Agenda item

In accordance with Minute No. 62 of the meeting held on 4^th July, 2017, an update was submitted of the key areas of service delivery and responses to the recommendations of the meeting.  The full ReachOut report March 2018 was submitted as Appendix 1 together with the summary report of the Year 2 evaluation of the Service undertaken by the University of Bedfordshire (Appendix 2).

Marie Harris, Barnardos, and Di McLeish, Independent Evaluator, was also present to answer any questions.

The report highlighted:-

-          The number of individual referrals

-          Train the Trainer, ‘Real Love Rocks’ (RLR)

-          Work with Schools

-          Outreach

-          Taxi Driver Training

-          Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) – Safe Zone

-          Engagement with Children from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and

Di McLeish gave a brief resume of the evaluation work that had taken place capturing the outcomes for/the feedback from young people which had resulted in a database of over 1,000 participants.  ReachOut was delivered in most of Rotherham’s primary and secondary schools with very positive feedback from both students and teachers.  The Train the Trainer programme had been developed in order to support staff within schools to deliver the programme themselves and make the project more sustainable.  The recent evaluation had shown that approximately 50 members of staff had participated in the training.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised:-

-          There was no waiting list of schools as all schools who had requested Train the Trainer training had been addressed.  The schools not engaged with the initiative had chosen not to participate.  The majority of schools had been visited over the last 2 years and all those that were interested in taking part had completed it

-          There had been a decrease in referrals from the Education sector from 24% in 2016 to 17% in 2017.  Nationally there were quite low levels of referrals from schools which would suggest that parents went to their GP, CYPS or may be referred as part of a multi-agency arrangement.  When Barnardos carried out the Real Love Rocks work in schools in Year 1 greater number of referrals had been received; what was being seen now was the expected level of referrals as well as the impact of the work by Early Help 

-          There was a lack of referrals from health providers but Rotherham was not unique in this situation 

-          It was hoped to include a CAMHS Worker in the Barnardo’s building

-          2 members of the Commissioning Team would be based within the CCG one day a week

-          A Community Engagement Worker had been employed to work with the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) community and supporting efforts to forge links between the community and Barnardo’s.  It was also planned to apply for internal funding from Barnardo’s to develop the work further

-          ReachOut had carried out a lot of work with the Roma community which had been identified as a key priority earlier on 

-          The roll out of the Real Love Rocks initiative was very work intensive so there had not been opportunity to pursue or ascertain why a school had not engaged with the initiative

-          The lack of engagement by some schools could be looked at in the next phase of evaluation

-          There had been relatively few self-referrals and referrals from family members but it was difficult to ascertain the reasons for this

-          ReachOut had attempted to address the issue of self-referrals by maintaining a presence in the community and undertaking outreach work (via a bus).  Whilst the engagement had been successful it had not resulted in greater number of self-referrals 

-          Part of the issue was the definition of a self-referral which required 1:1 work.  There were many young people who had informal support from ReachOut which was not counted as 1:1 support

-          If Ward Members were notified of where the bus was going to be they could encourage families to visit

-          Generic publicity material had been produced and displayed in the first year.  In the second year efforts had been more targeted

-          Barnardos were very clear from the outset when they spoke to children that the information may be shared as appropriate.  Multi-agency meetings took place to share information and intelligence 

-          Managers and practitioners were part of the Police Intelligence Meeting as well as 2 ReachOut Workers based within the Evolve Team

Resolved:-  (1)  That the Barnardo’s ReachOut Service update be noted.

(2)  That a further update be submitted in 6 months including the University of Bedfordshire’s independent evaluation of the project.

(3)  That the full evaluation be submitted to the December 2018/January 2019 meeting of the Select Commission.

(4)  That discussions take place with the Young Inspectors with a view to them carrying out work on the areas where the profiles and awareness were not as good as others or where the engagement with schools had not been as effective.

(5)  That discussions take place with the Assistant Director for Schools with regard to including information within the newsletters about the Service

(6)  That the lower levels of engagement with Health colleagues be raised at the Children and Young People and Families Partnership where Health colleagues attended.