finance costs 17 -708 0 0 -708 Profit / (Loss) before tax -2,451 -1,404 -13,213 -17,068 Tax expense 18 0 0 0 0 Profit / (Loss) from continuing operations -2,451 -1,404 -13,213 -17,068 Other comprehensive income: Items that will not be re-classified subsequently to profit or loss - Re-measurement of net 5 defined benefit liability -5,301 0 0 -5,301 Items that will be reclassified subsequently to profit of loss 0 0 0 0 Other comprehensive income for the period net of tax -5,301 0 0 -5,301 TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE INCOME / (EXPENSE ) FOR THE PERIOD -7,752 -1,404 -13,213 -22,369
Loss for the year attributable to parent companies: LB Richmond upon Thames (50%) -3,876.0 -702.0 -6,606.5 -11,184.5 RB Kingston upon Thames (50%) -3,876.0 -702.0 -6,606.5 -11,184.5 Total -7,752.0 -1,404.0 -13,213.0 -22,369.0
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C52 THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2015
This statement shows the movement or change in value of net equity from the beginning of the reporting period to the 31st March 2015.
Total Notes Pensions Attributable to Reserve Retained Earnings owners 2014/15 2014/15 2014/15 £000 £000 £000 Balance at 5th February 2014 0 0 0
Profit / (Loss) for the period SCI 0 -17,068 -17,068
Other Comprehensive Income - Re-measurement of net defined benefit liability -5,301 0 -5,301
Total comprehensive income for the period -5,301 -17,068 -22,369
Balance at 31st March 2015 -5,301 -17,068 -22,369
*There were no non-controlling entities for the 2014/15 period
** The 2014/15 loss will be carried forward within the Company’s Statement of Financial Position
Pensions Reserve – This reserve represents the cumulative amount that has been recognised via Other Comprehensive income in relation to re-measurement of the net defined benefit liability due to changes in actuarial assumptions. Examples include changes in demographic assumptions, changes in financial assumptions, changes in the asset ceiling and return on assets that are not included in net interest.
Retained Earnings – This represents the net cumulative carrying amount of the Profit / (Loss) from continuing operations.
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C53 THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION AS AT 31 MARCH 2015
The Statement of Financial Position or Balance Sheet shows the net worth of the Company as at the 31st March 2015 in accordance with IFRS. It shows what the Company owes and owns and the equity within the Company that is attributable to Achieving for Children’s (AfC) parent councils.
Company Registration Number 08878185 31 March 2015
Notes £000 ASSETS
Property, Plant and Equipment 10 28 Intangible Assets 10 58 Non-Current Assets 86
Trade and Other Receivable 13 30,728 Cash and Cash Equivalents 14 951 Current Assets 31,679
TOTAL ASSETS 31,765
EQUITY AND LIABILITIES
Equity -22,369
Liabilities: Finance Lease Liabilities 11 20 Pension and other Employee Obligations 5 20,480 Non-Current Liabilities 20,500
Finance Lease Liabilities 11 29 Borrowings 16 15,314 Trade and other payables 15 18,291 Current Liabilities 33,634
Total Liabilities 54,134
TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 31,765
Signed:
David Groves, Chair of the Board
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C54 THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF CASHFLOWS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 31 MARCH 2015
The Cash Flow Statement shows the changes in cash and cash equivalents of the Company during the reporting period and how cash movements relate to the profit and loss for the period.
2014/15 £000 Operating Activities Loss before tax -17,068 Non cash flow adjustments 19 33,737 Contributions to defined benefit plans 5 -2,958 Net changes in working capital 19 -12,436 Net cash from operating activities 1,275
Investing Activities Net cash used in investing activities 0
Financing Activities Proceeds from borrowings 3,336 Repayment of borrowings (3,660) Net cash from / used in financing activities (324)
Net cash in cash and cash equivalents 14 951 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period 0 Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period 951
The Company was reliant on the 2 parent Councils for the processing of the majority of accounts payable and payroll transactions until the 30th March 2015 when the Company’s treasury management function became fully operational. As a result of this arrangement the majority of transactions during the period were not cash transactions. The Councils did not settle amounts due on their respective contracts and the Company did not pay the majority of expenditure out directly until 30th March 2015. The parent councils have a revolving credit facility which means they can lend to AfC to provide cash flow for ongoing operations. The amount still owed to the Councils under this arrangement is detailed in note 16 to the accounts.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 1 GENERAL INFORMATION AND STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE WITH IFRS Achieving for Children (AfC) was registered as a Community Interest Company on 5th February 2014. The Company is jointly owned by the LB Richmond upon Thames and RB Kingston upon Thames. Each owner has a 50% ownership stake in the Company. The Company began trading on 1st April 2014 and as such this first Statement of Accounts covers a 13 month accounting period, although there were no monetary transactions before 1st April 2014.
AfC has been established to provide children’s social care and education services to children, families and young people across the boroughs of Richmond and Kingston as well as other areas.
This Statement of Accounts has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as required by the Companies Act 2004. The Accounts summarise the Company’s financial performance (Statement of Comprehensive Income), equity (Statement of Equity), financial position (Statement of Financial Position) and cash flow (Cash Flow Statement) for the period. As this is the first set of Accounts, prior period comparative figures cannot be provided in line with reporting guidelines but will always be published in future periods. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. Pension assets and liabilities are measured in line with the requirements of IAS19, further details are included on page 68.
NOTE 2 SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES, ESTIMATES AND JUDGEMENTS The Company has followed a detailed set of IFRS compliant accounting policies in the production of these accounts. The full policies are contained in Note 27 to these Accounts. The Accounting policies will be revised annually to ensure they remain appropriate and relevant. The most significant policies to note are:
• Recognition of Income and Expenditure Activity is accounted for in the period that it takes place, not simply when cash payments are made or received. In particular: Income - Revenue from the sale of goods and services is recognised when the Company transfers the significant risks and rewards of ownership to the purchaser and it is probable that economic benefits or service potential associated with the transaction will flow to the Company. Revenue from the provision of services is recognised when it is probable that economic benefits or service potential associated with the transaction will flow to the Company.
Expenditure - Supplies are recorded as expenditure when they are consumed. Expenses in relation to services received (including services provided by employees) are recorded as expenditure when the services are received rather than when payments are made.
• Post-Employment Benefits The following pension schemes are available to employees of AfC:
- Teachers’ Pension Scheme is available to teachers - National Health Service Pension Scheme is available to staff carry out health functions - Local Government Pensions Scheme (LB Richmond and RB Kingston schemes) are available to all staff - LGPS
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
These are all Defined Benefit Schemes, but the first 2 are accounted for as Defined Contribution Schemes due to their nature. For Defined Contributions Schemes, the payments are accounted for on an accruals basis with no adjustment under IAS 19.
The LGPS is accounted for as required by IAS 19 to show the cost of benefits earned in the period of account against the relevant service. This uses figures provided by the Actuary in assessing the current value of benefits earned during the period, the impact of decisions or changes made during the period, interest and re-measurement costs. Further details are provided in Note 5 to the Accounts.
The following Critical Judgements and assumptions have been made in applying Accounting Policies:
• Agency relationship – It has been assessed that the passporting of Dedicated Schools Grant on behalf of the parent Councils to various education establishments is an agency relationship and has therefore been excluded from AfC’s Accounts. Further details are available in note 6.
• Lease arrangements – An assessment has been made of all asset arrangements that could constitute a finance or operating lease. 1 arrangement has been recognised as a finance lease and the other arrangements have been treated as operating leases. In making these assessments the Company has applied the guidelines set out in IAS17 and considered the substance of the transactions. Where exact monetary values were not available figures have been based on estimates. Further details are included in note 11 to the Accounts.
• Going Concern – Achieving for Children CIC has been assessed as a Going Concern. Despite the significant accounting losses reported in these Accounts the Board and Senior Leadership Team have made significant progress in identifying how these financial challenges will be met and continues to develop these plans. The Board’s Medium Term Financial Strategy outlines these financial plans in more detail and addresses what actions are being taken to recoup the set up costs reported in the Statement of Other Comprehensive Income and reduce the Company’s cost base to accommodate proposed reductions in the 2 owners contract prices over the next 3 years. As with the parent Councils, the Company will revise pension contributions after the next actuarial assessment in line with recommended actuarial guidance. The Company is wholly owned by 2 Councils who are both determined to be Going Concerns. The Company is able to borrow from the Councils under a Revolving Credit Facility to ensure short term cash flow and the Councils are contractually committed to procuring children’s services from AfC for seven years from April 2014.
• Deferred Tax Asset – The Company has assessed that the deferred tax asset should be recognised as a contingent asset rather than as an asset within the Statement of Financial Position. It is not probable that the Company will make significant taxable profits in the short to medium term. If the Company does make taxable profits in the coming years it will be able to reduce its initial tax liability by offsetting taxable losses incurred in 2014/15.
The Statement of Accounts contains estimated figures that are based on assumptions made by the Company about the future or that are otherwise uncertain. Estimates are made taking into account historic experience, current trends and other relevant factors. The items in the accounts that have a more significant associated estimation risk are:
• Recognition of income and expenditure – The identification and calculation of accrued income and expenditure is done using the best information available. Where actual amounts have not yet been agreed adjustments for anticipated income and expenditure has been based on estimations.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
• Actuarial valuation of pension liabilities and assets – Pension assets and liabilities and associated costs have been presented based upon an actuarial estimate that has been calculated in line with methodologies prescribed in IAS19. The actuary makes assumptions based on indicators of future trends. Full details and a sensitivity analysis is provided in note 5 to the accounts.
NOTE 3 MATERIAL AND EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS OF INCOME AND EXPENSE Exceptional Items: The Company has disclosed 2 items as exceptional on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income. Exceptional items are material items which derive from events or transactions that fall within the ordinary activities of the reporting entity and which individually or, if of a similar type, in aggregate, need to be disclosed by virtue of their size or incidence if the financial statements are to give a true and fair view. The 2 items disclosed separately on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income are:
• Set up Costs – AfC’s parent councils have charged £1,404k of the one off costs that were incurred in setting up AfC to the Company in period 1. They appear as an operating loss in the Statement of Comprehensive Income and will be carried forward as a loss on the Statement of Financial Position. The Company will make cost reductions over the coming years to recoup this cost.
• Pension Costs – One off pension liability costs, associated with the transfer in of staff from the 2 parent Councils, have been separately identified on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income by virtue of their size and materiality. The staff transferred in with a net nil liability when calculated on the actuarial basis used for the Triennial Valuation of the fund. The £13.2m net liability represents the difference in the triennial valuation methodology and the IAS19 basis of valuation that is required by IFRS. The net liability is reported under Non-Current Liabilities in the Statement of Financial Position. Further details are available in Note 5.
Material Items: A material item is an item of expenditure or income that is unusual in scale and non-recurring. In 2014/15 the following material items were reported as part of the accounts:
• Change Controls – The contract prices with both Councils changed throughout the first period of operation as all partners finalised arrangements for the delivery and funding of services. Under the contract AfC can bid for more contract income if it is needed to ensure that service standards are maintained or if there are significant fluctuations in demand for services (e.g. more children requiring care). The Company was granted an additional 658k by the RB Kingston and £1,372k by the LB Richmond. This additional income is included in the Statement of Comprehensive Income under Revenue.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 4 ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSALS AfC was established on the 5th February 2014 and began trading on the 1st April 2014. Staff transferred into AfC from the LB Richmond and RB Kingston upon Thames councils on 1st April and 1st May 2014 in line with TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings) rules relating to the transfer of responsibilities for the provision of children’s and education services to AfC. The councils retained all significant pre 1st April 2014 assets and liabilities with the exception of those detailed in the table below. The assets and liabilities were transferred for a peppercorn consideration.
2014/15 2014/15 2014/15 Asset Liability Net £000 £000 £000 Pensions Costs: Associated with staff transferring on 1st April 2014 28,459 -40,693 -12,234
Associated with staff transferring on 1st May 2014 2,847 -3,826 -979 31,306 -44,519 -13,213 Employee Leave: Associated with staff transferring during the period 35 -407 -372 35 -407 -372 31,341 -44,926 -13,585
No operations have been discontinued during the period.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 5 EMPLOYEE BENEFITS Expenses recognised within Statement of Comprehensive Income as employee benefits are analysed below:
Trading LGPS Total Liability* 2014/15 2014/15 2014/15
£000 £000 £000 Salaries -23,255 0 -23,255 Employee absence liability -378 0 -378 National Insurance -1,729 0 -1,729 Pension Fund Contributions - LGPS -4,332 0 -4,332 Pension Fund liability for staff transferred under TUPE* 0 -13,213 -13,213 Pension Fund Contributions - Other schemes -155 0 -155 Other -89 0 -89
-29,938 -13,213 -43,151
*The Company has taken on the pension fund liability associated with the transfer in of Local Government staff under TUPE regulations. This transaction is non-recurring and has been separately identified by virtue of its size.
Salaries During the year the Company employed an average of 662 FTE staff.
Defined Benefit Pension Plans (LGPS) As part of the terms and conditions of employment of its officers, the Company makes contributions towards the cost of post-employment benefits. Although these benefits will not actually be payable until employees retire, AfC has a commitment to make the payments (for those benefits) and to disclose them at the time that employees earn their future entitlement.
Staff can be members of either the LB Richmond or RB Kingston upon Thames funds. Staff that transferred into the Company in the first period remain on their original plan and new employees are admitted to the plans on an alternate basis to ensure that membership numbers between the two funds remain relatively equal. The Company participates in the following post-employment arrangements : • The Local Government Pension Scheme, administered by the LB Richmond and the Local Government Pension Scheme, administered by the RB Kingston – this is a funded defined benefit final salary scheme, meaning that the Company and employees pay contributions into a fund, calculated at a level intended to balance the pensions liabilities with investment assets. The Company is responsible for any deficit on its share of the Fund.
• Arrangements for the award of discretionary post-retirement benefits upon early retirement – this is an unfunded defined benefit arrangement, under which liabilities are recognised when awards
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
are made. However, there are no investment assets built up to meet these pension liabilities, and cash has to be generated to meet actual pension payments as they eventually fall due. The principal risks to the Company are the longevity assumptions, statutory changes to the scheme, structural changes to the scheme (i.e. large-scale withdrawals from the scheme), changes to inflation, bond yields and the performance of the equity investments held by the scheme. These risks are managed by the Fund over the long term, via the independent actuarial valuation process setting appropriate contribution rates.
Transactions Relating to Post-employment Benefits The Company recognises the cost of retirement benefits in the Statement of Comprehensive Income when they are earned by employees, rather than when the benefits are eventually paid as pensions. The Company has also written on a one off liability in its first period of trading that is associated with staff transferred from the parent Councils under TUPE arrangements. Further details are available in notes 3 and 4. The following table shows the impact of LGPS post-employment benefits on Statement of Comprehensive Income:
2014/15 £000 Current service costs -4,234 Past service costs -98 Pension Fund liability for staff transferred under TUPE during the period -13,213 Total recognised in operating profit / (loss) -17,545
Finance costs -2,014 Finance income 1,422 Total post-employment benefit charged to the profit / (loss) from continuing -18,137 operations
Re-measurement of the Net defined Benefit Liability : Change in financial assumptions -8,759 Other experience 2 Return on plan assets (excluding amounts already included in the net interest expense) 3,456 Total recognised in Other Income -5,301
Total recognised in Total Comprehensive Income for the period -23,438
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Pensions Assets and Liabilities Recognised in the Statement of Financial Position The amount included in the Statement of Financial Position arising from the Company’s obligation in respect of its defined benefit plans is as follows:
2014/15 £000 Present Value of the Defined Benefit Obligation -60,948 Fair Value of Plan Assets 40,468 Net Liability arising from Defined Benefit Obligations -20,480
There were no liabilities in relation to unfunded liabilities.
Reconciliation of Present Value of the Scheme Assets and Liabilities
2014/15 Assets Liabilities Total £000 £000 £000 Opening Present Value of Scheme Liabilities 0 0 0
Transfer in of assets and liabilities with 1st April 2014 28,459 -40,693 -12,234 TUPE Transfer in of assets and liabilities with 1st May 2014 2,847 -3,826 -979 TUPE
Current Service Cost 0 -4,234 -4,234 Past Service Cost 0 -98 -98 Interest (Cost) / Income 1,422 -2,014 -592
Contributions from the employer 2,958 0 2,958 Contributions from employees 1,326 -1,326 0 Gains / (Losses) on Curtailment 0 0 0
Re-measurement Gains / (Losses) :
- Actuarial Gains / (Losses) arising from changes in 0 -8,759 -8,759 financial assumptions - Other experience 0 2 2 - Return on assets (excluding the amount included in the 3,456 0 3,456 net interest expense)
Closing Fair Value of Scheme Assets at 31st March 40,468 -60,948 -20,480
The Company estimates that it will pay £3.7m in employer contributions in 2015/16.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Local Government Pension Scheme assets comprised:
31-Mar-15 01-Apr-14
£000 % £000 % £000 % £000 %
LB RICHMOND RB KINGSTON LB RICHMOND RB KINGSTON
Equity Securities
- Consumer 0 0% 963 4% 0 0% 682 4% - Manufacturing 0 0% 646 3% 0 0% 449 3% - Energy and Utilities 0 0% 534 2% 0 0% 474 3% - Financial Institutions 0 0% 1,078 5% 0 0% 728 5% - Health Care 0 0% 771 3% 0 0% 509 3% - Information 0 0% 978 5% 0 0% 677 4% Technology - Other 0 0% 776 4% 0 0% 517 3%
Bonds
- Corporate Bonds 1,933 10% 0 0% 1,348 10% 0 0% (investment grade) - UK Government 1,167 6% 0 0% 806 6% 0 0%
Property (UK) 1,791 10% 795 4% 1,231 10% 570 4%
Investment Funds and Trusts - Equities 11,107 59% 10,006 46% 7,679 59% 7,148 46% - Bonds 0 0% 2,855 13% 0 0% 2,002 13% - Other 2,549 14% 2,114 10% 1,856 14% 1,400 10%
Cash and Cash 200 1% 205 1% 129 1% 254 2% Equivalents
18,747 100% 21,721 100% 13,049 100% 15,410 100%
Basis for Estimating Assets and Liabilities
Liabilities have been assessed on an actuarial basis using the projected unit credit method, an estimate of the pensions that will be payable in future years dependent on assumptions about mortality rates, salary levels, etc. Both the Local Government Pension Scheme and discretionary benefits liabilities have been estimated by Hymans Robertson LLP, an independent firm of actuaries. Estimates for Statements of the Fund are being based on the latest full valuation of the schemes (31 March 2013).
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The significant assumptions used by the actuary have been:
2014/15 £000 £000 LB RB
RICHMOND KINGSTON £000 £000
Long term expected rate of return on assets in the scheme 3.30% 4.30%
Mortality assumptions
Longevity at 65 for current pensioners:
Men 22.2 years 22.5 years Women 24.4 years 24.7 years Longevity at 65 for future pensioners:
Men 24.3 years 24.6 years Women 26.9 years 27.0 years
Take up option to convert annual position into retirement lump 2014/15 sum - Pre April 2008 Service 25%
- Post April 2008 Service 63%
31-Mar-15 01-Apr-14
% pa % pa
Financial Assumptions
Rate of inflation 2.50% 2.90% Rate of increase in pensions 2.50% 2.90% Rate of increase in salaries 4.40% 4.70% Discount Rate 3.30% 4.30%
The estimation of the defined benefit obligations is sensitive to the actuarial assumptions set out in the table above. The sensitivity analyses below have been determined based on reasonably possible changes of the assumptions occurring at the end of the reporting period and assumes for each change that only the assumption analysed changes, while all the other assumptions remain constant. The assumptions in longevity, for example, assume that life expectancy increases or decreases for men and women. In practice, this is unlikely to occur, and changes in some of the assumptions may be interrelated. The estimations in the sensitivity analysis have followed the accounting policies for the scheme, i.e. on an actuarial basis using the projected unit credit method.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Approximate Approximate monetary % increase Change in Assumptions at 31 March 2015 amount to employer
0.5% decrease in Real Discount Rate 7,861 13% 1 year increase in member life expectancy 1,828 3% 0.5% increase in the salary increase rate 3,668 6% 0.5% increase in the pension increase rate 3,913 6%
Defined benefit pension schemes accounted for as defined contribution schemes
The Company participates in 2 defined benefit pension schemes which are accounted for as defined contribution schemes:
• Teacher’s Pension Scheme (TPS) Staff employed by the Company on teachers terms and conditions are members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, administered by Capita Teachers’ Pensions on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE). The Scheme provides teachers with specified benefits upon their retirement, and the Company contributes towards the costs by making contributions based on a percentage of members’ pensionable salaries. The scheme is a multi-employer defined benefit scheme. The scheme is unfunded and the Department for Education uses a notional fund as the basis for calculating the employers’ contribution rate paid by local authorities. Valuations of the notional fund are undertaken every 4 years. The Company is not able to identify its share of the underlying financial position and performance of the scheme with sufficient reliability for accounting purposes and it is therefore accounted for on the same basis as a defined contribution scheme. AfC is responsible for the costs of any additional benefits awarded upon early retirement outside of the terms of the teachers’ scheme. There were no such costs in 2014/15. The Company is not liable to the scheme for any other entities obligations under the plan.
• National Health Service (NHS) Pension Scheme The Company employs some staff who undertake medical procedures and therefore qualify for membership to the NHS Pension Scheme. The NHS pension scheme is an unfunded, multi-employer, defined benefit scheme that covers NHS employers. In the NHS, the scheme is accounted for as if it were a defined contribution scheme: “NHS bodies shall account for the NHS Superannuation Scheme as a defined contribution plan” (NHS Manual full reference). The Company is not able to identify its share of the underlying financial position and performance of the scheme with sufficient reliability for accounting purposes. For the purposes of these Accounts, it is therefore accounted for on the same basis as a defined contribution scheme. The Company is not liable to the scheme for any other entities obligations under the plan.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Teachers’ NHS Pension Pension Scheme Scheme 2014/15 2014/15 £000 £000 Total Contributions -123 -31
Employer's Contribution Rate 14.1% 14%
Anticipated Employer's Contributions next year 16.4%* 14.3%
*rate applicable from 1st September 2015
NOTE 6 AGENCY TRANSACTIONS During the period, AfC acted as agent for the LB Richmond upon Thames and RB of Kingston upon Thames with regard to the payment of Dedicated School Grant to schools, nurseries and other educational organisations. AfC calculates the allocations in line with prescribed methodologies and arranges payment of the money to the relevant organisations. The Company is fully reimbursed by the Councils for all payments made. These agency transactions have been excluded from the Accounts and will instead be reported within the Council’s Accounts. The net impact of the difference in cash received and amounts paid out on behalf of the Councils is recognised as a net debtor on the Statement of Financial Position. The key figures are summarised below: Income Expenditure Total 2014/15 2014/15 2014/15 £000 £000 £000 Net impact on Statement of Comprehensive Income:
- LB Richmond upon Thames -14,145 14,145 0 - RB Kingston upon Thames -15,108 15,108 0 Impact on Profit and Loss Account -29,253 29,253 0
Net debtor recognised in the Statement of Financial Position - LB Richmond upon Thames 1,045 - RB Kingston upon Thames 939 1,984
NOTE 7 REVENUE AND OTHER INCOME The Company holds 2 significant contracts for the provision of education and children’s services that make up 95% of the turnover reported in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. Both contracts are for a 7 year period with an option to extend by a further 5 years. The contract income below is presented net of agency transactions (further details included in note 6).
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
A further breakdown of income is as follows: 2014/15 £000 Contract income LB Richmond Upon Thames 50,684 Contract income RB Kingston Upon Thames 40,449 Fees & charges for services 4,173 Lettings 107 Client contributions 58 Income from local authorities 866 Turnover reported within operating loss 96,337
Grants* 5,539 Donations 46 Other 227 Other income reported within operating loss 5,812
Total income reported in operating loss 102,149
* grants and contributions from third parties other than Central Government
NOTE 8 OTHER EXPENSES The following table provides a breakdown of other expenses reported in the Statement of Comprehensive Income:
2014/15 £000 Indirect employee costs -5,517 Premises -3,990 Transport -6,754 Supplies and services -6,517 Third party (contract) payments and transfer payments -45,496 Support services -5,642
Other expenses -73,916
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 9 RECONCILIATION TO MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS Management reports on 7 key segments or divisions throughout the period. Each division is managed by a member of the Senior Leadership Team and there are regular finance updates to the Board and parent councils during the period. The following table shows the outturn position that was reported to management. Standards SEN and and Kingston Richmond Children with Education Improvem- Finance and Management Outturn 2014/15 Social Care Social Care Disabilities Early Help Services ent Resources Total £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 Income LB Richmond Contract 0 0 0 0 0 0 64,830 64,830 RB Kingston Contract 0 0 0 0 0 0 55,558 55,558 Customer and Client Receipts 250 443 2,582 1,255 2,863 465 413 8,270 Other Grants and Contributions 67 0 3,497 471 0 61 0 4,096 Interest Received 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 317 443 6,079 1,726 2,863 526 120,801 132,755
Expenditure C67 Employees 2,950 3,805 7,109 10,440 4,414 3,096 1,889 33,703 Premises 13 0 14 195 25 42 3,686 3,975 Transport 95 141 180 135 6,170 23 11 6,755 Supplies and Services 470 311 1,236 1,746 1,652 977 850 7,242 Third Party Payments* 4,668 5,211 30,701 1,364 813 0 1,878 44,635 Transfer Payments 299 1,534 5,363 558 451 4 22,648 30,857 Support Services 365 746 168 83 37 6 4,237 5,642 Interest Paid 0 0 0 0 0 0 87 87 8,860 11,748 44,771 14,521 13,562 4,148 35,286 132,896 Outturn (overspend) before set up costs -8,543 -11,305 -38,692 -12,795 -10,699 -3,622 85,515 -142 One Off Set Up Costs ------1,404
Outturn (overspend) after set up costs -8,543 -11,305 -38,692 -12,795 -10,699 -3,622 85,515 -1,546
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
*Contract payments to third parties e.g. payments for independent child placements, payments for SEN placements, general contract payments etc. C68
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The basis on which the Company reports during the period is different to the IFRS compliant reporting required for this Statement of Accounts. The following table provides a reconciliation between the outturn reported to management and the 2014/15 Statement of Comprehensive Income:
2014/15
Amounts not reported to management for Cumulative decision making Total including Reallocated (IFRS management in SOCI adjustments) accounts £000 £000 £000 Outturn after set up costs -1,546
Interest Payable 115 0 Recognition of annual leave owing to staff 0 -378 Pension Adjustments: Recognition of TUPE liability transfer 0 -13,213 Difference in cash employer contributions 0 -1,374 Recognition of non-current assets 0 60 Recognition of lease principal 14 Depreciation 0 -38 -14,814
Operating profit / (loss) 115 -14,929 -16,360
Interest Payable -115 0 Pension Adjustments: Net Interest Payable 0 -593 -708
Profit / (Loss) from continuing operations 0 -15,522 -17,068
Pension Adjustments: Re-measurements 0 -5,301 -5,301
Total comprehensive income / (expenditure) for the period 0 -20,823 -22,369
The Company pays Dedicated Schools Grant to educational establishments on behalf of LB Richmond and RB Kingston. These transactions are treated as an agency relationship in the financial accounts as the decision making power remains with the councils. The net impact of removing these transactions from the Statement of Comprehensive Income is nil as both income and expenditure are removed. Further details are included in note 6.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 10 NON CURRENT ASSETS Details of movement in non-current assets are included in the table below:
31 March 2015 Intangible Tangible ICT Total Software Equipment £000 £000 £000 Gross carrying amount Opening balance 0 0 0 Additions 87 37 124 Disposals 0 0 0 Balance 31 March 2015 87 37 124
Depreciation, Amortisation and impairment Opening balance 0 0 0 Disposals 0 0 0 Depreciation / Amortisation -29 -9 -38 Balance 31 March 2015 -29 -9 -38 Carrying amount 31 March 2015 58 28 86
Useful Life 3 years 4 years
The Company has purchased software and computer tablets during the period and has also acquired software via a finance lease.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 11 LEASES Finance leases as lessee During the period the Company aquired an Integrated Children’s System via a finance lease from the RB Kingston. This system has been valued at £64k and included in the Company’s Statement of Financial Position. An equivalent liability has been recognised. The liability will be written down over a 3 year period (including 2014/15) as the Company receives benefit from the software. The difference between the future minimum lease payment and the liability is the interest cost of £28k which has been recognised under finance costs in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. No formal lease agreement exists but the accounting treatment aims to present the substance of the arrangement.
31 March 2015 £000 £000 £000 £000 Non-Current Assets: Intangible Asset 64 less depreciation -21 43
Liabilities: Current Finance Lease Liability 20 Non-Current Finance Lease Liability 29 49 Interest Principal Total Future Lease Payments: Not later than 1 year 22 20 42 Later than 1 year 13 29 42 Later than 5 years 0 0 0 Total 35 49 84
Operating leases as lessee The Company leases offices and operational buildings from LB Richmond and RB Kingston that have minimum periods of between 18 months and 4.5 years from 1 April 2014. It also leases 3 vehicles from LB Richmond that are all over 9 years old with no carrying value in LB Richmond’s accounts. These are leased at a peppercorn as they have no definite future life. The future minimum lease payments are as follows: After 5 One year 1 to 5 years years Total £000 £000 £000 £000 Lease Payments 2,034 4,145 0 6,179
Finance and operating leases as lessor The Company has no leases as lessor.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 12 FINANCIAL ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Categories of financial assets and liabilities The carrying amounts of financial assets and financial liabilities are as follows:
31 March 2015 £000
Financial assets / Loans and Receivables
Trade and other receivables categorised as Financial Instruments 28,950 Trade and other receivables not categorised as Financial Instruments 1,778 Cash and cash equivalents 951 31,679
31 March 2015
£000 Financial liabilities at amortised cost Current borrowings 15,314 Finance lease liabilities 49 Trade and other payables categorised as Financial Instruments 13,719 Trade and other payables not categorised as Financial Instruments 4,572 33,654
A description of the Company’s financial instrument risk, including risk management objectives and poicies is given in Note 21.
NOTE 13 TRADE AND OTHER RECEIVABLES Trade and other receivables are made up as follows:
31 March 2015 £000 Trade receivables, gross 28,950 Allowance for credit losses (32) Trade receivables 28,918 Employee leave 58 Prepayments 1,752 Total current trade and other receivables 30,728
All amounts are short-term. The net carrying value of trade receivables is considered a reasonable approximation of fair value. All of the Company's trade and other receivables have been reviewed for indicators of impairment. No trade receivables were written off.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Company has made a general allowance for credit loss. The movement in allowance for credit losses is presented below:
31 March 2015 £000 Balance 5 February 2014 0 Amounts written off (uncollectable) - Impairment loss (32) Balance 31 March 2015 (32)
NOTE 14 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS Cash and cash equivalents consist of the following:
31 March 2015 £000 Current Account (includes impact of transactions in transit) -86 Instant Access Deposit Account 1,000 Imprest Accounts (cash in hand and in bank) 37 951
NOTE 15 TRADE AND OTHER PAYABLES Trade and other payables consist of the following:
31 March 2015 £000 Current Trade payables 13,719 Employee leave 436 Receipts in advance 70 Taxes (e.g. VAT, National Insurance) 4,066 18,291
NOTE 16 OTHER LIABILITIES The following table contains a breakdown of other current and non-current liabilities (excluding trade receivables and payables):
31 March 2015 £000
Finance lease liabilities 29 Short term loans from parent councils 15,314 Other liabilities - current 15,343
Finance lease liabilities 20 Pension fund defined benefit liability (see note 6) 20,480 Other liabilities - non-current 20,500
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 17 FINANCE COSTS AND FINANCE INCOME Finance costs for the reporting period consist of the following:
2014/15 £000
Interest on short term borrowings from parent councils 88 Finance lease interest 28 Net interest expense on defined benefit liability 592
708
There was no material net finance income for the reporting period. NOTE 18 CORPORATION TAX The following table shows the tax reconciliation based on FRS19 for 2014/15:
2014/15 Derived Accounts £000 £000
Loss on ordinary activities before tax -17,068 -17,068
Tax on loss on ordinary activities at standard CT rate of 21.27% -3,630 -3,630 21.27% Effects of: Expenses not deductible for tax purposes 43 43 -0.25% Amounts charged directly to STRGL or otherwise transferred -1,127 -1,127 6.60% Capital allowances in excess of depreciation -6 -6 0.04% Other short term timing differences 3 3 -0.02% - Defined benefit scheme timing differences 4,356 4,356 25.52% Unrelieved tax losses and other deductions arising in the period 361 361 -2.12% Unexplained difference
Current tax charge/credit for the period 0 0
Deferred Tax Asset As a Community Interest Company AfC must pay corporation tax on all taxable profits at the domestic effective tax rate. The Company has reported an operating loss for the 2014/15 financial period of £17m and so no tax expense has been recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. It is not probable that the Company will make significant taxable profits in the short to medium term and therefore has not recognised a deferred
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS tax asset in the Accounts. If the Company does make taxable profits in the coming years it will be able to reduce its initial tax liability by offsetting taxable losses incurred in 2014/15. The amount recognised as a contingent asset at 31 March 2015 is £4.43 million.
NOTE 19 NON CASH FLOW ADJUSTMENTS AND CHANGES IN WORKING CAPITAL The following tables provide a breakdown of the non-cash transactions recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income and Statement of Financial Position.
2014/15 £000 Net changes in working capital: Change in trade and other receivables (increase) -30,727 Change in trade and other payables (increase) 18,291 Total changes in working capital -12,436
2014/15 £000 Non Cash Flow Adjustments: Recognition of pension liability transferred with TUPE 13,213 Current and past service costs 4,332 Net interest on defined benefit liability 592 Accounts payable and receivable transactions paid out by parent companies 15,638 Capitalisation -76 Depreciation 38
33,737
The Company was reliant on the 2 parent Councils for the processing of the majority of accounts payable and payroll during the period until the 30th March 2015 when the Company’s treasury management function became fully operational. As a result of this arrangement the majority of transactions during the period were not cash transactions. The Councils did not settle amounts due on their respective contracts and the Company did not pay the majority of expenditure out directly until 30th March 2015. The parent councils have a revolving credit facility which means they can lend to AfC to provide cash flow for ongoing operations. The amount still owed to the Councils under this arrangement has been recognised in the Statement of Financial Position and is detailed in note 16 to the accounts.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 20 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS The Company’s related parties include its owners (the LB Richmond and RB Kingston), directors of the Company, senior management, post-employment benefit plans and others as described below.
Transactions with the Company’s owners Achieving for Children is jointly owned by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The boroughs have influence over major policy decisions and funding. The Company is contracted jointly by both councils to provide their children’s services. The councils also provide support services and accomodation to the Company and a loan facility of up to £30m. The table below summarises the key transactions:
LB Richmond RB Kingston 2014/15 2014/15 £000 £000
Receipts* 60,794 52,570 Accrued income 14,072 11,367 Payments 5,237 4,819 Accrued expenditure 6,351 3,300 Total Value*** 86,454 72,056
Other balances: Borrowing** 7,657 7,657
* This figures have not been adjusted for the agency relationship to ensure full disclosure **Borrowing represents the balance at 31st March 2015. The cashflow statement details physical cash paid and received on financing activities ***Transactions are inclusive of VAT
Transactions with schools maintained by the councils have been excluded as the contract price captures the value of these transactions. Individual schools are not deemed to have control over the Company.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Transactions with directors and senior management Directors (including non-executive) and senior management have direct control over the Company’s finance and operating policies. The table below summarises the remuneration received by these individuals during 2014/15. As a result of legislative requirements relating to the employment of statutory officers, some members of the Senior Leadership Team are employed by the parent councils and seconded to Achieving for Children. The total remuneration paid has been captured in the table below and includes total remuneration paid by AfC and the parent councils. Further details on the remuneration of individual Directors are included in the Director’s Report.
2014/15 £000 Short Term Benefits: Salary 877,458 National Insurance 100,246 Allowances 2,496 Expenses 675
Post-Employment Benefits: Defined benefit pension plans 139,415
Total Remuneration 1,120,290
During the period directors, senior management or members of their immediate families had relationships / influence over the organisations detailed in the table below. Organisations have been detailed reguardless of whether transactions occurred with AfC. Where transactions have occurred, the relevant officer or director was not involved in decision making.
Transactions in the Amounts owed at Total value of
period period-end transactions Payments Receipts Owed to Owed by £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 Association of Directors of Adult Social 0 0 0 0 0 Services BBC 0 0 0 0 0 City Lit Adult Education College 0 0 0 0 0 Civil Service 0 0 0 0 0 Corniche Events 0 0 0 0 0 Learning Schools Trust 240 27 0 2 269 NHS England 762 1,129 184 78 2,153 Open Box Consulting 0 0 0 0 0 Reading University 0 0 0 0 0 Resolutions Consultancy 0 0 0 0 0 Skills for Care 0 0 0 0 0 UK Statistics Authority 0 0 0 0 0
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The transactions with the Learning Skills Trust related to special educational needs placements in Academy schools managed by the Trust. The Chief Executive (Nick Whitfield) is also a Director of the Learning Schools Trust. The transactions with NHS England include transactions with all NHS bodies and principally relate to health contributions to services and the purchase of health services and equipment. One of the Company’s Non Executive Independent Directors (Moira Gibb) is also a Non Executive Director of NHS England.
Transactions with post-employment benefit plans Employees of AfC are members of a number of pension plans. The defined benefit plans (the LGPS) are separately administered by the LB Richmond and RB Kingston who are also owners of the Company. The pension funds are treated as separate financial entities and the terms of the benefit plans are prescribed by regulation. Note 5 to these accounts contains further details of the specific plans and associated figures.
NOTE 21 CONTINGENT ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Contingent Liabilities Contingent liabilities relate to possible expenditure arising from a past event that has not been recognised in the Statement of Accounts due to the probability that a transfer of economic benefits will not arise, or cannot be reliably estimated. The possible liability is dependent on the outcome of something happening in the future. A review is undertaken annually to identify any potential liabilities.
• Legal Cases / Tribunals / Insurance Claims As at the 31st March there were no significant claims outstanding against the Company. If claims do arise then these will be met by the Company’s insurance policy (£50k excess) or via in year budgets.
• Termination Benefits The Company must make significant reductions in its cost base over the next 3 years to recoup year 1 losses and to achieve contract price reduction targets set by the parent councils. Plans continue to be developed to address these cost pressures and it is probable that some termination benefits will be paid out to staff as part of these plans. The Company is not able to estimate these at present but any future liabilities will be met through in year budgets, contract change control mechanisms and the phasing of reductions in the Company’s cost base.
Contingent Assets Contingent assets relate to possible income arising from a past event that has not been recognised in the Statement of Accounts due to the probability that a transfer of economic benefits will not arise, or cannot be reliably estimated. The right to the potential asset is dependent on something happening in the future. A review is undertaken annually to identify potential contingent assets.
• Deferred Tax Asset As a Community Interest Company AfC must pay corporation tax on all taxable profits at the domestic effective tax rate. The Company has reported an operating loss for the 2014/15 financial period of £17m and so no tax expense has been recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. It is not probable that the Company will make significant taxable profits in the short to medium term and therefore has not recognised a deferred tax asset in the Accounts. If the Company does make taxable profits in the coming years it will be able to reduce its initial tax liability by offsetting taxable losses incurred in 2014/15. The amount recognised as a contingent asset at 31 March 2015 is £4.43 million.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 22 FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS RISK Risk management objectives and policies The Company is exposed to various risks in relation to financial instruments. The Company’s financial assets and liabilities are summarised in Note 12. The main types of risks are market risk, credit risk and liquidity risk. The Company’s risk management procedures are focused on the unpredictability of financial markets and are structured to implement suitable controls to minimise these risks.
Market risk analysis The principle risk that the Company is exposed to is fluctuations in interest rates that can impact on its operating costs. The Company only has exposure to short term borrowing and deposits that are on variable interest rate terms with no currency exposure. As an indication of the sensitivity to interest rates, a change in short term interest rates of 1% would change finance costs by +/- £87,000, and the impact on the pension liability (of the defined benefit plan – LGPS) would change the net liability by +/- £15.8 million.
Credit risk analysis Credit risk arises if a counterparty fails to discharge an obligation to the Company. The Company is exposed to credit risk in respect of short term deposits, cash and cash equivalents and trade and other receivables. The maximum exposure to credit risk is limited to the carrying amounts of financial assets recognised at 31 March 2015, as shown in the following table:
31 March 2015 £000
Financial assets / Loans and Receivables
Trade and other receivables categorised as Financial Instruments 28,950 Trade and other receivables not categorised as Financial Instruments 1,778 Cash and cash equivalents 951 31,679
A significant proportion of trade and other receivables are in respect of public sector entities, which mitigates the overall risk. Impairment of receivables in 2014/15 was only £32k. The Company only deals with financial institutions that have high credit ratings and monitors these to avoid risk. Liquidity risk analysis Liquidity risk arises if the Company is unable to meet its obligations. The Company is able to borrow from its owners (the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames) under a revolving credit facility agreement. This agreement provides a loan facility of £30m which the Company can draw down on to meet its liquidity requirements and also has up to £6m on same-day withdrawal deposits to manage day-to-day cash requirements.
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Company manages its liquidity needs through monitoring forecast cash inflows and outflows arising from its business on a daily and weekly basis and also monitors longer term impacts on its cash flow arising from changes to its business plan. The Company is required to submit a Financial Plan at least annually to its owners for their approval that sets out the Company’s treasury management plans and procedures.
The revolving credit arrangement in place with its owners is regarded as sufficient mitigation against liquidity risk.
NOTE 23 FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENT Financial assets and financial liabilities measured at fair value in the statement of financial position are grouped into Levels of fair value hierarchy. The three Levels are defined based on the observability of significant inputs to the measurement, as follows:
Level 1: quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities Level 2: inputs other than quoted prices included within level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly Level 3: unobservable inputs for the asset or liability The Company holds only the following financial assets andliabilities: • Cash and cash equivalents • Current borrowings • Trade and other receivables and payables There are no quoted prices that can be used to measure fair value. Cash and cash equivalents and trade and other payables are all very short term assets and liabilities and so they are assessed as being fair value. Current borrowings are in respect of one loan facility, provided by the owners of the Company (LB Richmond and RB Kingston). This is a revolving short term loan agreement at variable rate based on Base Rate. The terms of the loan are judged to reflect current market rates and the actual value of the loan is taken as fair value. Trade payables are discharged within 30 days and are deemed to be at fair value. Trade receivables are due within 30 days and are deemed to be at fair value. Receivables not settled within 30 days are amortised in respect of assumed credit losses based on the age of debt. NOTE 24 CAPITAL MANAGEMENT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES The Company is jointly owned by LB Richmond and RB Kingston as a Company limited by guarantee. It has no equity and is a ‘not for profit’ organisation and registered as a Community Interest Company. It provides benefit to its owners by providing services to them under contract at economic cost. The Company is not required to provide a financial return to its owners and has no target for its capital-to-overall financing ratio. The owners of the Company provide funding for the Company through a short-term loan facility and the Company does not have any other borrowings. The amounts managed as capital by the Company for the reporting period under review are summarised as follows:
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
2014/15 £000 Cash and cash equivalents 951 Capital 951
Borrowings 15,314 Overall financing 15,314
Capital-to-overall financing ratio 0.06
NOTE 25 POST REPORTING DATE EVENTS No significant events have occurred between the 31st March reporting date and the 19th August 2015 when these are accounts were authorised by the Chair of the Board.
NOTE 26 AUTHORISATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS These Financial Statements were approved for issue by the Board of Directors on 15th July 2015 and signed on its behalf, on 19th August 2015, by:
David Groves Chair of the Board
Lucy Kourpas (CPFA) Head of Financial Control
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NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 27 ACCOUNTING POLICIES General principles Basis of preparation - accounting practices This Statement of Accounts has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as required by the Companies Act 2006. The Accounts summarise the Company’s financial performance (Statement of Comprehensive Income), equity (Statement of Equity), financial position (Statement of Financial Position) and cash flow (Cash Flow Statement) for the period. As this is the first set of Accounts, prior period comparative figures cannot be provided in line with reporting guidelines but will be published in future periods. The Accounts have been prepared on the historical cost basis.
Changes in accounting policies and prior period adjustments Prior period adjustments arise either as a result of a change in accounting policies or to correct a material error. Changes in accounting estimates are accounted for in the current financial period and future periods affected by the change, and do not result in a prior period adjustment. Changes in accounting policies are only made when required by proper accounting practices or where the change provides more reliable or relevant information about the effect of transactions, other events and economic conditions on the Company’s financial position or financial performance. Where a change is made, it is applied retrospectively (unless stated otherwise) by adjusting opening balances and comparative amounts for the prior period as if the new policy had always been applied. Material errors discovered in prior period figures are corrected retrospectively by amending opening balances and comparative amounts for the prior period. There are no such adjustments in the 2014/15 Accounts.
Exceptional Items Exceptional items are those which are separately identified by virtue of their size or incidence to enable a full understanding of the Company’s financial performance. The nature and amount of these items is disclosed separately, either on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income or in the notes to the accounts, depending on how significant the items are. The company has separately identified two exceptional items on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income in 2014/15 relating to Company set up costs and pension liabilities.
Items Re-classifiable to the Operating Profit or Loss Where there are items in the Statement of Comprehensive Income that are re-classifiable to the Operating Profit / Loss from Other Comprehensive Income and Expenditure, when certain conditions are met, these will be disclosed separately on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income (within Other Comprehensive Income). At present the Company has no such transactions.
Accruals of Income and Expenditure Activity is accounted for in the period that it takes place, not simply when cash payments are made or received. In particular: Income • Revenue from the sale of goods and services is recognised when the Company transfers the significant risks and rewards of ownership to the purchaser and it is probable that economic benefits or service potential associated with the transaction will flow to the organisation. • Revenue from the provision of services is recognised when the Company can measure reliably the percentage of completion of the transaction and it is probable that economic benefits or service potential associated with the transaction will flow to the Company.
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C83
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Contract income, fees and charges, lettings, grants, donations and other income arise from the provision of services or the sale of goods or services. Expenditure • Supplies are recorded as expenditure when they are consumed. Where there is a gap between the date supplies are received and their consumption (and the values are material) they are carried as inventories on the Statement of Financial Position. • Expenses in relation to services received (including services provided by employees) are recorded as expenditure when the services are received rather than when payments are made. Revenue income and expenditure for the year is reported in the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
Interest • Interest receivable on investments and payable on borrowings is accounted for respectively as income and expenditure on the basis of the effective interest rate for the relevant financial instrument rather than the cash flows fixed or determined by the contract.
Debtor and creditor balances (accruals policy) Where income and expenditure have been recognised but cash has not been received or paid, a debtor or creditor for the relevant amount is recorded in the Statement of Financial Position. Where debts may not be settled (i.e. collection is doubtful), the balance of receivables is written down and a charge made to revenue for the income that might not be collected.
Exceptions to this accruals policy are made where it would be impractical in terms of time and cost required and where the effect of not accruing has no material effect on the Company’s accounts. The Company has set a general de minimis level for accruals of creditors that are calculated manually at period-end. This level is reviewed annually and is currently set at £10,000. Two exceptions to this de-minimis rule apply: • Qualifying expenditure upon which income from third parties is dependent and associated income. • Invoices for substantially the same supply or service that are chargeable to the same service area are aggregated where their total is over £10,000.
Agency Relationship Where the company acts as an agent of the Parent Councils, in paying grant monies to schools, these transactions are excluded from the Accounts on the basis that the company is not making decisions about how the money is spent . The company is just passporting money based on pre-set criteria, on behalf of a third party. These transactions are reported in the Accounts of the party who ultimately controls the money (i.e. the Councils).
Inventories The Company recognises all inventories (stock) that have a value over £10,000 as at 31 March. The Company initially recognises inventory when it has control of it and when it expects to have a right to the future economic benefits / service potential. All inventories are measured at the lower of cost or net realisable value. Where there are large numbers of items of inventory that are ordinarily interchangeable, the Company uses the weighted average cost method of stock measurement. The Company held no material inventories at 31st March 2015.
Cash and cash equivalents Cash is represented by cash in hand and deposits with financial institutions repayable without penalty on notice of not more than 24 hours. Cash equivalents are investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with insignificant risk of change in value (this will exclude fixed term deposits as they are not highly liquid and not readily convertible to cash).
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C84
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
In the Cash Flow Statement, cash and cash equivalents are shown net of bank overdrafts that are repayable on demand.
Employee Benefits Benefits payable during employment Short-term employee benefits are those due to be settled within 12 months of the period-end. They include such benefits as wages and salaries, paid annual leave and paid sick leave, bonuses and non- monetary benefits for current employees and are recognised as an expense for services in the period in which employees render service to the Company. An accrual is made for the cost of holiday entitlements (or any form of leave, e.g. time off in lieu) earned by employees but not taken before the period-end which employees can carry forward into the next financial period. The accrual is made at the salary rates applicable in the following accounting year, being the period in which the employee takes the benefit. The accrual is charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Income so that holiday benefits are charged to revenue in the financial period to which they relate.
Termination Benefits Termination benefits are amounts payable as a result of a decision by the Company to terminate an officer’s employment before the normal retirement date or an officer’s decision to accept voluntary redundancy. These are charged on an accruals basis to the Statement of Comprehensive Income when the Company is demonstrably committed to the termination of the employment of an officer or group of officers or making an offer to encourage voluntary redundancy. Where termination benefits involve the enhancement of pensions, the amount is recognised on an IAS19 basis in the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
Post Employment Benefits (IAS19) Employees of the Company can be members of four separate pension funds: • The Teachers’ Pension Scheme, administered by Capita Teachers’ Pensions on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE).
• The National Health Service Pension Scheme, administered by the Department of Health (DoH)
• The Local Government Pensions Scheme, administered by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
• The Local Government Pensions Scheme, administered by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
All schemes provide defined benefits to members, earned as employees who have worked for the Company. However, the arrangements for the teachers’ and NHS scheme mean that liabilities for these benefits cannot ordinarily be identified specifically to the Company. The scheme is therefore accounted for as if it was a defined contribution scheme and no liability for future payments of benefits is recognised in the Statement of Financial Position. The employer’s contributions are charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Income for the period.
The Local Government Pension Scheme The Local Government Scheme is accounted for as a defined benefits scheme: • The liabilities of the LB Richmond and RB Kingston Pension Fund attributable to the Company are included in the Statement of Financial Position on an actuarial IAS19 basis using the projected unit method – i.e. an assessment of the future payments that will be made in relation to retirement benefits earned to date by
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C85
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS employees, based on assumptions about mortality rates, employee turnover rates, etc., and projections of projected earnings for current employees. • Liabilities are discounted to their value at current prices, using a discount rate (based on the indicative rate of return on 20 year gilts adjusted for credit spread). • The assets of each Pension Fund attributable to the Company are included in the Statement of Financial Position at their fair value: quoted securities – current bid price unquoted securities – professional estimate unitised securities – current bid price property – market value • The change in the net pensions liability is analysed into the following components: Service cost comprising: - current service cost – the increase in the present value of a defined benefit obligation (liabilities) resulting from employee service in the current period. – allocated to the Statement of Comprehensive Income - past service cost – the change in the present value of the defined benefit obligation for employee service in prior periods, resulting from a plan amendment (the introduction or withdrawal of, or changes to, a defined benefit plan) or a curtailment (a significant reduction by the authority in the number of employees covered by a plan). – debited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income - Any gain or loss on settlement – arising when the Company enters into a transaction that eliminates all further legal or constructive obligations for part or all of the benefits provided under a defined benefit plan – debited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income Net interest on the net defined benefit liability (asset) - the change during the period in the net defined benefit liability (asset) that arises from the passage of time - charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Income Re-measurements of the net defined benefit liability (asset) comprising: - actuarial gains and losses – changes in the present value of the defined benefit obligation resulting from: a) experience adjustments (the effects of differences between the previous actuarial assumptions and what has actually occurred) and b) the effects of changes in actuarial assumptions charged to Other Comprehensive Income for the period - the return on plan assets – excluding amounts included in net interest on the net defined benefit liability (asset) – charged to Other Comprehensive Income for the period
Discretionary Benefits The Company has restricted powers to make discretionary awards of retirement benefits in the event of early retirements. Any liabilities estimated to arise as a result of an award to any member of staff, including teachers, are accrued in the period of the decision to make the award and accounted for using the same policies as are applied to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Financial Instruments
Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities are recognised on the Statement of Financial Position when the Company becomes a party to the contractual provisions of a financial instrument and are initially measured at fair value and are carried at their amortised cost. Annual charges to the Statement of Comprehensive Income for interest payable are based on the carrying amount of the liability, multiplied by the effective rate of interest for the instrument. The effective interest rate is the rate that exactly discounts estimated future cash payments over the life of the instrument to the amount at which it was originally recognised.
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C86
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Financial Assets Financial assets are classified into two types: • loans and receivables – assets that have fixed or determinable payments but are not quoted in an active market • available-for-sale assets – assets that have a quoted market price and/or do not have fixed or determinable payments. AfC had no available for sale financial instruments in 2014/15.
Loans and Receivables Loans and receivables are recognised when the Company becomes a party to the contractual provisions of a financial instrument and are initially measured at fair value. They are subsequently measured at their amortised cost. Annual credits to the Statement of Comprehensive Income for interest receivable are based on the carrying amount of the asset multiplied by the effective rate of interest for the instrument. For most of the loans that the Company has made, this means that the amount presented in the Statement of Financial Position is the outstanding principal receivable (plus accrued interest) and interest credited to the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement is the amount receivable for the period in the loan agreement. Where assets are identified as impaired because of a likelihood arising from a past event that payments due under the contract will not be made, the asset is written down and a charge made to the Statement of Comprehensive Income. The impairment loss is measured as the difference between the carrying amount and the present value of the revised future cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. Any gains and losses that arise on the de-recognition of an asset are credited or debited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
Foreign Currency Translation Where the Company enters into a transaction denominated in a foreign currency, the transaction is converted into sterling at the exchange rate applicable on the date the transaction was effective. Where amounts in foreign currency are outstanding at the period-end, they are reconverted at the spot exchange rate at 31 March. Resulting gains or losses are recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
Third Party Contributions Whether paid on account, by instalments or in arrears, third party contributions and donations are recognised as due to the Company when there is reasonable assurance that: • the Company will comply with the conditions attached to the payments, and • the grants or contributions will be received. Amounts recognised as due to the Company are not credited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income until conditions attached to the grant or contribution have been satisfied. Conditions are stipulations that specify that the future economic benefits or service potential embodied in the asset acquired using the contribution are required to be consumed by the recipient as specified, or future economic benefits or service potential must be returned to the transferor. Monies advanced as grants and contributions for which conditions have not been satisfied are carried in the Statement of Financial Position as creditors / receipts in advance. When conditions are satisfied, the grant or contribution is credited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
Relationships and Interests in Companies and Other Entities
Achieving for Children is jointly owned by the LB Richmond upon Thames and RB Kingston upon Thames. The Company will disclose the proportion of profit / loss and net assets that is attributable to each council. The parent councils will in turn consolidate their interest in the Company as part of their group accounts.
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C87
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Where the Company assesses that its relationship with another entity is classified as a subsidiary, associate, or joint venture it will present its accounts to reflect these interests as follows:
• Subsidiary • Associates • Joint Ventures
• Company controls the • Company has significant • Company has joint financial and operating influence over the control over another activities of that entity and operations of another entity benefits from this control. entity.
•
• Line by Line consolidation - • Equity Method – Where material, the • The interest is presented as an investment and adjusted Company will consolidate each period for the current share of the net assets and 100% of all transactions the relevant share of profit or loss will be recognised in and balances into the the Statement of Comprehensive Income Company’s Accounts and the Company will present both single entity and group entity accounts.
Non Current Assets The Company recognises two categories of non-current asset: • Tangible - Assets that have physical substance and are held for use in the production or supply of goods or services, or for administrative purposes and that are expected to be used during more than one financial period • Intangible - Expenditure on non-monetary assets that do not have physical substance but are controlled by the council as a result of past events (e.g. software licences) are capitalised when it is expected that future economic benefits or service potential will flow to the Company
The Company has set the following de-minimis limits for the recognition of non-current assets. • Land and buildings - £50,000 • Vehicles, plant and equipment - £10,000 • Intangible assets - £10,000
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C88
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
• • Tangible • Intangible
• Recognition Expenditure on the acquisition, creation or enhancement is capitalised on an accruals basis, provided that it is probable that the future economic benefits or service potential associated with the item will flow to the Company and the cost of the item can be measured reliably. Expenditure that maintains but does not add to an asset’s potential to deliver future economic benefits or service potential (i.e. repairs and maintenance) is charged as an expense when it is incurred.
Where an asset consists of various components with different useful lives these are recognised separately.
• Measurement Assets are initially measured at cost, Intangible assets are measured initially at comprising the purchase price and any cost. Amounts are only revalued where costs attributable to bringing the asset to the fair value of the assets held can be the location and condition necessary for it determined by reference to an active to be capable of operating in the manner market. Increases in valuations are intended by management. Assets are then matched by credits to the Revaluation carried in the Statement of Financial Reserve to recognise unrealised gains. Position at fair value, determined as the Reductions in value are written off amount that would be paid for the asset against relevant balances in the in its existing condition. For non-property revaluation reserve and then to the assets that have short useful lives or low Statement of Comprehensive Income. values (or both), depreciated historical
cost basis is used as a proxy for fair value.
Assets are revalued sufficiently regularly to ensure that their carrying amount is not materially different from their fair value at the period-end. Increases in valuations are matched by credits to the Revaluation Reserve to recognise unrealised gains. Reductions in fair value are written off against relevant balances in the revaluation reserve and then to the Statement of Comprehensive Income.
• Depreciation • Depreciation is provided for on all • The depreciable amount of an tangible assets by the systematic intangible asset is amortised over its allocation of their depreciable useful life to the Statement of amounts over their useful lives. The Comprehensive Income. A full years Company applies the straight line depreciation is charged in the period method of depreciation and the of acquisition useful life is determined by a relevant expert. Depreciation is charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Income each period and writes down the value of the asset on the Statement of Financial Position. A full years depreciation is charged in the period of acquisition.
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C89
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Leases (IAS17)
Leases are classified as finance leases where the terms of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards incidental to ownership from the lessor to the lessee. All other leases are classified as operating leases. Where a lease covers both land and buildings, the land and buildings elements are considered separately for classification. Arrangements that do not have the legal status of a lease but convey a right to use an asset in return for payment are accounted for under this policy where fulfilment of the arrangement is dependent on the use of specific assets. Achieving for Children does not have legal title to any non-current assets and as such would not partake in the leasing out of non-current assets.
Finance Leases Non-Current Assets held under finance leases is recognised on the Statement of Financial Position at the commencement of the lease at its fair value measured at the lease’s inception (or the present value of the minimum lease payments, if lower). The asset recognised is matched by a liability for the obligation to pay the lessor. Initial direct costs of the Company are added to the carrying amount of the asset. Premiums paid on entry into a lease are applied to writing down the lease liability. Contingent rents are charged as expenses in the periods in which they are incurred.
Lease payments are apportioned between: • a charge for the acquisition of the interest in the asset – applied to write down the lease liability, and • a finance charge debited to the Statement of Comprehensive Income
Non-current assets that are assessed as a finance lease are recognised on the Company’s Statement of Financial Position as a Non-Current Asset and depreciated over the shorter of the lease term or estimated useful life via an annual charge to the Statement of Comprehensive Income. In recognising finance leases, the Company applies the following de-minimis levels: • Land and buildings - £50,000 • Vehicles, plant and equipment - £10,000 • Intangible assets - £10,000
Operating Leases Rentals paid under operating leases are charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Income as an expense in the period.
Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
Provisions Provisions are made where an event has taken place that gives the Company a legal or constructive obligation that probably requires settlement by a transfer of economic benefits or service potential, and a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation. For instance, the Company may be involved in a court case that could eventually result in the making of a settlement or the payment of compensation. Provisions are charged as an expense to the Statement of Comprehensive Income in the period that the Company becomes aware of the obligation, and are measured at the best estimate at the Statement of Financial Position date of the expenditure required to settle the obligation, taking into account relevant risks and uncertainties. When payments are eventually made, they are charged to the provision carried in the Statement of Financial Position. Estimated settlements are reviewed at the end of each financial period – where it becomes less than probable that a transfer of economic benefits will now be required (or a lower settlement than anticipated is made), the provision is reversed and credited back to the relevant service.
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C90
NOTES TO THE CORE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Redundancy Costs The Company provides for redundancy costs at the point that it is demonstrably committed (cannot retract the offer). If a notification of redundancy has been issued before 31 March but the amount has not yet been paid, a liability is recognised in the accounts.
Contingent Liabilities A contingent liability arises where an event has taken place that gives the Company a possible obligation whose existence will only be confirmed by the occurrence or otherwise of uncertain future events not wholly within the control of the Company. Contingent liabilities also arise in circumstances where a provision would otherwise be made but either it is not probable that an outflow of resources will be required or the amount of the obligation cannot be measured reliably. Contingent liabilities are not recognised in the Statement of Financial Position but disclosed in a note to the Accounts.
Contingent Assets A contingent asset arises where an event has taken place that gives the Company a possible asset whose existence will only be confirmed by the occurrence or otherwise of uncertain future events not wholly within the control of the Company. Contingent assets are not recognised in the Statement of Financial Position but disclosed in a note to the accounts where it is probable that there will be an inflow of economic benefits or service potential.
Taxation Corporation Taxation The Company is liable to pay Corporation Tax on all taxable profits. Where this applies, the tax will be separately identified on the face of the Statement of Comprehensive Income and profits / losses will be shown gross and net of taxation. Any amounts owed to the HMRC at the period-end will be recognised as a creditor / debtor on the Statement of Financial Position.
Where the Company makes taxable losses / has temporary differences, it will recognise a deferred tax asset on the Statement of Financial Position only where it is probable that the Company will make taxable profits and pay Corporation Tax in the foreseeable future. If taxable profits are not probable the potential deferred tax asset will be recognised as a contingent asset and disclosed within the notes to the Accounts.
Value Added Taxation VAT payable is included as an expense only to the extent that it is not recoverable from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. VAT receivable is excluded from income. The net amount owed or owing to the HMRC at the Statement of Financial Position Date will be recognised as a net creditor / debtor on the Statement of Financial Position.
Post Reporting Date Events Events after the Statement of Financial Position date are those events, both favourable and unfavourable, that occur between the end of the reporting period and the date when the Statement of Accounts is authorised for issue. Two types of events can be identified: • those that provide evidence of conditions that existed at the end of the reporting period – the Statement of Accounts is adjusted to reflect such events (an adjusting event). • those that are indicative of conditions that arose after the reporting period – the Statement of Accounts is not adjusted to reflect such events, but where a category of events would have a material effect, disclosure is made in the notes of the nature of the events and their estimated financial effect (a non-adjusting event). Events taking place after the date of authorisation for issue are not reflected in the Statement of Accounts.
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C91 GLOSSARY OF TERMS
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ACCRUALS Amounts charged to the accounts for goods or services received during the period for which payments have not yet been made, and for income due, which has not yet been received.
BALANCE SHEET / STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION A statement of the Council’s assets and liabilities at the 31 March (Statement of Financial Position date).
CAPITAL EXPENDITURE Expenditure on the acquisition or enhancement of assets that have a significant value and a useful life beyond one year.
CASH & CASH EQUIVALENTS Cash is represented by notes and coins held by the Company and deposits available on demand. Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value e.g. instant access accounts.
COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY A Community Interest Company is a special type of Ltd Company which exists to benefit the community rather than the private shareholders. Its primary objectives are social objectives and any surpluses are re- invested into the organisation.
CREDITORS OR TRADE PAYABLES Organisations and individuals to whom the Council owes money.
CURRENT ASSETS These are assets that will be consumed within the next accounting period (i.e. less than one year). Examples are stock, cash and receivables.
CURRENT LIABILITIES Those amounts which will become payable or could be called upon in the next accounting period (i.e. less than one year).
DEBTORS or TRADE RECEIVABLES Organisations and individuals who owe money to the Council.
DEDICATED SCHOOLS GRANT A ringfenced, Central Government Grant paid to councils by the Department for Education to fund education services within the borough. A significant proportion is devolved to schools on a formulaic basis.
DEPRECIATION The writing down of the value of a fixed asset in the Statement of Financial Position in line with its expected useful life.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS Salaries, wages, paid annual leave, paid sick leave, pension benefits and termination benefits.
FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS A financial instrument is any contract that gives rise to a financial asset of one entity and a financial liability or equity instrument of another.
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C92 GLOSSARY OF TERMS
FINANCE LEASE Leases are classified as finance leases where the terms of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the property, plant or equipment from the lessor to the lessee.
NON CURRENT ASSETS These are assets that are likely to be in use by the Council for more than one year, such as land and buildings.
IAS19 Accounting standard requiring the recognition by an authority of the attributable share of the assets and liabilities of pension funds with which it is associated showing the employer’s commitment to increase contributions to make up any shortfall in attributable net assets, or its ability to benefit (via reduced contributions) from a surplus in the scheme, even though the fund retains title to the assets and the responsibility to pay pensions.
STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME A Core Financial Statement that provides a summary of the resources generated and consumed by the Company in the period.
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS) The regulations under which the accounts are published. A set of international accounting standards stating how particular types of transactions and other events should be reported in financial statements. IFRS are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS Intangible fixed assets that are likely to be in use by the Council for more than one year are recognised where there is no ‘physical’ asset but the Council controls future economic benefits from the asset. For example computer software.
NET BOOK VALUE An asset or liabilities original book value net of any accounting adjustments such as depreciation.
NET REALISABLE VALUE The value of an asset that can be realised upon the sale of the asset, less any costs associated with either the eventual sale or the disposal of the asset in question.
OPERATING LEASE This is a type of lease under which lease rentals are paid for the use of the asset over the period of the lease. The asset remains the property of the lessor and has to be returned at the end of the lease.
OUTTURN This is the final expenditure and income in any financial period. Outturn reports usually compare the final net expenditure (expenditure less income) against the relevant budget.
PROVISIONS Amounts set aside for liabilities and losses which are likely to occur but where the exact amount or timing is uncertain but can be reasonable estimated.
TANGIBLE NON-CURRENT ASSETS Tangible fixed assets are ‘physical’ assets that provide future economic benefit and are likely to be in use by the Council for more than one year.
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C93 GLOSSARY OF TERMS
TERMINATION BENEFITS Amounts payable to employees as a result of a decision by the Company to terminate an officer’s employment prior to normal retirement age or an officer’s decision to accept voluntary redundancy. THIRD PARTY PAYMENTS Items reported under Third Party Payments for management accounts include contract payments made throughout the year. Examples include payments to third parties for independent child placements, Special Education Needs placements and other contract payments.
TRANSFER OF UNDERTAKINGS (PROTECTION OF EMPLOYEMENT) REGULATIONS 2006 (TUPE) A part of UK labour law, protecting employees whose business is being transferred to another business. The regulations aim to protect employees employment and most significant terms and conditions.
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D1 Appendix D
ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN JOINT COMMITTEE 16 SEPTEMBER 2015
ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN BUSINESS PLAN 2014-17
Report by Ian Dodds, Director of Standards and Improvement, Achieving for Children
SUMMARY
This report introduces the refreshed Achieving for Children Business Plan for 2014-17 and the supporting Business Development Strategy.
RECOMMENDATION
The Joint Committee is recommended to approve the refreshed Achieving for Children Business Plan 2014-17 as a reserved matter, as set out in Schedule 3 of the Inter- Authority Agreement.
INTRODUCTION
1. The purpose of the Achieving for Children Business Plan is two-fold: firstly, to explain the services that the organisation will deliver to meet the requirements set out in the Councils’ commissioning agreement and service specification; and secondly, to explain how the organisation will be governed and operate and how it intends to develop its business over the next three years. This aspect of the Business Plan is further set out in the Business Development Strategy, which is attached to the report for information. Adoption and amendment of the Business Plan is a reserved matter that requires the agreement of the Councils as the owners of Achieving for Children.
A SUMMARY OF THE ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN BUSINESS PLAN
2. The Achieving for Children Business Plan sets out how Achieving for Children will grow and develop as a new and sustainable community interest company, so that the organisation becomes a leading provider of services to children, enabling them to live safe, happy and successful lives. The Plan includes the following information:
• A foreword from the Chief Executive and Chair of the Board of Directors; • A brief executive summary; • An outline of the organisation including governance arrangements; • An outline of the services delivered; • An outline of the organisation’s business; • An outline of the financial plan; and • An outline of the programmes and projects for delivery over the next 3 years.
D2
ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN BUSINESS PLAN PROGRAMMES
3. 10 programmes have been selected for inclusion in the Achieving for Children Business Plan. These programmes, and the 36 projects that sit underneath them have been selected based on five key factors:
• New legislation or statutory requirements; • The commissioning requirements of the two councils; • Improvement areas identified through external inspection or self-assessment; • Feedback from partners, children, young people and families; and • Our ambitions for developing Achieving for Children as a thriving business.
4. The ten programmes of work are:
1. Ensure the effectiveness of early help services for vulnerable children. 2. Safeguard children from harm through effective and early intervention. 3. Provide more effective support and opportunities for looked-after children. 4. Ensure sufficient school and childcare places. 5. Support high educational achievement in schools. 6. Support young people in their transition to adulthood and employment. 7. Implement the national special educational needs and disabilities reforms. 8. Improve workforce development and planning. 9. Secure new business and income generating opportunities. 10. Integrate an effective business infrastructure and delivery model.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN BUSINESS PLAN
5. Work is already underway to implement the programmes and projects identified in the Achieving for Children Business Plan. Progress is monitored by the senior leadership team on a quarterly basis using the Progress Tracker.
CONTACT Ian Dodds, Director of Standards and Improvement Achieving for Children 020 8831 6116 [email protected]
D3
Business Plan 2014-17 Putting Children First
D4
Contents
1 Foreword ...... 3 2 Our business plan at a glance ...... 4 3 Purpose ...... 6 4 About Achieving for Children ...... 6 5 Our organisation ...... 7 6 Our Services ...... 10 7 Our partners ...... 12 8 Our business strategy ...... 13 9 Our financial plan ...... 17 10 Our programmes ...... 21 11 Measuring our progress ...... 38
CONFIDENTIAL 2 Copyright © 2013 Achieving for Children D5
1 Foreword
It is our pleasure to introduce our first business plan.
The services that make up Achieving for Children have undergone significant change in the last few years, not least in the process of creating the company. It is right, therefore, that our initial focus is on consolidating this work so that we have the solid foundations we need to deliver the best possible services.
At the same time, we need to look further ahead and further afield so that we can take advantage of new business opportunities and address the financial challenges that we know are coming. This business plan sets out how we will work with our partners to ensure our medium-term success. It balances our priorities to develop the company’s governance and infrastructure, with a commitment to creatively redesign services, so that they remain relevant and responsive and relentlessly focus on achieving better outcomes for children and their families.
Key to this success will be empowering our workforce and developing their talents so that, together, we can confidently secure new business, introduce new ways of working, build new partnerships, think differently, and be innovative in our approaches to supporting children and their families. I am confident that, if we deliver the commitments set out in this business plan, we will meet our ambition to ensure that the children we serve are able to live safe, happy and successful lives.
Nick Whitfield Chief Executive
David Groves Chairman
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2 Our business plan at a glance
Our business plan sets out how we will grow and develop Achieving for Children as a new and sustainable community interest company so that we become a leading provider of services to children, enabling them to live safe, happy and successful lives. There are 10 outcomes-based programmes in our plan comprising of individual work projects that we intend to deliver over the next three years. These projects balance our ambition to deliver our commissioning intentions, our company infrastructure and secure new business, with our priorities for improving the services we provide directly to children and their families. The following ambitions show, at a glance, what we intend to achieve by implementing this business plan.
1. We will integrate our ICT and key business systems so that our workforce is able to work productively and have access to new technologies that support flexible and mobile working, and we are able to communicate with children and young people in the ways that best suit them.
2. We will improve our safeguarding services in line with our published improvement plans so that we have strong evidence to demonstrate that our services for children in need of help and protection, children looked-after and care leavers are consistently good.
3. We will embed our early help services so that they offer coherent and consistent support to children and their families and enabling them to achieve positive outcomes; we will have collected evidence that early investment has reduced the need for more intrusive and higher cost services.
4. We will put in place mechanisms to engage effectively with our workforce and the children and families we work with to shape the services we provide, so that they are relevant and responsive to local needs and make best use of creative and evidence-based solutions.
5. We will implement our Business Development Strategy, including a new approach to marketing and brand development, so that we are recognised as a trusted provider of children’s services with a national reputation for achieving the best possible outcomes for children and their families.
6. We will secure £850,000 of new business by 2018 by systematically identifying business opportunities and increasing our capacity to successfully respond to tenders and bid for new work.
7. We will recruit more foster carers and extend the choice of foster care placements so that looked- after children are placed in safe and stable placements closer to their homes; we will also improve our timescales for placing children in permanent homes through adoption and special guardianship.
8. We will work with schools and new Free School proposers to ensure that there are sufficient school places and children are more likely to attend one of their preferred schools; we will also work to extend the choice of post-16 education provision for young people with special educational needs.
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9. We will implement the national Special Educational Needs and Disabilities reforms, including streamlining our assessment and care planning, so that education, health and care needs of children with disabilities are responded to in an integrated and holistic way.
10. We will implement practical solutions to improve the recruitment and retention of a skilled and experienced workforce, particularly in relation to key social work posts, by ensuring there are manageable caseloads, effective supervision, and an attractive learning and development offer.
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3 Purpose
Our Business Plan explains how we will operate as a business and it provides our commissioners, employees and partners with a clear definition of the services and improvements that we will deliver and how they will be monitored and evaluated. It also explains how we will grow and develop our business so that we are able to protect and develop our services to be responsive to the needs of children and their families, now and in the future. This is the second iteration of our business plan. The projects contained within the plan have been updated. Projects that have been completed have been removed from the plan and new projects have been added.
4 About Achieving for Children
Achieving for Children is a community interest company created by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide their children’s services. The company has been formed by bringing together all the services that support children and families from the two founding Councils. It is the first entire children’s service in the UK to spin-out from a local authority. As a community interest company, Achieving for Children is governed by the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005. The community interest models means that the assets of the company, including any profits we make, are locked into the company and there are restrictions on how they can be used. In essence they can only be reinvested in services for children and their families in Kingston and Richmond or used to reduce the cost of those services.
Our ambition, set out in our vision statement, is to help children to live safe, happy and successful lives. To help deliver this vision, we have created a set of values for the organisation that will guide our decision-making and the way that we work with children, families and partners. Our values are:
• We put children and young people first • We work in partnership to improve our services • We focus on quality and innovation • We are a listening and learning organisation • We champion inclusion and value diversity.
By integrating services across two boroughs into a community interest company we have been able to reduce our senior management and overhead costs and create economies of scale in our service budgets. A further benefit has been in streamlining our business systems and processes and in reducing duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy. This means that we are able to focus all of our resources and effort on protecting and improving the frontline services that help and support children and their families.
As a new social enterprise we will also encourage and deploy the entrepreneurial skills and expertise of our workforce to develop and trade services to local authorities and partners in the education, health, social care and criminal justice sectors. As a result, we will be able to develop more creative approaches to delivering services, bring in additional resources and, most importantly, sustain and improve the services we provide to children and their families.
Our core business is to deliver the commissioning intentions of the two founding Councils, a contract worth £93 million each year. We offer a range of services from universal provision to statutory interventions for children; young people and their families in the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond.
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5 Our organisation
Governance
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are the joint owners of Achieving for Children. Their responsibilities and the ownership decisions they must make are set out in an inter-authority agreement. These reserved decisions are:
• changes in ownership of the company; • changes to the constitution and decision-making arrangements of the company; • the appointment and remuneration of Directors; • the future direction and development of the company; • changes in arrangements for the assets of the company; • significant commercial transactions.
The Councils will fulfil their ownership role through a Joint Committee. The Committee is responsible for ensuring that the company operates and develops in accordance with the wishes of both Councils. Decisions about the services that are commissioned from Achieving for Children are delegated to a Children’s Commissioning Board. An Operational Commissioning Group is responsible for monitoring how well the company performs in terms of financial management and the services we provide.
The governance arrangements for the company are set out in its Articles of Association. These explain how we will operate as a company and how decisions will be made. The Board of Directors has responsibility for overseeing the management of Achieving for Children and for providing advice to the owners on its future direction and strategy.
Board of Directors David Groves Chairman and Non-Executive Independent Director Nick Whitfield Seconded Council Director Robert Henderson Seconded Council Director Leigh Whitehouse Council Director Cathy Kerr Council Director Dame Moira Gibb Non-Executive Independent Director Jane Spencer Non-Executive Independent Director Gill Holmes Non-Executive Independent Director
The Company Secretary of Achieving for Children reports to the Board of Directors and has responsibility for ensuring that the company complies with its corporate financial requirements including submitting financial returns for corporation tax and returning annual reports to Companies House. The financial planning and management of the organisation is managed through an in-house finance team led by the Director of Finance and Resources.
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Leadership
Nick Whitfield is the Chief Executive of Achieving for Children. He is also the joint statutory Director of Children’s Services for Richmond and Kingston Councils. Nick and his senior leadership team are responsible for ensuring the organisation achieves the ambitions and strategy set by the Councils and Board of Directors, and delivers the best possible services for children and their families in line with our contract with the commissioning Councils.
Senior Leadership Team Nick Whitfield Chief Executive Robert Henderson Deputy Chief Executive Alison Twynam Director of Social Care Graham Willett Director of Education Services Paul Bettles Director of Finance and Resources Ian Dodds Director of Standards and Improvement Charis Penfold Associate Director of Early Help Simon James Associate Director of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities
Workforce
We employ 647 full-time equivalent staff from a broad range of professional disciplines including social work, teaching, health services and public sector management. Our approach is to bring professionals together in locality-based teams, which means they are better able to work collaboratively to build services around the needs of children so that families receive the right support from the right professional at the right time.
Total (FTE) Social Care 169 Early Help 197 Education Support 83 SEN and Disabilities 120 Standards and Improvement 57 Finance and Resources 21 Total 647
Engaging our workforce in the development of the company is an important priority over the next three years. We want our employees to have greater operational freedom to respond quickly to the needs of the children and families they work with, develop innovative solutions, take responsibility for service quality, have pride in the services they deliver, and share in the success of the company. To help achieve this we will invest in professional development, ensure our entire workforce feels valued and rewarded, and implement clear strategies for recruitment and retention, talent management and leadership development.
Infrastructure ICT
Technology solutions will play an important role in improving the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of our services. We are committed to developing integrated and secure business systems that provide a single view of the child and enable better intelligence-sharing across our organisation and with partner agencies. We aim to use new technologies to support the further development of self-service opportunities, streamline our business processes, and facilitate mobile working using Google solutions, so that our employees are able to access the systems they need from anywhere and at any time. This will take
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time and considerable financial investment. We have planned a phased approach to delivering these improvements by March 2016 in liaison with our technology partner, the Sutton and Kingston Shared ICT Service.
Premises
Until at least March 2016 we will continue to operate from our existing office accommodation in central Kingston and Twickenham. We will also maintain the network of buildings we use to deliver services to children and their families including children’s centres and youth centres. Beyond this time, we will investigate the potential to relocate our back office functions on a single site and our core services out into the community. We currently occupy 24 buildings on a serviced premises basis under a 25-year lease or licence agreement with break clauses at regular intervals.
Professional services
We purchase our professional services from one or both of the founding Councils. These include payroll, HR management, legal services, procurement support, and health and safety advice. Contracts for these services have been agreed until April 2017 with an annual review. It is likely that the company will wish to test the market in 2016 to ensure these services continue to meet its needs and deliver good value for money.
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6 Our Services
We deliver a full range of education and children’s services to children and families in Kingston and Richmond. Our service offer falls into six areas.
Early Help Early Help services provide targeted help and support to children and families in need at the earliest stage, so that concerns do not escalate to an extent where they require higher-level and more costly specialist support. Early Help brings together services that strengthen families, engage young people in positive activities, develop emotional health and wellbeing, and prevent youth crime and anti-social behaviour.
Social Care Specialist social care services provide support to children and young people in need of help and protection. Our services include statutory assessment and care planning for children at risk of significant harm, provision for looked-after children and those leaving care, as well as fostering and adoption services.
Education Education services start with planning sufficient school places and managing school admissions. Our services include advising on curriculum development and school leadership as well as providing support and challenge for school improvement and effectiveness.
SEN and Disabilities In partnership with local healthcare providers, we deliver an integrated support service for children with disabilities and their families that bring together health, social care and educational support. Our services include help for children with special educational needs, educational psychology, community nursing, therapies and emotional health and wellbeing provision.
Improvement The Standards and Improvement service is responsible for creating the business intelligence necessary to ensure compliance with statutory requirements, provide assurance on the quality and effectiveness of services, and drive continual imporvement. The service also provides independent safeguarding functions such as child protection conferencing and reviewing for looked-after children, as well as management support to the Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
Finance and Resources Responsibility for the financial health of Achieving for Children rests with the Finance and Resources service. They lead on financial planning and all aspects of accountancy management including budget monitoring and reporting. This includes accountability for the management and distribution of funding to schools. The service is also responsible for financial governance and statutory reporting through the Company Secretary role and for the school building development programme
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Table 1: Service Map
Table 1 sets out the specific business ares within each service. Taken together, these business areas describe the focus of our work and outline how we will deliver our vision of ensuring that all children and young people achieve safe, happy, healthy and successful lives.
Early Help Social Care Education SEN and Disabilities Improvement Finance and Resources
•Childcare •Educational •Financial planning •Statutory •School place planning •ICT and business psychology •Early years education assessments and •School admissions systems •Accountancy •Special educational management •Children's centres care planning •Student services •Performance analysis needs •Schools' finance •Family support •Services for looked- •School improvement •Quality assurance •Integrated services •School building •Targeted youth after children and •School leadership •Strategy and policy support care leavers for children with development development development disabilities •School attendance •Fostering •Service improvement •Company Secretary •Alternative education •Emotional health and •Education welfare •Adoption •Commissioning provision wellbeing •Youth services •Governor support •Workforce
development D13 •Substance misuse •Apprenticeships and services access to •Marking and •Youth offending employment communications services •Business development •Child protection conferencing •Independent Reviewing Officers •Management support to the Local Safeguarding Children Boards
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7 Our partners
We know that excellent children’s services cannot be delivered in isolation and so we work with a range of organisations such as health services, the police and schools on a daily basis to make sure ourservices are relevant and responsible. We ensure that our provision is joined-up with that of our partners to reduce duplication and that, wherever possible, resources are pooled. We also work closely with partner agencies to securely share information to better respond to families’ needs; and to ensure that accountability and responsibility for providing services is clearly assigned and all decision-making has the child at its heart.
The Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team represent children’s services on a number of statutory partnership bodies including the Health and Wellbeing Boards and Community Safety Partnerships. We also provide professional advice and business support to the Local Safeguarding Children Boards in Kingston and Richmond.
We have developed a new Children’s Strategic Partnership Board to guide and support us in delivering excellent services. The Board brings together the key agencies and representatives from voluntary sector organisations that work alongside us to support children and young people. It helps the Councils to meet their duty to cooperate to improve the wellbeing of children and young people in their local communities and assists us in the strategic planning and delivery of services. In addition we have established an Education Alliance Board and a Health Advisory Board. These groups have brought together the expertise of frontline professionals and provide advice on current concerns and policy development in order to help shape Achieving for Children’s response.
We will look to develop new relationships with organisations which would be of benefit to Achieving for Children. This might involve seeking out examples of innovative practice from organisations outside our sector or locality. On a more formal basis, it could involve jointly bidding for contracts with partner organisations or sub-contracting elements of a contract.
Central to our commitment to partnership working is the way in which we engage with children and young people. We know that children and young people are best supported if they are able to shape and determine the services they and their families receive. Our Engagement Strategy sets out how we will ‘work together so that children, young people, parents and carers have the opportunity to influence the design, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of services with the aim of better meeting their needs.’ The programmes in Section 10 of this Business Plan explain how we will seek to achieve this, building on the established work of our Youth Councils, Children in Care Councils, Recruits Crew, Youth Associates and disabled children’s groups. We will also work to ensure that we extend the good practice developed in our engagement work with young people to strengthen our partnerships with parents and carers.
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8 Our business strategy
Where we started
Achieving for Children came into existence on 1 April 2014. It was formed by bringing together the services and staff from the children’s services directorates of the two founding Councils, who now commission the company to deliver their children’s services. There has been considerable interest in this delivery model as it is the first of its kind to be implemented in the country.
The majority of services were integrated and redesigned in our first year and these structures are now embedding. It was decided early in the design of the new organisation that, for at least the first 18 months of operation, there would be separate frontline social work services for the two local authority areas.
We developed our own organisational structure and policy framework, but we obtain all of our infrastructure services and support, such as office accommodation and HR advice, from the founding Councils. These are provided under service level agreements for an initial four-year period.
The operating budget available to Achieving for Children is £93 million. We also manage and allocate an additional £45 million of school funding provided through the Dedicated Schools Grant. The Councils have provided us with challenging efficiency targets of at least £2 million a year until 2018/19. The immediate task has been to identify ways to deliver these savings in a planned way whilst maintaining the breadth and quality of the services we provide to children and their families.
Children’s social care services in Kingston upon Thames received an inadequate judgement following an Ofsted inspection in 2012 and were issued with a Notice to Improve by the Department for Education. A follow-up inspection in 2013 concluded that services remained inadequate but noted that good and steady progress had been made to improve safeguarding arrangements. This was confirmed in a review by the Department for Education in January 2015. Our improvement plan is led by a strong multi- agency Improvement Board with an independent chair.
Local safeguarding arrangements and services for looked-after children in Richmond were judged to be good by Ofsted when they were inspected in 2012. An improvement plan is also in place for these services based on the recommendations from the inspection and from local quality assurance activity.
Achieving for Children has responded to a number of national innovations and policy developments. The implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 meant that we prioritised the joining up of education, health and social care services for children with special educational needs; we refined our offer to vulnerable and complex families as part of the Government revisions to the Troubled Families initiative; and we ensured there were sufficient nursery education and school places to meet forecasted demand. We also focused on working with schools to maintain their high levels of educational achievement and to reduce the gaps in attainment between identified groups of children and their peers.
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Where we want to be
2014/15: Integration
In our first year, there will be a strong focus on completing and establishing service integrations to ensure that the organisation is able to operate effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of children and their families.
We will focus on delivering against Kingston and Richmond Councils’ agreed Commissioning Intentions in line with their service specification and contractual requirements. We will report performance against an agreed performance dataset and review of business plan projects. Achieving for Children will attend regular commissioning meetings, share information on our key policies and financial planning and seek agreement on our income generating opportunities.
We will ensure that the business systems and infrastructure needed to deliver high quality services are in place. We will also embed the culture and values of our new organisation so that the whole workforce has a shared understanding of the way we will work and our expected standards of practice.
By March 2015 we will have achieved the following milestones:
. All our services will be integrated resulting in a new organisational structure which is focused on delivering the highest quality services and operates with reduced management costs;
. Our employees will be clear about their roles and professional responsibilities and the contribution they make to the organisation’s operational effectiveness and financial efficiency through the development and consistent use of effective staff engagement mechanisms;
. There will be a three-year plan in place to ensure that our main ICT infrastructure and key business systems are fully integrated so that our workforce can work productively; new technologies will be in place to support flexible and mobile working;
. Kingston will be ready to have its Notice to Improve lifted by the Department for Education and there will be strong evidence to show that both local authorities provide effective services for children in need of help and protection, looked-after children and care leavers; and
. We will have delivered our target financial efficiency savings for 2014/15 and there will be an achievable plan in place for delivering the financial efficiency savings required in 2015/16.
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2015/16: Consolidation
In 2015/16 our focus will be on establishing Achieving for Children as a new business in the market, whilst continuing to deliver safe and high quality services for children and their families. We will have ensured the sustainability and continued improvement of services for children in Kingston and Richmond by developing a new locality-based delivery model for our early help and social care services. We will also have maintained our reputation as an excellent provider of educational support services.
Developing our business will require additional commercial skills and business development capability within the organisation. We will have a strong understanding of the services we are able to competitively offer to the market, which builds on the services that we successfully trade to local schools. We will have secured two or three new business opportunities and will be working successfully in commercial partnerships with other local authorities or public bodies. This could be consultancy for other local authorities or the delivery of individual commissioned services. The Achieving for Children brand will be recognised as a trusted provider of safe and high quality services and we will be able to talk confidently about our successes and achievements. Local children and their families will be accustomed to Achieving for Children as their service provider and their satisfaction with our services will be high. They will also be more confident in demanding the services they need and in shaping the development and delivery of those services.
By March 2016 we will have achieved the following milestones:
. We will have designed and started to implement a new locality-based delivery model for early help and social care services that places us in a strong position to protect and continually improve services for children and their families at a time of financial restraint across the public sector;
. Early help services will be well-embedded and deliver positive outcomes for children and their families with clear evidence that early investment has reduced the need for more intrusive and higher cost services;
. Our workforce and the children and families they work with will be instrumental in shaping the services that we provide so that they are relevant and responsive to local needs and make best use of creative and evidence-based solutions;
. The Achieving for Children brand will be recognised as a trusted provider of children’s services by existing customers and potential clients; we will have a strong Business Development Strategy that has led us to deliver new business;
. We will have completed a full analysis of our future business infrastructure requirements and will have started negotiations with the founding Councils to determine how we can enhance productivity and create financial efficiencies;
. We will have delivered our target financial efficiency savings for 2015/16 and there will be an achievable plan in place for delivering the financial efficiency savings required in 2016/17.
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2016/17: Diversification
In 2016/17 our focus will be on growing our business so that we are a recognised and trusted provider of educational support and children’s services to schools, local authorities and other public sector bodies. We will have a developing track-record of delivering high quality and competitively-priced services that deliver the results and outcomes required by our clients. We will be an excellent commercial partner and will be proud of the positive outcomes and high levels of customer satisfaction that we achieve.
By March 2017 we will have achieved the following milestones:
. We will have successfully implemented a new locality-based delivery model for our early help and social care services, that continues to deliver high-quality services for children and their families at a reduced cost to the commissioning Councils;
. We will have successfully delivered all the projects and programmes set out in section 10 of the Business Plan and there will be measurable improvements to our services; we will also have agreed our Business Plan priorities for 2017-20 so that we continue to be relevant and responsive to the needs of children and their families;
. We will have consistently achieved or exceeded 95% of the performance targets set by our owning Councils and by other organisations that commission or contract us; we will be able to demonstrate improved outcomes for children and high levels of customer satisfaction with our services;
. We will have started to achieve our Business Development Strategy and will be operating successfully in new markets so that we have achieved new business equivalent to £850,000;
. We will have a growing national reputation as an innovator in children’s services, with a strong track- record for co-creating solutions and developing and sharing evidence-based practice that improves outcomes for children and young people.
. We will have delivered our target financial efficiency savings for 2015/16.
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9 Our financial plan
Budget setting Budget setting for Achieving for Children starts in June each year as part of the overall business planning process, with the guiding principles that resources must be used to support our statutory responsibilities and strategic and operational priorities, and that we must derive maximum financial benefit from working collaboratively across services and with our partners. The budget setting process also enables us to review the allocation of funding across service areas to meet changing patterns of demand for services, to meet new responsibilities, or to invest in service developments.
Achieving for Children’s Medium Term Financial Plan is a key planning document and integral to this Business Plan. It is produced as part of the budget process and is reviewed and updated annually. Income generation
Achieving for Children receives most of its income from Kingston and Richmond Councils through payments for services provided under the contract. The most significant external income is from services sold to schools that are above statutory requirements. See table 2.
Table 2 2015-16 £ % Contract for provision of children's services:
Kingston 45,059,900 45.0% Richmond 47,701,600 47.6% 92,761,500 92.6% Support services to schools within the Councils' 2,447,600 2.4% areas Health, local authorities and other schools 1,971,000 2.0% Client and other contributions 982,300 1.0% Sales and lettings 441,000 0.4% Other income 1,539,000 1.5% Total income 100,142,400 100% Income net of contract 7,380,900
Existing market intelligence indicates that external business will generate fairly modest surpluses or profits, but could require some initial one-off costs or investment and may increase our management costs. This planned growth in income is also constrained by the fact that the contract with the Councils is reliant on the Teckal exemption which restricts the amount of business it can generate from other sources.
Despite this, it is anticipated that Achieving for Children will establish itself as a recognised business and a trusted provider of children's services; we aim to generate new business of £850,000 by March 2017. The Business Development Strategy 2015-17 sets out the company’s income generation position in more detail.
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Expenditure
The main components of Achieving for Children’s expenditure are staff costs (£32 million), third party payments (payments for contracted services including placements under social care) and transfer payments, see table 3:
Table 3
2015-16 £ %
Salary related costs 32,118,200 32% Other Employee costs 2,311,800 2% Third Party payments 26,612,200 27% Transport 5,925,600 6% Transfer payments 24,744,800 25% Supplies & Services 8,429,800 8% Gross Expenditure 100,142,400 100%
Income net of contract (previous table) -7,380,900 Net Budget 92,761,500
Investment and capital expenditure
Achieving for Children does not directly own any significant assets but leases these from the Councils (e.g. premises) or uses them under terms of agreement with the Councils (e.g. SLA for ICT services). We cannot invest in capital expenditure above a limit of £10k without the agreement of the Councils – this is a Reserved Matter for the owners of the company. Set up costs for Achieving for Children
The creation of Achieving for Children required significant investment both in terms of time and money. The conceptual discussions and exploration of potential governance arrangements proved a lengthy process which reflected the innovative proposals, the practical and political issues around joining up a front line service and the governance and legal issues involved in delegating statutory children's services to a commercial entity. Resources were invested to scope and plan the impact on the Councils and ensure that Achieving or Children was established as a legal body with legally sound and effective governance arrangements, appropriate HR, financial and ICT systems and initial business processes and plans in place.
Both Councils agreed to jointly fund Achieving for Children’s set up costs in the period up to its launch on 1 April 2014. These costs (£1.4 million) have been charged to Achieving for Children in 2014/15.
Future forecasts
Our Medium Term Financial Plan assesses the risks to the organisation as a result of additional costs or a reduction in income. The key factors are:
• Changes in government policy or guidelines in relation to children’s services • Reductions in government direct funding of children’s services • Reductions in government funding of other local government services impacting on the two Councils • Changing demographics that impact on the number of children in each Council • Increases in demand for children’s services both statutory and preventative • Inflation
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• Changes to Pension costs/liabilities • Claims/awards against AfC • Efficiency measures • Changes to existing charges • New charges for services
A Risk and Reward scheme and a Change Control mechanism are included in the contract between the Councils and Achieving for Children, to enable discussions to deal with any variation in the contract price.
Forecast financial positon before savings
The following table gives the estimated position for Achieving for Children’s expenditure before taking account of efficiency savings expected. This demonstrates the annual ‘deficit’ in funding that we will need to address in our future plans which amounts to £6.7 million over the three years from 2016/17 to 2018/19. See table 4.
Table 4
2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 INCOME £000 £000 £000 £000 Base Budget from 2014/15 (109,830) Adjustments to base budget from 2014/15 16,033 BASE INCOME (93,797) (92,761) (91,741) (90,889) Estimated changes to contract price (actual for 2015/16: Inflation (664) (480) (648) (823) Growth (987) (500) (500) (500) Efficiency reductions in contract price 2,687 2,000 2,000 2,000 Sub Total (real changes in income) 1,036 1,020 852 677 Total - and net budget for 2015/16 (92,761) (91,741) (90,889) (90,212)
EXPENDITURE (and budget for 2015/16) 92,761 92,761 93,993 95,370 Additional expenditure outside control of AfC: Inflation 732 877 1,029 Growth in demand 500 500 500 Sub Total 93,993 95,370 96,898 Additional items of expenditure - decisions by AfC: Investment for efficiencies Total Expenditure before savings 93,993 95,370 96,898
NET DEFICIT BEFORE SAVINGS 2,252 4,481 6,686
The forecast also needs to reflect the actual outturn in 2014/15 that includes an overspend of £142k and the one-off set-up costs of £1.4 million. These increase the total deficit by the end of 2018/19 to £8.2 million.
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Strategy to deal with the forecast gap between income and expenditure
Achieving for Children is subject to considerable cuts to its budget over the next three years as a result of efficiency targets set by the Commissioning Councils. The challenge must not be underestimated. Although there are some material constraints around our ability to both reduce our cost base and to generate additional income, our creation was predicated on the ability to be more flexible than traditional Council-run children's services. We are committed to delivering our share of efficiency savings.
A continuation of the annual cycle of target efficiency savings is not sustainable as a way of meeting medium and longer term financial objectives. We now need to adopt a broader, more strategic approach to reducing net costs or reaching profitability. Our initial discussions have focused on:
• Creating alternative models of service delivery as opposed to reducing the existing level of service; • Tackling inefficiencies across the organisation, for example where can shared management, processes and practice can save money; • Understanding where the biggest efficiency gains can be made, from investment in ICT and the rationalisation or purchase of new properties more in line with need; • Renegotiation of support service contracts for example HR, Legal and Procurement to reflect the new demands of Achieving for Children
Any major changes to delivery of services will have implications for the Councils, may require short term investment to deliver change, and will require consultation with staff and service users.
In addition to the more fundamental changes to delivery of services, we will also explore more traditional efficiency savings by reviewing our first year's operation and focussing on areas of known high-spend and opportunities for shorter-term efficiencies. These will include, for example, the transfer of responsibility for SEN Transport to Achieving for Children from Richmond Council; this will enable a re-design of the service alongside integration with Kingston’s Council’s SEN Transport, which Achieving for Children already provides.
Commissioning
Delivering all the services that children and families need will require us to commission some services from private and voluntary sector providers. We do not have all the expertise we need in-house and we recognise that local voluntary organisations often have the specialist knowledge and networks necessary to engage and support children and their families.
In 2015/16 we will implement our commissioning arrangements so that we can be assured that the services we purchase meet identified local needs, are high quality, offer good value for money and do not duplicate services provided elsewhere. This may involve the de-commissioning of some of the services that are currently provided. Our intention, though, is to ensure that our arrangements are clear, open, fair and transparent.
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10 Our programmes
In addition to the delivery of the Councils’ commissioning intentions, we will deliver a distinct programme of work over the next three years. This section captures only the high-level and time bound projects which have a wider organisational or financial impact; it does not set out the work that we do day-to-day to deliver or improve services for children and young people. We have selected these projects and programmes based on five key factors:
• New legislation or statutory requirements; • The commissioning requirements of the two Councils including new priorities; • Improvement areas identified through external inspection or self-assessment; • Feeback from partners, children, young people and families; and • Our own ambitions for developing Achieving for Children as a thriving business.
A named Director is responsible for leading the delivery of each of the ten selected programmes. Within each programme are a number of projects that will contribute to the delivery of the overall objective. Key success measures have also been identfied for each programme; progress will be monitored and reported quarterly to the Board of Directors and commissioning Councils.
In addition we have agreed to focus all our efforts on three Absolute Priorities. The Absolute Priorities are the three areas of work which as an organisation are the most important and where we must make a difference.
Our Absolute Priorities 2015-16
1. Strengthen partnerships to protect children from domestic violence and sexual exploitation.
2. Improve the educational attainment of children in receipt of the Pupil Premium.
3. Build resilience in families with complex needs or living in difficult circumstances.
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Programme 1 Ensure the effectiveness of early help services for vulnerable children
Responsible Charis Penfold Director Associate Director for Early Help
Why has this Independent reviews commissioned by the Government since 2010 have all been united been chosen as a in their call for the use of evidence-based early intervention approaches to break the Programme? cycle of deprivation and improve outcomes for vulnerable children and their families. These reviews include: Dame Clare Tickell’s (2011) Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage; the Frank Field MP (2010) Review of Child Poverty and Life Chances; the Graham Allen MP (2011) Review of Early Intervention; and Professor Eileen Munro’s (2011) Review of Child Protection.
Our Early Help Strategy (2014) builds on the findings of these reviews and is based on the principle that early intervention is always preferable to the intrusive interventions that are necessary when family issues are allowed to escalate. The strategy is intended to ensure that we work collaboratively to: build family resilience empowering families to make sustainable changes; safeguard children from harm through effective and early action; break cycles of deprivation and poor family outcomes; and reduce escalation to more specialist higher cost provision.
Achieving for Children will respond to the Government priorities for the Troubled Families initiative by enhancing our existing programme to better meet the needs of vulnerable and complex families at the earliest possible opportunity.
To improve the timeliness of referrals to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and to reduce waiting times from the current position of eight weeks for an initial appointment, we will place specialist mental health advisors in the Single Point of Access.
1. Ensure there are specialist mental health workers in the By March 2016 Single Point of Access (SPA) who are able to make timely and appropriate referrals to CAMHS at the right level.
2. Enhance the existing Troubled Families initiative to better By March 2017 meet the needs of vulnerable and complex families and to respond to revised Government priorities.
Success a. Number and percentage of CAFs closed with some or all outcomes achieved. Measures b. Number and percentage of payments by results claimed for the Troubled Families Programme (Phase 1 and Phase 2). c. Number and percentage of cases transferred from Early Help services to statutory children’s social care services within three months of the case opening to Early Help. d. Number and percentage of young people successfully completing preventative substance misuse interventions. e. Number and percentage of young people who re-present for treatment (Tier 3- 4). f. Average waiting time for an initial appointment with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
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Programme 2 Safeguard children and young people from harm through effective and early intervention Responsible Alison Twynam Director Director of Children’s Social Care
Why has this Safeguarding children and young people from harm is our first responsibility. been chosen as a Safeguarding services in Richmond were inspected by Ofsted in 2012 and judged to be Programme? good. Following a previously inadequate judgement, in May 2015 Kingston’s safeguarding services were was also judged to be good.
A self-assessment of safeguarding services was completed in March 2015. This assessed the quality of practice in Kingston and Richmond against the criteria for good services set out in Ofsted’s 2014 framework for the inspection of services for children in need of help and protection. The self-assessment identified areas where further improvements were required to deliver better outcomes for our most vulnerable children. It identified: the need to develop Achieving for Children’s work with partner agencies to identify and assess children in need of help and protection at an early stage, the need to strengthen safeguarding practice for children with disabilities; and the need to embed arrangements for identifying and assessing the safeguarding risks to children who are missing education or missing from education. There is also further work to do in the service to improve our preventative services for children at risk of sexual exploitation and to ensure that the interventions and support that we provide to children who have been sexually exploited are effective. The findings correlated with the areas of improvement identified in the Kingston safeguarding inspection.
Projects and 1. Implement an annual conversation with schools to develop By March 2016 project leads joined-up care planning and support for pupils who receive social care services.
2. Strengthen systems to identify children at risk of sexual By March 2016 exploitation, including those children who go missing, and ensure there are effective preventative services and interventions in place to support these vulnerable children.
3. Strengthening safeguarding practice for children with By March 2016 disabilities.
4. Strengthen arrangements for the identification of children By March 2016 who are at risk of harm due to missing education or being missing from education.
Success a. Number and percentage of Child Assessments completed within timescale. Measures b. Number and percentage of Initial Child Protection Conferences held within timescale. c. Number and percentage of child protection investigations under section 47 of the Children Act 2004 progressing to an Initial Child Protection Conference. d. Number and percentage of children subject to a Child Protection Plan for 12 months or longer. e. Number and percentage of children subject to a Child Protection Plan for a
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second or subsequent time. f. Percentage of children identified as at risk of sexual exploitation who are: (i) known to Early Help services; (ii) a Child In Need; (iii) subject to a child protection plan; or (iiii) looked-after. g. Number and percentage of children identified as missing education or missing from education where safeguarding concerns have been identified.
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Programme 3 Provide more effective support and opportunities for looked-after children
Responsible Alison Twynam Director Director of Children’s Social Care
Why has this National research by the Department for Education (2014) highlights that, for the been chosen as a majority of looked-after children, the time they spend in care has a positive impact on Programme? their lives; however, there remain marked differences between the life chances of looked-after children and their peers. In Kingston and Richmond looked-after children are more likely to experience poorer educational outcomes and are more likely not to be in education, employment or training. They are also more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system and to develop physical and mental health problems.
In April 2015, there were 119 looked-after children in Kingston and 108 looked-after children in Richmond. Our Looked-After Children Strategy (2014) sets out our shared commitment to providing all looked-after children with the best possible care and support in placements that are as close as possible to their homes. To achieve this, we intend to focus attention on improving the range of local foster care placements available so that children can be placed closer to their homes where this is in their best interest. Currently on average 15% of our looked-after children in Kingston and 22% in Richmond are placed 20 miles or more from their homes. In February 2015, Achieving for Children in partnership with Birmingham University, Oxford University and Action for Children successfully applied for a £1.2 million Innovation grant from the government to help redesign services for children who are in and on the edge of care.
We are focused on ensuring there is a sufficient supply of high quality accommodation available to care leavers and other vulnerable young people to support their transition to independence. A review of accommodation was undertaken in November 2014 and we will be building on the recommendations of the review to develop increased in-house provision and commission one provider to oversee the delivery of all accommodation.
Our self-assessment of services for looked-after children and care leavers shows that we have been successful at ensuring they are given opportunities to participate in reviews of their care plans; however, more needs to be done to ensure that we consistently take their views into account and have strong mechanisms in place to facilitate their involvement in the key decisions that affect their lives.
Projects 1. Broaden the choice of foster care placements so that By March 2016 looked-after children can be placed in safe and stable placements closer to their homes.
2. Increase the number of children achieving permanency in By March 2016 a timely manner through adoption or special guardianship.
3. Increase looked-after children’s participation in their By March 2016 statutory reviews and their active involvement in care planning.
4. Deliver the fostering service innovation project to redesign By March 2017
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services for children who are in and on the edge of care
Success a. Number and percentage of looked-after children placed less than 20 miles from Measures their home. b. Number and percentage of children who have been looked after for more than 2.5 years who have been in the same placement for two or more years. c. Number and percentage of looked-after children with less than three placements in a year. d. Number and percentage of looked-after children with current health assessments. e. Number and percentage of looked-after children who participate in their statutory review.
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Programme 4 Ensure sufficient school and childcare places
Responsible Graham Willett Director Director for Education Services
Why has this Kingston and Richmond Councils are committed to securing sufficient, high quality been chosen as a school and childcare places for children and young people in their local communities. Programme? We know that more school places will be required at both primary and secondary levels to meet forecast demand given that the child population has grown by 14% over the last five years. We have developed a new school place planning strategy including a revised forecast of need. This strategy will respond to the recent approval of a number of new free schools for which sites have yet to be secured.
In both boroughs there is a particular need for post-16 education for young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In Richmond, children aged 16 and over with special educational needs currently have to leave their special school to attend college or other post-16 SEN provision outside the borough. There is also a need for a Pupil Referral Unit in Richmond to accommodate young people who have been temporarily excluded from their school or who cannot attend mainstream school for other reasons.
Projects 1. Support Free School proposals for the establishment of March 2016 Kingston Academy, new primary Free Schools to open in 2015, and a new secondary Free School on the Richmond Upon Thames College site to open in 2017
2. Ensure sufficient alternative education placements are March 2017 available for children in Richmond upon Thames.
3. Extend the choice of post-16 education provision for March 2017 young people with SEND at Strathmore School by September 2016 and at Clarendon School by September 2018.
Success a. Number and percentage of resident families who are able to send their child to measures one of their preferred primary schools. b. Number and percentage of resident families who are able to send their child to one of their preferred secondary schools.
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Programme 5 Support high educational achievement in schools
Responsible Graham Willett Director Director of Education Services
Why has this School attainment in Kingston and Richmond is high compared to other local authority been chosen as a areas. Richmond is ranked first in England in terms of its Key Stage 2 test results and Programme? Kingston is ranked 12th. This is the standard we and our commissioning Councils want to maintain; however, these statistics hide the fact that there are gaps in attainment between some children and their peers; in particular, pupils who live in low-income families and are eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant.
In 2013/14, 48% of children achieved a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage, from the 30% most deprived communities in Richmond, compared to an outer London average of 59%. In 2013/14, the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers (those not disadvantaged) at Key Stage 2 (reading, writing and mathematics) in Richmond was 17% and in Kingston 14%, compared to an outer London average of 13%. In 2013/14, 41.5% of disadvantaged pupils in Richmond and 42.0% of disadvantaged pupils in Kingston achieved five or more good GCSEs including English and mathematics, compared to an outer London average of 46%.
We know that, in Richmond, the take-up of the Pupil Premium Grant is low. We need to work with schools to improve take up of the grant so that they have additional resources to reduce attainment gaps.
All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to an education which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. Children missing from, or at risk of missing, education are at risk of underachieving and becoming not in education, employment or training (NEET) in later life. Achieving for Children is commissioned by Kingston and Richmond Councils to ensure children of compulsory school receive a suitable full-time education; this includes providing alternative forms of education for children where mainstream inclusion is not appropriate. Where children are missing education Achieving for Children is responsible for locating these children and returning them to suitable educational provision.
Projects 1. Improve the educational attainment of Children in Need. March 2017
2. Narrow the attainment gap between children accessing March 2017 Pupil Premium Funding and those who do not.
3. Ensure that children not in full time education receive a March 2017 minimum of 25 hours of suitable education a week.
Success a. Number and percentage of pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant achieving measures Level 4 or above at Key Stage 2. b. Number and percentage of pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant achieving five or more A* to C grades at GCSE including English and mathematics. c. Percentage achievement gap between pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant and their peers achieving expected levels of achievement at Key Stage 2. d. Percentage achievement gap between pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium
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Grant and their peers achieving expected levels of achievement at Key Stage 4 (GCSE).
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Programme 6 Support young people in their transition to adulthood and employment
Responsible Graham Willett Director Director of Education Services
Why has this Providing sufficient opportunities for young people aged 16 to 18 to participate in been chosen as a education, employment or training is a national priority. Recent legislation requires Programme? young people to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17 and, from 2015, until their eighteenth birthday.
At the same time, youth unemployment also continues to grow nationally and, as a result, it is essential that we focus on addressing the numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). In both Kingston and Richmond the percentage of young people who are NEET remains low (4.4%) when compared nationally or regionally, but is still above locally set targets. The percentage of young people whose participation status is not known also remains higher than national averages in both boroughs (14%). There is particular concern about hard to reach young people who are NEET, and specifically the need to improve the pathways available to young people with special educational needs and learning difficulties.
Projects 1. Roll out a programme of preventative work for those at March 2016 risk of becoming NEET including supporting schools to provide careers support to 16 to 19 years old with a focus on vocational opportunities.
2. Ensure there is sufficient apprenticeship and training March 2016 provision in place for young people wishing to follow this pathway when the participation age is raised to 18 in 2015.
3. Establish an evidence-based programme to provide care March 2016 leavers with the skills required for successful independent living and employment.
4. Agree specific Education, Employment and Training March 2016 pathways into adulthood for young people with special educational needs and learning difficulties.
Success a. Number and percentage of young people in education, employment or training measures aged 16 to 18. b. Number and percentage of young people involved with the Youth Offending Service who are in education, employment or training. c. Number and percentage of care leavers who are engaged in Education, Training and Employment (19, 20 and 21 year olds) d. Number and percentage of young people aged 16 to 23 with learning difficulties who are in education, employment or training. e. Number and percentage of apprentices who successfully complete their apprenticeships within 12 months.
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Programme 7 Implement the national Special Educational Needs and Disabilities reforms
Responsible Simon James Director Associate Director for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Why has this The Government has embarked on significant and wide-ranging reform of the special been chosen as a educational needs system. The reforms, set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 Programme? and the revised SEN Code of Practice, aim to coordinate assessment and planning across education, health and social care, support young people to prepare for adulthood, and give them and their families greater control over their own support and the services that are available locally.
The legislative changes include: the creation of a single assessment process for young people’s education, health and social care needs; the introduction of Education, Health and Care Plans for children and young people aged up to 25 to replace statements of special educational needs and learning difficulty assessments; and the publication of a local offer of services. There are also considerable changes to the ways in which children and young people with special educational needs are funded.
Implementing these reforms across Kingston and Richmond will require significant work both strategically and at an operational level. Specific challenges include adapting statements into Education, Health and Care Plans (941 plans in Richmond and 786 plans in Kingston); developing a local offer; and supporting schools to embed the new SEN Code of Practice. Good progress has been made during 2014-15, for example, we have successfully implemented personalised budgets for families; however, further work is required to deliver the other required legislative changes.
Since 1 April 2014, we have been commissioned to deliver all direct education support and social care services to children with SEN and disabilities. The provision of home to school transport services in Richmond Borough has been transferred to Achieving for Children this will be delivered alongside the existing SEN transport service in Kingston. This will bring benefits, including: clearer planning and coordination of statutory SEN services, greater choice of transport options for parents, and in time, cost efficiencies.
Projects 1. Publish an improved local offer outlining services for By March 2016 children and young people with SEND so that families understand the support that is available in our area and can have a greater say what they recieve.
2. Support schools to embed the new SEND Code of Practice By March 2016 through a range of training and professional development opportunities in the academic year.
3. Develop a fully integrated service for children and young By March 2016 people with disabilities in Richmond upon Thames that brings together health and social care services to mirror current provision in Kingston upon Thames.
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4. Establish a single assessment process and Education, By March 2017 Health and Care Plans and plan support that is better joined up for new entrants by 1 September 2014. Implement a phased transition for children and young people who already have SEN statements to the new system by September 2017.
5. Develop and implement a new and more efficient By March 2017 operational model for SEN transport for families in Richmond upon Thames.
Success a. Number and percentage of eligible families using personal budgets to support measures children and young people with SEN and disabilities. b. Number and percentage of SEN statements converted to Education, Health and Care Plans. c. Number and percentage of Education, Health and Care Plans completed within the agreed timescale of 20 weeks. d. SEN transport services are established in Richmond and effectively transporting children and young people with SEND across the borough.
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Programme 8 Improve workforce development and planning
Responsible Ian Dodds Director Director of Standards and Improvement
Why has this As a new organisation, effective workforce planning and development will be important been chosen as a to our success. We know that a permanent, stable, skilled and motivated workforce will Programme? help us to develop our services and grow our business over the next three years. There are some key management and practitioner posts that are harder to recruit for, such as social workers, so we need to clearly demonstrate the benefits and rewards of working for Achieving for Children. Ultimately we want to be an employer of choice.
Although our workforce is almost entirely made up of employees who previously worked in education and children’s services in the two founding Councils, many of them are in new roles or are working in new teams as a result of the integration of services. We have also established a new organisational culture and way of working. We therefore need to ensure that our employees are appropriately inducted into the organisation and have the leadership, management and professional skills necessary to deliver excellent children’s services. It will also be important to ensure that we continue to invest in the ongoing professional development of our workforce, and have clear strategies for people management, recruitment, retention, talent management and leadership development.
We want to regularly check back with all employees that the organisation and its people management strategies are meeting their needs and that Achieving for Children remains an attractive place to work. We will implement mechanisms to hear the voice of the workforce, including launching a Staff Council of representatives from across the organisation.
1. Implement the leadership competencies required to March 2016 deliver excellent children’s services and implement a leadership development programme.
2. Establish a Staff Council so that employees are better March 2016 engaged and involved in the development of the organisation.
3. Improve the retention of social workers and health March 2016 practitioners by ensuring there are manageable caseloads, effective supervision and appropriate and accessible learning and development opportunities.
4. Ensure our health practitioners have the skills and March 2016 competencies to deliver services safely and in accordance with the requirements of the Care Quality Commission and professional bodies.
Success a. Average staff turnover rate by service area. measures b. Average staff vacancy rate by service area. c. Number and percentage of staff attending at least one CPD opportunity in the previous six months.
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d. Number and percentage of staff who report being given the opportunity to improve their qualifications and/or skills. e. Number and percentage of staff who are satisfied in their current role.
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Programme 9 Secure new business and income generating opportunities
Responsible Robert Henderson Director Deputy Chief Executive
Why has this Achieving for Children was established as a community interest company in order to been chosen as a trade services to develop new sources of income. Through trading, we will be able to Programme? maximise the number of children and families we can support, secure the sustainability of frontline services, and inject innovation into the organisation to develop and enhance our service offer as a whole.
To be able to exploit these opportunities, we must establish Achieving for Children as a recognised and trusted provider of children’s services, both locally and nationally. A key focus is to establish our brand, promote our successes, and the impact Achieving for Children is having. In doing so we will raise our profile and establish our credibility in the marketplace.
Our aim is to grow our business sustainably across a number of markets. We will seek to provide existing services to a broader range of customers, bid for and win contracts to deliver children’s services on behalf of local authorities and expand on our initial success and experience in providing consultancy services.
We remain committed to empowering staff to share and develop their ideas on new and innovative ways of working and new areas for income generation. In order to tap in to the collective creativity of our workforce, this year we will establish a forum for staff to collaborate on and test ideas. Through this forum we aim to foster an entrepreneurial spirit at all levels of the organisation. Where ideas which have the potential to generate income or improve the experience of our service users emerge, we will support the staff who develop these ideas to make them happen.
Projects 1. Implement Achieving for Children’s Business March 2016 Development Strategy, which includes our approach to branding and marketing.
2. Proactively develop our consultancy offer and work March 2016 with innovative and entrepreneurial staff and service areas.
3. Develop a portfolio of services that Achieving for March 2016 Children can successfully trade at a profit and develop professional pitches and promotional material for these services.
4. Develop a business academy to encourage staff to March 2017 identify innovative ways of working and new income opportunities.
Success a. Win v Success rate for new business. measures b. Value of new business secured as a percentage of annual turnover.
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Programme 10 Develop an effective business infrastructure and delivery model
Responsible Ian Dodds Director Director of Standards and Improvement
Why has this When we established Achieving for Children in April 2014, we put in place business been chosen as a systems and infrastructures that would allow us to operate as a new organisation. Many Programme? of these, though suitable for a time, now require further development and refinement, to enable us to operate as effectively and productively as possible, and to allow us to build a strong foundation upon which we can grow as a company.
We will focus on meeting our contractual requirements and strengthening our relationship with the commissioning Councils. We will refine our performance management framework so that the Councils are assured on how well we are performing. We will also put in place systems which demonstrate to the Councils that we are meeting statutory requirements and delivering good and high quality services against the Commissioning Intentions. This will include providing assurance in relation to information governance, financial governance and risk management. We will work with partners, including Wandsworth Council to seek out more efficient and effective ways of delivering children’s services.
As part of this programme we will continue to integrate our business systems using a ‘best of breed’ approach to selecting and future-proofing our IT infrastructure, systems and applications. We will ensure that all our IT systems facilitate streamlined business processes and mobile working; so that our workforce is able to access the systems they need from anywhere and at any time.
Achieving for Children is committed to establishing the most effective and efficient delivery models that provide high-quality services for children and young people at a reduced cost. As such, we will be developing and implementing a new locality-based delivery model for early help and social care services.
Projects 1. Implement a new commissioning framework which By March 2016 sets out how to procure, review and de-commission services and manage contracts.
2. Integrate all IT infrastructure and business systems By March 2017 so that employees have the IT tools and technologies they need to be effective, efficient and productive.
3. Develop and implement a new locality-based By March 2017 delivery model for early help and social care services.
Success a. Number and percentage of business systems that are integrated. measures b. New locality-based delivery model established and implemented including new accommodation options c. New locality-based delivery model organisational structure established and implemented
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11 Measuring our progress
Measuring and reporting our progress in delivering this business plan will be crucial to demonstrating the impact that Achieving for Children is making on children’s and young people’s lives. By monitoring progress each quarter, we will be able to ensure that all the programmes and projects remain on track and, where this is not the case, that corrective actions are being taken.
The responsible Director for each programme will appoint a manager for each project who will scope the project, identify what needs to be delivered by whom and by when, determine the success measures, and ensure there are adequate financial resources available.
Programmes and projects will be monitored on a quarterly basis by the Operational and Strategic Senior Leadership Teams and progress will be reported to the Board of Directors. A Review of the Year setting out what has been achieved in the business plan will be completed by June each year and reported to the Councils.
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Achieving for Children – Business Development Strategy (September 2015 – March 2017)
Achieving for Children (AfC) is passionate about ensuring the best possible outcomes for children and their families and will deliver the services they need to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives. Through trading we aim to maximise the number of children and families we can support, while generating an income to continually improve and develop our offer, secure the sustainability of our services for the future and invest in innovative and creative solutions to the complex problems our children and families face on a daily basis.
All Achieving for Children trading activity will be informed by five trading principles:
1. We focus on improving outcomes for children and families and will consistently promote a model of early help and prevention in all of our work 2. Our services will focus on quality and innovation, will be evidence based and will be informed by and co-created with service users 3. We will work with other organisations supporting children and young people to develop the most effective solutions, drawing in expertise that Achieving for Children does not have itself where needed 4. We will not trade services that could jeopardise Achieving for Children’s financial stability or reputation 5. All financial surpluses will be reinvested for the benefit of the community
Between now and the end of our third year in operation, we aim to bring in an additional £1.1m of income and funding by growing our business across four core areas: improvement consultancy; traded services to schools; providing whole or partial children’s services on behalf of other local authorities; and better accessing grant funding available to social enterprises. We’ve already established a reputation as being able to deliver in each of these areas; this strategy sets out the steps we’ll take to realise our vision.
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Executive Summary
In establishing a separate organisation we’ve created an exciting opportunity to trade and generate new sources of income. AfC is the first organisation of its kind and we are unique in that our expertise covers all aspects of children’s service provision. Consequently we represent an attractive proposition to local authorities looking to commission out elements of their children’s services and we are interested in working with authorities to explore how we could provide a range of services on their behalf, bringing the innovative service delivery solutions we’ve developed in AfC to the wider sector.
However, rather than simply taking a reactive approach to growing our business, waiting for the right contracts to be advertised, our primary focus will be on proactively seeking opportunities for growth in the areas in which we are strong as a company. We’ll do this in four key areas:
1. Improvement Consultancy
We will create a comprehensive ‘improvement package’ for local authorities aiming to raise the quality of their children’s service provision and will generate £300,000 in income (£120,000 of profit) by March 2017.
The expertise we’ve developed locally in leading social care services in Kingston out of ‘intervention’, coupled with our status as a Department for Education ‘Intervention Advisor’, means we are already in demand from the rising number of local authorities being judged by Ofsted as inadequate under the new inspection framework. We have an excellent opportunity to build a national reputation as an improvement partner.
2. Expanding our traded offer to schools by breaking in to new markets
We will build on our success in providing services to schools in Richmond and Kingston and expand this customer base, targeting private schools and maintained schools in other boroughs where we know the level of service provision is declining in response to the wider financial context in public services nationally.
Our traded offer to schools in Richmond and Kingston is already bringing in almost £2m of income annually. By building on the work some of our services are already doing with private schools and out-of-borough schools, and on the relationships we have with a number of colleagues in schools across South West London, we aim to increase our market share as a direct provider to schools locally and generate an additional £50,000 of income (£10,000 of profit).
3. Delivering whole or partial children’s services
While tendering for service contracts will not be our primary focus as an organisation, we recognise that the reputational benefits of winning local authority contracts for the provision of children’s services will help us to raise our profile and establish AfC as a credible and trusted provider of children’s services nationally.
Subject to agreement with our owning councils, where we have the skills, expertise and capacity to tender for contracts we will do so.
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4. Better accessing grant funding opportunities available to social enterprises
While not specifically related to growth, we will also seek to make better use of grant funding. As a social enterprise we are now eligible for a range of grant funding opportunities available for organisations within our sector. Across AfC, we have a number of innovative ideas for addressing the complex issues that children and families face on a daily basis. In line with wider public sector funding reductions, our budgets are being reduced annually, making it difficult to trial radical and new models of service provision on a large scale. Despite the financial context within which we are operating, we will aim to secure grant funding in order to make these ideas happen.
Alongside this work, by March 2017 we will also:
• Complete a full competitor analysis • Review our service and product costs and revise our profit margins so that we are able to present a competitive offer to the market • Continue to identify gaps in the children’s services market place and develop new products and services that meet these gaps • Continue to bid for children’s services contracts that match our skills, expertise and values as an organisation • Develop partnerships with organisations who can help us to develop our products and support us to bring our offer to a wider customer base • Present our offer at national conferences, network meetings and forums to develop business leads • Develop a new streamlined and targeted prospectus for our core traded services
In delivering this Strategy, we recognise there are numerous challenges and we’ve outlined these in Appendix A. Nonetheless, we are confident that by building on our initial successes and making best use of the professional expertise and creativity of our staff we will be able to deliver; we look forward to working with our owning Councils to realise our aspirations.
AfC’s successes in year 1
In our first year of operation our focus has been on improving the quality of our service provision. This work has been given a huge vote of confidence by Ofsted who have awarded social care and safeguarding services in Kingston with a ‘good’ rating. Nationally, around 80% of local authorities being inspected under the new inspection regime have been judged as either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’. A closer inspection of how other local authorities have fared under the new regime suggests that we are one of the best performing areas in the country. In the two years since creating our company, we have completely turned around our services.
In 2014-15 we established a Business Development unit in order to lead our efforts to grow our business sustainably. In our Business Development Strategy (2014-2015) we said we would:
• test and develop our approach and capacity to deliver traded services outside of Richmond and Kingston using two of our most successful and robust services currently traded to local schools; and • investigate options for further business development and create new products.
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Since the publication of our first strategy, progress has been made in both of these areas. Our e- Safety service is working in private schools in both Richmond and Kingston and in schools outside of the borough. Similarly, our Educational Psychology service is also working with a number of private schools in Richmond and Kingston, and the service is currently in the process of systematically targeting additional private schools locally.
Building on the learning gained through our eSafety and Educational Psychology service we have extended our traded offer to private and out-of-borough schools. Last year, this trading activity brought in an additional £20,000 of income to the business.
In addition to what we set out to do, in our first year we were successful in winning some small contracts, maintaining and in some cases increasing buy-in to our traded portfolio of services to schools, developing the beginnings of our consultancy offer, and being awarded a significant amount of grant funding from the DfE’s Innovation Fund to develop a new model of foster care. Our achievements to date are outlined in the infographic below, and the learning we’ve accumulated in working to grow our business over the past year is included in Appendix B.
(NB: this will be turned into a graphic of some sort)
• Generated almost £2,000,000 through our traded activity with schools • Successfully bid for £1.1m from the Department for Education’s (DfE) Innovation Fund to develop a new model of foster care • Won two contracts from the DfE to act as Intervention Advisers for Local Authorities worth around £120,000 and £130,000 respectively • Brought in over £50,000 of grant funding from the Adoption Support Fund • Won a consultancy contract to support the London Borough of Hounslow to develop their childcare offer for disadvantaged two year olds • Developed a package of improvement support for out of borough schools and won a contract to deliver this package to schools in East Sussex • Won a contract to deliver a schools mental health conference and follow up support in Kingston • Developed a strategic relationship with the YMCA through a joint funding bid and opened a dialogue between our company, John Lewis and Apple to explore how they could support us to grow and develop in future • Developed our business development infrastructure and capacity, including a model to cost bids and determine our capacity to deliver contracts.
How we’ll grow our business in 2015-16
AfC is unique in that our expertise covers all aspects of children’s service provision. As a company however, we have more than just expertise; we have the infrastructure, governance and ability to run whole or partial children’s services functions on behalf of local. Consequently, we are open to all potential opportunities to do so. A full list of the types of opportunities we will actively seek to apply for is included in Appendix C along with the criteria against which we will judge these opportunities before deciding to bid (Appendix D).
However, we recognise that the motivation behind other local authorities’ decisions to outsource elements of their children’s services is often financial. Our analysis of recently published children’s services contracts in London suggests that in order to remain competitive, profit margins on tender submissions cannot typically exceed 5%. Our company was formed under the Teckal exemption to
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EU procurement law meaning that that no more than 20% of our income can be generated through new business outside of our main contract. In practice this means that we can raise approximately £14m of income per annum through traded activity outside of the main contract with our owners. This broadly equates to 20% of our operating budget minus the Direct Schools Grant. Hypothetically, if we were to focus solely on bidding for contract opportunities and were to be successful in winning a portfolio of contracts worth £14m per annum we could only expect to generate profits of £700,000. Conversely if we were to focus on providing consultancy support where the margins are significantly more favourable, we could expect to generate profits of £5.6m per annum (based on a profit margin of 40%).
Clearly, taking a proactive approach to developing our business through providing consultancy services to other organisations is more lucrative financially. However, this approach is more resource intensive during the delivery phase, particularly on middle and senior managers who would typically be providing the consultancy. Were we to take on a significant number of consultancy clients it is likely that we would need to use some associates to deliver the services on our behalf. Typically this would reduce profit margins to around 10%.
While contracting opportunities are less profitable, taking on large public service contracts will help us to build our reputation nationally as a trusted and viable provider of children’s services. Consequently, while our primary focus will be on developing our consultancy offer, we will also seek to tender for contracts where we assess that the reputational benefits and potential profit warrant the up-front investment to produce and submit the bid.
Our offer
This section outlines the products and services that we will bring to the market in 2015-17. It also identifies the customer segments we will target to promote our offer and the methods we will use to build these areas of the business. As a company, we are already bringing in almost £2m per annum income. We aim to bring in an additional £850,000 of income (with an estimated profit of £155,000) and £250,000 of grant funding by March 2017 (see Appendix E for details of income and profit projections across these areas).
1. Whole children’s service improvement support
We will develop a package of improvement consultancy that offers support in all aspects of the improvement journey. We have an outstanding track record in this area having turned around one of the worst performing children’s services departments nationally, raising their Ofsted rating from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’ in two years. We will develop a package of support that could range from offering the entire suite of improvement services to more bespoke pieces of work focusing on individual service areas. We will position ourselves as being able to support local authorities both in preparation for Ofsted inspections and as an improvement consultancy who could work with councils following a poor inspection result to improve quality and performance, and lead their improvement journey. A key area of focus within this package of support will be on working with local authorities to develop a coherent early help offer which prevents the escalation of issues, and delivers sustainable efficiencies over the medium term. We will work with other local authorities to implement similar models, tailored to the needs of children and families in their localities.
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As part of this package, where relevant, we will offer support to organisations in changing their organisational models. For example, we will provide support to children’s service departments seeking to spin out of the local authority. We’ve ‘been there and done it’ and have improved performance whilst reducing the cost of our services. We can provide this support at the whole children’s services level or at individual service level. A particular focus will be on supporting Youth Services, which a number of local authorities are considering ‘spinning out’. We will also seek to partner with national organisations to deliver this support where possible.
As part of our wider improvement package will also seek to either directly provide support, or broker peer-to-peer support from high performing schools in Kingston and Richmond for struggling schools elsewhere in the country. Initially this element of our support will be piloted with schools in East Sussex. However, we aim to build on the experience we develop through this pilot in order to expand this offer elsewhere.
Our target customers
• Local authorities which have identified themselves as requiring improvement support in preparation for an Ofsted inspection • Local authorities given ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ judgements by Ofsted • Local authorities looking to change their organisational model • Groups of out-of-borough schools with whom we have a pre-existing relationship and who have either been judged as ‘inadequate’ or ‘requiring improvement’ in Ofsted inspections.
How we will identify these opportunities
• By contacting local authorities which have been assessed by Ofsted as ‘inadequate’ or ‘requiring improvement’ for their safeguarding services (we are already monitoring the outcomes of inspections nationally) and pitching our services to them • By contacting authorities with aspirations of spinning out services, identified through contacts in central and local government • By communicating our offer via all online media, trade press and by presenting at London- wide and national conferences in order to generate leads • By hosting a ‘Doing it Differently’ conference in 2016-17 for local authorities focused on the improvement journey. We will host this free of charge in order to generate interest in our offer • By approaching relevant out of borough schools • By pitching our offer at Schools Forum meetings.
Our competitors
There are a number of organisations providing improvement support nationally, ranging from large private organisations such as PWC, Deloitte and iMPOWER to smaller boutique consultancies and individual consultants such as Red Quadrant and Morning Lane Associates. While competition does exist in this area of provision, AfC has an exceptionally strong market position owing to the results we have achieved in Kingston. Additionally, our status as a community interest company sets AfC apart from our competition and is appealing both to councils and the DfE. Currently, demand for our services outstrips our capacity.
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Income target for strand 1
By March 2017 we will aim to generate £300,000 of income in improvement support to councils and schools.
Initially, we will aim to manage additional consultancy within our existing capacity. This will enable us to maximise the amount of profit we generate. Based on average day rates of £750 per day this equates to 400 days of consultancy by March 2017 spread out predominantly across the extended management team.
In some cases it will be necessary to bring in external support in the form of Associates in order to help us meet this target. This will reduce our profit margins; however, we estimate that we can cover one third of these days within our existing capacity across the extended senior leadership team. Staff providing this work are already paid for under contract and as such all income is classed as profit. The remainder of the consultancy support will be carried out by associates who work with us temporarily for key projects. We estimate the profit margin having paid associates to be around 10% based on current market rates. Across both internal consultants and associates we’ve estimated that we can make a profit of around £120,000 (a profit margin of 40%).
2. Expanding the reach of our traded offer to schools and corporate business
We offer a number of traded services to schools which we are also able to offer to neighbouring local authorities and their schools (these are set out in our Services to Schools Brochure). Overall, our schools have increased their buy-in to our services in our second year of operation, despite increased competition from other providers and the increased autonomy of schools to ‘shop around’. Providing services to schools outside of our home boroughs would enable us to pass on the savings generated through economies of scale to our customers, and the income generated through increased levels of buy-in would enable us to continually improve these services against a backdrop of reduced funding for schools nationally.
Our contract with our owning councils stipulates that the services which were previously made available to schools should continue to be made available. However, in analysing our competitors and reviewing our charges, costs and feedback from schools within Richmond and Kingston we have identified a core group of services where we offer high quality services, are competitive on price and are able to generate profit. As such we will prioritise these services for trading more widely. In doing so, we are confident that the high quality service provision they offer will help to build our reputation across a wider geographic area and will generate a surplus to reinvest back into our services to improve them and to reduce their costs.
Our core traded offer will include:
• Education Psychology • Workforce Development (CPD and NQT) • E-Safety • Governor Support • School Business Partnerships • Schools Finance
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Additionally, AfC delivers a successful apprenticeship programme, and we are seeking to work with schools, councils and businesses to support them to set up their own programmes, using our tried and tested methodology. While we are open to working with schools and councils looking to set up a similar scheme, we are keen to capitalise on the recent interest in the apprenticeships agenda in the private sector and will work with private organisations to explore opportunities to support them to establish their own programmes.
Our target customers
• Private schools, free schools and academies in Richmond and Kingston and in neighbouring boroughs • Maintained schools in neighbouring boroughs • Local authorities and schools in London looking to set up apprenticeship schemes • Large private businesses who may be looking to set up an apprenticeship programme or access apprentices.
How we will identify these opportunities
• By approaching the most appropriate schools and pitching our services to them • By communicating our offer via all online media, trade press and by presenting at London- wide and national conferences in order to generate leads • By pitching our offer at school forum and governors meetings • By directly contacting large private businesses.
Our competitors
Locally we have an exceptionally strong market position for the services we provide to schools. This is largely a result of our services previously being provided to schools directly by the London Borough of Richmond and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, both of whom have traditionally had a near monopoly on service provision to schools. In recent years a small number of service providers have become active in the local area including Babcock 4S – Governor Support and CPD) and Headways (Educational Psychology). However, our prices across all of the services identified above remain exceptionally competitive. Provided that we ensure we maintain the quality of our services and ensure that our prices continue to represent an attractive offer to schools we are confident that we will retain our market share locally and grow our market share outside of Richmond and Kingston. In order to monitor our competitors effectively, the Business Development Team will conduct periodic horizon scans and recommend changes to our pricing strategies accordingly.
Income target for strand 2
By March 2017 we aim to generate an additional £50,000 through trading with out-of-borough and private schools, free schools, academies and corporate businesses. On average across our services we estimate profit margins will be in the region of 20% yielding a profit of £10,000.
This is a conservative estimate; however, bearing in mind the reduction in funding for schools on a national level, alongside the trend for schools to diversify their supply chains and to work with smaller and more localised organisations that we have observed locally, significant growth is difficult
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without working over a much wider geographical area. Doing so would require additional staff, which in turn would reduce margins. Starting small will enable us to test the robustness of our core offer more thoroughly before making any significant investment to increase the reach of these services.
3. Provision of whole or partial children’s services provision
As a company we are interested in exploring opportunities for providing children’s services on a large scale on behalf of other local authorities. This would enable us to share the excellent practice and service delivery models we have developed in Richmond and Kingston whilst realising economies of scale for ourselves and our owners/partners; these could be used to invest in our services and reduce their cost over time.
We recognise that the decision to grow our company in this way is not ours to make; however, we would welcome the opportunity to explore this with our owners should the opportunity arise in future. By March 2017 however we will seek to bid for small to medium sized contracts to provide services on behalf of other councils and government departments. These contracts will help to build our reputation while bringing in a relatively sustainable source of income (albeit with a lower profit margin) and lower level of risk.
Income target for strand 3
By March 2017, we aim to win £500,000 in contracts for the provision of services on behalf of other local authorities and government departments. We will be able to manage the process of submitting tender applications for small to medium contracts within our existing capacity while focussing heavily on proactively developing other areas in this strategy.
We estimate profit margins will be in the region of 5% yielding a profit of £25,000.
4. Accessing grant funding opportunities available to social enterprises
Being a social enterprise opens up opportunities to bid for funding available to the third sector but closes others exclusively open to public bodies. Working with funders we’ve clarified our position and will begin a programme of work to develop innovative ideas and solutions for solving the complex problems that our services encounter on a daily basis and will bid for grant funding in order to make these ideas happen. We will also conduct a feasibility study to understand how best to access social finance in order to diversify the range of income and funding streams we currently access.
Funding target for strand 4
We have identified a number of funding opportunities that we as a company are eligible to bid for including a recently announced fund advertised by the Department for Education to regionalise adoption. We aim to secure £250,000 of funding by March 2017.
Business and Innovation Academy
In addition to these work streams, we believe in fostering a culture of innovation across the organisation. We want to empower staff to come up with ideas about how services can be delivered
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more effectively while generating income to secure the sustainability of our organisation. In order to create this culture and to begin to identify and realise these ideas, this year we will establish a Business and Innovation Academy.
The Academy will be guided by a core group of staff known as the ‘Innovation-hub’ (I-hub) who will set ‘challenges’ to the organisation. These will be around a specific topic, such as ‘what are the gaps in provision for schools locally and how could we fill them’ and will be promoted through all of our internal communications channels. Good ideas will be seed funded where necessary from a pot of £20,000 and revenue generated will be reinvested back into the Academy in order to finance new ideas.
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Business Development Action Plan (2015-16)
Business Development Action Plan APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR Process, communications, infrastructure & innovation Clarify commissioning arrangements Establish contract and funding tracking process Conduct organisation wide costing exercise Clarify company traded offer Submit award applications Implement branding strategy Implement communications strategy Launch AfC Business Academy and company challenges Improvement consultancy Delivering DfE Intervention Advisers contracts Co-ordinate conference attendance and presentations Articulate products and services Deliver AfC Outreach programme Write to prospective customers / pitching Deliver 'Doing it Differently conference Present at national conferences D51 Follow-up improvement workshops Core traded offer Revise core offer costs Produce core offer brochure and marketing material Contact prospective customers to pitch offer Ongoing liaison with schools to support them through providing project support Bidding for contracts Bid for DfE intervention contracts Bid for DfE mental health contract Grant Funding Clarify eligibility for grant funding opportunities Develop a portfolio of ideas in preparation for bidding On-going tracking and bidding funding Business Development Action Plan (2016-17)
Business Development Action Plan APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR 11
Process, communications, infrastructure & innovation Maintain AfC Business Academy and company challenges Improvement consultancy Deliver DfE Intervention Advisers contracts Co-ordinate conference attendance and presentations Deliver AfC Outreach programme Write to prospective customers Ongoing pitching for new opportunities Present at national conferences Core traded offer Contacting prospective customers to pitch offer Ongoing liaison with schools to support them through providing project support Bidding for contracts On-going tracking and bidding for contracts Grant Funding Develop a portfolio of ideas in preparation for bidding On-going tracking and bidding funding D52
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Appendices
Appendix A: challenges in delivering our strategy
a) We have limited capacity and our trading activity must not impact on services in Kingston and Richmond
Our primary objective as an organisation is to deliver excellent services in Kingston and Richmond and the income we generate through trading will enable us to improve the services we already offer in these areas. In order to ensure that we maintain the good work we are already doing while growing our company, we will grow sustainably without overstretching ourselves, bringing in support where necessary so that we can achieve our vision for trading while maintaining the quality of our service provision locally.
b) There are a range of financial and reputational risks associated with trading and these must be managed
As a business, we have a responsibility to our owners to grow sustainably. We have prioritised service areas in which we have a track record of success; are able to recover our costs; and generate a profit while remaining competitive in the market. Trading these services will not damage our, nor our owners’ financial health or stability.
As a trusted provider of Children’s Services, AfC also has a responsibility to the children and families we work with to provide the highest quality of service possible. In order to fulfil our responsibility, we have prioritised areas of our business for trading that we are confident, based on feedback we’ve received from our children and families, are the most effective in addressing their needs. By trading these services we will strengthen both AfC’s and our owning council’s reputation nationally.
c) There is a need for effective communications and public relations to support this strategy
We recognise that central to our growth strategy is having an effective communications and public relations that support our aspirations for growth by establishing our company as a credible and trusted provider. We have already begun working with a communications consultancy to revise and implement our branding and communications strategy and through this work we will develop our own unique voice in the children’s services market. After last year’s success in winning Social Work Team of the Year, we will also submit applications for national and sector-specific awards, using these as opportunities to promote the work we are doing and to raise our profile nationally.
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Appendix B: Learning in year 1
Establishing the Business Development Unit team has enabled us to gain a number of insights into how best to grow a social enterprise, and here we’ve outlined the key points of learning we’ve taken on board to inform our strategy.
Our services represent an attractive prospect to private schools
Typically, private and independent schools have their own arrangements in place with private service providers for a range of non-statutory services. Our Workforce Development, e-Safety, Educational Psychology and Schools Business Partnership services have all successfully broken into the private school market. In 2015-16, we aim to accelerate growth in this area, targeting private schools with a refined and updated offer.
Bidding for contracts is extremely resource intensive
Bidding for large service contracts with Wandsworth and Merton was extremely resource intensive. This was partially the result of these bids being the first our company had produced and subsequently we did not have some essential information or infrastructure in place, such as the financial data necessary to cost a bid, the ‘boiler-plate’ service descriptions for the narrative sections of method statements, and pre-prepared responses to pre-qualification questionnaires. Additionally, the process of signing off bids with our owning councils required refining in order to simplify this process for all parties. In order to rectify these issues we’ve:
• completed an organisation wide costing exercise to understand all staff and overhead costs to use when completing future bids; • prepared ‘boiler-plate’ material and a bank of PQQ responses; and • redesigned in partnership the process of signing off bids and agreed (subject to the signing off of this strategy) that all contracts under £500k require no formal sign off from our owning councils.
A proactive approach to business development is more profitable than a reactive approach
While we are still actively looking for opportunities to bid for contracts for whole or part-children’s services functions locally, we’ve realised that due to the requirement for Councils to reduce their budgets, typically there is limited opportunity to make a profit on large public sector contracts; often margins need to be kept below 5% in order to remain competitive. However, margins for consultancy services and on our existing traded services are much higher, ranging from 10-45%. While we will continue to pursue contract opportunities for the reputational benefits that winning them offers, our prime focus will be on proactively generating new business by promoting our existing traded services, consultancy offer and new and innovative service delivery models to a range of prospective customers.
We should and will make the most of grant funding and social investment which is available to us
Being a social enterprise opens up opportunities to bid for funding available to the third sector but closes others exclusively open to public bodies. Working with funders we’ve clarified our position and will begin a programme of work to develop innovative ideas and solutions for solving the
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complex problems that our services encounter on a daily basis and will bid for grant funding in order to make these ideas happen. We will also conduct a feasibility study to understand how best to access social finance in order to diversify the range of income and funding streams we currently access.
Maintaining strong relationships with our existing customers has been crucial – but we need to work harder
The strong relationships we have with local schools through our services, School Improvement Partners and Business Relationship Managers who act as a single point of contact between schools and our services have been crucial to maintaining levels of buy-in to our services across Kingston and Richmond. This year we’ve increased buy-in to our services by around £20,000. We will build on this work, providing support to schools to develop new services in partnership that meet the needs of their students against a backdrop of reducing schools finance nationally.
Our communications and public relations need to better support our aspiration of developing the business
Growing a business relies on doing great work and telling people about it through relevant channels in order to build a reputation. In order for AfC to grow as a business we need to be seen as a trusted and viable provider of children’s services nationally. We have worked with Matter and Co, a communications and branding agency to reshape our brand and to revise our communications strategy. This year we will complete a rebranding exercise in line with their recommendations and implement our new communications strategy, as well as bolstering our capacity in this area in order to build a reputation in the children’s services market. After last year’s success in winning Social Work Team of the Year, we will also submit applications for national and sector-specific awards, using these as opportunities to promote the work we are doing and to raise our profile and credibility nationally.
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Appendix C: business development opportunities we are seeking
Our strategy outlines the areas of our business that we will focus on and prioritise for growth. However, were the market conditions are favourable and we have the relevant skills and expertise to deliver, we will consider working across a range of service areas and disciplines. The full range of areas we will consider are outlines below although each of these opportunities will be evaluated in line with agreed procedures on a case by case basis. This list is not exhaustive and may be added to periodically.
Areas of interest and contract opportunities we will evaluate Improvement consultancy across all aspects of children’s services Training and workforce development across all aspects of children’s services Provision of all traded services to schools (with a focus on our core offer initially) Contracts for 14-19 provision Contracts for Youth Services and Youth Offending Services Commissioning support and project and programme management Contracts for school place planning and admissions services Contracts for early Help services Contracts for services for children with SEN Contracts for services for children with disabilities Contracts for adoption and permanency services Contracts for services for Looked After Children Contracts for Emotional Health and Educational Psychology services Contracts for safeguarding services Contracts for school improvement and Ofsted inspection support
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Appendix D: how we’ll evaluate contract opportunities
Achieving for Children – Initial evaluation of a trading opportunity
Purpose of this document
Achieving for Children have identified an opportunity to bid for a contract for xxx delivered on behalf of xxx. This document outlines the key information gathered to date relating to the aforementioned contract for consideration by the Lead Commissioners from AfC’s owning councils. In completing this document, we have liaised with AfC’s board of directors and believe that the opportunity is compatible with our organisational vision and values and is fiancially viable. Additionally, we believe our organisation boasts the necessary skils and expertise to make us a credible and attractive bidder.
Assessment of bid level Is this a Reserved Matter, politically sensitive or a Yes ☐ No contract of significant value? ☐
* Note: if you have answered ‘yes’ here, the bid will be considered to be ‘level 1’ requiring input from lead commissioners throughout the tender process
What is the opportunity? Please give a high level overview of the contract/project, refering to the awarder, the contract/project duration, the annual and maximum contract/project value and also the contract mobilisation dates
What would the financial ramifications of winning this contract be? Please include the estimated profit, the likelihood of there being an impact on the Teckal limit and details about the contract and performance monitoring arrangements (e.g. PBR)
How would this contract be resourced? Please include details of whether resources would be drawn from the existing workforce and where if at all capacity would be built in to ensure the additional work would not impact existing service delivery
What would be the impact on the requirement for back office Council support services? What is the likely impact on AfCs existing arrangements for the provision of HR, ICT, Legal services, facilities management and Health and Safety. Additionally, what is the impact on AfC’s existing insurance cover?
How does this opportunity align with Achieving for Children and the Councils’ strategic priorities? Please refer to corporate strategic documentation (e.g. the AfC Business Development Plan and the Councils’ Children and Young People’s plan)
How would winning this contract (if at all) impact upon AfC’s ability to continue to provide exceptional services to Richmond and Kingston ? Please outline the potential impacts and planned mitigating actions to ensure that existing service delivery is not compromised
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What are the key risks of taking on this contract? Please identify risks for both AfC and the Council paying particular attention to financial risks (e.g. pension liabilities and potential redundancy cost), HR implications (e.g. TUPE arrangements) and potential reputational and political risks. If you have sought legal advice regarding this contract, please also include this here
Please provide a summary of key benefits to AfC and its owning councils of delivering this contract
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Appendix E: income and profit split across areas of business development
Income and profit projections (September 15 - March 2017) £600,000.00
£500,000.00
£400,000.00 D59
£300,000.00 Profit within income
£200,000.00
£100,000.00
£0.00 Improvement Consultancy Traded Services Contract Awards Grant Funding
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