Committee details

Barnet’s Children’s and Young People’s Partnership Board brings together all services for children and young people in the borough, to focus on hearing the voice of children and young people, monitoring key strategies and improving outcomes.

Senior representatives from partner organisations make up the Children’s Partnership Board which keeps strategic oversight of the Barnet Children and Young People’s Partnership Plan. Each organisation has agreed to be responsible for implementing this plan which will be monitored by the Board.

The legal framework underpinning Barnet’s Children’s Partnership Board arrangements is the ‘duty to cooperate’ and improve the well-being of children across the Borough, set out in S10 of the Children Act 2004.

Responsibilities and Functions

The Children’s Partnership Board is accountable for the following:

·         Ensuring the voice of children and young people is heard in Barnet

·         Discussing the strategic direction of children’s services in Barnet

·         Developing and delivering the Children & Young People’s Plan

·         Ensuring that the collective resources of the partners are being used to the best effect to meet the priorities in the Children & Young People’s Plan

·         Resolving issues that block progress against the priorities

·         Summary updates on agreed Plans and Strategies relating to Children and Young People in Barnet

·         Working with the Voluntary Sector in a particular approach to enable the best outcomes for children and young people

This includes shared responsibility for:

·         Meeting the priorities in the Children & Young People’s Plan

·         Jointly developing, delivering and resourcing strategies and action plans necessary to meet the priorities

·         Addressing barriers to meeting the priorities and to identifying future needs, including communication, information and data sharing

·         Keeping Children’s workforce informed and involved, providing clear direction, development and training as necessary

·         Releasing staff to develop and attend network events

·         Clarifying and simplifying governance structures and decision-making

·         Ensuring that children, young people and families have a voice in decision making that affects them

·         Monitoring performance towards agreed outcomes and taking remedial action where necessary.

·         Building upon good practice and developing an evidence-based approach to what works.

The partnership’s remit includes the needs of all children and young people in Barnet under the age of 19, young people up to the age of 25 leaving care and young people up to the age of 25 with special educational needs and disabilities. These responsibilities include effective transition arrangements, where necessary.

The Board will be chaired by the Council’s Executive Director for Children.

The membership currently consists of representatives from the following organisations:

LB Barnet

Public Health

North Central London Integrated Care Board (NHS)

Barnet Police

Schools

Cambridge Education

Voluntary Sector

Young Persons Representatives

Multi faith representative

Parent/Carer group representative

Detailed responsibilities of the Barnet Children’s Partnership Board, including a complete list of the Boards powers and duties) can be found in the Constitution under Part 2B Terms of Reference of Committees