Briefing Paper 5

Self Assessment Summary Statement

Children and young people’s health:

· Provision for children and young people’s health is good overall.

· The implementation of the Healthy Schools programme is a real strength.

· Young people are concerned about bullying and emotional health and well-being are seen as a priority.

· There is good practice in child and adolescent mental health, but not enough provision for early intervention and preventative work.

· There is good access to physical activity in schools.

· The Rock Challenge makes a positive impact on the health of a significant number of teenagers.

· There is good practice in sex and relationships education.

· Teenage pregnancies have been reduced but remain a real issue.

· Alcohol and drugs are a real danger to young people’s health.

· Healthy eating is well promoted but obesity is a problem.

· Looked after children and children with learning difficulties and disabilities receive good health care, but there is no room for complacency.

Children and young people’s safety:

· Generally, the Isle of Wight is a safe place for children and young people.

· Most children and young people and their parents and carers know about the risks to their safety

· There is good work to reduce domestic violence but it is still an issue for too many families

· The number of children on the child protection register is increasing and so is the number of children being taken into care.

· Health, social care and other agencies are working increasingly well together to make sure that vulnerable children are properly safeguarded.

Children and young people’s enjoyment and achievement:

· Although children and young people have much to enjoy, their overall educational performance is unacceptably weak.

· 7 year-olds do well in their national assessments, often achieving above national averages.

· 11 year olds do less well – they achieve below national averages in English and maths, and in line with national averages in science. They don’t make the progress they should make from when they were 7.

· 14 year olds also do less well. In English they achieve below national averages; in maths, science and information technology around the national average.

· 16 year olds achieve consistently below the national averages, gaining an average 45% higher grade passes at GCSE, compared with the national average of 56%. They do not make the progress they should from when they were 11.

· Everyone needs to be more consistently challenging in their expectations and aspirations for children and young people’s achievement.

· Provision for under-5s is good

· The extended school programme and family learning initiatives are giving good support to children and their families.

· There is strong support to schools from the national primary and secondary strategies.

· Schools need to be more systematically and consistently challenged when they are underperforming.

· Assessment and attendance data needs to be better used to support individual educational progress.

· School attendance is below national averages but improving. Even so, almost one in ten school days are lost each year.

· Exclusion rates are comparatively low.

· School buildings are in good condition.

· Looked after children’s achievement is lower than it should be

The positive contribution of children and young people:

· Children and young people make a good contribution to life on the Isle of Wight.

· Children and young people participate very actively in decision-making – the Big Day Out, Wight to Heard, the Youth Council are strong examples of good practice.

· School councils do a good job.

· Young people receive good personal advice from Connexions.

· Young offenders get good support from the Youth Offending Team.

· Young people want to be more involved in things to do in their communities.

Children and young people’s economic well-being:

· The overall support given to children and young people’s economic well-being is adequate; but they deserve better.

· The quality of 14-19 education and training is very uneven.

· The Isle of Wight College has achievement rates in the top 10% nationally.

· The post-16 providers are working better together to support young people’s achievement and to secure their learning entitlement.

· 13-19 year olds receive good careers advice and guidance but they still don’t always make choices that are in their best interests.

· About 5% of 16-18 year olds are not in education, training or employment. This is close to the average for the region but it is not good enough.

· Regeneration activity is appropriately targeted on the most disadvantaged but we are not always sufficiently focused on whether it is making a difference to educational achievement.

· Parents and families need more support if children and young people are to do their best.

Service Management

· The high ambitions of people across the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership are not consistently matched by high aspirations and expectations among workers and families across the Island.

· Everyone agrees that educational underperformance is a key issue. Not everyone recognises their own part in the problem, nor their responsibilities for the solutions.

· Although people agree on the priorities, they are not consistently followed through. New projects are too often started before old ones are finished.

· There are many innovative practices across the Partnership supporting better integration of services and improved outcomes for children and young people.

· The management of information and data needs to be significantly improved so that it supports children and young people’s educational progress better and enables support for the vulnerable to be better coordinated.

Partnership working

· Partners work well together and make a positive difference for children and young people.

· The consolidation of the Partnership into a formal Children’s Trust is on track for October 2006.