Introduction

"Children's Trust Arrangements" are the structure Government has now said all local authorities and local NHS organisations must adopt to deliver services for children. This is the organisation which is responsible for delivering the Every Child Matters agenda. They are "arrangements" because it was not felt that setting up a completely new organisation would be the best idea - it's about binding together existing services by strengthening the way they plan, spend and work together.

There is a range projects which puts into place the Children's Trust Arrangements: joint working processes such as the Common Assessment Framework  (CAF) - and there are briefings and updates on these elsewhere in this section.

There is a duty to involve the voluntary and community sector in the development and delivery of the Children's Trust Arrangements. In Manchester, much of MACC's work with the children and families voluntary sector is about building up that relationship. The Government has issued guidance on how this should work: download 2005 Engaging the Voluntary and Community Sectors in Children's Trusts.

Manchester is in the process of creating a Children's Trust Handbook which sets out how and where all the partners come together to develop services. This is being expanded into a complete guide to the local Children's Trust Arrangements - we'll post the revised versions here as they are released.