Steve Horne and Andrea Houlahan to provide verbal updates
Minutes:
Committee were updated on the position with regards to Covid. It was noted that Children’s Social Care continued to hold face to face meetings throughout the pandemic so emergency and safeguarding work remains the same.
It was expected that with the lifting of restrictions it would lead to an increase in demand and from May 2021 there has been a significant increase in demand in social care services and court proceedings. From May until now referrals have increased significantly, however the service is continuing to meet demand well and this has been recognised by Ofsted.
There are over 180 more children and young people in the system now than pre-Covid. There has been good support from the Council to increase the number of Social Workers. There are continued challenges in recruiting Social Workers into the profession.
There has been an increase in the complexities of cases, these are around trauma and mental health and there have been a number of young people struggling in terms of placements.
Ofsted has acknowledged the work of the service and a report of its findings will be published on 27 October.
The LAC population has stabilised but the increase in referrals is predominantly due to parental factor, i.e. domestic violence etc. The highest referrer remains the police with the second biggest number of referrals coming from schools.
Mental health in young people continues to be a concern and work is ongoing to look at developing more of a bespoke service.
It was questioned whether the Compact Agreement is robust. It was confirmed that HR is helping the service to work on a recruitment and retention strategy but currently the Council is not as competitive as it could be.
It was questioned whether the increase in mental health problems is due to better identification or whether there is a genuine increase in mental health cases. It was confirmed that there has been an increase in the number of young people with complex mental health needs who have not been known to any partners or children’s social care services so it is important to understand that better.
It was asked whether there has been an increase in Social Workers working remotely. It was confirmed that all local authorities have a different position on this, however within Gateshead it has always remained a priority to keep eyes on children and young people in their family home so remote work is kept to a minimum.
In terms of education it was noted that schools have generally reported children coming back to school post Covid very resilient. Meetings are continuing to be held with Headteachers and regular Union meetings as well.
It was reported that there are higher levels of anxiety and stress than would be usual for this point in the term. Because Covid cases are continuing to rise this is impacting on staff and pupil attendance and supply agencies are also struggling.
The national vaccination programme for young people has not gone well, with anti-vax protests being held outside of one secondary school. The vaccination programme is now being handled at a local level and progress is being made.
It was questioned whether data is being held around which schools are being hit with Covid cases and whether this is linked to inequalities. It was confirmed that Public Health will keep that information.
RESOLVED - That the information presented be noted.