It was a pleasure to be joined by Ruth Binks, Director of Education, Communities and Organisational Development at Inverclyde Council and Jonathan Hinds, Head of Children and Families and Chief Social Worker at Inverclyde HSCP, at our Best Start in Life Network this month.
The session focused on the local Children’s Services Plan and how the third sector can contribute to the priorities of the Plan.
The third version of the Children’s Services Plan focuses on partnership working in children’s services between third sector and local authority. Inverclyde is the first local authority to do this and shows how well the sectors work together.
You can read the Children’s Services Plan here.
The discussion looked at the outcomes of the plan and attendees had the opportunity to share their feedback and ask questions.
Ruth Binks began the discussion by highlighting the crucial role of the third sector in supporting children and families: “a lot of the information on families and young people isn’t on a spreadsheet, it’s with local charities and groups who are working with families time and time again.”
Read more key quotes in our Twitter thread.
It was a special opportunity to be joined by two strategic leads from Inverclyde Council and HSCP and again demonstrates the strong partnership working in Inverclyde. We’re grateful to Ruth and Jonathan for their time and listening to local charities and voluntary groups.
We will follow up with the Best Start in Life Network with a session in July to look again at the plan and the work of the Network.