Localities

The Children and Young People’s Services in Somerset are being developed in line with the vision set out following the review conducted in 2004. The aim is to achieve better outcomes for children, young people and their families. Localised services, early intervention and empowerment of those receiving services are seen as key in delivering improved outcomes. Locality/ extended school services developed and supported by integrated multi agency Locality Teams are central to the thinking as is the bringing together of the management of services at a wider area level with Children and Young People’s Directorate services being managed within an area at Head of Service level.

Localities have been defined based on Community Learning Partnerships (clusters of schools/colleges) and, taking account of wider areas defined by district council and market towns. The Children and Young People’s Directorate is being shaped, across the period 2006 – 2008, so that services to children, young people and their parents/carers can be delivered through multi disciplinary locality teams with aligned targeted and specialist staff/teams deployed on an area or county-wide basis. The locality teams will work in partnership with schools and colleges to provide a planned and coherent range of services and activities based on the “Core Offer” of Extended School Services and focused on the needs of the local community. Locality teams and services will build upon the successful multi agency work such as Youth Inclusion Support Panels (YISP), Multi Agency Identification and Support in the Early Years (MAISEY) vulnerable children’s panel meetings and the development of Children Centres.

For further information about changes to the way in which services for children and young people will be delivered take a look at our 'Somerset Change for Children: Partnership Working' web pages.