Sunderland Children's Trust

What is the Sunderland Children's Trust?

In ‘Every Child Matters’ the Government outlines 5 things all children and young people should expect to achieve. These are

1. being healthy
2. staying safe
3. enjoying life and doing well
4. being part of their community
5. having enough money to live on as they become adults

There are many different organisations providing services for children in Sunderland. These organisations have come together in a Children’s Trust arrangement to work together to achieve the best outcomes for all our children and young people.

Our Children and Young People’s Plan 2006-2009 ( 1.14mb) sets out what is being done in Sunderland to achieve this. Each year we review our plan, and as we review it for 2007 we want parents and carers to tell us what Sunderland is like for their children to grow up in. Complete our questionnaire (42kb) now and have your say.  Your views will help us set priorities to improve things for all children and young people.

There is now work underway called Every Disabled Child Matters to make sure disabled children get their rights.

Sunderland Children’s Trust has the responsibility to make sure that all Sunderland’s children and young people achieve these outcomes.

Their vision is ‘Working together to improve life chances and aspirations for each child and young person in Sunderland.’

To deliver this vision, the Children’s Trust will develop an Integrated Children’s Service for all children and young people. This means that everyone working with children and families will work well together to help them achieve their full potential. We will spot potential problems for children and young people early on, and offer help at the right time to prevent them getting worse.

Benefits of a Children's Trust

The integration of services through the Children's Trust will impact in two ways

• Improved outcomes for children and young people
• Improvement in the quality and effectiveness of services, in relation to service user experience and organisational effectiveness.

Delivering the vision

Sunderland Children's Trust will have the following features

• A joint Children’s Board which will be the decision making body, providing leadership for improved outcomes for children
• A joint commissioning body, which will deliver the services which lead to the best outcomes for children in Sunderland
• Improving the way services work together, supported by pooling of resources where this would lead to better outcomes
• Strong working relationships with partners, including the voluntary and community sector
• All services previously provided by Education and Social Services for children within the Council will come under the new single Children's Services Directorate
• The Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) will write down in one place what everyone working with children and young people in Sunderland will do to help them fulfil their potential.

Involving children and young people

One aim of the Children’s Trust is to involve local children and young people in designing the services they use, and making decisions about how they are run. We will do this by providing a structure where children and young people can have

• A chance to say what they think
• Opportunities for their opinions to be heard
• Ways of making sure what they say makes a difference.

This is the voice-platform-action model which has been developed in Sunderland.

There is already a lot going on:

• 2 elected members of the UK Youth Parliament
• young people involved in the Culture and Leisure Review Committee
• 4UM and Speak Your Mind Groups, City Equals Group and Young Asian Voices Youth Committee, Young Educators, Advisors on Health (YEAH) Group, Connexions Youth Engagement Group, and Urbact Young Citizens project.

We will do more by setting up

• A 3 tier model representing neighbourhood, area and citywide levels
• Every Child Matters (ECM) Outcome groups
• Sunderland Youth Parliament getting its members from ECM outcome groups and Area Youth Forums
• A network of children and young people’s Champions.

For more information, contact:

Michael Elsy, Youth Development Worker

Tel: 0191 5537416

E-mail: michael.elsy@sunderland.gov.uk

Family Support Strategy

A Family Support Strategy has been prepared by a multi-agency working group, in consultation with a wide range of colleagues from the Council, Health and the Voluntary and Community Sector, as well as children, young people and families in receipt of services.

Two documents have been produced

• The Strategy, to provide a consistent approach to family support services in Sunderland, and
• The Consultation Summary, a report that describes how the views of individuals influenced the final Strategy document.

If you have any queries about either of these documents please contact the Planning & Projects Team

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