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HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE & FAMILIES CABINET PANEL

TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 AT 10:00 AM

CHILDREN’S SERVICES RESPONSE TO THE COVID PANDEMIC

Report of the Director of Children’s Services

Author: Karen Noble, Service Manager, Performance Improvement & Business Delivery Service (Tel: 01992 588394) Executive Member: Teresa Heritage, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families 1. Purpose of report 1.1 The purpose of this report is to update the Panel on the impact of

COVID-19 on services for children and young people and how Children’s Services is addressing the challenges it presents in protecting and supporting Hertfordshire’s most vulnerable children.

2. Summary

2.1 On 23 March 2020 the country was placed in a state of lockdown to

slow the rate of infection of coronavirus and manage the pressure on the NHS. Since then, managers and staff in Children’s Services have worked tirelessly to support the most vulnerable families, adapt their way of working and procedures to ensure most services are continued despite the adverse circumstances.

2.2 As we move on to the next stage of ‘a new normal’, this report reflects

on:

The impact of the pandemic;

How the service has adapted practice to continue to protect children and young people and deliver support for families;

Plans to manage the medium term impact of the pandemic and build on the positive developments during this period.

2.3 This report should be read in conjunction with the Children Services

Performance Report also presented for panel members.

Agenda Item No.

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3. Recommendation

3.1 The Cabinet Panel is asked to note and comment upon this report

4. Impact of the pandemic on children, families, and the services that we deliver Families First, Safeguarding, Specialist Adolescent Services, 0-25 services.

4.1 During the pandemic many families have found it hard to cope with the

isolation and anxiety, disruption to education/work routines and in some cases difficult or traumatic experiences at home. All of these are potential contributors to mental health and domestic abuse issues in both the immediate and longer term for children and young people.

4.2 Many children and young people with special educational needs and

disabilities (SEND) are finding the disruption to their routine learning challenging. This will not only impact on long-term educational achievement but may also place some young people at a greater risk of exploitation.

4.3 One of the most significant changes that impacted upon service

delivery was the ability to undertake face to face visits to children and young people. Given out services rely heavily upon a model of relationship based practice, this immediately required front line officers to adapt and change the manner in which we deliver services.

4.4 The performance report being presented at today’s panel provides the data of our key performance since the beginning of lockdown, members of the panel will note that all areas of our key performance have been maintained and continues to be closely monitored by senior officers. Children’s Services have also established a set of COVID-19 specific Key Performance Indicators to enable monitoring of vulnerable children, high risk cases, school attendance and contacts into Children’s Services.

4.5 Over the first three months of the pandemic period, we saw a significant reduction in contacts and referrals into Families First, Children’s Service and requests for EHCPs (although we are beginning to see this increase over the last few weeks).

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4.6 However, in line with national data, domestic abuse contacts into Families First Triage (Early Help) accounted for 41% of contacts between April and June. This compares with 24% during the same period in 2019.

4.7 In Hertfordshire, under the emergency governance structure, a Data

Monitoring Group has been established to collate information on domestic abuse from partners from across the County Council, the police, the voluntary and community sector, health and District/Borough Council colleagues. Alongside this there has been an ongoing proactive media campaign via social media forums to highlight issues related to Domestic Abuse and how people can access support if required.

4.8 We are monitoring activity and evidence of latent demand regularly, as

illustrated in the graph below. Referral levels into Children’s Social Care between April and July are 31% lower than the same period in 2019. However, as the chart below shows when schools returned for limited designated year groups in June, there was a significant rise in contacts in June and the first half of July. The full return to school for all pupils in September and professionals, particularly in health professionals now returning to their substantive roles e.g. health visitors and school nurses and families having greater access to face to face services as restrictions have lifted is predicted to bring a significant increase in contacts and referrals to Children’s Services throughout the autumn and winter months.

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4.9 Our Families First teams worked with volunteers to distribute food, craft and toys to families that were in need of support during lockdown. Moving forward we will continue to embed a volunteer approach that strengthens our self-help and community offer.

4.10 We have monitored visiting levels to all children under a Child in Need

(CiN) and Child Protection Plan (CPP) and ensured that children have had regular contact with their social worker. Hertfordshire has adapted well to the Department for Education (DfE) guidelines which came into force in May 2020 around visits and contact. Regular contact and visits (virtual or social distanced) have increased with 95% of CP and 93% of CLA visited/contacted within a two-week period. This is considerably higher than national average and statistical neighbors.

4.11 Visits have been carried both virtually by video call and face to face

where safe to do so. Parents have been informed that all school age children subject to a child protection plan or child in need plan should be attending school and attendance is considerably higher than national averages. This will remain a focus from September onwards.

4.12 We have closely monitored children on Child Protection Plans (CPP)

both whilst they are on a CPP and when it is deemed they no longer require a CPP. Additional management oversight of this vulnerable group of children has been implemented.

4.13 As with all of our practice, casework is reviewed in professional

supervision and responded to appropriately and therefore some children would have been seen and visited much more regularly dependent on the level of vulnerability.

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4.14 In order to ensure that the most vulnerable children are appropriately supported, all open cases have been reviewed and risk assessed and a priority case status ’flag’ has been developed in LCS (the electronic case database) which ensures regular oversight and monitoring throughout this period.

4.15 COVID-19 Practice Standards have been developed to support

safeguarding practitioners by giving clear guidance whilst working in the current, unprecedented circumstances. This guidance is regularly updated (fortnightly) and recirculated, reflecting changing government guidance, including that issued by the Department for Education.

4.16 School attendance has been an improving picture with over 38% of vulnerable children supported by our Family Safeguarding and 0-25 services attending school at the end of the academic year. All children and young people with an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP) have been risked assessed by their school. 12.5% of those with an EHCP were attending school in July. This figure represents those children with EHCPs assessed as vulnerable and for whom school attendance was needed to ensure their safety and wellbeing. The majority of children with EHCPs were supported to remain at home safely during this time. Requests for EHCPs reduced during lockdown and as schools return in September we are predicting an upward turn.

4.17 Smartphones and unlimited data SIM cards have been provided to those families and service users who did not have access to these previously to remain connected and the use of technology has been extended to ensure that contact between children and birth parents can continue whilst following social distancing guidance. Just under 1700

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laptops or Chromebooks have been provided to disadvantaged children and young people.

4.18 Quote from a Mum

‘Mum was so grateful she actually cried when I gave it to her. The family didn’t have any technology apart from 1 smart phone, so all 6 children were using mum’s phone to access the internet and arguing all the time and mum was getting extremely anxious that her phone would get broken. Mum has now been able to set them all little pieces of schoolwork and is able to monitor and manage this so much better. Mum is also now able to finish her college course that she thought she was going to have to give up on because she needed a laptop to complete and submit the work.’

4.19 Surveys have been conducted with young people to identify support

requirements in relation to their wellbeing and how they felt about returning to school. This has enabled the Children’s Services to target its signposting to support for issues that are of greatest concern for young people. In addition, Herts Parent Carer Involvement (HPCI) have been very involved in adapting support to meet the needs of families of children with SEND during this difficult period.

4.20 Work with the Families Panel and a survey of families supported

through Intensive Family Support Teams (IFST), enabled us to understand what families want to know and how best to communicate this information to them. Subsequently we developed specific communications to explain how services were operating during this period.

Children Looked After (CLA) / Special Education Needs & Disabilities (SEND)

4.21 The number of Children Looked After (CLA) has increased from 950 in

March to 976 currently. Data for the period April to July 2019 has been compared with data for the same period this year. The comparison shows that a similar number of children and young people came into care.

4.22 Placement stability of children looked after has improved considerably

despite additional pressures upon carers of children not being in school. At the end of August 2020 8.5% of children looked after has 3 or more placements in the last 12months. This is the best performance to date and a considerable improvement from the 12.7% in March 2019. In addition the number of children with 3 or more social workers in the last 12 months has also improved considerably reducing from a peak of 14.1% in July 2019 to 8.5% in August 2020.

4.23 We have also seen delays in court proceedings amounting to a total of

111 vacated court days. Delayed court hearings can potentially impact in several ways. Children may experience a delay in having

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permanency decisions made about their long-term future. There will be a number of associated financial pressures placed upon children services due to delayed court hearings, specifically related to ongoing costs of contact for children and their parents, placements lasting longer until final decisions are made for children and the impact of increased caseloads for social workers as the throughput of casework is being delayed. Children’s Services and the legal team are working closely with the local Judiciary to respond to these challenges.

4.24 For our Children Looked After (CLA), a range of measures and additional support have been put in place’ including;

A list of potential emergency residential beds for CLA of various ages and needs including SEND and those displaying COVID 19 symptoms were identified and regularly reviewed;

Foster carers volunteered to be part of a team of ‘Super Carers’ to provide emergency placements for children displaying COVID symptoms;

A bespoke residential facility was set up to support up children and young people with SEND who had COVID-19.

A more flexible contract payment process was developed to in order to sustain the market.

Guidance for the management of cases of COVID 19 in children’s homes and short breaks settings

Virtual supervised contact between children and their families and now risk assessed face to face contact

4.25 Anecdotally we have heard of children and young people who are

thriving during this period, feeling more settled and more able to engage in learning at home. In addition, foster carer recruitment has seen enquiries more than double over the last three months in comparison to the same period last year.

4.26 Both foster carers and our children’s homes have reported that some

children have felt more secure and stable in their placement during the lockdown. Partnership working between public sector agencies, education settings and the voluntary and community sector has been enhanced during the last 5 months building on the good working relationships already in place.

4.27 The Virtual School has provided extensive and detailed home-

schooling information and resources for carers, A ‘Virtual Classroom’ was created for 25 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and this work will continue throughout August until the colleges re-open.

4.28 SEND Services have worked together to effectively manage and

deliver services through sharing resource and targeting staff/ resource where required. This has included:

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The creation of a range of resources for schools including guidance on settling children back into school routines and adapting to social distancing requirements.

The implementation of a SEND phone line which is managed and overseen by two service areas to ensure families have a single point of contact.

Partnership work with schools and settings, including specialist settings, to ensure that every child with an EHCP in Hertfordshire has an up to date risk assessment considering education, health and social care needs; and processes in place to arrange appropriate support and monitoring for those who were deemed high risk.

Coproduced updates to the Local Offer website, including the creation of an online tool for parents to access a range of new and existing resources such as online learning and mental health support; and an online area for coronavirus updates relating to service changes.

4.29 In addition, services have sustained both the overnight short break

offer and vital personal care support for approximately 150 children across the county by financially stabilising providers and supporting them to provide mutual aid to each other and across the system, including sharing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and suppliers. Much of this was coordinated through the newly developed COVID Provider Helpline, staffed by commissioning colleagues.

Youth Services

4.30 Since lockdown was announced, Youth Workers and Information,

Advice & Guidance (IAG) practitioners have sustained one-to-one interventions with young people and their families, communicating with them via phone or virtually to check how they were and offer support. YC Hertfordshire developed online groupwork delivering over 80 weekly projects, delivering 700 online sessions by the end of June. Projects have focused on topics such as emotional wellbeing, healthy relationships and healthy lifestyles.

4.31 Detached youth work re-started in early June in order to support young

people with issues such as risk of engagement in violence / gangs / crime / anti-social behaviour, inappropriate risk taking, mental health and emotional wellbeing, feelings of isolation and loneliness.

5 Meeting the needs of our BAME community 5.1 Each of the service areas is currently looking at their approach to

working with BAME children, young people and families and developing strategies to be included within their service plans. Examples include:

The fostering service more visibly building the recruitment of BAME carers into their recruitment strategy. They are also

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currently developing a ’lite bite’ training course for both carers and supervising social workers on working with BAME children in placement.

Ensuring that staff supervision actively includes recognition of the impact of COVID on BAME families and they are doing an in depth analysis of the BAME profile of families and young people open to their service to consider issues of access and levels of support from both the service and partner agencies.

YC Hertfordshire (YCH) have focused on black and mixed heritage young people to help raise aspirations, develop confidence, motivation and self-esteem - Watford Stand Up Project took place during the school summer holidays and will be part of the core offer for that district team form the autumn term. Similar projects will also start in St Albans and Hemel Hempstead from September. The Thrive Project in partnership with the Watford African Caribbean Association will continue weekly in Watford from September. All YCH district teams are talking to young people about similar projects.

In a survey of over 4,000 Hertfordshire young people this summer, Black Lives Matter was raised as a significant concern for young people. As well as influencing the development of programmes described above YCH will use this in district Youth Strategy Groups and with Youth Councils to identify opportunities to address these concerns.

Pathways to Success, our NEET and pre-NEET programme continued to operate during the Covid-19 lockdown achieving its sign-up profiles which include a percentage of young people from BAME communities.

6. Staff support 6.1 In a recent survey, 93% of staff felt supported by their manager and

colleagues whilst 85% felt that the pandemic and subsequent changes in working arrangements and practice was having little or no negative impact on their wellbeing. However, many staff are missing the face to face peer support.

6.2 We have used a range of fourms to keep staff updated and informed

and encouraged staff to share good practice via short videos and written summaries during weekly communications.

6.3 In light of the research that indicated that people from the BAME

community were more at risk if they caught COVID-19 and the focus on the wider issues highlighted by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign, a number of virtual Q&A events (including one that specifically focused on the impact of COVID on the BAME members of the workforce) have been held with staff and managers. These have provided staff the opportunity to raise concerns and questions with senior managers and

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have helped to shape the organisation’s current and future response to the pandemic

6.4 Reflecting their duty of care, managers across the organisation have

maintained a constant focus on staff well-being and regular communication to ensure staff feel supported and, particularly those from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, have access to PPE if required and have the information they need to ease anxiety. This has included weekly emails and videos from Board members, access to a well-being helpline provided by Herts Partnership Foundation Trust (HPFT), guidance on working from home and managing personal well-being and regular informal ‘team chats’ to provide peer support. In addition, Children’s Services has offered an individual risk assessment to each member of staff to ascertain the potential risks to their safety and well -being (particularly in relation protected characteristics) in performing their job in the current situation and identify mitigating actions to minimise them. These will be regularly reviewed over the coming months.

6.5 The well-being and safety of staff will continue to be a priority with staff

working from home if possible and where meetings with families is required, either in their homes or in the office, there is clear guidance for staff and access to PPE if they wish or required.

6.6 Whilst the pandemic has created a number of issues and challenges, it

has also provided a catalyst for accelerated service improvement and innovation in the way Children’s Services works and supports families. Staff have participated in an exercise to assess what we have learnt from these changes and how positive changes should be adopted as part of long-term service delivery. These have included the benefits of using a combination of face to face and virtual contact with service users.

6.7 We used staff forums and weekly staff communications to engage the

workforce in thinking about Children’s Services future brand, acknowledging many staff wanted to move away from the term ‘recovery’. As such the ‘Our Way Forward’ brand was developed and has been adopted. Alongside this, and in conjunction with staff, we have also developed a set of key principles which underpin ‘Our Way Forward’.

7. Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) 7.1 Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) led by

Children Services, Health and Police colleagues has also adapted to the pandemic by hosting a weekly multi-agency forum (Practice, Policy and Procedures (PPP)) to enable partners to share guidance and

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messages, identify pressures and develop ways to support practitioners during lockdown period. The HSCP have sought assurances from all agencies and have identified areas of multi-agency working that can be adopted/adapted or abandoned and are cited on the planning and messaging that needs to be in place for a potential second wave of infection or local lockdown. This includes:

Adoption and promotion of online multi-agency meetings wherever appropriate

In preparation for a second wave partners have shared their plans to ensure the continuity of safeguarding services during any possible future lockdown.

Communications across the partnership on key themes – e.g. attendance at hospital if needed, attendance at school, hidden harms have been successfully shared and will continue to be coordinated in advance of any potential further local or national lockdown

Development of a COVID-19 web page as part of the HSCP web site to support and signpost both the public and practitioners to key services and resources

Modelling of referral levels are continuing in Children’s Services with regular updates provided to the HSCP Executive. Partners are also closely monitoring demand and will continue to work with Children’s Services to highlight these

HSCP is supporting the move to virtual training/webinars for school staff (Designated Safeguarding Practitioners training)

HSCP’s training offer will remain virtual moving into Autumn and further developments to be this offer are to be reviewed as part of the new way forward. Topics include – Physical Abuse, Contextual Safeguarding, Understanding Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder, Early Identification of Childhood Neglect, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Working with domestic abuse, substance misuse and parental mental health.

Learning hubs for frontline practitioners are in place for Autumn 2020 on the topic of online safeguarding.

Partners will continue to engage in work around recording and monitoring all visits to vulnerable children.

8. What does the future look like? 8.1 In line with most local authorities, Hertfordshire has seen a decrease in

service demand across all areas during the pandemic. However, the need has not gone away and as schools return, and the economic impact becomes more evident, we will see a surge in pent up demand and ‘new’ families needing support because of the pressures caused by the pandemic. We are projecting expected increases in referral activity of about 45% post September if activity continues at current levels until September.

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8.2 The level of demand for early help is particularly difficult to forecast as by definition these families have yet to become visible to services. However, by analysing historic and more recent performance data, it is estimated that we will see a 48% increase in early help cases during the next quarter. More specifically, we are also predicting at least twice as many families seeking support due to homelessness.

8.3 The delays in care related court proceedings, together with an

expected increase in Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) (as Hertfordshire continues to support the on-going national issue), fewer children leaving care in the short to medium term and placement breakdowns will lead to further pressure on placement and service costs for at least the next 18 months. In response to UASC and the crisis of increased numbers of young people arriving at Dover, Hertfordshire has placed an extra 20 young people through the regional Strategic Migration Partnership transfer scheme.

8.4 Further analysis is currently underway to assess the medium to longer

term impact of the COVID pressure in the system. However, the graph below illustrates the impact of an estimated 694 additional referrals (based on historic trend data) on top of the expected 1,857 between September and December 2020.

8.5 We are also anticipating, and are preparing for, additional pressure on requests for Education, Health and Care assessments of between 13 - 28% as children and young people return to school to meet this demand additional resources are being deployed on an interim basis.

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8.6 With the potential of a worsening economic climate, the availability of

apprenticeships and job opportunities for young people will decrease leading to an increase in Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), impacting particularly on Hertfordshire’s most vulnerable young people including those with a learning disability and care leavers. Services are already looking at ways to address this to ensure that care leavers are not adversely impacted upon in years to come. We are looking at developing a stronger corporate parenting approach for Hertfordshire which will have a focus upon NEET; and piloting from September a coaching programme to support transition for young people with SEND from college to work. We are reviewing the skills and employment strategy to harness opportunities for training and work across Hertfordshire.

8.7 One of the main areas of focus for Children’s Services is the beginning

of the new academic year and ensuring schools and families have the information and support required to enable children to return to school safely.

8.8 In the short to medium term, plans are in place to manage the likely

surge in demand for services for vulnerable children once schools re-open fully. This includes:

mobilising arrangements for the teams receiving contacts and referrals to Children’s Services to respond to the demand

Establishing a Child Exploitation Hub in partnership with the Police.

Additional activity has included establishing a redeployment pool; undertaking a recruitment campaign to bring qualified social workers who have ceased to practice back into the service;

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Securing approval to recruit at pace for a peripatetic team which can be used flexibly across the service as peaks in demand are felt.

Alongside this some specialised roles, particularly within special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services are being recruited to provide additional capacity in the short to medium term.

8.9 For children and young people with SEND a clear offer of support will

be published on the Local Offer website in relation to returning to school, the offer from therapy services and SEND Transport guidance for parents.

8.10 We are currently assessing the impact of residential schools converting

to day provision in light of the pandemic. Furthermore, the impact of home schooling on children and young people in care has been reviewed and the Virtual School is assessing options for additional tutoring where needed.

8.11 Across Children’s Services the ethos and focus on personalisation,

tailoring service delivery to meet the needs of children, young people and their families has continued throughout the pandemic and will be at the centre of recovery.

9. Equality implications 9.1 When considering proposals placed before Members it is important that

they are fully aware of and have themselves rigorously considered the equalities implications of the decision that they are taking.

9.2 Rigorous consideration will ensure that proper appreciation of any

potential impact of that decision on the County Council’s statutory obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty. As a minimum this requires decision makers to read and carefully consider the content of any Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) produced by officers.

9.3 The Equality Act 2010 requires the Council when exercising its functions to have due regard to the need to (a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other conduct prohibited under the Act; (b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and (c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. The protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 are age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation

9.4 An Equality Impact Assessment was undertaken to consider the impact

of the coronavirus pandemic on all County Council staff. In addition,

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individual risk assessments have been offered to Children’s Services staff which have focused on the risk of infection amongst protected characteristics groups and what needs to be in place to mitigate those risks. These will be reviewed regularly by managers as part of the supervision process. These discussions have also informed, and been informed by, the County Council’s recently published Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

9.5 There is no EqIA relating to this report.

10. Financial implications 10.1 COVID-19 poses a significant financial risk to Children’s Services

budgets. As per below, the latest estimate of financial impact in 2020/21 is £15.9m - although these figures continue to be regularly updated:

10.2. Key financial risks relate to:

• The cost of additional Children Looked After (CLA) placements, caused by fewer children leaving care as a result of delays in care related court proceedings and other factors;

• Additional Children’s Services staff required to deal with the predicted increase in referrals in coming months;

• The additional costs of Home to School Transport in light of social distancing requirements;

• Loss of income by the Music Service due to the closure of schools.

10.3 A number of the aforementioned risks, particularly the risk of rising

numbers of CLA independent placements and workforce pressures are likely to continue well beyond March 2021. This will require consideration as part of the forthcoming IP process.

11. Summary 11.1 Anticipating what the future will look like and what that will mean in

terms of service delivery and pressure is difficult. We need to plan for multiple scenarios as the situation continues to evolve, often at pace. However, the past few months has shown that Children’s Services with a broad range of partners and education settings has been well-led and agile in its response to emerging issues and in a good position to

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continue to adapt, and improve, services to protect and meet the needs of Hertfordshire’s vulnerable children and young people.

Background information Item 4 CYP&F Performance report