| Programme | So far, we have… | This year we will… | Well-being goals |
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21st Century schools
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- Completed £1.6m investment in childcare settings with dedicated buildings at Ysgol Panteg and Llantarnam Community Primary school
- Opened a new primary at Ysgol Gymraeg Gwynllyw and childcare provision as part of an £8.8m investment providing 210 new primary Welsh Medium places over the next five years
- Completed pre-construction design work for Maendy Primary School
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- Enhance teaching and learning by investing £17m in the construction of the new net zero carbon school to replace the existing Maendy Primary School
- Start the £6.85m net zero carbon 50 place extension at Crownbridge to enhance provision for children and young people with severe learning difficulties
- Start extending and refurbishing Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbran and Ysgol Bryn Onnen
- Add solar photo voltaic installations to 14 schools
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Resilient
Prosperous
Cohesive
Equal
Vibrant
|
|
Children and Young People’s Development Plan
|
Developed and implemented the Children Services Transformation plan and in doing so have:
- Introduced a multi-agency support and safeguarding hub (MASSH) established in November 2019
- Reduced the number of contacts to Children’s services with no further action (NFA) required from 72% to 65% (July 2021 to March 2022)
- Reduced the number of assessments completed during the year from 3236 to 3195 (2020/21 to 2021/22)
- Developed a threshold of need to enable consistent decision making and enable partners to determine suitability of referral
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- Fully implement the online referral pathway to ensure that children and families get the right help at the right time and minimise escalation through to statutory services
- Undertake a 6 monthly review with partners to prevent unnecessary referrals that do not correspond to the defined thresholds in Children’s Services
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Healthier
Equal
|
|
Children and Young People’s Development Plan
|
- Concluded our review of the Family Placement Team and invested £3.1m
- Recruited 12 new foster carers in 2019/2020 and 19 in 2020/2021 and 13 in 2021/22
- Increased in-house foster placements from 79% (March 2021) to 86% (March 2022) reducing the amount spent on independent foster placements
- Reviewed and revised fees allowances for local authority foster carers
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- To ensure at least 80% of the children we look after are placed with local authority foster carers (Our target is to have 90% by 25/26)
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Healthier
Equal
|
|
Children and Young People’s Development Plan
|
- 161 out of 182 members of social care staff have been trained in strength-based practice
- Decreased the number of children we look after children by 8.7% from 446 (2020/21) to 407 (2021/22)
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- To ensure that all staff are trained in the strength-based approach in order that practice continues to develop and that safe decisions are made to impact on the CLA population and overall workload
- Ensure qualified social worker caseloads are manageable and reduced to an average of 20
- Reduce the number of children we look after by up to 15% within 2022/23
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Healthier
Equal
|
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Children Looked After Strategy
Children and Young People’s Development Plan
|
- Reviewed the responsibilities and membership of the Corporate Parenting Board
- Included young people who are care experienced, as members of the Corporate Parenting Board
- Produced a Children and Young People’s development plan
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- Review the impact of the Children Looked After Reduction Strategy and develop as necessary
- Review the structure of children and family services and implement any necessary structural changes to ensure that the model remains fits for purpose and corresponds to any changes of need
- Review the local authority’s placement strategy to ensure that we have a variety of placements to meet the variety of need and to ensure placement sufficiency and consistency
- Develop a broad range of provision/accommodation for children looked after who require specialist provision in order to ensure consistency of placement and reduce profit in care
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Healthier
Equal
|
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Anti-social
Behaviour
Strategy
Youth Offending
Service Plan
|
- Supported 8 young people to prevent further escalation in the ASB process or entering the criminal justice system. The impact of this is a reduction in reported ASB and better outcomes for the young people and the community
- Signposted 45 young people to youth support services preventing further escalation in the ASB process or entering the criminal justice system
- The Youth Offending Service reduced the number of first-time entrants into the criminal justice system from 36 in previous year to 27
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- Work intensively with 10 more young people in 2022/23 to prevent further escalation in the ASB process or entering the criminal justice system
- Work with a further 60 young people through youth support services, to prevent them entering the criminal justice system with the impact being safer communities and a reduction in antisocial behaviour (ASB)
- Review the functions of the Youth Offending Service in order to ensure that preventative activities are targeted to ASB “hotspot” areas
- Further reduce the number of first time entrants into the (youth) criminal justice system through early identification and targeted prevention
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Equal
Cohesive
|
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Homes for
Ukraine National
and Regional
government
Humanitarian
programmes
UK refugee
resettlement
programmes
|
- Supported individuals fleeing areas of violence and war mainly from Africa and the Middle East and helped children and families integrate within our communities
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- Help refugees fleeing violence in the Ukraine settle with local Torfaen sponsors
- Support families from the Middle East and Africa to resettle in Torfaen
- Ensure that unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children receive the required level of service and support
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Responsible
Cohesive
Equal
Healthier
Vibrant
|
|
Early Years
Welsh In
Education
Strategic Plan
2022 - 32
|
- Expanded Flying start childcare provision creating an additional 250 children, aged 0-4 years old, in addition to the 1100 already accessing the Flying Start Programme
- Provided funded childcare for 2 year olds and increased the number of Flying Start childcare providers to enable this expansion
- Developed a new way of supporting vulnerable families to access funded childcare even if they don’t live in Flying Start areas
- Established an additional 2 Welsh Medium Childcare settings with Flying Start and further childcare at Ysgol Panteg
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- Work with Welsh Government on future plans for expanding the accessibility of childcare to all 2 year-olds
- Deliver the additional 250 Flying Start places and evaluative parent satisfaction at the end of the year
- Open a new childcare setting at Ysgol Gymraeg Gwynllyw
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Equal
Prosperous
Vibrant
|
|
Children and
Young People’s
Development
Plan
|
- Supported 1138 young people to take part in a range of challenging, educational and social activities
- Provided 13 health and well-being initiatives to support young people to be more resilient and independent
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- Increase the number of young people supported through working in partnership with a range of statutory and voluntary organisations
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Equal
Healthier
|
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Play Sufficiency
Action Plan
|
- Provided free or low-cost open access play opportunities to children and young people in the form of community play clubs, specialist projects linked to schools as well as school holiday provisions
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- Continue to work with the community and schools to tailor our play provision offer to the community/schools needs
- Upgrade play facilities at Alexandra Road Park by March 2023
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Cohesive
Equal
Healthier
|
|
Inclusive play
provision
|
- Provided support for vulnerable children and young people to access specialist play opportunities 7 days a week
|
- Continue to provide inclusive play provision to children and young people through play and respite sessions
- Increase provision for inclusive play at Pontypool and Cwmbran parks through the Covid Recovery funding. Work is scheduled to be completed by March 2023 linked to the development of play areas
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Cohesive
Equal
Healthier
|