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Bedford Borough Children's Trust ezine The Bridge ...

The requirement for all Local Authorities to have a Children's Trust came as a result of Lord Laming's review of the death of Victoria Climbie. Lord Laming said that it is vital for all agencies who work with children, young people and their families to work more closely with each other and to communicate better with each other.

Bedford Borough Children's Trust is a partnership of all the agencies that provide services for children, young people and families. We believe that when we work together, we can make that extra difference and build brighter futures.

Our Children's Trust is working hard to ensure that children and young people in Bedford Borough can feel safe, valued and supported, to realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to society.

Bedford Borough Childen's Trust Egg Model

The Bedford Borough Children’s Trust has appointed an independent chair Laura Eades for the Bedford Borough Safeguarding Children Board.  The Trust has a BBSCB Strategy Board specific to the BB Children’s Trust, all the groups which sit under the BBSCB are joint groups which operate under both Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Boards.

Bedford Borough Safeguarding Children Board Model

Planning for the future

All Children's Trusts work to a plan called the Children and Young People's Plan which sets out the shared vision and priorities underpinning the work of all organisations involved with the Trust and drives the work of any agency in Bedford Borough working with children, young people and their families.

Click here to see our 2010-2013 Children and Young People's Plan or here to se our priorities summary. We have identified a series of priorities that we hope will make sure all children get the best start in life. Our vision is to “to make Bedford Borough the best place in England for children and young people to grow up.”  The plan is ambitious and all about the difference we can make when we work together. The plan is not a detailed list of the work each partner is doing in isolation – instead, it sets out what partners are doing together in order to turn our aspiring vision into reality.

The Trust took the bold decision last year to take a full year to develop the plan, to allow for thorough consultation with stakeholders, staff, parents and carers and of course children and young people. The longer planning time frame also allowed the Trust to take a truly “partnership” approach to developing and drafting the 3 year strategic plan.

The plan features:

• A straight forward description of our 4 cross cutting themes; Child Poverty, Think Family, Engagement with children and young people and Community Cohesion;
• A fantastic, pictorial description of what it is like to live in Bedford Borough for children and young people;
• A description of the Children’s Trust and a explanation as to why we have to have a Children and Young People’s Plan;
• Our priorities and actions for the next 3 years across our 5 key areas of work: Healthy; Safe, Aspire, Workforce and Equality & Diversity;
• An explanation of how we are going to manage performance against the priorities we have set and
• A plain English description of our national indicators
• We have tried really hard to produce a plan which is a straight forward, easy to follow read – let us know if we have achieved this!

The Children’s Trust is encouraging anyone who works within Bedford Borough Children’s Trust’s One Children’s Workforce to:

• take the time to read the plan carefully;
• take the time to understand where your work fits – which priorities are you working towards?
• refer back to the plan regularly because it sets out what we are doing to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families in our Borough.

The Children and Young People's plan is now available to download. Click here to download.

Integrated Youth Support

Click here to find out more about Integrated Youth Support services in Bedford Borough, or for more information contact Colin Foster, Head of Integrated Youth Support on 01234 228311 or email Colin.foster@bedford.gov.uk.

Useful links:

• Please click here to view a map of the seven clusters within Bedford Borough
  (Click close at the middle of the top hand bar to view fully)
• Please click here to read more about our approach to commissioning
• Please click here for the 2010 meeting schedule of the Bedford Borough Children's Trust Board, Executive Commissioning Board and the SIG Groups (Aspire/ Health/ Safe).
• Please click here to view a model demonstrating the links between the Safe Implementation Group, and the Local Safeguarding Childrens Board (LSCB).

Local Authority Allegations Officer (LADO)

Responsible for discharging the Council's arrangements for managing allegations against people working (paid or unpaid) in a position of trust with children. This applies to council run services; commissioned services and those services provided by the private and third sector.

Bedford Borough Council

Caroline Brady
Team Manager of the Conference and Review Service
Unit 7
Stephenson Court
Priory Business Park
Bedford

01234 276766/ 276560
caroline.brady@bedford.gov.uk or conferenceandreviewdutydesk@bedford.gov.uk

(Interim) Francesca Parrington

01234 276560