A CHILDREN'S trust is to be created for the borough of Stockton to improve the provision of services.

The new trust will see schools working with a range of other services to meet the needs of children and their families.

Chiefly, this will see the trust arranging for schools to link up in extended school clusters.

This involves schools working together to offer local people access to services such as a community nurse, local police officer, welfare benefits advice, support for employment, adult education, childcare facilities, family learning, homework and study support.

The idea is already being successfully piloted in Billingham and soon every local school will have the opportunity to be part of an extended school cluster.

Other suitable clusters of schools will be identified and will work with providers to meet their neighbourhood's needs by delivering services locally.

The move to create the children's trust is one of the outcomes of a review of services conducted by Stockton Borough Council, which aim to meet legislation introduced by the Government as part of its agenda for children.

It follows a conference between various service providers and representatives from schools, the council and the primary care trust to consider how they could organise existing services to best meet the needs of children, their families and the broader community.

The new trust, which will be operated by the council, will integrate local education, social care and some health services for children.

Other organisations will also be able to become involved with the trust, such as the police, voluntary groups, the youth offending team, Connexions and other council services.

Ann Baxter, the council's corporate director of children, education and social care, said: "This will be the key to ensuring local children can enjoy a healthy and safe lifestyle, achieve their ambitions and make a positive contribution to their local community.

"The creation of a children's trust brings an exciting opportunity to achieve a single focus for delivering services for all the borough's young people and, I believe, it heralds a brighter future, both for them and for the services they need."

The entire range of services available to children and their families is now being reviewed to ensure that they will be provided in an integrated way in future.

Young people, their families, carers and local communities will be consulted over how the services should be provided