YorOK Board

York has had strong Children’s Trust partnership 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, young people and families 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.

Our current Children and Young People's Plan 2013 - 2016 entitled 'Dream Again' provides more information about the organisations which are represented on the YorOK Board.

YorOK is the most senior children's partnership in York, and includes 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. Independent external inspection (Ofsted) in 2012 rated our partnership arrangements 'outstanding', 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 health and wellbeing of residents, the city’s economy and its environment, and those whose responsibility it is to tackle homelessness. In preparing our Plan, we have been careful to take account of priorities of these other partnerships. We have a seat on the health and wellbeing board and the ‘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 to consider how we all make best use of the public money we are given to provide 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 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 leads on 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.

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.

Download YorOK Board Papers

Papers and minutes from YorOK board meetings are available to download from this website.

Members of theYorOK Board at November 2016 were:

• Cllr S Rawlings  City of York Council    Lead Member – Education, Children and Young People
• Cllr C Runciman    City of York Council    Second nominated elected Member
• Sara Farrar    Department of Work and Pensions    Representative
• Jayne Botham    Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group     Representative
• Jayne Hill/Helen Billson    Partnership Commissioning Unit    Representative
• Rosy Tebbutt    Voluntary and Community Sector     Representative
• Simon Westwood    Local Safeguarding Children Board    Chair
• Jon Stonehouse    City of York Council    Director of Children’s Services
• Debra Radford    NSPCC York    Representative
• Andy Weir Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Ruth Hill Tees, Esk & Wear Valley
• Liz Vincent    York Hospitals NHS Trust    Associate Director, Safeguarding and Child Protection
• Tricia Head    York Education Partnership    Head Teacher Representative
• Scott Butterworth    Primary or Secondary Schools Forum     Head Teacher representative (complementing York Education Partnership representation)
• Paula Richardson    Children’s Centres    Children's Centre Strategy Manager
• Dr. Aniela Wenham    University of York    Senior Academic
• Graeme Murdoch    Further Education Sector    Representative
• Martin McLachlan    North Yorkshire Police    Senior representative of Chief Constable
• Sharon Stoltz    City of York Council    Public Health, Children’s Commissioning Lead