Oxfordshire Children’s Trust Arrangements and Board Terms of Reference (2026-28)

Introduction

The Children’s Trust Board brings together the public, private and voluntary sectors to improve outcomes and life experiences for all children and young people who live in Oxfordshire. The Board focuses its actions on four priorities from the Children and Young People (CYP) Plan: 

• Start well and early help
• Live well: young Lives (outcomes for young people) 
• Achieve well (outcomes for education and inclusion)
• Voices of children and young people 

 The purpose of the Trust is to: 

• Oversee the strategic intent of Oxfordshire multi-agency partners, based upon the desired outcomes of the Health and Wellbeing Board, with a focus upon outcomes and implications for, and on effective partnership working across Oxfordshire to best support, children and young people; 
• Drive a long-term Children and Young People’s Strategy and Plan, designed to improve outcomes for children in Oxfordshire in relation to the agreed priority areas of ‘Start Well, Live Well, Achieve Well’; 
• Receive assurance in relation to the impact and progress of the strategic priorities and to review the impact of other strategic boards and committees in supporting those priorities and progression; 
• Champion the involvement of children and young people, parents and carers, in partnership, working with senior managers and politicians; and 
• Ensure that the Health and Wellbeing Board and other partnerships are sighted on the key challenges and outcomes facing children and young people across Oxfordshire. 

Terms of Reference 

This term of reference sets out the strategic, decision making and operational structure of the Children’s Trust Board. This document will be reviewed every two years in line with the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the strategic priorities of the Council and any refresh of the Children and Young People’s Plan.     

Responsibilities 

The responsibilities of the Trust are to:

• Report to and inform the Health and Wellbeing Board (this does not preclude consultation and reporting to other committees and boards focused upon outcomes for children and young people);
• Regularly monitor progress on outcomes relevant to the Best Start in Life, which include the inequality of Good Level of Development outcomes for children eligible for free school meals; report to the Health and Wellbeing Board on this matter;
• Produce an overarching strategy focused upon key high-level outcomes using the delivery work of other strategic boards and committees to drive outcomes 
• Lead on the production, development and any updates to the Children and Young People’s Plan 
• Review performance via the Children’s Trust dataset, which is overseen by the Performance, Audit and Quality Assurance Subgroup of both the Trust and Strategic Safeguarding Arrangements for children and young people; and 
• Encourage and promote integrated working between Children’s Services, Health and Social Care and other local services including voluntary and public sector services.

Structure 

Membership of the Trust:

Members are required to be of sufficient seniority to be able to: 

• Speak for their organisation and make decisions 
• Commit their organisation on policy and practice matters 
• Hold their organisation to account and lead dissemination of communication into and out from their organisation/agency 

The Trust membership is drawn from each of the agencies or organisations set out below: 

• Cabinet Member for Children and Young People (OCC)
• Children Education and Family Services (Director and Deputy Directors) 
• Director of Public Health 
• Thames Valley Integrated Care Board 
• The District Councils: one mandated representative on behalf of others
• The City Council 
• Thames Valley Police 
• Oxfordshire Children’s Strategic Safeguarding Arrangements: Scrutineer 
• Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust 
• Safer Oxfordshire Partnership 
• Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust 
• Children and Young People’s Forum (on behalf of the Third Sector)
• Healthwatch 

Membership will be reviewed in line with CYP strategy updates. Associated colleagues may be invited to attend for specific information and assurance items. 

The Trust may, from time to time, establish working groups to pursue particular projects. These groups will be set up on a “task and finish” basis and will be dissolved once the project has been completed. 

The Chair: 

The Trust will be chaired by the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Oxfordshire County Council. 

Vice Chair: 

The Vice Chair will be a representative from any of the organisations represented at the Board. The role of the Vice Chair involves chairing and preparing meetings, approving minutes and reports to the Health and Wellbeing Board in the absence of the Chair and leading on agreed specific pieces of work. The duration of the role can be negotiated but continuity is expected as the Board only meets four times a year. 

Administration

The Trust will meet four times a year, once a quarter, and agree dates for the year in advance. 

The agenda for three of the meetings will include a focus on at least one of the priorities listed above and include time to consider emerging and core business. 

Core business includes: 

• Performance monitoring and assurance 
• Updates from other statutory boards across the partnership 
• New and emerging national, regional and local developments which impact on the business of the Trust. 

Agendas will be published 1 week in advance of the meeting. 

Strategy and Plan review: 

The Trust will review the programme of assurance in line with the strategies and direction of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Communication, Consultation and Engagement 

The Trust is responsible via a range of mechanisms across the partnership for engaging and involving children and young People, their families, carers and other local stakeholders to influence partnership plans that deliver outcomes for children and young people across Oxfordshire. 

To achieve this, the Trust will work with specific partners and agency/partnership mechanisms on a range of participation, engagement, feedback and the output of coproduction activity, to ensure that the voice of children and young people and families influence and inform the priorities and assurance of the Trust.

Appendix 1

Confidentiality and Information Sharing

Information used by the Children’s Trust Board and provided to external bodies will be accurate, timely, and fit for purpose. 

 Members of the Trust are encouraged to share information as required for the purpose of planning, developing, and monitoring partnership projects and services by ensuring all data is in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. 

All members of the Trust are responsible for communicating any relevant information to their organisation unless that information is deemed confidential to a particular meeting. 

 Appendix 2

Values

 The Children’s Trust Board will be: 

• Strategic - members of the Trust can take a strategic overview, to implement system change and thinking and to influence decision making and delivery within their organisation 
• Inclusive – the Trust will be a partnership of equals, actively involving all the key players in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors and children and young people 
• Outcome focused – The Trust will establish common priorities together with agreed actions and milestones that lead to demonstrable improvements against measurable baselines 
• A body that promotes equality – the Trust will serve the needs of all children and young people regardless of age, sex, disability, race, religion, belief or sexual orientation