Oxfordshire Partnership newsletter

Welcome to the December 2009 Oxfordshire Partnership newsletter. As you will see a great deal of hard work has been taking place in partnerships from an event to coordinate alcohol related services to taking forward the partnership priority of breaking the cycle of deprivation all partnerships. We have included a who's who of partnerships in Oxfordshire and in future editions we will have a profile slot for a thematic partnership.

As ever if you have any comments on the newsletter or suggestions for future editions please do let us know, oxfordshire.partnership@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

Breaking the cycle of deprivation in Banbury and Oxford

In February 2009 the Oxfordshire Partnership asked the five Chief Executives of Cherwell District Council, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and Thames Valley Police (Oxfordshire) to work on a way forward to tackling the areas of multiple deprivation in Oxford and Banbury.

The first step in the planning process was to search the literature for evidence of effectiveness and examples of best practice. This showed that long term, multi-agency approaches with good public involvement is needed. Effective work could include co-location of services such as through extended services in schools or Children's Centres, multi-agency approaches to employment brokerage and coordination of work with vulnerable families.

The chief executives agreed a three part model to take the work forward - involving the public and front line staff, focussing on some major priorities from the statutory sector and developing an Oxfordshire model through robust evaluation. The priorities were agreed as:

1. Giving children a good start in life and supporting vulnerable families
2. Improving the physical environment
3. Improving levels of skills, attainment and employability
4. Promoting healthy lifestyles.

This work is being taken forward by steering groups in Oxford and Banbury. In Oxford the Regeneration Framework has been agreed and is the strategic document which will drive this work. An extensive needs assessment has been completed in Banbury showing the needs of the target wards in the town. Evaluation and public engagement processes are being built in from the outset.

A bid to the Public Service Board for £1m reward grant was successful and agreement has been reached on how this money will be used to pump prime work in the target localities. The report on the Comprehensive Area Assessment from the Audit Commission has recognised the importance of this work, noted progress to date and urged acceleration of activity. It is essential that positive changes in outcomes can be reported next year.

For more information contact Jackie Wilderspin, jackie.wilderspin@oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk.

£8.5 million reward for partnership targets

We have just submitted our claim to government for reward grant that we achieved by successfully delivering our ‘stretch’ performance targets as part of our first Local Area Agreement (2006-09). We are claiming £8.5 million at this stage but expect to claim more next year once we have the final performance information for our adult skills targets. Government will pay us the reward grant over two years and it is subject to a 50:50 capital revenue split.

The Public Service Board has taken the innovative approach of topslicing half of all reward grant achieved to invest in new partnership work whilst the remaining 50% will go to those organisations that helped achieve the performance improvements that gave us the grant.

Who's who of partnerships in Oxfordshire

In this section in future we will introduce the thematic partnerships in Oxfordshire to you in a bit more detail but this time we thought it might be useful to give you a list of key contacts for strategic partnerships in the county

Partnership approach to alcohol awareness

Oxfordshire's first Alcohol Awareness Conference was held in the Town Hall, Oxford recently. The event, supported by the Safer Communities Partnership, was aimed at frontline practitioners and staff who engage with clients or patients who may have alcohol problems. It was attended by 170 delegates from a wide range of organisations including Probation, Social Services, Housing Providers, Thames Valley Police and University Nurses.

The event showcased the local services working throughout Oxfordshire which support people affected by alcohol misuse. Local Services at the event included the Oxfordshire Alcohol Service, NHS Oxfordshire, Healthy Schools Team, T2 Young People's Service and Evolve.

There was also an overview of the strategic priorities identified for Oxfordshire through the Oxfordshire Alcohol Strategy 2008-2011. The presentations were delivered by a range of guest speakers including:

• Assistant Chief Constable Steve Rowell from Thames Valley Police spoke about alcohol related crime and disorder.
• Emma Spiegler, founder of the peer support website Children of Addicted Parents and People (www.coap.co.uk) and trustee of the National Association for the Children of Alcoholics, highlighted the issue of parental alcohol misuse and it's affect on young people.

The event was a great success and helped drive work on the issue of alcohol across Oxfordshire.

For more information contact Sarah.McHardy@oxfordshiredaat.org.

All being equal

The Vale of the White Horse District Council and Oxfordshire County Council have both been accredited 'Achieving' councils on the national Equality Framework. Other districts are expected to reach the 'Achieving' level of the equality framework in the new year.

This demonstrates real progress against the Oxfordshire Partnership's aim of delivering more fair and accessible services (NI 140) to its customers. The Equality Framework is about helping services to identify and respond to the needs of groups of people who may have difficulty accessing services in traditional ways or those whose circumstances lead to them to receiving a lesser service.

An Oxfordshire Partnership event held in June 2009 focused on how we, as a partnership, can most effectively represent our diverse population.

The event reached the following conclusions for the partnership:

• A common definition of what equality meant to the partnership was important.
• Common priorities and governance around equality would lead to more consistent outcomes.
• Partners would benefit from a joint information resource on diversity and training on what it means for partnerships.

The Strategic Equalities Leads' Group that represents many of Oxfordshire public services is working to produce an equalities checklist for partnerships from April 2010.

Supporting those affected by the recession

Since the start of the recession last year the number of people aged between 16 and 19 not in education, employment and training (known as NEETs) has significantly increased. An Oxfordshire 2030 priority is to give young people a good start in life and the rise in the number of people in the NEET group is a key concern for the partnership. At the Oxfordshire Partnership meeting on 25 November there was debate about this issue and how partners could work together improve opportunities for this group. A wide variety of organisations outlined what they are doing about NEETs and showed support for the issue. The Partnership agreed that action needed to be more co-ordinated before agreeing any new work was started.

Partnerships event 14 December

The Oxfordshire Partnership is hosting a networking event on 14 December. The purpose of the event is to network across partnerships, to share good practice and celebrate partnerships' achievements. The event is aimed at all those involved in the Oxfordshire Partnership, thematic partnerships and district Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs).

• 14 December, 12.30pm - 2.30pm County Hall, Oxford

If you are interested in attending on 14 December please email oxfordshire.partnership@oxfordshire.gov.uk with your name, organisation, partnership you are involved with and any special access or dietary requirements.

Supporting thematic partnerships

A Partnership Governance Framework handbook was approved by the Public Service Board in September 2009. The handbook states that:

'...thematic partnerships would now have responsibility for driving delivery of the Local Area Agreement 2 targets, the Sustainable Community Strategy (Oxfordshire 2030) and the National Indicator set'.

It also sets out the partnership structure and the roles and responsibilities of thematic partnerships in delivering Oxfordshire 2030.

Members of the county council's Corporate Performance and Review Team will support thematic partnerships in fulfilling the aims of the handbook, particularly around performance management. In the first instance, they will be working with partnership leads to review the measures being used to deliver Oxfordshire 2030's pledges and themes prior to the first Oxfordshire 2030 performance report being produced. (Report to be discussed by the Public Service Board on 18 February 2010). Expect contact to be made during November to progress this exercise.

The 'liaison' officers are the first point of contact concerning the Partnership performance management handbook and the review of Oxfordshire 2030:

• Children’s Trust: Lisa Michelson - 01865 815673
• Oxfordshire Economic Partnership: Alexandra Bailey - 01865 816384
• Environment and Waste: Des Fitzgerald - 01865 810477
• Health and Well-Being: Roger Edwards - 01865 810824
• Safer Communities: Imran Alvi - 01865 810822
• Spatial Planning and Infrastructure: Christa Brodie-Levinsohn - 01865 815463
• Oxfordshire Stronger Communities Alliance: Seán Gibson - 01865 815482
• Local Strategic Partnerships: Seán Gibson - 01865 815482

Staying legal

The OEP and the Thames Business Advice Centre have teamed up with the Oxfordshire Better Regulation Group to produce 'Staying Legal’ (A Guide for Businesses). A short booklet aimed at providing Oxfordshire businesses with simple, up-to-date information on all matters relating to regulation, including Trading Standards, Fire and Rescue, Environmental Health and Licensing. The OEP is distributing the booklet at business events across the county, and has publicised it via the OEPs Horizons and Futures magazine which is distributed to more than 2,000 business, and through the OEP's website.

For more information contact Nigel Strick, nigel.strick@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

CAA update

Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) is the new way of assessing how public services are working together in local areas to improve the quality of life of residents.

Since the last update we have received our draft Area Assessment report produced by the Audit commission with the input of other inspectorates including the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted. The report is embargoed until 10 December when, along with the rest of England, it will be published on the Audit Commission's CAA website called 'OnePlace'.

The area assessment will not be scored but green and red ‘flags’ will be used to reflect excellent and poor performance. At present we are not expecting to receive any such flags. We can expect the report to highlight both our strengths and those areas where we know we need to improve, including skills, traffic congestion, educational attainment, teenage conception and delayed transfers of care. The report, unlike the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, will not make any recommendations as to action but will include areas where the inspectorates intend to carry out follow up work next year such as provision of affordable housing particularly in rural areas, meeting carbon reduction targets, and breaking the cycle of deprivation.

Progress through Partnership

We are developing our plans for partnership development activities that will be funded through the South East partnership initiative; Progress through Partnerships (PtP). Work that we are planning includes developing our partnership approach to equalities, working more effectively with the voluntary sector and supporting the Children’s Trust as it becomes a commissioning body.

The partnership networking event on 14 December is funded by PtP. Watch out for events and activities as they are advertised over the coming months.

For more information about the plans contact claire.phillips@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

Tasty treats hit the streets

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign recently got interactive in Oxfordshire!

A series of live cookery demonstrations took place around the county for British Food Fortnight. Organised by Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) the events highlighted simple and tasty ways to use up leftovers with the aim of saving the average family around £50 per month on their shopping bill.

Throughout the year council officers across the county have been promoting the Love Food Hate Waste campaign which aims to get the public to do something about the billions of pounds worth of food wasted in the UK each year.

These fun and interactive events involved a professional chef demonstrating how easy it is to use up some of the most common foods that normally get thrown away.

At the same time as picking up new kitchen tips and learning how to make every penny count people were encouraged to make a pledge to Love Food Hate Waste and in return were given a free recipe book with more ideas how to use up leftovers.

Over 6 000 people have made a pledge and while these events have ended, the free recipe book is still on offer. To get a free book make a pledge online at www.oxfordshirewaste.gov.uk or by calling 08450 50 45 50.

Events

Partnerships networking event

14 December, 12.30pm - 2.30pm, County Hall Oxford

Contact claire.phillips@oxfordshire.gov.uk for details.

Developing a partnership response to the recession

Wednesday 18 November 2009, Milton Keynes

The event will explore how a collaborative effort from local delivery agencies can help areas respond to the impact of the recession http://www.progressthroughpartnership.org.uk/events-lsp.htm?eventid=16727&stdate.

PtP Annual Conference: The Future of Partnerships

4 December, 10am - 3.30pm, The Oval, London

This conference will bring people together to find out more about how a partnership approach can drive forward service transformation and efficiency savings in a changing landscape. http://www.progressthroughpartnership.org.uk/events-lsp.htm?eventid=17580&stdate.

Governance and Accountability in Partnership

28 January, America Square Conference Centre London

www.lgc-governance.com