Councillor J Henry presided.

Councillors J Henry, D Bibby and E McCartin; P MacLeod, D Hawthorn, J Trainer (all Renfrewshire Council); L O'Brien (Barnardos); A Lowe (Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee); L King (SCRA); D Leese, F MacKay and M Irvine (Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership); J O'Rorke (UWS); and S Graham (West College Scotland).

H McGeogh (Barnardos); D Bramma (Renfrewshire Area Support Team); M Savage, N Scott, E Feggans, Y Farquhar and C MacDonald (all Renfrewshire Council).

G McKinlay, S Bell, E MacLean, S Glasgow (all Renfrewshire Council); J Melrose (Renfrewshire Area Support Team); P Nelis (Scottish Fire & Rescue); and Audrey McNeil (Skills Development Scotland).

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Children & Young People Thematic Board held on 24 February 2015.

DECIDED: That the minute be approved.

The Rolling Action Log was submitted for approval.

DECIDED:  That the Rolling Action Log be noted.

H McGeogh from Barnardos and N Scott from Williamsburgh Primary gave a presentation on Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PAThS) and the PAThS Plus Programme.  The presention indicated that it was an evidence based Social and Emotional Learning programme provided by Barnardo’s which had successfully been granted Big Lottery funding and trialed in schools in Lurgan and Craigavon.  Barnardo's now worked with over 100 schools as part of the programme but many more across the UK were involved outwith the lottery funding model as Barnardo’s held the UK licence. 
 
N Scott advised that Barnardo's were working with Williamsburgh Primary School on their journey to become a model school.  The presentation outlined the reasons for change; the keys to success; the problems the school encountered; and the measurable success.

After discusscusion, the Chair thanked H McGeogh and N Scott for their presentation.

DECIDED:  That the presentation be noted. 

A report was submitted by the Director of Children's Services relative to an update on Part 9 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2015 and the definition of Corporate Parenting as defined within the Act.

The report advised that the Act placed new duties on identified public bodies to act in support of looked after young people. The public bodies were called ‘corporate parents’ and the duties were ‘corporate parent responsibilities’. The Act incorporated how the public bodies had to plan and report on how they were working together to be corporate parents; provided a clear definition of Corporate Parenting; and defined the bodies to which it would apply. 
 
The Act put the concept and policy of corporate parenting on to a statutory basis in Scotland. It established a framework of duties and responsibilities for relevant public bodies requiring them to be systematic and proactive in their efforts to meet the needs of looked after children and young people and care leavers. New reporting and accountability structures were also introduced with national reporting to Scottish Parliament every 3 years.

The report advised that the Corporate Parenting Steering Group would drive forward the joint improvement actions across the partnership.  J O'Rorke asked that the UWS and WCS be involved in this process.  D Hawthorn advised that the Corporate Parenting Steering Group would be happy to extend an invitation to them.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the new duties under part 9 of the Act be noted;

(b)  That the reporting duties in relation to corporate parenting duties for all corporate parents as outlined within the report be noted;

(c)  That it be agreed that UWS and WCS be invited to attend the Corporate Parenting Steering Group; and

(d)  That it be agreed that a report would be submitted to a future Board meeting on the reporting framework.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to an update on remedial actions including any progress achieved and details of the work which was ongoing to improve the impact measures that were 10% outwith target.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the update provided on the indicators as detailed within the report be noted; and
 
(b)  That it be agreed that the updates would be reported to the Community Planning Partnership Board at its meeting on 25 June 2015.

A discussion took place which was led by Councillor Henry relative to the next meeting of the Children & Young People Thematic Board which would take the form of a Young People engagement event and would take place on 31 August, 2015.

P Macleod advised that the meeting would take place at Glenniffer High School and would involve the young people themselves and look at themes such as employability.

DECIDED:  That the discussion be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the implementation of Parts 4 and 5 of the Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

The report advised that the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 legislated for the implementation of aspects of Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) through Parts 4 (Named Person), 5 (Child’s Plan) and 18 (Wellbeing). 
 
It was anticipated that these parts of the act would commence in August 2016, at which time there would be a statutory responsibility to comply with the provisions and resulting duties. The report advised that compliance with the legislation could only be achieved through significant transformational change supported by systems, practice and culture change. 
 
Three workstreams were being developed to take forward plans for each of the duties outlined within the report. However, the scale of this work meant that project management resource was required to drive forward the workstreams in the short time scale available, and at a senior enough level to challenge any organisational barriers which existed in relation to delivering the change required within the timescales.  To this end, support from Renfrewshire Council’s project management team had been secured to help scope out the scale of the work and highlight the risks and resource implications involved. Thereafter decisions would require to be made about how the partnership developed the agenda to ensure readiness for implementation by August 2016 as significant staff time and resource would be required to achieve this.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the scale and scope of the work required to implement parts 4 and 5 of the Children and Young people (Scotland) Act by August 2016 be noted; 

(b)  That the governance structure set up to develop the workstreams as outlined within the report be noted; and 

(c)  That the vision for a GIRFEC ready Renfrewshire as outlined within the report be agreed.

A verbal update was given by P Macleod relative to the Joint Lead role for the Children & Young People Thematic Board.

P Macleod advised that in order to encourage shared ownership of the Community Planning agenda, partners were asked to contribute to the leadership role by nominating a senior officer within their organisation to work with the Lead Officer and Convenor for each Thematic Board in order to shape the agenda and drive progress in particular Thematic Boards. He advised that S Graham from WCS and R Deuchar from UWS would share the Joint Lead role for the Children & Young People Thematic Board.

DECIDED:  That the verbal update be noted.

There was submitted a proposed timetable for meetings of the Children & Young People Thematic Board for the period August 2015 to November 2016.

DECIDED: That the timetable of meetings until November 2016 be approved.