Issue - meetings

To receive and consider a report containing information about the Children’s Services response to Covid-19.

Adam Davis, Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care and Early Help and Sal Thirlway, Assistant Director for Learning and Partnerships presented the report.

Dam Davis stated that during the pandemic the service had to adapt to continue the delivery of its statutory duties.  He highlighted the following:

·           Front door contacts continued to be reviewed throughout the year, there was an increase in activity (7%) in March.  However, the total number of referrals and the number of Looked After Children (LAC) remained relatively stable;

·           The service provided to Children In Care (CIC) and Care Leavers had continued as it had been prior to the pandemic;

·           The Fostering Team provided support to foster carers through various initiatives, as listed in the report;

·           Bridges, the respite and residential care for children with disabilities remained opened, with reduced capacity and adjustments;

·           The Early Help service, which is not statutory, continued to provide support to families via telephone and online communication during the pandemic;

·           Supervised contact with birth parents for LAC was sustained during the pandemic. A new contact centre for LAC in the town centre had recently opened.

Sal Thirlway highlighted the following:

·           The service continued to provide support to schools and early years settings, including guiding them through the new legislation;

·           Weekly meetings were held with headteachers and senior leaders to provide advice and guidance and share experience;

·           Additional guidance was provided to early years settings in relation to Covid risk assessments;

·           The Education Welfare Service, which was normally a traded service, was provided for free during the pandemic;

·           School attendance remained good in the Borough;

·           All schools and early years settings in the affected wards had been engaged with the surge testing arrangements;

·           There was a holistic approach to provide mental health and emotional wellbeing support to children and young people, the service worked with Social Care, Health and other professionals to provide a joined up offer.  This included Kooth and mental health support teams to schools.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds made reference to a recent national report which had identified failures in early help to families during Covid.  She was interested to know how the service remained its focus in early help to families in need.  Adam Davis stated that Wokingham had a very well established early help service, and this had continued throughout the pandemic;

·           Councillor Margetts asked for more information about how the offer of mental health and wellbeing hub was going to be communicated.  Adam Davis stated that the work had involved schools, school governors and campaigns to share information with parents;

·           Councillor Bray asked if the contract for Kooth was going to be renewed and about the option of extending the offer to 25 year olds.  Carol Cammiss, stated that the Kooth contract had been extended for a further year, there had been a slight increase in cost which was going to be absorbed by Children’s Services.  She would look at the possibility of extending the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6