Agenda item

The Chair stated his belief that the report should have been entitled ‘the impact of the response to Covid-19’.

The item was introduced by Chris Baird, who drew members’ attention to the three main topics that were summarised in the report. These were school attendance, missing education and attainment; mental health; and the children and families service, including social care. Chris Baird said it was important to recognise that schools had been open throughout the pandemic unless there had been staffing issues. However it was noted there were instances of attendance falling. Patterns of attendance – and the implications for children moving from an early years setting to an infant or primary school, or from primary to secondary – was outlined in the report. It was recognised there had been delays in development, or children were not at the level they would have been expected to be at had the pandemic not occurred. In particular it had been noted some children were behind in terms of language and vocabulary, as they had not been exposed to social and word-rich environments. However there had been additional impacts on a range of areas affecting how children performed at school and how they were learning. This was a position that had been reflected in national studies. Chris Baird said this had been recognised by schools, who were working through this with the help of services being supplied by the Council.

Helen Broughton told the Committee that there had been a significant impact on demand for mental health services for children. There had been an increase in incidents of self-harm, suicides and suicide attempts. Rates of self-harm were already high in Warwickshire before the pandemic, and figures suggested during 2021 it had been 33 per cent higher than the national average. The demand for services relating to eating disorders was also extremely high and there were issues around recruiting staff for specialise fields such as this. Helen Broughton said during the pandemic there had been issues relating to young people transitioning between services for children and those for adults. The RISE mental health service had managed to help by providing some services online during lockdowns and throughout the pandemic.

Helen Broughton said a strategy group had been formed to look at transforming services for children presenting in crisis, with a workshop bringing together various partnership organisations being held the previous week. Additional funding had been awarded for services relating to eating disorders, and to roll out the provision of Mental Health Support Teams into schools. Initially this would be taking place in the south of the county before a further rollout in Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire. The final rollout in Rugby would take place next year. In regard to suicide prevention, Kooth had been commissioned to provide young people with support online including online counselling and peer support chats. A countywide Suicide Prevention Strategy was currently out for consultation. In relation to the transitions work, Helen Broughton said a working party had been established and  a peer mentoring support service had been commissioned, which would be delivered through Coventry and Warwickshire MIND. This was a pilot project that was due to be completed by Christmas.

In relation to the impact on children and family support services, Jo Davies told the Committee that the Council had continued to provide services to children and families, balancing the risks for young people against the safety risks associated with making home visits during the pandemic. It was noticed that some young people struggled to adapt to the boundaries associated with lockdowns and there were increased instances of anxiety due to not being in school. Jo Davies said there were challenges relating to increased complexity of need, including possible risks of exploitation, and younger adults being more likely to be affected economically by the pandemic as they were the ones who were most likely to be furloughed or lose their job. However there were also a number of key strengths relating to service provisions and these were set out in the report.

The Chair stated his belief that lockdowns had not worked and created some mental health problems in young people where they had not existed previously. Councillor Humphreys said one of her grandchildren had started secondary school during the pandemic and provision of online learning had been poor; on occasions lessons had not taken place and it was hard to get feedback from teachers. She said she was concerned that not all schools had access to mental health services provision. Helen Broughton reminded members there was an intention for this to be rolled out in due course. Chris Evans, Assistant Director of Operations, Mental Health Services for Children & Young People at Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, said the mental health in schools team was borne out of a government Green Paper designed at providing low-level interventions. It was likely there would be lessons learned from the first phase of the rollout to schools in the south, enabling a better understanding of what was required for the second phase in the north. All schools would have access to the support programmes and the professionals who would be providing the service. Chris Evans said it would be important to listen to young people and research what support could be given to them, as they were in a unique situation where they had not been able to rely on peer to peer support to regulate their emotions. He said this had been the intention of the Kooth service. Councillor Humphreys said provision of this was particularly important in rural areas, where some young people found it harder to see their friends. Councillor Roodhouse also endorsed Kooth as a good service.

Councillor Kaur said the report was comprehensive and showed what had worked well and what had not. She said some parents had raised with her the issue of online learning, with some saying it had not been good enough.

Councillor Barker said she supported the Chair’s earlier statement that the report should have been entitled ‘the impact of the response to Covid-19’. She stated her belief that lockdowns had not worked and the rise in demand for mental health services caused by young people being in lockdown could have been easily predicted. Councillor Roodhouse pointed out that schools remained open throughout the pandemic, providing in-person education for children of key workers, and teachers and teaching assistants were physically present in schools. Jo Davies said additional resources had been provided to youth services as part of the transformation plan. An extra £800,000 had been allocated to community organisations as part of a joint virtual offer. Jo Davies said not all youth groups had been able to provide virtual support and the some of the funding had been intended to help the community groups as much as possible.

Jo Davies said suicide cluster meetings had been taking place with health colleagues looking at psychological support in relation to young people with suicidal ideation and self harming. Critical incident meetings had been held, some of which had escalated to safeguarding reviews. Some of these were in relation to young people in supported accommodation. Jo Davies said multi-agency learning considered the impact of Covid-19 and the relevant reviews will be available to view on the Warwickshire Safeguarding Partnership website.

Chris Evans said RISE now had scope to continue delivering services online for those who wanted to access them in this way. Learning exercises had taken place so that services could continue to be delivered in the event of future health crises. It was noted that residential placements had been impacted by Covid-19 as it was not possible to deliver this service, as the units were commandeered for other purposes during the response to the pandemic and in any case there were no staff available to man them as residential units. Chris Evans said a values-based approach was in the process of being embedded; the ethos was now based on how services could be delivered rather than where.

Councillor Beetham noted the report stated young people were most anxious about infection rates of Covid-19 due to being in school, rather than contracting the disease itself. He stated his belief that appropriate levels of support should be in place to enable young people the chance to bounce back from having their progress through school put on hold as a result of the pandemic. He said it was important the Committee received regular updates on the progress that was being made. He said he would like to see some more statistics in relation to transition services in particular, stating this had been a problematic area pre-pandemic. Regarding the families who received help through the provision of laptops and vouchers, Councillor Beetham said he would like to see a detailed breakdown of which geographical areas were provided with them. Chris Evans said the transition service for people aged 18-25 was a key part of both the Council’s commissioning strategy and the NHS England strategy. A peer support programme was an integral part of this. However there were difficulties in resource allocation. For example those with eating disorders had been disproportionately negatively affected by lockdown, due to being unable to access external help and the food they needed. There was a training programme based around eating disorders being developed, along with programmes relating to mental health in schools.

Councillor Morgan noted a tutoring and catchup programme had been mooted by central government. Chris Baird said he was unaware of the progress of this but would find out and circulate an answer to members. Councillor Barker said she was aware of a school where, in her opinion, the coaching had been implemented too early. Chris Baird said it was for the schools to decide on an individual basis when to introduce it.

Resolved

In accordance with standing order 28.7, as the meeting had lasted for three hours members held a vote on whether to continue the meeting. Members voted unanimously to carry on.

Councillor Kerridge said it was important to note that not all children had suffered hardship as a result of lockdowns and the pandemic in general. Regarding rates of suicides and self-harm, he asked if it was possible for the figures to be delivered in numbers rather than percentages, as these could sometimes be misleading. Councillor Kerridge said he had attended a meeting of the children and families response team and had been impressed with the work that was taking place.

Chris Evans said it was important for people to talk about their feelings, adding there was a perceived stigma around emotional difficulties. Although anxiety in itself wasn’t a clinically diagnosable condition and was a normal human emotion, sometimes support was needed in cases where people were unable to stabilise their feelings. If left unchecked it could lead to a situation requiring intervention.

Councillor Simpson-Vince said although there were disparities in the quality of online learning that was delivered, teachers had been thrown in at the deep end and were expected to find new ways to deliver lessons in a very short space of time. Additional disruption was caused by teachers being ill and having to isolate, meaning they could not deliver lessons. Chris Evans said a study had suggested 79 per cent of pupils surveyed said they felt they would be OK when restrictions were lifted. However it was important to help children feel confident and supported, as some had shown signs of being emotionally dysregulated.

Chris Evans said there was a perception that people’s lives needed to return to normal as quickly and safely as possible. Warwickshire was leading the national response to the trauma suffered by children and young people during the pandemic. In this instance the trauma or anxiety affecting the sufferer did not mean they were mentally ill.

Councillor Hammersley asked if teachers were on full pay when they were off ill due to Covid, and therefore some would be reluctant to teach classes as a result. Nigel Minns said teachers’ contractual arrangements varied so he could not provide an answer, but he was happy to provide Councillor Hammersley with a sample of teachers’ conditions and sickness arrangements. Nigel Minns reiterated that throughout the pandemic all schools remained open for vulnerable children and those whose parents were key workers, and teachers and teaching assistants were in class teaching. It was accepted the quality of online teaching did vary.

Members asked for updates on the progress that was being made. Nigel Minns said that in terms of educational attainment it would be unlikely there would be a significant update before the autumn term. In terms of an update regarding healthcare provision, Nigel Minns said he would liaise with colleagues at the CCG about suitable timeframes for an update.