ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL – NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES …



|INTEGRATED CHILDREN’S SERVICES |

|MEETING TITLE: |Integrated Children’s Services Partnership |MEETING DATE: |Monday |

| | | |9 September 2013 |

|PARTICIPANTS: |Patricia Cassidy (PC) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport (Chair); Fred McBride (FMc) / Aberdeen City Council / Social Care and Wellbeing; Sheila Sansbury / Aberdeen City |

| |Council / Education, Culture and Sport; Lorraine Currie (LC) / NHS Grampian; Heather MacRae (HMac) / NHS Grampian; Pete Leonard (PL) / Aberdeen City Council / Housing and Environment; George |

| |MacDonald (GMac) / Police Scotland; Joyce Duncan (JD) / ACVO; Kay Dunn (KD) / Aberdeen City Council / Corporate Governance; Susan Devlin (SD) / Aberdeen City Council / Social Care and |

| |Wellbeing; Elizabeth Templeton (ET) / SCRA; and Louise Beaton (LB) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport (Minutes) |

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| |Sue Muncer (SM) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport attended the meeting for Item 3. |

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| |James Martin (JM) and John Cairns (JC) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport attended the meeting for Item 4.2 |

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|APOLOGIES: |Gayle Gorman (GG) / Aberdeen City Council / Education, Culture and Sport; Isobel Scorgie (IS) / Children’s Panel; Nathalie Kirk (NK) / Children’s Panel; and Cameron Matthew (CM) / NHS |

| |Grampian |

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|NO. |AGENDA ITEM |NOTES OF DISCUSSION |ACTION/DECISIONS |BY WHOM |WHEN |

|2. |Minute of the last meeting |The May meeting of the Integrated Children’s Services Partnership was cancelled. | | | |

| | |Therefore, the minute of the last meeting held on Monday 25 February 2013 was taken and | | | |

| | |was agreed as an accurate record. | | | |

|3. |Matters Arising |Sacha Will has been appointed as Programme Manager for the Early Years Change Fund and | | | |

| | |Collaborative. Sacha took up post in August. | | | |

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| | |Sue Muncer, Education, Culture and Sport, attended | | | |

| |3.1 Update on Review Of |the meeting to give an update on the Review of Inclusion. | | | |

| |Inclusion |A new Inclusion Policy for Education, Culture and Sport is in the process of being | | | |

| | |produced. Two advisers from outwith Aberdeen City Council have been appointed to assist| | | |

| | |with the Review of Inclusion. The outcomes of the review will inform the new Inclusion | | | |

| | |Policy. | | | |

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| | |The advisers are due to start going out into the special schools sector. The focus | | | |

| | |initially will be on pupil support, e.g. behavioural support issues. They will visit: | | | |

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| | |All 12 secondary schools; | | | |

| | |One third to one half of primary schools; and | | | |

| | |All specialist services, including Craigielea and Westburn. | | | |

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| | |The recommendations about behaviour support issues will be completed around December / | | | |

| | |Christmas 2013. | | | |

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| | |The Review of Inclusion group has started to work on a vision statement. It should be | | | |

| | |finalised by the end of September. Parents and partners have been involved. | | | |

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| | |The Schools Review by Aberdeen City Council with involvement from external partners will| | | |

| | |be presented to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee with final recommendations in| | | |

| | |June 2014. The recommendations will include short, medium and longer term plans. | | | |

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| | |FMc suggested that we need to have a partnership agreement on what we mean by inclusion,| | | |

| | |particularly as this group has a monitoring and quality assurance role. | | | |

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| | |Sue was thanked for attending the meeting and for her input. | | | |

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| | | |Agreed that the Review of Inclusion should be fed | | |

| | | |through the Achieving their Potential Outcome Group.| | |

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|4. |Performance Updates | | | | |

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| |4.1 Integrated Children’s | | | | |

| |Services Plan 2011-15 Year 2 |The Integrated Children’s Services Plan 2011-15 Year 2 Update was approved by the |It will now go to Community Planning Aberdeen as |LB |October 2013 |

| |Update (Approved August 2013) |Integrated Children’s Services Management Team on 26 August 2013. The document was |part of our quarterly information sharing and annual| | |

| | |circulated with the agenda papers. |reporting cycle. | | |

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| | |FMc commented that the Year 2 Update was really helpful and acknowledged good progress | | | |

| |4.2 Integrated Children’s |had been made. | | | |

| |Services Plan 2011-15 – | | | | |

| |Quarterly Covalent Performance | | | | |

| |update |JM, Education, Culture and Sport attended the meeting to give a quarterly Covalent | | | |

| | |performance update. | | | |

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| | |He advised that a partner access web based module is currently being developed to give |Issues with data sharing to be picked up with | |asap |

| | |partners a link to Covalent in terms of the Dashboard and actions for the Integrated |Corporate Governance. |JM | |

| | |Children’s Services Plan. | | | |

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| | |JM advised that all Outcome Groups had been working to update their Action Plans and |Agreed that in terms of reporting, a deadline would | | |

| | |milestones on Covalent. |be set for Lead Officer input and update. The | | |

| | | |Dashboard would be looked at on a quarterly basis by|JM / LB / | |

| | | |the ICS Partnership and one Outcome Group per |Lead Officers | |

| | | |meeting would be looked at in more detail. | | |

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| | |JC, Opportunities for All Manager, was invited to the meeting to give an overview of the| | | |

| | |Successful Transitions to Adulthood Outcome Group. | | | |

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| | |JC advised that he had found Covalent useful. The content on Covalent for the | | | |

| | |Successful Transitions to Adulthood Outcome Group has been refreshed over the past three| | | |

| | |to four months. | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | |Guaranteeing a positive destination for all 14-25 year olds is one of four strategic | | | |

| | |priorities for Education, Culture and Sport. The Activity Agreement initiative has been| | | |

| | |very successful. Over the past year and a half, 160 young people have participated in | | | |

| | |Activity Agreements in Aberdeen. 70% have gone on to a Positive Destination to date. | | | |

| | |This figure is higher than the Scottish average. | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | |JC also highlighted Project Search, which started in September, which supports young | | | |

| | |people with additional support needs, the Youth Employment Activity Plan and Young | | | |

| | |Scotland’s Got Talent. | | | |

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| | |JM and JC were thanked for attending the meeting and for their input. | | | |

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| | |The Integrated Children’s Services Management Team has met three times since the | | | |

| |4.3 From Integrated Children’s |Integrated Children’s Services Partnership last met. Approved minutes were circulated | | | |

| |Services Management Team |with the agenda papers. | | | |

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| | |Considerable progress was highlighted across a number of areas. For example: | | | |

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| | |Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill – we are paying attention to the new | | | |

| | |legislation and have discussed the new Bill during meetings with key partners. | | | |

| | |Early Years Change Fund and Collaborative – Sacha Will now in post as Programme Manager.| | | |

| | |Home and Away Teams taking forward work streams. | | | |

| | |The NESCPC was disaggregated and a new Aberdeen City Child Protection Committee was | | | |

| | |formally established in June. | | | |

| | |Steady progress is being made with the implementation of GIRFEC. The GIRFEC training | | | |

| | |programme has been of great benefit to staff. | | | |

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|5. |Strategic Policy Drivers | | | | |

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| |5.1 Children and Young People | | | | |

| |Bill - Update |SS gave an update on the progress of the Bill. Phase One of the Bill should have been | | | |

| | |completed by September but has been delayed and is now scheduled for the end of | | | |

| | |November. | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | |The Delegated Powers paper which accompanies the Bill has created some issues. The | | | |

| | |Scottish Government has suggested that it can pull together boards if it is not happy | | | |

| | |with local planning arrangements. Cosla, ADES and ADSW have made representations to the| | | |

| | |Government about their concerns with this. | | | |

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| | |There followed some discussion about concerns regarding powers, local democracy and the | | | |

| | |relationship between central and local government. | | | |

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| | |We are also awaiting additional guidance regarding information sharing and guidance for | | | |

| | |schools on implementing GIRFEC. It is expected that the implementation date will be | | | |

| | |2016. | | | |

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| | |LC advised that NHS Grampian had been supportive of the Bill during the consultation | | | |

| | |phase. However, she acknowledged that the introduction of the new legislation would | | | |

| | |have a less significant impact on the NHS. | | | |

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| | |SS met with most of the partners over the summer. The purpose of the meetings was to | | | |

| | |find out where they felt we are as a partnership and to check with members if they are | | | |

| | |confident in their leadership role. | | | |

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| |5.2 Summary of Discussions with | | | | |

| |ICS Partners | | | | |

| | |The integrated children’s services governance and planning structure was previously | | | |

| | |reviewed in 2009, with the existing structure in place from 2010. So it was felt useful| | | |

| | |to have a refresh, with existing and new members. | | | |

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| | |The meetings with partners were very positive. The following points came out of the | | | |

| | |meetings: | | | |

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| | |The Integrated Children’s Services Partnership is clearly structured and well | | | |

| | |administered. | | | |

| | |Meetings are managed well. | | | |

| | |There is good information and clear lines of communication. | | | |

| | |All partners felt supported and confident in their leadership role. | | | |

| | |Some partners felt they were passive partners but, from their own perspective, would | | | |

| | |like to be more proactive in future. For example, more involved in shaping the agenda. | | | |

| | |Some partners found themselves attending both the strategic and the operational groups. | | | |

| | |Partners, who attend more than one Integrated Children’s Services meeting, were |It was agreed that it would be helpful for members | | |

| | |conscious of some duplication between meetings. Therefore, there were some questions |of the Integrated Children’s Services Partnership, | | |

| | |and suggestions about duplication within the structures. |Management Team and Lead Officers to come together. | | |

| | |In any revised structure, it would be important to retain both a strategic and | | | |

| | |operational split in business. |Agreed to invite Gillian Tee, Director of Children’s| | |

| | |Everyone represented an opportunity to review the membership of both the ICS Partnership|Services, City of Edinburgh Council, to have a | | |

| | |and the ICS Management Team, and probably the Outcome Groups as well. |discussion about partnership working in Edinburgh. | | |

| | | | |LB | |

| | |FMc highlighted the need to ensure we have the right people, at the right level, on the |A provisional date for a Development Workshop has | | |

| | |right groups. |been set for Tuesday 19 November. | | |

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| | |JD and PL highlighted the links with the thematic groups of the Community Planning |A summary report with proposals will be brought to | | |

| | |Partnership, e.g. the Community Safety Partnership. |the meeting. | | |

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| | |GMac advised that Police Scotland is 5 months into its new structure. The higher ranks | | | |

| | |have been removed across Scotland. | | | |

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| | |Aberdeen City is now a stand alone division, with Aberdeenshire and Moray forming a | |LB / SS |19 November |

| | |single division. | | | |

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| | |Adrian Watson is the Chief Superintendent for Aberdeen City. There is two | | | |

| | |Superintendents – one for Operations and one for Support. Then three Area Commanders – |These issues will be picked up at the Development | | |

| | |for Central, North and South. |Workshop | | |

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| | |In terms of staffing, GMac reported that there has been no real change and there has | | | |

| | |been no significant impact from the former regions coming together into a single | | | |

| | |Scottish Police force. He felt that colleagues were performing well as an Aberdeen | | | |

| | |Division. | | | |

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| | |The Aberdeen Division is now able to tap into national assets easier now. For example | | | |

| | |we will see a greater presence of police horses and patrol helicopters. | | | |

| |5.3 Scottish Police Reform - | | | | |

| |Briefing |The Local Policing Plan has been signed off by the Chief Executive of Aberdeen City | | | |

| | |Council. The local priorities are: violence; anti-social behaviour; road safety; and | | | |

| | |serious organised crime. | | | |

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| | |In terms of governance there is national and local governance, including weekly | | | |

| | |performance monitoring. | | | |

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| | |GMac directed colleagues to the Police Scotland website for more details on local | | | |

| | |policing teams. | | | |

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| | |GMac was thanked for his informative input. | | | |

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| | |At this point it was noted that the Social Care and Wellbeing Committee is being renamed| | | |

| | |to the Social Care and Wellbeing and Safety Committee. | | | |

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| | |PL reported that we are now starting to see the impact of the new Welfare Reforms. For | | | |

| | |example, an increase in rent arrears linked to under occupancy. Housing Officers are | | | |

| | |spending 90% of their time advising on benefits. | | | |

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| | |PL advised that his service is anticipating more issues when the Single Payment comes | | | |

| | |into force. This is currently delayed until 2014. There will also be issues for the | | | |

| | |homelessness budget. | | | |

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| | |Paul Hannon has been appointed as Financial Inclusion Manager. His focus will be access| | | |

| | |to work and support with accessing benefits advice. | | | |

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| | |In the next two to three weeks, the Education, Culture and Sport Service will be able to| | | |

| | |see if there has been an increase in free school meals and clothing grants, as a result | | | |

| | |of welfare reform. | | | |

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| | |The Aberdeen City Council Corporate Management Team (CMT) has been getting 6-weekly | | | |

| | |updates on welfare reform. | | | |

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| | |PL acknowledged this as a good piece of work and a good example of partnership working | | | |

| | |across services. | | | |

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| | |PL advised that he will take on the Chair of the multi-agency Welfare Reform group from | | | |

| | |FMc. | | | |

| |5.4 Implications of the new | | | | |

| |Welfare Reforms – Update |He asked if all partners could find out and advise him if there had been any discernible| | | |

| | |increase in ‘business’ linked to poverty. |PL will circulate committee report. | | |

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| | |LC advised that NHS Grampian’s Child Health 2020 would go out this week for a period of | | | |

| | |6 weeks consultation, and highlighted a consultation event on 17 September. | | | |

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| | |Child Health 2020 is NHS Grampian’s strategic vision for child health. It contains NHS | |PL / LB | |

| | |Grampian’s high level strategic goals, covering 6 themes, and an action plan. | | | |

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| | |The first discussion paper went to the Integrated Children’s Services Management Team in| | | |

| | |June. | | | |

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| | |The document is primarily aimed at NHS Grampian staff. To signify internally, how | | | |

| | |important children and young people are and to take account of the Getting it Right | | | |

| | |agenda and tackling inequalities early on. It will become the NHS contribution to the | | | |

| | |Integrated Children’s Services Plan. | | | |

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| | | |LB will circulate widely when available. | |asap |

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| |5.5 NHS Grampian Children and | | | | |

| |Young People’s Framework | | | | |

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|6. |Maximising Resources | | | | |

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| |6.1 GIRFEC Grampian Group - | | | | |

| |Update |LC reported that Ann Sutherland is seconded as Grampian GIRFEC Project Manager until the| | | |

| | |end of the year (now extended until 31 March 2014). She has produced a number of | | | |

| | |resources, has made progress against a Grampian action plan and will deliver an exit | | | |

| | |strategy. LC advised that it had been challenging as the three Local Authority areas | | | |

| | |are at different stages of GIRFEC implementation. | | | |

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| | |LC advised that resources for child protection messaging are hosted by NHS Grampian. | | | |

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| | |The Community Planning Partnership GIRFEC Self-Assessment Questionnaire Returns – |LC was asked to clarify the position on the Data |LC |asap |

| | |Reporting on Progress – Summary Report was circulated at the meeting. |Sharing Partnership. | | |

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| | |The summary report aims to provide a helpful snapshot of where Community Planning | | | |

| | |Partnerships are in terms of the various elements of the GIRFEC Implementation agenda. | | | |

| | |A questionnaire was returned on behalf of Community Planning Aberdeen as part of the | | | |

| | |process. | | | |

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| | |KD referred to the Pre Referral Screening (PRS) memos and Guidance paper circulated and | | | |

| | |gave a background to the circumstances of this item being brought to the ICS | | | |

| | |Partnership. The summary of single agency statements was also highlighted. | | | |

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| | |NHS Grampian has confirmed its commitment to GIRFEC process as the means to identify | | | |

| |6.2 Pre Referral Screening – |children requiring receipt of timely, proportionate, co-ordinated services. It is, | | | |

| |Final Report |however, no longer committed to PRS and has mainstreamed research and single point of | | | |

| | |contact aspects with its midwifery service. NHS Grampian is keen to leave PRS. | | | |

| | |Police Scotland has confirmed its commitment to the PRS process for youth justice and | | | |

| | |offence issues via the Youth Justice Management Unit, until GIRFEC is fully implemented.| | | |

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| | |However, the Referral Unit of Police Scotland ‘A’ Division has ceased to manage Concern | | | |

| | |Reports for wellbeing concerns through the PRS process. But remains committed to working| | | |

| | |in partnership to protect children and meet GIRFEC requirements. | | | |

| | |The Education, Culture and Sport Service is of the view that the PRS process should | | | |

| | |continue. | | | |

| | |The Social Care and Wellbeing Service strongly recommend the need for PRS to continue | | | |

| | |for a period of 12 months, while universal services continue to embed GIRFEC. | | | |

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| | |GMac advised he had no background to the decision for Police Scotland to withdraw from | | | |

| | |the PRS process. | | | |

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| | |The PRS process was highlighted as national good practice and was also highlighted in | | | |

| | |the most recent multi-agency child protection inspection as an example of good practice.| | | |

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| | |SS reinforced the value of multi-agency working. | | | |

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| | |If the named person process works properly, then there is no need for PRS. However, it | | | |

| | |was acknowledged that not all staff are following the GIRFEC process properly. | | | |

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| | |Also acknowledged that the role of the named person is creating extra pressure in | | | |

| | |schools. Colleagues are already seeing cases escalating due to no action being taken. | | | |

| | |There is less concern about NHS Grampian. | | | |

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| | |Police Concern Reports are currently going to the Reporter. There have been 19 | | | |

| | |referrals straight from Police to Children’s Hearings since July. | | | |

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| | |Sometimes, Social Care and Wellbeing are being copied into correspondence from Named | | | |

| | |Persons, which makes the assumption that they will pick up on issues. An increase in | | | |

| | |the number of referrals which are deemed to be inappropriate was highlighted. | | | |

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| | |The current position is very difficult and needs to be resolved with a Partnership | | | |

| | |consensus. | | | |

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| | | |The following was agreed as a way forward: | | |

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| | | |GMac to discuss with Adrian Watson and internal | | |

| | | |stakeholders within Police Scotland. | | |

| | | | |GMac |Progress to be |

| | | |FMc agreed to raise the issue at Chief Officers | |reported back at |

| | | |meeting with Adrian Watson. | |next ICS |

| | | | | |Manage-ment Team |

| | | |NHS Grampian – agreed that IT needs to be a greater |FMc |meeting on 9 |

| | | |priority. An electronic patient record is needed in| |December 2013 |

| | | |order to make GIRFEC work. | | |

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| | | |Named Person role a priority for NHS Grampian and |LC / HMac | |

| | | |Education, Culture and Sport. | | |

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| | | | |LC / HMac / SS | |

|7. |AOCB | | | | |

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| |7.1 Integrated Children’s |Information on the forthcoming ICS Conference on Monday 30 September was circulated with|All asked to book places and to encourage their |All |asap |

| |Services Conference |the agenda papers. |staff to attend. | | |

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| |7.2 Papers Attached for | |Partners were asked to participate in the Question |All / LB |asap |

| |Information |The following papers were circulated with the agenda papers for information: |Time Panel. | | |

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| | |Anti-Social behaviour Neighbour Complaints Policy and Procedures (Previously circulated)| | | |

| | |SCRA Research Report – How much is education included in the plans of children on |For information and noting. | | |

| | |Supervision Requirements? | |All |asap |

| | |Child Poverty Action Group – Poverty in Scotland Summary Briefing (August 2013) | | | |

| | |The Scottish Government: Public Health Nursing Services – Future Focus | | | |

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| | |PC thanked FMc for chairing this group and his commitment and wished him well in his new| | | |

| | |role in Ireland on behalf of the ICS Partnership. | | | |

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| |7.3 Thanks | | | | |

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|MINUTE TAKER: |Louise Beaton, Principal Planning|DATE OF NEXT MEETING: |ICS Development Workshop on Tuesday 19th |VENUE: |Station Hotel, Guild Street, Aberdeen |

| |Officer - ICS | |November | | |

| | | |at 10.15am | | |

2014 meeting dates will be set following the review of the current ICS Governance and Planning Structures.

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