One local authority's approach to the Develop stage

Approach

Wandsworth Borough Council is taking a different approach to the Develop stage of the TYS pathfinder change process. Its objectives are similar to the other TYS pathfinders. To:

• Develop solutions that address the priority critical questions agreed by senior management at Decision Point 2
  
  
• Create future models of working that embrace these solutions
  
  
• Build the business case for the delivery stage including milestones, implementation activities, measurement frameworks, governance model, resource requirements, costing, etc
  
  
• Prepare a decision making process to assist senior management to reach agreements at Decision Point 3

This will be achieved through an operational group comprised of senior management representatives from key agencies supporting and working with vulnerable and disaffected young people, ie education (extended schools, education welfare and integrated support service to schools), leisure and amenities (integrated youth services which includes Connexions, Yot and youth service), social services (children and families and referral and assessment services), housing (estates management and housing services), the CAF coordinator, police, crime concern and the TYS project manager. 

The group is chaired by the TYS project sponsor who is the acting assistant director of Leisure and Amenities (Culture, Children and Young Persons). It reports directly to the local Children and Young People Strategic Partnership (C&YPSP). This may, at first sight, appear to be a top-down approach. The authority chose this route for a number of key reasons:

• It is a more acceptable model for Wandsworth managers in terms of time commitment and resources needed
  
  
• Although an intensive piece of work, it more readily feeds into the wider change agenda for children's and young people's services
  
  
• The model is more manageable - it involves a smaller, focused group of people, but is still representative of all the key agencies
  
  
• Operational group members have responsibility to feed into linked groups, eg the voluntary sector network of organisations working with young people, as well as their service teams and frontline staff
  
  
• Involvement of frontline practitioners and users during the process as needed

Planning areas

The operational group reviewed the critical questions that came out of the Decision Point 2 presentation in some detail and grouped these into four manageable planning areas. The operational group is addressing each area in turn over a 12-16 week period. The planning areas are:

1) Young people and their needs

Key questions:

• Identifying the young people - who and how many?
  
  
• Reviewing priority issues and needs of young people

Additional questions/issues identified:

• How do we identify those not accessing services?
  
  
• Links to and from other panels
  
  
• How far up and down the thresholds tiers falls within the TYS remit (linked to who and how many)
  
  
• How will all the information be mapped?
  
  
• How will the priority issues be reviewed? For example, using anonymous information available from a sample of current assessments, such as Connexions APIR, YOT asset and CAFs for the older age group
  
  
• How do we take account of ethnicity and cultural needs as well as health and medical needs (linked to issues raised by young people during the early stages of the change process)

Below is a list of potential sources of data that need to be collated and analysed relating specifically to the proposed pilot area in the south of the borough (ie 11-19-year-olds living and/or studying/working/other in the area):

• Yot - young offenders and first time entrants
  
  
• PRU and Special EBD school rolls
  
  
• PLASC - statemented young people school action and school action plus
  
  
• Excluded young people (including colleges), non-attenders, out of school, at risk of exclusion, accessing services within school
  
  
• Children in need, including CLA (and local authority by other boroughs), care leavers
  
  
• CAMHS clients
  
  
• Children of parents with mental health problems, children of drug misusing parents
  
  
• Young carers
  
  
• ABC/ASB referrals
  
  
• Teenage mothers and fathers
  
  
• Homeless/B&B - hostel placements
  
  
• Asylum seekers and refugees
  
  
• Intensive Connexions caseload, NEETs
  
  
• PAYP

2) What TYS could look like?

Key questions:

• What style of service - co-location/virtual/actual?
  
  
• What should the composition of TYS team be?
  
  
• Who has the role and responsibility for mapping, including thresholds of individual services?
  
  
• How to involve the voluntary sector most effectively?

Additional questions/issues identified:

• How will it evolve? Will it be a staged approach or an organic one?
  
  
• Impact of the team on other services. Will it take work off existing teams? This could change the way existing services operate.
  
  
• What is the shift of resources to TYS?
  
  
• Role of TYS - what does it provide? Look at other teams.
  - preventative, to reduce use of specialist services?
  - providing / commissioning services?
  - casework?
  - changing systems?
  
  
• What will be the workload?
  
  
• How long will it work with young people - months, years?
  
  
• Will TYS track all young people with needs?

3. How TYS could work?

Key questions

• How does it identify, assess and refer young people, including use of the CAF?
  
  
• How to agree on information sharing protocols?
  
  
• How to address any skills and training needs?
  
  
• How to set performance targets and links to outcomes-based analysis?

Additional questions/issues identified:

• There's a need for an overarching information sharing protocol. If one is being developed in the authority and / or national guidance is imminent, how does it link with TYS timescales?
  
  
• Explore other ways of identifying young people in addition to practitioners' assessments
  
  
• Consider workforce reform issues and core competencies?
  
  
• Joint training - identifying training needs?
  
  
• How do we know it is working? What is measurable and what do we want to measure? Link back with an earlier stage of the TYS process - about young people's needs?
  
  
• Referring into specialist agencies - transitions into and from TYS (see planning area 4 below)
  
  
• Consideration of existing systems and requirements, eg safeguarding

4. Links with the TYS?

Key questions:

• How best to develop links to services outside proposed pilot area (the south of the borough)?
  
  
• How best to develop links to other programmes including extended schools, CAF, etc?
  
  
• How best to make links to, and transition to and from, existing prevention provision and children's and adult services?
  
  
• How best to ensure effective transition to and from other services and initiatives, including awareness of service specific identification, assessment and referral processes?
  
  
• How best to develop links to adult services providing support to parents/carers of the targeted group of young people?

Additional questions/issues identified:

• How do we work with services that do not solely work with children and young people, eg housing, GPs
  
  
• Boundary issues - within as well as out of the borough
  
  
• Learn from and build on good practice in pilot programmes and current multi-agency teams
  
  
• Test reliance on informal networks subsides. Will working between TYS and other services still be effective?

How this will work?

Operational group meetings take place every three weeks and are preceded by a planning meeting. Members of the operational group are asked to volunteer for the planning meetings.  The purpose of the planning meetings is to:

• Address the key questions relevant to the planning area
  
  
• Agree how to approach the next decision meeting
  
  
• Undertake or commission any preparatory work that might be needed for the meeting
  
  
• Circulate any paperwork to the operational group in advance of the meeting
  
  
• Be the champions of the chosen approach at the meeting
  
  
• Ensure closure of decisions 

Although the timetable currently includes one planning meeting for each planning area, it may transpire that additional meetings are required or that some issues need revisiting. The process is flexible enough to accommodate these additional requirements.

Further consultation

If needed, further consultation will take place with frontline workers during the planning stage, planning area 3 (How the TYS could work) and planning area 4 (Links with the TYS). Further consultation may take place with young people during the planning stage of decision area 4 (Links with the TYS). 

Feedback to the children and young people's strategic partnership

There will be interim feedback to the children and young people's strategic partnership after the second operational group meeting. Decision point 3 will take place after the fourth operational meeting meeting. This will be a presentation to the children and young people's strategic partnership. 

Click to go back to the case studies for the Develop stage.