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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.

The agenda and papers from the recent meeting on Tuesday 20 September 2011 can be found here. If you would like any of the papers tabled at this meeting please contact Linda@voc-ypf.org.

Click here to view the Children and Young People's Plan 2011-2013 priorities.

Children's Services, Schools and Families - Bedford Borough Council

Further to the consultation around budget efficiencies and the event held towards the end of 2010; the Council meeting of 12 January 2011 considered a recommendation from the General Purposes Committee and approved a new staffing structure for the Council.

For Children's Services, Schools and Families Directorate, this structure includes a revised extended senior leadership team; which took effect from Tuesday 1 March 2011.  In some areas, the transitions, handovers and realignment of teams will continue over the next month or so, but contact for service areas should be made as per the detail in the table below. 

The new Bedford Borough Council Child In Need procedures are now available to be disseminated to your staff and added to your agencies website/intranet as appropriate. Click here to download.

Integrated Youth Support (IYSS) Update

IYSS no longer existed as of the 1st March 2011. The information below seeks to explain the new structure and where IYSS services now sit.  

Youth Service - Transfers to the Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS) which comes under Sue Corbett and is linked to the YOS. Jill Cooper is the IFSS service manager.
Contacts - sue.corbett@bedford.gov.uk and jill.cooper@bedford.gov.uk.

Engagement and Development - Transfers to commissioning which comes under Sharon Simpson. Emma Sparrow is the Service Manager.
Contacts - sharon.simpson@bedford.gov.uk and emma.sparrow@bedford.gov.uk.

Connexions - Transfers to Education Support Services which comes under me. Joan Hall is the Service Manager
Contacts - colin.foster@bedford.gov.uk and joan.hall@bedford.gov.uk.

Education Welfare Service - Transfers to Education Support Services which comes under me. Joan Hall is also the Service Manager
Contacts - colin.foster@bedford.gov.uk and joan.hall@bedford.gov.uk.

The new head of Service posts are;

Connexions in Bedford Borough still exists, however it is a dramatically reduced service. The All Age Careers Service (AACS) is due to be in place by 1st April 2012, it currently looks like this will be a universal offer that possibly making referrals into the Local Authority, Connexions/Careers Education/IAGduties seem to be retained for the moment but the requirement for a 'connexions' service by name will be repealed.

NOTE: There has still not been a government steer on the name, so it will remain as Connexions for the time being. At the moment the statutory information required by government is still required

The primary focus for Connexions will be one to one interventions with young people who are pre-NEET and NEET (including SEN). Although the service may not be able to attend as many meetings for example the community safety agenda, the service can still take referrals and will do targeted work with individuals. Please contact Joan.hall@bedford.gov.uk or Colin.Foster@bedford.gov.uk.

For further information regarding these changes, please contact Colin Foster on 07766206583.

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 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. If you have any further questions about the role of the LADO , please discuss with your designated safeguarding officer / manager, or contact the LADO.

Carol Pennington
01234 276693
The Conference and Review Service
Room 558
Borough Hall
LADO@bedford.gov.uk

Click here to download a poster for you to display in your workplace.