Children's Trust

Children’s Trusts arose following the report by Lord Laming into the tragic death of Victoria Climbié. They have developed in different ways reflecting variation in local circumstances. This local variation should continue because what works well in one place will not necessarily work so well in another. It is more important that every local area is able to meet the challenge set by the national Children’s Plan of creating a consistently excellent system that will do more for the most vulnerable and continuously improve the quality of our services for all parents and children.

Darlington Children’s Trust aims to ensure organisations work together, and with children, young people and their families to both identify and address how the lives of children and young people can be made happy, healthy, safe and fulfilled in line with the requirements of the five Every Child Matters outcomes of:

• Be Healthy
• Stay Safe
• Enjoy and Achieve
• Make a Positive Contribution
• Achieve Economic Well-being

Each Children’s Trust has a Board which oversees the co-operation arrangements. The Board provides the interagency governance to bring partners together in a common strategy through the Children and Young People’s Plan. The Children and Young People’s Plan is a three year document which is reviewed annually to report on progress against a detailed set of priorities.

The Board is responsible for preparing, monitoring and implementing the CYPP – but does not deliver it. The delivery of the strategy remains the responsibility of the partners individually and as a whole.

A Children and Young People’s Plan for Darlington

The first CYPP was published in 2006 and aligned with the Local Area Agreement at the time. In 2007-08, a comprehensive review resulted in the publication of Putting Children First the Children and Young People’s Plan 2008-2011 (published June 2008), this was reviewed in 2009 and again in 2010.

Children and Young People’s Plan Review 2010

This is the second Annual Review of the CYPP and this review report looks specifically at the period April 2009 to March 2010 and considers what has been achieved over this period. It also examines the existing priorities and makes contextual changes to some of the priority actions.

It outlines key achievements, areas for improvement and how the involvement of children and young people has informed the review and priorities for all partner agencies.

Further information is available from the Children’s Trust Website using the following link.

http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Children/childrenstrust/CYPP/Children+and+Young+Peoples+Plan+Review+2010.htm