A top priority for the Children's Trust in North East Lincolnshire is the process of developing its approach to neighbourhood working. For the purposes of working at neighbourhood level the Children's Trust recognises five Neighbourhoods. Partners within the Children's Trust are currently committed to neighbourhood working arrangements that operate, in some cases, with different boundaries.
Three main strands to the Children's Trust Framework are being developed for improving outcomes at the neighbourhood level:
- Commissioning at the neighbourhood level;
- Neighbourhood engagement; and
- A 0 - 19 integrated neighbourhood entitlement and delivery.
We believe that capturing the activity at neighbourhood level in relation to these three strands and providing integrated leadership, direction and support will greatly assist in:
- Making the most of neighbourhood working; and
- Keeping the Children's Trust priorities well grounded in the aspirations and challenges for local people.
Integrated models of delivery and pathways are well developed for young children in North East Lincolnshire. It is now a priority to:
- Develop similar approaches, taking a commissioning approach, for young people aged 5 - 19 years; and
- Set this within the overall context of a 0 - 19 continuum of delivery and entitlement.
Given the evidence of the interrelatedness of needs across the five outcomes and the stated benefits of local involvement, a move towards increasingly integrated work at neighbourhood level seeks to support the overall improvement in priority outcomes for the Children's Trust.
Intended outcomes from working at the neighbourhood level have been agreed by the Children's Trust as:
Improved outcomes in priority areas for children, young people and their families through;
- improved services to support the above - more locally accessible and delivered in a more integrated way;
- better value for money - more efficient and effective use of resources and better targeting;
- enhanced community engagement, empowerment and cohesion;
- improved involvement of young people in the political process;
- service delivery informed by and evaluated against local intelligence;
- more effective and needs led commissioning;
- assistance with the development of evidence based on earlier identification and intervention;
- opportunities to support wider issues of regeneration and worklessness; and
- more job satisfaction for staff.
In order to ensure that progress is effective, arrangements for performance management, which seek to capture progress and improvement both in relation to overall outcomes and the additional contribution made by working at the neighbourhood level, have been put in place.