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6.4 Joint Funding Protocol with NHS Peterborough for Joint Agency Placements for Children and Young People with Complex and Extreme Special Need

Contents 

1. Introduction
2. Policy
3. Criteria for Independent Provider Placements
4. Joint Funded Placements
5. Peterborough Joint Funding Panel
6. Placement Process
7. Panel Decisions
8. Review
9. Transitions/Planning
10. Panel Administration
11. Financial Management
12. Pooled Budgets
13. Joint Funding Panel Protocol - Review
Appendix A - Joint Funding Panel Child/Young Person Check List
Appendix B - Peterborough City Council Children's Services and NHS Peterborough Joint Funded Panel Funding Agreement
Appendix C - Review Summary of Joint Funding Panel Agency Placement
Appendix D - Joint Funded Matrix
Appendix E - Submission to Funding Panel


1. Introduction

1.1 Peterborough City Council and NHS Peterborough provide a wide range of resources to support children and young people to learn and be cared for in their communities.
1.2

This protocol is intended to apply specifically to jointly funded placements.

Each agency also has its own arrangements for single funded placements which should be referred to as necessary.
1.3

The principles underlying arrangements and agreements are as follows:-

  • All agencies will act in the best interests of the child, recognising their corporate parenting responsibility for disabled and Child in Care.
  • Clear recognition of the Children Act requirement for:
  1. children to be looked after in their families wherever possible
  2. family contact to be maintained by placements being made as locally as       possible.
  • Decision making with clear outcomes is better for children and parents.
  • Decisions shall be made on the basis of evidence of children's needs and evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed provision.
  • In recognition of the difficulty of disentangling the separate educational, social and health needs of the most severe and complex cases.
  • The importance of joint strategic planning and commissioning ensuring an emphasis on consistency and equity within available resources.
  • The effectiveness of placements shall be kept under regular review.


2. Policy

2.1 All Peterborough children and young people will be educated, cared for and have their health needs met through Peterborough City Council and NHS Peterborough provision, unless it can be satisfactorily demonstrated that flexible packages have been exhausted and that there are no appropriate local facilities.  This will be the case for only a small number of children and young people with multiple and/or complex needs.
2.2 In this minority of extreme cases, Children's Services and NHS Peterborough will work together to best identify, and provide for the child or young person's needs through specialist external provision (external agency placements).
2.3 External agency placements will be kept under regular review in the expectation that the child or young person will return to a Peterborough provision at the earliest appropriate opportunity.
2.4 Any external provision used will meet all appropriate Department for Education, Ofsted, and National Minimum Care Standards.
2.5

Each agency shall comply with its statutory review requirements, and arrangements should be co-ordinated and agreed for each case.


3. Criteria for Independent Provider Placements

3.1 Criteria for School Agency Placements

Such placements will be made solely on educational grounds when:-

  • the pupil has a Statement of Special Educational Needs:
  • all local options have been vigorously explored, and
  • there is clear evidence that his or her special educational needs cannot be met in any Peterborough education provision currently, or in the near future.

3.2 Criteria for Social Care Agency Placement

The Children Act requires children to be supported in the local community and to maintain contact with their birth family wherever possible.  External agency placements will only be considered when:-

  • the child or young person is "Looked After" or if disabled would fall into the "Looked After" system if an agency placement is not made;
  • all local options have been explored vigorously;
  • there is evidence that his or her social care needs cannot be met by the child's family or any local resource.

3.3 Criteria for Wholly Health Funded Placement

  • This is where the health needs of the child are the sole basis of placement which is made on grounds of a medical emergency, acute treatment or continuing health care needs.

3.4 Criteria for Learning and Skills and Social Care (Children's Services) Jointly Funded Placements

These will be the most complex and extreme of cases whose need each agency finds difficult to address within Peterborough City Council resources.  Agency placements will only be considered if:-

  1. the child or young person is Looked After or, if disabled would become "Looked After" if a residential placement is not made and;
  2. he or she has a Statement of Special Educational Needs and;
  3. all local options have been explored jointly by both agencies,
  4. there is clear evidence that his or her social care needs cannot be met by their       family or any Peterborough City Council resource and/or;
  5. there is clear evidence that all local options have been explored and the child or young person's special educational needs cannot be met in any Peterborough City Council or other LA maintained school;
  6. the placement represents best value and an efficient use of resources that meet the identified need of the child/young person
  7. the views of all the stakeholders are taken into consideration 

3.5 Criteria for Children's Services and Health Funded Agency Placements

These are as for Section 3.4 but in addition there will be evidence of complex and/or severe medical needs which cannot sustainably be met from local resources, and which meet the NHS threshold criteria and NHS Continuing Health care criteria.


4. Joint Funded Placements


Each professional has its own guidance on how to assess a child's needs.

Consideration includes but is not limited to:

  • Nature of child's needs
  • What local resources have been tried?
  • What has been done to adapt resources to need?
  • Why this has not been successful?
  • How would an agency placement meet the need?


5. Peterborough Joint Funding Panel

5.1

The Panel will comprise of budget holders from Children's Services and NHS Peterborough together with appropriate advisers, namely:

  • Head of Assessment and Intervention - Learning and Skills
  • Head of Commissioning - Commissioning and Performance - NHS Peterborough Children's Commissioner
  • Commissioning and Contract Manager - Commissioning and Performance
  • SEN placement manager - Learning and Skills
  • Service Manager - ART/FAST - Children's Social Care Services
  • Service Manager - Disability - Children's Social Care Services
  • Team Manager, ART - Children's Social Care Services
  • Panel Administrator
5.2 Decisions about the appropriateness of placements and funding arrangements will be made by the Joint Funding Panel on the basis of evidence about the child or young person's needs, and steps which have already been taken to meet them from local resources, and available funding.
5.3 The Joint Funding Panel will consider the case on the papers presented and, in exceptional cases, a personal presentation by the worker most familiar with the case. All submission and review paperwork (Appendix E and C) shall be completed and received by the Panel administrator five working days before the scheduled panel meeting date.
5.4 Where there is an agreement for a joint agency placement based on the funding matrix as set out in Appendix D, this will be confirmed in writing including the apportionment of costs to the relevant agencies, placement duration and an appropriate review date.
5.5 The Joint Funding Panel is able to authorise funding for special packages to enable a child to continue to be cared for, educated and receive appropriate clinical intervention within Local Authority provision if this is apposite.
5.6 The Panel will not meet the costs of placements beyond the period agreed by the Panel, nor will it meet additional costs above an annually determined level of inflation on the agreed fees without further information and justification from providers, submitted within reasonable time by the lead agency.
5.7 All changes of placement must be approved by the Panel within an agreed time frame, and prior to any placement move.
5.8

Currently costs for placements are met from relevant agency budgets once approved by budget holders at the Joint Funding Panel, these are signed off by the panel budget holders using the Joint Funding Placement Funding Agreement Form. (Appendix B) 

However the ultimate aim of the Joint Funding Panel is to have access to jointly agreed aligned/pooled budgets.
5.9 Joint funding arrangements with Learning and Skills will only apply whilst a young person is of statutory school age.  In the majority of cases this will be up to 16 years, but in the case of young people with a disability, funding may apply up to the end of the academic year following their 19th birthday. 
5.10 Post 16 placements will only be agreed on receipt of appropriate review information, justification for the continuation of the placement and assessment by Children's Services concerning further education needs.  This information must be placed before the panel before the young persons 16th birthday and after the pathway plan/needs assessment is completed.
5.11 Wherever possible lead agencies will use their ongoing knowledge of cases, putting these forward for agreement in principle by the Joint Funding Panel before any providers are approached.  Papers shall include a list of potential placements, their associated costs and the provider's ability to meet the child's needs.  This shall include details of all the services they provide and any special transport arrangements that may be required.  It is essential at this stage that expectations are not raised, as the placement has not yet been agreed.
5.12 If the placement is considered urgent, guidance should be sought from individual Joint Funding Panel representatives.  Decisions will then be referred for confirmation at the next scheduled Joint Funding Panel meeting.
5.13 Joint Funding Panel minutes will record all Panel decisions.  These will be distributed to all relevant teams for information on a case by case basis, with a copy of The Joint Funding Placement Funding Agreement Form (Appendix B) verifying the  financial agreements.  This will be circulated for signature to each agency's representative.


6. Placement Process

6.1

Before any placement is considered, the following checks must have taken place:-

  1. it can meet all the child's social, educational and, where appropriate, health needs.
  2. it has been approved or registered by Ofsted and has been visited and checked in line with departmental processes, with copies of latest inspection reports and references from other placing authorities having been sourced.
  3. it represents an efficient use of all agencies' resources.
  4. the provider accepts the terms and conditions of the National Residential Contract, or the Independent Schools National Contract, or the Pan London Fostering Placement Contract.
6.2

Contract Management
a.

Once a placement has been agreed by the Joint Funding Panel, details will be    passed to either:

  1. Social Care - Access to Resources - Team Manager or delegated officer.
  2. Learning and Skills - Financial and Recoupment Officer.

The lead agency (i or ii above) will be responsible for:

All contract management functions, the payment of fees, monitoring of finance and, until such time that pooled budgets are in place, manage the recharging of partner agencies.  Given the current internal recharge mechanisms, the lead agency will confirm amounts via the individual child/young person contract, and each funding party shall sign in agreement and commitment to the placement.  Recharges shall be on a quarterly in arrears/termly in advance basis.
b. Any financial increase within the range approved by the Joint Funding Panel will be funded within existing budgets, and confirmed with panel members at the next planned Joint Funding Panel.
c.

Any increases over and above the contractual annual uplift figure, or any additional costs will be:

  • Acknowledged by the lead agency.
  • Comprehensively detailed, investigated and evidenced as required to continue to meet assessed need.
  • Passed to the panel administrator for circulation to panel members and for inclusion at the next panel. The outcome of this will be notified to the lead agency who will issue a variation notice to the provider.
d. Exclusion (as per the National Contract) of a child will be regarded as termination of contract by school or other provider and so funding will cease once the period of any appeals procedure has elapsed, or where no appeal is proposed immediate termination of contract shall deem to have occurred.
e. Once a placement has been agreed, a Placement Funding Agreement Form (Appendix B) will be completed to confirm the financial respective commitments of each agency
f. All casework reviews will provide feedback to the Panel Administrator on contract requirements using a standard form (Appendix C).  This will be circulated to Joint Funding Panel members and those listed at Appendix C by the Panel Administrator.


7. Panel Decisions

7.1 The Joint Funding Panel makes informed decisions based on the information supplied by the relevant lead agency. Such information shall be presented to the panel in the prescribed format as detailed at Appendix E.
7.2

It is imperative that all agencies work collaboratively and in a timely fashion to ensure a comprehensive report is submitted to panel for consideration.  Any omissions may result in the case being deferred.  Additionally, the financial implications need to be considered.  Prior to panel, each agency shall ensure they have up-to-date commitment records available for consultation.

  • Financial representatives shall be invited to attend panel on a quarterly basis.
  • Decisions regarding each agency's funding amounts will be determined by the funding matrix at Appendix D
  • Any placement provisionally agreed by the panel, which on further detailed investigation costs more than 2% of the original agreed total annual cost, shall be re-submitted to panel for agreement

Confidential minutes of each Joint Funding Panel meeting shall be compiled and circulated to all panel members and their associated finance teams and relevant teams/individual workers by the Panel Administrator within one week of the panel convening. 


8. Review

8.1 The Joint Funding Panel will specify any special review requirements when the placement is agreed.
8.2 All agencies shall co-ordinate their review arrangements to avoid duplication, and give priority to a planned return within Peterborough at the earliest appropriate opportunity.
8.3 The SEN Placement Manager and the Access to Resources Team Manager shall receive statutory review minutes for the Child/ Young Person's jointly funded placement, and shall be responsible for informing panel of the outcomes of such reviews.
8.4 All agencies will collect and share information on the school and providers used from local, regional and national sources.
8.5 Planned transfers to LSC funding will be sought wherever possible and appropriate.  Learning and Skills will lead on this, keeping Children's Social Care and NHS Peterborough informed of progress and cost implications.
8.6 The Joint Funding Panel would not expect that any child/young person will remain in any Joint Funding Panel placement longer than 2 years without a full review by all agencies.  Agency representatives on the Panel will monitor the effectiveness of the review system
8.7 Each review will provide feedback on contract/financial issues using the Financial Feedback Form (Appendix C)
8.8 If a placement breaks down or is at risk of doing so, details shall be distributed to the Panel Administrator for information and circulation.


9. Transitions/Planning

9.1 Transitions is a system-wide approach to the various stages in a child's life, these include primary school to secondary school and from childhood to adult life. 
9.2 Peterborough is currently developing its transitions pathway and working with the regional transitions network to ensure consistency.  In principle Peterborough is signed up to a transitions pathway that considers  those children aged 14 years to adults aged 25.
9.3 The transitions pathway will start at the year 9 review, and involve the young person in their planning process.  Individual and identified need should then be reflected in the transitions review group and the improving choices pathways. 
9.4 Allocated transition workers have the responsibility to ensure that all local systems are aware of the key transition dates and pathways, working closely with adult services to ensure a smooth and seamless transition. 
9.5 The key to a successful transition is good inter-agency working, and good communications. 
9.6 All reviews shall be attended by all stakeholders involved in planning the young person's transitions into adult life.


10. Panel Administration

10.1

Peterborough Joint Funding Panel

Papers sent to:

Panel Administrator - Helen Bloy
Assessment and Intervention Administrator
Learning and Skills
Children's Services
PETERBOROUGH CITY COUNCIL
Bayard's Place
PE1 1FB

Telephone Number: 01733 863688

Fax Number: 01733 863672

Meets:

Third Thursday in the month (2-4pm) Room 2.
10.2

The Panel Administrator will:- 

  1. ensure that minutes are compiled and distributed to all members of the Joint Funding Panel and relevant teams/workers.
  2. act as an information collection point for agenda planning, referrals, receipt of individual case reports, manage the review of placements process and disseminate contract monitoring information and
  3. ensure that Placement Funding Agreement Forms are completed within 4 weeks of the panel date.


11. Financial Management

Financial monitoring will be carried out on a monthly, and per child basis using a single database.

  1. The Placement Funding Agreement Form identifies the total costs of placements, the agreed splits (Appendix D) between agencies and anticipated length of placements.
  2. Once the basic details of the placement have been agreed and confirmed details will be sent to the lead agency, who will send the relevant contract to the school, residential provider or independent Fostering Agency.
  3. All joint budget invoices will be paid and monitored by the relevant agency, all queries will be referred to Budget Managers who will respond within 2 weeks.
  4. Variance between predicted and actual costs will be rigorously investigated and questioned by the Budget Manager.
  5. No invoices are to be paid without paperwork from the Joint Funding Panel and the completed placement agreement form.
  6. Any additional support for placements is to be agreed by the Joint Funding Panel.
  7. Recharges will be invoiced quarterly/termly in arrears


12. Pooled Budgets - Proposed as of April 2009

12.1 Each agency will contribute annually to a pooled/aligned budget for joint funded placements.
12.2 The sum contributed will be calculated using an agreed formula based on current provision and projected future need .
12.3

No agency will commit joint funds without the agreement of all partner agencies that the funding criteria is fulfilled and the placement is appropriate. 

N.B. Greater detail is required with regard to business and financial accountability, governance, risk management etc.


13. Joint Funding Panel Protocol - Review

13.1 The protocol shall be reviewed annually by Panel Members and amended to reflect changing work practices, policies and procedures.


Appendix A - Joint Funding Panel Child/Young Person Check List

Click here to view check list


Appendix B - Peterborough City Council Children's Services and NHS Peterborough Joint Funded Panel Funding Agreement

Click here to view funding agreement form


Appendix C - Review Summary of Joint Funding Panel Agency Placement 

Click here to view review summary form


Appendix D- Joint Funded Matrix

The models of joint funding available to the panel are many and varied.  In order to reduce confusion and bureaucracy, only the following models will be considered

Where it is clear that planned 52 week provision is required, Children's Social Care Services - 60% and Education - 40%

Where it is agreed that all three agencies have significant interest in the needs of the child, 33.3% each

Where social and health needs are of primary importance, 50/50

Where education and health needs are of primary importance, 50/50

Where a 38 week placement is required based on education needs, Social Services can provide adequate care in a family environment for the remainder, education 100%

The funding for the full cost of a placement, including associated support costs, should be agreed when negotiating the placement.  The lead agency should be explicit when making these arrangements.  Any increase in the cost of the placements should be brought back to the Joint Funding Panel

Emergency Placements

Where an emergency placement is required, the originating agency will be responsible for the placement, but the case should be discussed at the next available Panel.  In the event of such a placement having significant resource implications for one or more of the agencies, provisional agreement should be agreed outside of the Panel by nominated representatives 


Appendix E -  Submission to Funding Panel

Click here to view submission to Funding Panel form


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