Agenda item

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 age range of the offer;

·           Councillor Chadwick asked if the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) covered the whole Borough.  Sal Thirlway stated that the MHST was part of a national programme which the local authority had bid to, at this stage the project involved 12 schools in the Borough.  It was hoped that the project would, in time, expand to all schools in the Borough;

·           Councillor Mickleburgh asked if there had been unexpected concerns during this period and how the service was responding to these concerns.  Adam Davis stated that initially there had been concerns over children who were not in contact with any professionals.  As the pandemic progressed, nationally there was growing concern over the risk around non-mobile, under 2 year olds cohort of children.  In Wokingham, the service had carried out a review of cases that had been closed, recent cases, and an officer undertook targeted work with the under 5 year old cohort;

·           Sal Thirlway stated that the Education Welfare Service had provided support with school attendance;

·           Adam Davis stated that in Wokingham those children considered most at risk with Child Protection Plans, had continued to have their visits, with 95% completion during the pandemic period; even where legislation had allowed for flexibility;

·           Carol Cammiss stated that the service had made contact with all young carers to ensure they were supported during the pandemic;

·           Adam Davis stated that social workers had been able to use technology to engage young people, this had been positive and some young people preferred this method of communication;

·           In response to a question Sal Thirlway stated that the traded service arrangements were regularly reviewed, and the provision of the Education Welfare service was dependent on capacity.

Members wished to express gratitude to Officers for the work undertaken during the pandemic.  Members were also appreciative of the work undertaken in preparation for this meeting, given the fact that the service was undergoing an Ofsted inspection at this time.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.