Thurrock Children's Trust

Thurrock's Children's Trust was launched on 21 November 2007. It was formed from the previous Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership (CYPSP). The Children's Trust is made up of the following:

Children's Trust Board

The membership includes the following key agencies, with representation from their senior management as indicated below:

  • Thurrock Council's Children, Education & Families (CEF) Directorate represented by the Director of CEF (Chair) and the Heads of Service for Children’s Social Care and Health, Children, Youth and Families, and Schools Provision. From time to time other senior officers from Children's Services will be asked to attend by the Director, but Council officers will only have three voting places on the Board. The Children’s Trust Programme Board Manager will attend the Board ex-officio.
  • Thurrock Council's Lead Member for Children's Services.
  • South West Essex PCT represented by the Executive Nurse, the Head of Children, Young People and Maternity Services Commissioning, Associate Director of Public Health and a Non-Executive Director.
  • Learning and Skills Council represented by the Director or an Assistant Director.
  • Probation Service represented by a senior manager.
  • Essex Police represented by a Chief Inspector or an Inspector.
  • Thurrock Primary Schools represented by the Chair of Thurrock Primary Heads Association or by a nominated Headteacher representative.
  • Thurrock Secondary and Special Schools represented by the Chair of Thurrock Secondary and Special Schools or by a nominated Headteacher representative.
  • Local Colleges and FE institutions.
  • Thurrock Voluntary and Community Sector represented by three nominated members.
  • Thurrock Local Strategic Partnership with a non-voting member role for the LSP Director.
  • Government Office East with a non-voting member role for the Thurrock Children's Services Advisor.

The Children's Trust Board will meet every 2 months - in January, March, May, July, September and November. These meetings will be based in schools to include dialogue with children and young people at the start of each meeting, continuing the "Face to Face" consultation programme started with the CYPSP Executive in June 2007.

In 4 of the intervening months (February, April, June, December) there will be a short consultation-only meeting of the Children's Trust Board to ensure the face to face dialogue with children and young people is delivered in each of our 10 secondary schools each year.

The Children's Trust Board will also meet twice yearly to review progress, receive reports on performance, make adjustments to work stream group remits and to commission additional service provision if appropriate. The Performance and Progress meetings will be in late April (a short meeting, based in a school, to review PI's for end of financial year) and in early/mid-October ( a longer full meeting to review all aspects of performance).

The Children's Trust Board will fulfil the remit of the Children and Young People's Programme Board of the Local Strategic Partnership. As a Programme Board of the LSP, the Children's Trust will submit a quarterly performance report to the LSP. This report will also be submitted to the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Children's Trust Stakeholder Forum

The Children and Young People's Partnership Board was dissolved in September 2007, and membership will be refreshed in preparation for it to become the Children's Trust Stakeholder Forum. Specifically this will include:

  • Representatives from the Community Involvement Board.
  • Representatives from the voluntary and community sector "umbrella" organisations.
  • Representatives of children and young people (Youth Cabinet/Youth MP and Deputy Youth MP/Youth Cabinet members/young people from vulnerable groups).
  • Representatives of parents and carers.
  • Representative of Parent Governors.
  • Representative of Thurrock Association of School Governors.
  • Representatives of Dioceses of Brentwood and Chelmsford and other faith groups.
  • Representatives of Headteachers.
  • Representative of the business sector.
  • Representative of Council Children Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
  • Representatives of not for profit and private sector bodies delivering services to children and young people.
  • Representatives of healthcare providers.
  • Representative of work-based learning providers.
  • Representatives of child care, culture, sport and play organisations.
  • The elected member in the role of opposition spokesperson for children's services.

The Children's Trust Stakeholder Forum will meet twice a year. A Chair will be elected at the first meeting each year.

Workstream Groups

The CYPSP Executive established a comprehensive set of work stream groups, each with a clear specific remit identifying which key issues the group are responsible for addressing following the 2007 Joint Area Review Inspection and future external inspections such as the 2008 APA.

A forward plan for reporting back on performance will be defined to hold each group to account. This will include the production of quarterly performance reports from each group outlining progress in implementing actions and the impact on outcomes resulting from these actions. This may require the attendance of the work stream group Chair at a specified meeting for further discussion of the progress of the group.

The structure will be reviewed after it has been in operation for a year, but a case may be made for earlier review to allow flexibility to adapt as Thurrock's new Local Area Agreement 2008-2011 develops.

Thurrock Children's Trust Structure Chart

The document linked below presents the structure of Thurrock Children's Trust, as at August 2009.

Thurrock Children's Trust Structure Chart - October 2009 (PDF 30.6kB)
[ For PDFs see how to access PDF files ]

Contact information

Lorraine Surrey
Principal Strategic Planning Officer
Children, Education and Families

  • Civic Offices.
  • New Road.
  • Grays.
  • RM17 6SL.

Telephone number: 01375 652813

Email Address: