Surrey Alliance for C&YP
Surrey Alliance for Children, Young People and Families is the main multi – agency partnership responsible for services to children , young people and families. The underlying aim is to achieve the five Every Child Matters aims- that young people should:
• Be healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy life and achieve well in school and beyond
• Make a positive contribution to society
• Achieve economic wellbeing
The Surrey Alliance is chaired by Andy Roberts, Surrey CC ‘s Director of Children and Families. The partnership has a website at Surrey CC.
The voluntary, community, and faith sector representatives are currently: Jean Roberts- Jones (Surrey Community Action), Rev. Sue Loveday (Churches together in Surrey) and Mike Abbott (Surrey Youth Focus)
The significance of the Alliance lies in part in its allocation of some £57 mill of funding to multi – agency work.
This includes several major funding streams from which Surrey Youth Focus members benefit, including: the Connexions Fund, Positive Activities for Young People(PAYP), Youth Opportunities Fund(YoF) and the Children’s Fund.
Anyone wishing to comment on an Agenda item beforehand should contact Mike Abbott (01483- 453962 or mike.abbott@surreycvys.og.uk)
Meetings are held on a quarterly basis, and dates set for 2009/2010 are:
10 November, 3rd February, 21 April, 14 July.
Meeting Information - Surrey Alliance Briefing
Mike Abbott recently attended two strategic meetings relating to Children and Young People. The first was the “Surrey Alliance for Children and Young People Strategic Forum” (Children’s Trust ) on 10 November. The second was the Surrey C&YP Assembly on 17 November.
The key point from the first meeting (Strategic Forum) was a discussion about the new Children’s Plan for 2010-14. Six priorities had been suggested of, frankly the motherhood and apple pie type – “C&YP are safe and feel safe”. The meeting was not happy with these, and has asked for a redraft on an altogether more targeted basis. Whilst intuitively sensible in a situation of reducing finances, care will need to be taken not to overlook the mainstream young people and mitigate the critical life events that may happen to them and cause them to fall down a slippery slope into the “Targeted “ bracket. A revised draft on a more targeted basis will come forward to the next meeting on 3 Feb 2010.
The Assembly took place at Brooklands Museum, and is a large gathering or perhaps 100 people, including young people, who made presentations on The Rights of the Child and Cyberbullying – the latter being a growing concern to young people.
Details of the Surrey Alliance can be found at Surrey CC’s website: www.surreycc.gov.uk or to the direct page click here.
It might be helpful to brief colleagues about the new structures now in place as in the diagram below:
Chart showing the relationship between the Children's Assembly, the local area executives and the Surrey Alliance Strategic Forum and Commissioning Executive
The specific Voluntary, Community and Faith sector representatives on each of the above as at Nov 2009 are:
County level:
- Commissioning Executive Group - Jean Robert-Jones, Chief Executive at Surrey Community Action
- Strategic Forum – Mike Abbott, Chief Executive, Surrey Youth Focus, and Chris Rich, Director of Social Responsibility, Guildford Diocese
Area level:
- North East Area Alliance - Andy Burns, Director of East to West
- North West Area Alliance - Elaine Tisdall, Chief Executive Officer, Surrey Care Trust
- South East Area Alliance - Ian Burks, Chief Executive Officer, Reigate & Banstead YMCA
- South West Area Alliance - Pete Brayne, Chief Executive Officer, Guildford YMCA
Background papers:
IDeA Peer Review Report: November 2009 on governance of Children's Services in Surrey
Surrey Alliance Strategic Forum meeting: 3rd February 2010
Surrey Alliance Strategic Forum presentation: 3rd February 2010
Briefing on Youth Project 2008
Local Government National Report October 2008
Local Government Self Assessment Tool October 2008
Joint Area Review C&YP October 2008
Surrey C&YP Improvement Notice & Governance Arrangements
Children & Young People's Plan 2009-10
