COUNTY COUNCIL LOCAL COMMITTEE FOR BARROW

Meeting date: 24th January 2011

From: Chief Executive

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORKING GROUP

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.0 This report provides information and offers recommendations for approval by Barrow Local Committee from the Children and Young People’s Working Group.

2.0 STRATEGIC PLANNING AND EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS

2.1 Improved locality working is one of the ways the council is delivering on the ‘better’ theme in the Council Plan with the overall aim of improving Council services and those of our partners. The approaches outlined in this report underpin all the aims and activities with that part of the Plan.

2.2 The development, and now the implementation, of the Agreement (the LAA); together with the operation and monitoring of the Council Plan requires an increased focus on the Council’s performance against the identified outcomes, increasingly understood through localities. Local Committee’s Area Plan identifies a priority outcome as ‘…effective governance and accountability at a strategic level’, which the Children and Young People’s Working Group seeks to address.

2.3 The Children and Young People’s Plan 2010-13 contains the ambition; ‘…..Cumbria to be a place where children and young people are safe and well cared for; ….. children and young people are the centre of everything we do.’ 9 countywide key priorities for 2010-13 are detailed including, ‘promote healthy lifestyles and healthy choices and reduce behaviours that harm children and young people’s health and wellbeing.’

3.0 RECOMMENDATION

3.1 Members note the activity of the Children & Young People’s Working Group at its meeting of the 20th December as set out in Appendix A.

3.2 Members consider approval of a grant of £4,500 from the Early Years budget to support of Lindal Playgroup with their childcare provision as detailed in Appendix B.

3.3 Members consider approval of a grant of £30,000 from the Children’s Activities 6-12 budget in support of the Sports Council’s 3 year Holiday Sports Programme available to all young people in the district as detailed in Appendix C.

4.0 BACKGROUND

4.1 Attached are the minutes of the Children & Young People’s Working Group (C&YPWG) held on the 20th December 2010 detailing the activity of the group.

4.2 Members were presented with a grant request of £4,500 from the Early Years budget in support of the Lindal Playgroup. The group support up to 26 children under the age of 5 and, in accordance with OFSTED advice to continually self- evaluate, they would like to improve and enhance the provision by creating a more comfortable, welcoming environment for the children within their care. This will include a variety of equipment and improvements to specific areas such as the reading/cosy area, the nap area and the role play area. Appendix B provides further details.

4.4 A grant request for a 3 Year Holiday Sports Programme was made to the group from the Children’s Activities 6 – 12 budget which has the requirement to:- ‘Invest in activities which complement the delivery of the Children and Young People’s Plan. This follows the highly acclaimed success of the past holiday programmes which have been delivered in the Furness area and which continue to meet the objectives of this Local Committee in improving the health and wellbeing of young people in the area while also building their confidence.

4.5 The minimum offer provided by the Sports Council is 2pm to 4pm, Monday to Friday at three half terms, Easter and five weeks in the summer. These are held at the Academy and Table Tennis Centre and are offered free to 8 to 15 year olds. Activities include football, tag rugby, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, rounders, orienteering, kwik cricket and occasionally golf and power kites.

4.6 With this as a core offer, a number of additional sessions have been offered to encourage wider participation. In recent holidays, dance mats have been introduced at the Park to encourage more girls. This has helped to increase girls’ participation from under 10% to 25%. Additional dance activities will be provided at February 2011 half term. In the summer of 2010 canoe sessions were offered and as these were so successful they will be repeated in 2011.

4.7 Sessions are also offered at Urban Park two mornings a week. After trying a variety of times and venues on Walney and Dalton/Askam, sessions at

Walney School and DASH@Dowdales are now provided at the same time as the main session on a limited basis. These have proved to be very popular without detracting from the numbers at the Academy.

4.8 The programme is continually reviewed and improved the Sports Council currently provides free activities for an average of 50 children a day in the summer holidays, with slightly less in the other holidays, depending on the weather.

4.9 Since the Sports Action Zone finished, Barrow Sports Council has obtained funding from a variety of sources to continue the free programme. Funders have included the Police (who see these as valuable diversionary activities), Neighbourhood Management, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, Inspiring Communities, Awards for All and Cumbria County Council. Most of these sources were time limited funding which are no longer available or one off applications which can not be repeated. Last year the County Council awarded £6k from Youth grants with the shortfall provided by Inspiring Communities. Inspiring Communities funding has now ended.

4.10 Members are asked to consider providing funding for the next three years to ensure that the holiday sports programme can continue, particularly during this financially uncertain time. This would allow the Youth Sports Worker to plan the programme with confidence and continue to experiment with new activities to ensure as wide a participation as possible.

4.11 Costs for the next three are:

2011-12 £9,500 2012-13 £10,000 2013-14 £10,500

4.12 Supporting the Holiday Sports Programme is part of the Barrow Area Plan 2010 -13 and regular reports are already provided to Local Committee. Full updates will continue to be provided on a regular basis. Local Committee also has three members on the Sports Council to ensure the programme responds to local needs.

5.0 OPTIONS

5.1 Members may decide not to support the above recommendations, but must note that this will impact on the quality and diversity of services provided to children and their families.

6.0 RESOURCE AND VALUE FOR MONEY IMPLICATIONS

6.1 Local Committee has a devolved Early Years allocation of £67,634 for the financial year 2010-11 which is increased by carry forward balances of £66,680 to give a total spending limit of £134,314. Following Local Committee of 13th December 2010 £38,483 is allocated, and therefore there is available funding from this years budget of £95,831.

6.4 The recommendation would mean committing £4,500 of the potential available Early Years balance. Approving the recommendation would reduce the available balance to £91,331.

6.5 Local Committee has a devolved Children’s Activities 6-12 allocation of £38,660 for the financial year 2010-11 which is increased by a carry forward balance of £31,268 to give a total spending limit of £69,928. Following Local Committee of 13th December 2010 £36,268 is allocated and therefore there is available funding from this years budget of £33,660.

6.6 The recommendation would mean committing £30,000 of the potential available Children’s Activities 6-12 balance. Approving the recommendation would reduce the available balance to £3,660.

7.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

7.1 Under the Constitution a Local Committee may invest in activities which complement the delivery of the Children and Young People’s Plan.

8.0 CONCLUSION

8.1 In creating the Children and Young People’s Working Group, Members in their community leadership role, are able to contribute to, inform and influence the work of Children’s Services in the local area.

Jill Stannard Chief Executive

APPENDICES

Appendix A – Minutes of the meeting of 20th December 2010 Appendix B – Early Years Application – Lindal Playgroup Appendix C – Children’s Activities 6-12 Application – Holiday Sports Programme

IMPLICATIONS

Staffing: None Financial: £4,500 from the Early Years Budget; £30K from the Children’s Activities 6-12 Budget Property: None Electoral Division(s): All * Please remove whichever option is not applicable

Executive Decision Yes

Key Decision No*

If a Key Decision, is the proposal published in the current Forward Plan? N/A*

Is the decision exempt from call-in on grounds of urgency? No*

If exempt from call-in, has the agreement of the Chair of the relevant N/A* Overview and Scrutiny Committee been sought or obtained?

Has this matter been considered by Overview and Scrutiny? No* If so, give details below.

Has an environmental or sustainability impact assessment been No* undertaken?

Has an equality impact assessment been undertaken? No*

N.B. If an executive decision is made, then a decision cannot be implemented until the expiry of the eighth working day after the date of the meeting – unless the decision is urgent and exempt from call-in and the Head of Member Services and Scrutiny has obtained the necessary approvals.

PREVIOUS RELEVANT COUNCIL OR EXECUTIVE DECISIONS [including Local Committees]

No previous relevant decisions.

CONSIDERATION BY OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY

Not considered by Overview and Scrutiny.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

No background papers

AUTHOR Contact: Karen Johnson, 01229 407578; [email protected]

Appendix A

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORKING GROUP

The Conference Room, Nan Tait Centre, Barrow-in-Furness Date: 20th December 2010

Apologies Cllr Jill Heath, John Macilwraith, Charlotte Chorlton, Mandy Nightingale, Laura Cross, Caroline Marshall

Present Karen Johnson (KaJ), Cllr A Burns, Cllr Tina Macur, Cllr Kevin Hamilton, Graham Bassett, John Barrett, Nathan Davies, Katie Carr, Mike Brown, Michelle McAveeney, Steve Murray, Alex Walker, Sarah Faulkner, Hayley Tinmouth, Keith Johnson

Ref. No. Action 20/12/01 6-12 Budget – Grant Request Derek gave a short presentation on behalf of the Barrow Borough Sports Council for support towards a 3 year holiday sports programme to be funded from the Children’s Activities 6 – 12 Budget.

Barrow Borough Sports Council Holiday Sports Programme Supported - £30,000

All Members supported this project and agreed to recommend to the Local Request to Committee in January. LC - KJ

This item was moved from item 7 to item 1 as a request.

Minutes of Previous Meeting 20/12/02

Agreed.

Matters Arising 20/12/03

John Barrett informed the group that as soon as he has information on child suicide rates for the area he will present them to the group.

th Steve Robson is being invited to the next Local Committee meeting on 24 January 2011.

Presentation from Katie Carr and Furness Youth Council

20/12/04 Katie gave a short presentation and an update on Furness Youth Council, followed by a short Question and Answer session for the members of the Youth Council.

Points noted from the presentation:

 Katie explained that Youth Council had their own website, logo and slogan. She would send information of this to members of the group.  Candidate information pack will be made available to schools.

th Cllr Anne Burns attended the Youth Council workshop on Thursday 18 December, the young people found this very valuable to their research. Cllr Anne Burns informed Katie that she had some manifesto papers that could be AB left in the office for her collection. This may be helpful for the Youth Council

members and that it would be a good idea for Katie put a bid together to gain funding to assist the Youth Council.

It was also suggested that it would be a good idea for the Youth Council to KJ/MM attend a council meeting at Barrow Borough Council.

The Youth Council have been invited to attend all C&YPWG meetings and will be a standard agenda item.

20/12/05

Early YearsBudget – Grant Request Karen gave a short presentation for the Early Years grant application received.

Lindal Playgroup – Supported - £4,500

All Members agreed to support this project. It was suggested that South Lakeland Local Committee may like the opportunity to contribute towards this playgroup as it sits on the border between the 2 districts areas. This will be

passed to Caroline Marshall for investigation. KaJ/CM

There is funding still available in the Early Years Budget. Cllr Anne Burns KJ informed the group that if there are any projects that require financial assistance JB

and meet the criteria to put a bid forward. Keith Johnson stated he would liaise with Caroline regarding a bid for funding. John Barrett stated he would also put a bid together for assistance. 20/12/06

Feedback from LPG/Children’s Trust Board (Standard Agenda Item)

JB is presently awaiting the results of a discussion/assessment on how effective the Local Planning Group is and if there is value in its continuation. It was stated

that the need for a Children’s Trust Board is no longer compulsory but if agreed, 20/12/07 Cumbria may continue to operate a Trust.

Any Other Business

KaJ advised that a grant request from the Residents and Tenants Association would be brought to the next meeting.

It was suggested that Caroline Vernon be asked to the next meeting to present an update on the ‘Linking Our Thinking’ project.

Kaj distributed provisional examination results for Cumbria and Furness to the

group, explaining that they have not yet been verified and until that time must remain for this group’s information only. JB gave a short explanation of what the results were and what they mean to the Furness area. Cllr A Burns asked if it is possible to provide information about the gap between

rural areas and the Furness area regarding results. 20/12/08 CYSS Consultation closes on 24th December, all of the group were sent an email from either Mike Conefrey or Graham Bassett. Graham advised that completion

of the document would take no longer than an hour and asked that members of the panel send in their completed document as soon as possible.

Date and time on next meeting

7th February 2011 – 4pm The Conference Room, Nan Tait Centre

Appendix B

COUNTY COUNCIL LOCAL COMMITTEE FOR BARROW EARLY Paper YEARS No. Meeting date: 20th December 2011 From: Corporate Director – Children’s ** services

EARLY YEARS GRANT APPLICATION

0.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

0.1 This report outlines the grant application for the Barrow Local Committee Early Years fund from Lindal Playgroup and Toddlers.

0.2 Funding is requested to enhance the provision and the learning & development environment for children who attend the setting.

1.0 STRATEGIC PLANNING AND EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS

1.1 All submissions are consistent with Corporate Strategy – Improving the life chances and well-being of children and young people. In particular the outcome: All children enabled to enjoy life and achieve in education, training and recreation.

1.2 Equity and inclusion are key values underpinning the Children and Young People’s Plan 2007 – 2010. Its strategic priorities include reducing inequalities for identified vulnerable groups. This submission recognises the importance of fair and equal treatment to all children and families.

2.0 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 That members award Lindal Playgroup a grant of £4,500 in support of their childcare provision from the Local Committee’s Early Years budget.

3.0 BACKGROUND

3.1 Lindal Playgroup opened in 1968 and is managed by a Voluntary Management Committee. It is situated in buccleuch Hall in the centre of Lindal-in-Furness. The provision consists of a large hall, toilet facilities, kitchen and outdoor play area. The

playgroup serves children from the local area. A maximum of 26 children aged from two to under five years attend the playgroup at any one time.

3.2 The settings latest Ofsted inspection saw the provision being graded as Good (Feb 2008). Children attend a variety of sessions which run Monday to Friday every week.

3.3 The EYFS 2008 requires settings to continuously self evaluate their practice and consider how best to develop and improve the setting so that it meets the highest standards and offers the best experiences for young children. The provision is run from a community hall. The EYFS tells us that the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning. The provider would like to enhance the environment by creating a more comfortable, welcoming environment for the children within their care. Snuggle beds would be purchased in order to create a comfortable sleeping area for the children. Non-slip mats would be purchased to increase the safety of the children whilst they are using the sand/water trays. Funding would also go towards developing the book/cosy area to provide story cushions for the children to sit on whilst reading/hearing stories or exchanging conversation with other children. A selection of new books would be purchased in order to further promote the children’s Communication, language and literacy skills. The provider also plans to develop the role play area. Role play equipment and materials such as healthcare and other professional costumes and dressing up chests would be purchased. In order to promote children’s Problem Solving, reasoning and numeracy skills, the provider plans to purchase further resources to support them with developing this area. Advice on ordering appropriate resources and materials will be given by the Early Years & Childcare Team.

4.0 OPTIONS

4.1 Members agree to award the total funding requested for Lindal Playgroup with the condition that the manager of the setting works closely with the Early Years & Childcare Team to purchase the appropriate equipment.

4.2 Members agree to only award a lesser amount towards the equipment, resulting in the need to identify match funding. Again with the condition that the manager of the setting works closely with the Early Years & Childcare Team to purchase the appropriate equipment.

4.3 Members do not award the grant.

5.0 RESOURCE AND VALUE FOR MONEY IMPLICATIONS

6.1

6.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

7.1

7.0 CONCLUSION

7.1 The approval of this application for a grant will enable the setting to enhance and improve the quality of their learning & development environment, in line with the EYFS and Ofsted welfare requirements. The grant will allow children to access improved equipment and resources to further develop their interests and experiences.

Corporate Director – Children’s services

REPORT AUTHOR

Contact: Caroline Marshall, 01229 407317, [email protected]

Appendix C

Children and Young People’s Working Group Monday 20th December 2010

Barrow Borough Sports Council Holiday Sports Programme

Background Barrow Borough Sports Council has now been running free sports activities in school holidays for ten years. The activities were provided following extensive local consultation, including visiting local schools where pupils requested free fun activities, particularly during the long summer holidays. Young people specifically requested a variety of activities with the emphasis being on fun for all rather than coaching and competition.

Funding was initially obtained through the Sports Action Zone, a Sport England initiative targeted at disadvantaged areas. This provided funding for the Active Living For All (ALFA) team who organised the activities.

The ALFA team experimented with a variety of venues and activities. Moving around the Borough was costly, difficult to co-ordinate and led to poor attendance at some sessions. Low attendance meant that young people often didn’t have any choice of activity. The team then tried a central venue (Parkview) every day and this provided to be far more successful. In addition to the fields and tennis courts, Parkview also offered the Table Tennis Centre. This has continued to be the main venue for several years and (as Furness Academy South Site) is now known as the main venue by parents and young people.

Current activities

The minimum offer provided by the Sports Council is 2pm to 4pm, Monday to Friday at three half terms, Easter and five weeks in the summer at the Academy and Table Tennis Centre. This is offered free to 8 to 15 year olds and activities include football, tag rugby, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, rounders, orienteering, kwik cricket and occasionally golf and power kites.

With this as a core offer, a number of additional sessions have been offered to encourage as wide a participation as possible. In recent holidays, dance mats have been introduced at the Park to encourage more girls. This has helped to increase girls participation from under 10% to 25%. Additional dance activities will be provided at February 2011 half term. In the summer of 2010 canoe sessions were offered and these will be repeated in 2011.

Sessions are also offered at Hindpool Urban Park two mornings a week. After trying a variety of times and venues on Walney and Dalton/Askam, sessions at Walney School and DASH@Dowdales are now provided at the same time as the main session on a limited basis. These proved to be popular without detracting from the numbers at the Academy.

Whilst constantly tinkering with the programme, the Sports Council currently provides free activities for an average of 50 children a day in the summer holidays, with slightly less in the other holidays depending on the weather!

(The Sports Council also offers extensive opportunities for children with disabilities who are not able to access the mainstream programme. This is funded separately.)

Staffing

The activities are currently co-ordinated by the Youth Sports Worker. The Youth Sports Worker is employed by Barrow Council and is funded for the next two years by Sport England with matched funding from Barrow Regeneration and Cumbria County Council Local Committee for Barrow.

Initially volunteers were recruited to support the activities but this proved to be erratic and eventually young sports leaders were employed. Young people at Sixth Form and Furness College are invited to a training week at the end of the summer term. Sports Leaders are recruited from these sessions to help run the activities in the holidays. Several also return from University so there is a mix of new and experienced staff. This gives them some income and experience to put on their C.V.

Specialist coaches are often brought in from partners such as Barrow Raiders, Barrow Golf Club or qualified power kite instructors. Step into Sport and other accredited volunteers also assist.

All staff and volunteers are CRB checked.

Costs

The cost of the programme in 2010 was £8,400. The majority of this is staffing with some venue hire and the cost of insurance and CRB checks. The additional sessions at Walney and DASH were only provided during part of the year. Ideally these sessions would be extended in 2011, leaving a projected cost of between £9k and £10k.

Funding

Since the Sports Action Zone finished, Barrow Sports Council has obtained funding from a variety of sources to continue the free programme. Funders have included the Police (who see these as valuable diversionary activities), Neighbourhood Management, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, Inspiring Communities, Awards for All and Cumbria County Council. Most of these sources were time limited funding which is no longer available or one off applications which can not be repeated.

Last year the County Council awarded £6k from Youth grants with the shortfall provided by Inspiring Communities. Inspiring Communities funding has now ended.

As Members will be aware, it becomes increasingly difficult obtaining funds for ongoing projects. This is also very time consuming when done on an annual basis.

Members are asked to consider providing funding for the next three years to ensure that the holiday sports programme can guarantee to continue. This would allow the Youth Sports Worker to plan the programme with confidence and continue to experiment with new activities to ensure as wide a participation as possible.

Costs for the next three years are estimated as;

2011-12 £9,500 2012-13 £10,000 2013-14 £10,500

Reporting

Supporting the Holiday Sports Programme is part of the Barrow Area Plan 2010 -13 so regular reports are already provided to Local Committee. Updates will continue to be provided on a regular basis. Local Committee also has three members on the Sports Council to ensure the programme responds to local needs. For further information;

Derek Brook [email protected] 01229 407575