Whilst core aim 7 will have been completed in many children and young partnerships, this phase will be of use for the development of more detailed action plans. We have developed a template that can be adapted to suit local requirements.
The template should be utilised alongside your core aim 7 section, to provide a more detailed outline of the issues and approaches to reducing child poverty locally.Whilst the strategic priorities for core aim 7 will be developed it is important that they are aligned to the three strands of the Welsh Assembly Government approach to child poverty reduction:
- Improving life opportunities for disadvantaged children.
- Financial inclusion initiatives.
- Encouraging greater uptake of the UK Government tax and benefits support.
Taken together the areas form the basis of a strategic approach, which may be reflected within the children and young people’s plans. For suggested child poverty related actions, the solutions area of the website provides a list based on the core aims of the children and young people’s plans.
Target setting & indicators
Targets should be realistic and evidence based. You may need to develop sub-outcomes’ or proxies setting out what you are going to do to achieve the improved outcomes, particularly for outcomes that may take many years to show improvement. Indicators that may be relevant include: 'Measuring Success' & 'Child Poverty as a Local Area Agreement Theme'
In selecting indicators, you may want to ensure that they take into account local circumstances. For example, in some areas improving inequalities in educational outcomes might most appropriately be measured at Key Stage 2 (at age 11). For another area it might be at 16. Another might consider improvement across a range of ages.When considering targets and indicators, the publication “Choosing the Right Fabric” – developed by HM Treasury, Cabinet Office , National Audit Office (NAO), the Audit Commission and the Office of National Statistics (ONS) – provides comprehensive information on target setting and a good checklist of the things to take into account. Useful questions that summarise this include:
- Are the measures relevant?
- Do they avoid perverse incentives?
- Are the activities measured capable of being influenced by actions that can be attributed to the partnership, and is it clear where accountability lies?
- Is the measure easy to understand and can data be collected consistently?
- Can the data be produced regularly enough to track progress, and quickly enough for them to be useful?
- Is the measure reliable enough for its intended use, and responsive to change?
- Is the measure comparable with past periods of similar programmes elsewhere?
- Can the process which produces the measure be verified?