Children's Services structure, your views

Our vision for children and young people in Norfolk
We believe that all children and young people have the right to be healthy, happy and safe; to be loved, valued and respected; and to have high aspirations for their future.

As many of you will be aware, services for children and young people provided by the County Council have been brought together - into Children's Services.

The above vision for children and young people is central to our thinking and is what Children's Services is all about - putting children and young people first and having a clear focus on the outcomes that we want to achieve with, and for, them. It will contribute in a major way towards the delivery of the inclusion and standards agenda in schools.

This will mean agencies and, very importantly, schools and County Council services working in more a 'joined up' way with each other. That is why we want to move away from seeing ourselves as a 'department' of Norfolk County Council, towards being a 'service', breaking down barriers to improve outcomes for children and young people.

You can be assured that this doesn't mean we want to change everything. We know there is much that works well now and we will build on that.

This is a very exciting time and your involvement will make a real difference. As a first step, we are proposing some changes to ensure that we have a strong, integrated, leadership team for the significant task ahead. What follows will be an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary, journey and your input will shape that journey and ensure that we can all make a real difference to the outcomes for children and young people in Norfolk.

We need all the skills and professionalism that we currently have, but we need to be challenging about whether there are better ways of organising and using those skills than we have done in the past.

Further to this there is a consultation document. All this is available on the internet: www.norfolk.gov.uk/childrensservices ,along with more detailed background information for those that want it. In developing this proposal for discussion, we considered two other structures which we eventually rejected. Information about these rejected structures is also on the internet. If you have difficulty accessing any of the information electronically or would like a paper copy, call our project support team on 01603 222494.

Please share this with all staff, teaching and non-teaching, and fellow governors. The deadline for feedback is Wednesday 8 June. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Lisa Christensen