1. What is the Area Based Grant Review?
The Area Based Grant Review is an evaluation process designed to assess the impact that services currently funded through the Area Based Grant are having on local priorities to improve outcomes for children and young people in Leicester.
2. What is the Area Based Grant?
The Area Based Grant is a funding stream that is used to support the Local Area Agreement (LAA) priorities, overseen by Leicester Partnership and managed through the City Council. The funding is not new money but is made up of pooled budgets that have in previous years been granted to the Authority and other agencies with specific ring fenced purposes. The ring fencing of these grants has been lifted as they were pooled and there is an expectation on Local Partnerships that this money will be used in different ways into the future, in line with local priorities.
3. Who is being reviewed?
All of the services that are funded through the Investing in Our Children block of the Area Based Grant. These services include those provided by Leicester City Council and the Voluntary/Private Sector. Some of these services are front line whilst others are ‘non-front line’ (e.g. support services working to roll out new initiatives and guidance).
4. Who is carrying out the Review?
The team of people working on this review are:
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Sally Vallance – Programme Manager
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Zuned Kasu – Reviewing Officer
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Nick Furini - Reviewing Officer
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Louise Wells- Reviewing Officer
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Jennifer Williams – Reviewing Officer
5. Who makes up the Review Board overseeing the ABG Review?
The decision-making process for the ABG reviews will occur through the ABG Board who will scrutinise the process and the reports. These will then be sent collectively with recommendations from the ABG Board to the Invest in our Children Priority Board in January. The Priority Board will then either approve the recommendations, ask for further work to be carried out or agree an alternative set of outcomes for the review.
Terms of reference for the ABG Board can be found attached at the bottom of this page.
Dates for meetings so far are:
ABG Boards: 1st December; 12th January
Priority Board: 27th January
More ABG board meetings will be booked in prior to the Priority Board meeting.
6. What are Leicester’s current priority needs?
Leicester’s priority needs are represented by the National Indicators outlined in Table 1 below.
Table 1 – National Indicators (representing Leicester’s priority needs as set out in the LAA)
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Indicator Ref
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INDICATOR TITLE
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NI 50
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Emotional health of children.
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NI 54
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Services for disabled children.
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NI 56
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Obesity in primary school aged children in year 6.
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NI 59
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Percentage of initial assessments for children’s social care carried out within 7 working days of referral.
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NI 65
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Percentage of children becoming subject of Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time.
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NI 72
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of at Achievement Early Years Foundation Stage with at least 6 least 78 points across the in each of the scales in Personal Social and Emotional Development and Communication, Language and Literacy.
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NI 73
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Achievement at level 4 or above in both English and Maths at Key Stage 2
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NI 74
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Achievement at level 5 or above in both English and Maths at Key Stage 3
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NI 75
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Achievement of 5 or more A*- C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and Maths.
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NI 83
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at Level 5 or above in Science at Key Stage Achievement 3.
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NI 87
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Secondary school persistent absence rate.
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NI 92
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Narrowing the gap between the lowest achieving 20% in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and the rest.
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NI 93
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Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
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NI 94
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Progression by 2 levels in Maths between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
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NI 95
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Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3
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NI 96
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by 2 levels in Maths Progression Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 between Key
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NI 97
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Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4
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NI 98
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Progression by 2 levels in Maths between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4
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NI 99
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Looked after children reaching level 4 in English at Key Stage 2
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NI 100
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Looked after children reaching level 4 in maths at Key Stage 2
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NI 101
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(including Looked after children achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs English and maths (or equivalent) at Key Stage 4
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NI 110
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Young people’s participation in positive activities
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NI 112
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Under 18 conception rate
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NI 117
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16 to 18 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)
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NI 118
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Take up of formal childcare by low-income working families
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We provide these indicators here for reference purposes, but wish to point out that mapping services against these priorities is the role of the Review Team, in close consultation with services. The reason for this is that the Review process needs to work for a huge range of service areas and consider the variety of work that can make an impact on the priorities above. Where necessary, we will recognise additional National Indicators but any impact against these will assist in establishing alternative funding opportunities, in cases where the Review finds no impact against the priority needs of children and young people.
7. When will I know the outcome of the Review?
It is envisaged that decisions about whether funds will continue to be allocated in the same way should be made by January 2010.
8 . What process will the Review follow?
From the point of view of service providers, the Review can be said to consist of 4 broad stages that comprise a number of steps – these are set out in the table below. Stages 1 – 2 have been planned out and are set to take place over the coming months. Stages 3 - 4 are still being developed and information about this will be disseminated at an appropriate time. The time schedule outlined below will apply to the majority of cases. However, services will move through stage 1-3 at various speeds depending on individual circumstances and the level of support required.
Table 2 – ABG Review Process
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Information Gathering - Stage 1
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Date
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Step (i)
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An initial information gathering exercise is conducted (it is most likely that you have already taken this step).
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Aug. 2009
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Step (ii)
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Reviewing Officer assesses the information and contacts the service provider for clarification, if necessary.
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Early Sept. 2009
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Service Mapping and Assessment - Stage 2
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Step (i)
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Reviewing Officer completes a mapping exercise which includes mapping a service against Leicester’s priority National indicators and establishing a list of evidence required for the service assessment.
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Sept. 2009
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Step (ii)
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Service provider is contacted by the Reviewing officer and asked to comment about the results of the mapping exercise.
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Step (iii)
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A document listing the NIs that will form part of the service assessment together with the required evidence will be sent to the service provider to sign and return to LCC.
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Step (v)
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Reviewing officer calls in evidence from the service provider.
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End of Sept. 2009
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Step (vi)
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Reviewing officer to co-ordinate the service assessment – which will be fully recorded on an Assessment Form, using guidance to ensure consistency between assessments.
Part of the assessment will be completing by the Reviewing officer and parts by advisors/lead professionals/commissioners. An outcome of step (ii) will be a recommended score of green, orange or red.
a) Red: service is not impacting on local priorities
b) Orange: service is impacting on local priorities but changes are required (e.g. target group, geographical area, performance management system).
c) Green: service is impacting on local priorities and no change is required.
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Oct. – Dec. 2009
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Step (vii)
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The results of the service assessment will be forwarded to the Review Board which will scrutinise the service assessment for consistency and fairness against the agreed process established for the Review. A decision will be made to accept or reject the recommendations.
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Dec. – Jan. 2010
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Step (viii)
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Service provider will be informed of the result.
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January 2010
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Value for Money and Procurement Assessment - Stage 3
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Step (i)
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A Value For Money (VFM) exercise will be completed on services that are impacting on children and young people priorities.
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Feb 2010
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Step (ii)
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Procurement assessment completed
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Feb 2010
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Procurement and Decommissioning Exercise - Stage 4
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Step (i)
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Procurement and decommissioning of services
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Individual time plans needed
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9. What could happen to my service as a result of the Review?
There are a number of outcomes and we have tried to capture these in the table below:
Table 3 – Possible Review Outcomes
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Service Assessment Outcome
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Funding Outcomes
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Service does not impact on any priority needs.
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ABG funding will end. Service is supported through a de-commissioning exercise.
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Availability of alternative funding sources will be investigated.
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Service impacts on non-children and young people priority needs.
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ABG funding will end. Service is supported through a de-commissioning exercise.
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Availability of alternative funding sources will be investigated.
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Service impacts against Leicester’s priority needs for children and young people.
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VFM assessment completed, service continues with a new procurement approach (could mean a new organisation delivers the service).
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VFM assessment completed, service continues with an existing procurement approach (could mean a new organisation delivers the service).
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10. How do I make a complaint?
Our aim is to be inclusive and support services at each step of the way. However, if you find that our working standards fall short of our corporate standards then please use Leicester City Council Complaints Procedure.
If you wish to complain about the ‘review process’ or the ‘outcome of the review’ for your service you should use the appeals process. The appeals process consists of two strands:
If a decision has not been made about your service, in the first instance please send your concerns to your Reviewing Officer. You will receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours of receipt of your complaint. If your reviewing officer is unable to resolve your difficulty, they will ensure your complaint is dealt with in accordance with the corporate complaints procedure. A full investigation will be undertaken and the Programme Manager will respond to you directly. The target date for response is 10 working days.
If a decision has been made about your service, please send your concerns to Sally Vallance, Programme Manager. You will receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours but you may not receive a full response until after the next scheduled board meeting.
11. What criteria will you use to carry out the service assessment?
The guide set out in tables 4 and 5 - attached below - sets out the framework that will be used by the reviewing officers and advisors when they make an assessment of a service. An assessment will be based on evidence supplied by the service provider and/or evidence gathered by the reviewing officer. The outcome of each assessment will be recorded and shared with the service provider once it has been agreed by the Review Board.
