To receive a report from the Executive Member for Children Service’s.

No minutes were circulated from this meeting as it was held on Tuesday 8 January 2019. At the meeting the Board Members had looked through each of the Board’s priorities. For healthy weight the Board were looking at food poverty and the levels of physical activity within the area. The Board received a presentation from the leisure trust on the new leisure strategy and how the trust was looking to support physical activity among the most vulnerable children within the borough, a further update was to be provided to the Board in 6 months.

For Mental Wellbeing and Resilience children within Trafford were now able to use the Greater Manchester CAHMS service. School Readiness support was being led by the Early Years Board who had identified that there were pockets of children across the borough that were not as school ready as others, these were often more vulnerable children. There was an issue whereby underperforming children could be overlooked due to the overall excellent performance in the borough and the Early Years Board were looking at school readiness as a way to address this issue. In relation to Substance Abuse the Start Well Board were working to get the approach right for families and they wanted to have a joined up approach with the Live Well Board. 

The meeting was well attended with roughly 25 people in attendance. At the meeting the structure of the Sub Boards which supported the Start Well Board was discussed. The Acting Corporate Director of Children’s Services gave the Board a brief overview of the positon of each of the supporting Boards and drew particular attention to the SEND board which was concerned by the large increase in demand for EHCP Plans.

The Start Well Board had also agreed to have a Sub Board that looked specifically at the Health of 6 – 19 year olds. The Start Well Board also looked at the Greater Manchester Children’s Wellbeing Framework and found that there were a couple of gaps that the Start Well Board could fill, one being ensuring that the voice of the child is considered in all areas of work. There was also a need to look at the workforce to make sure that the right people were in place to deliver strategic plans.

Following the update a Board Member asked what the waiting times for mental Health Support Services were. No one at the meeting had the figures for waiting times for mental health support services. The Trafford Integrated Network Director told the Board of the position of mental health services. Trafford were working with the CCG to grow these services and how to deal with issues around recruitment. The Trafford Integrated Network Director informed the Board that a full update was to be taken to the next Start Well Board meeting. The Chair requested that the next update from the Start Well Board included an update on children’s mental health services.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted.

2)    That the next Start Well Board update to include an update on Mental Health Services.