YorOK Board

About YorOK and the YorOK Board

York has had a strong set of Children’s Trust arrangements since 2003. Locally we call our Children’s Trust ‘YorOK’ and its members come from all of the key organisations that work with children and young people in York: you can see the full list below. The YorOK Board (or children's trust board) meets every two months and its meetings are open to the public. Download a copy of the YorOK board constitution.

When we say ‘we’ in the Children and Young People's Plan, we are referring to all of the organisations which are represented on the YorOK Board.

YorOK is the most senior partnership of everybody who works with children and young people in York, including schools and colleges. The YorOK Board makes sure that all of its members really are working together in the best interests of families and children. An independent external inspection (Ofsted) in 2008 found that our Children’s Trust arrangements are ‘well established and effective’ and we were proud to be invited to take part in a national Children’s Trust review. However, we know that more needs doing and we are not complacent.

We also work with the other senior partnerships in the city that can help make a difference to children’s lives – especially those bodies responsible for the city’s economy and its
environment, and those whose responsibility it is to tackle homelessness. In preparing this Plan, we have been careful to take account of these other partnerships’ priorities. We have a seat on the overarching ‘Local Strategic Partnership’ for York (known as ‘WithoutWalls’) to ensure that the needs of children and young people are taken into account when big decisions are taken about the future of the city. There are more details about this on the 'partnership arrangements' page.

One of our most important responsibilities is spending wisely all of the public money we are given for children and young people’s services in York. Between us it amounts to in excess of £170 million a year, and we need to make sure every penny of that is spent on the priorities that we all agree are important, and without any unnecessary overlaps. We have therefore introduced new arrangements for this, which we call ‘integrated commissioning’: developing this will be at the heart of our work for the period covered by this Plan.

YorOK is supported by a small Children’s Trust Unit, which services the YorOK Board and manages a number of key programmes. The 'partnerships page' shows how it all fits together. The Children’s Trust Unit acts as a resource and central contact point on all aspects of partnership working, early intervention and prevention. It is also responsible for some of the important mechanisms that make integrated working a reality, such as the ‘Common Assessment Framework’ and the ‘YorOK Child Index’, and for the policies that will make sure all of the staff who work for us are clear about what they need to do and confident that they have the skills and knowledge to do it.

These are exciting times for the Children’s Trust. We are all passionate about what we do because we know from what you tell us that it makes a real difference to the lives of children and families in York.

Members of the YorOK Board at January 2009 were:

For the City of York Council:
Councillor Carol Runciman (Vice-Chair) - Executive Member for Children’s Services
Councillor David Merrett - Shadow Executive Member for Children’s Services

For NHS North Yorkshire and York:
Jane Marshall (Chair) - Director of Commissioning and Service Development

For the local Children and Families Voluntary and Community Sector:
Colin Stroud - Chief Executive, York CVS

For the Early Years Partnership:
Peggy Sleight - Independent Chair

For the National Children’s Voluntary Sector:
Ron Oliver - Assistant Regional Director

For York Hospitals NHS Trust: 
Jen Slaughter - Associate Director (Safeguarding and Child Protection)

For the University of York:
Dr Margaret Bell - Senio Academic

For the City of York Council, Learning, Culture & Children’s Services:
Pete Dwyer - Director, Learning, Culture & Children’s Services
Paul Murphy - Assistant Director, Partnerships and Early Intervention

For the Local Safeguarding Children Board:
Roger Thompson - Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board

For the Children’s Trust Unit:
Judy Kent - Children’s Trust Unit Manager

For Secondary Schools:
Anne Laws - Head of Pastoral Care and Staff Development, Archbishop Holgate’s School

For Primary Schools:
Caroline Ryder - Headteacher, Carr Junior School

For the Learning and Skills Council:
Anthony Knowles - Partnership Director, York

For the Further Education Sector:
Graeme Murdoch - Deputy Principal, York College

For North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership:
Sue Gradwell - Executive Director

For North Yorkshire Police: 
Steve Read - Assistant Chief Constable

For Jobcentre Plus:
Dave Tinsley - Childcare Partnership Manager

For York Youth Offending Team:
Simon Page - York YOT Manager