Agenda item

To commence discussion on the item, the Chair stated that she had been contacted by a teacher / SENCo who had raised the following points with her relating to covid impact on children and wished to share them with the Panel:

·         This year had seen children with abilities ranging across the full scale, but a huge number being able to write their names, count accurately, have amazing listening skills a wide range of vocabulary and imaginative play skills.  The time they had spent at home had been well used providing lots of quality interaction.  However, some of the children need extra support in these areas;

·         Seen emotional resilience / reassurance required when children leave their parents for the school day and sometimes during the day;

·         Children struggling following lock down tend to be Years 1 and 2 due to missed learning and find it difficult when reaching KS1 due to missing building the foundations of learning in nursery and reception;

·         Across age ranges there were children with gaps in their knowledge, poor spelling, handing writing, grammar and punctuation;

·         There were a number of gaps to fill.

School Mental Health First Aider – Following a question, it was explained that not all schools had a mental health first aider but held a safeguarding lead and there were efforts to replicate this for mental health.  However, each school must hold a Mental Health Charter.  Doncaster’s success with the Trailblazer scheme some years ago, was noted, bringing significant resources to provide mental health support teams bridging the CAMHS service and schools (where they could receive low level support managing emotions and normal feelings and ensure that children and young people are aware that it is ok to be worried or nervous about things).

Figures from approximately two years ago showed that 80% of schools held a mental health lead but as part of the Strategy this was being revisited.

The Local Authority was working closely with schools, with the first school summit being held at the beginning of the year with a representative present from virtually every school in the borough and was repeated during the summer term.  Schools were receiving support with issues such as ensuring all staff were properly trained.  Joint work was also being undertaken by developing a mental health pledge to ensure they were healthy schools to be learning in.  In-depth Audits had also been undertaken within 20 schools and work was continuing in this area. 

With regard to mental health training for teachers there was a massive push to help schools recognise mental health and where to find help.  It was noted that the DfE provided a funded course for senior leadership training.  Doncaster’s Educational psychology team had been successful in winning a bid to deliver it to schools so they would not have to pay a cost of approximately £1000.  Additional resources had been allocated to schools for supporting staff, for example, with training.

Kooth App - Members were of the opinion that the “App” was a good idea but had concern about children or young people who did not have an electronic device, access to internet or shared devices with the whole family. 

The Panel was reminded that at the start of the Covid pandemic all children and young people that had a social work received an electronic device.  Following that time schools were then responsible for making sure the machines were maintained with the Virtual school funding safety upgrades and parental controls, because the Government funding only lasted for the first year.  It was noted that there should not be many children or young people that do not have access to the App and it was still in it’s infancy therefore being monitored.  It was explained that Kooth had been into the majority of schools to provide training. 

CAMHS – It was reported that the Doncaster team was fully staffed and was in the top quartile for access nationally.  It was stressed that Covid had changed the service to some of the referrals being undertaken by phone call rather than face to face reducing the wait time.  The wait times to be seen were as follows:

Emergency:  within 2 hours

Urgent:  within 24 hours

Non urgent:  86% were seen within 4 weeks.

In response to a question, it was confirmed that if a child or young person was  found to be suicidal, had acute psychosis or acute eating disorder then an assessment would be undertaken and shape the next steps including a care plan.  If it was determined there was a risk to life then the child or young person would have to remain in Accident  and Emergency for a period of 24 hours under supervision and on occasions an inpatient psychiatric bed may be required.

With regard to staff recruitment the Panel was reminded of the recruitment drive in 2015 when the system was flooded with funding and budgets tripled.  It was stressed that with the best will in the world larger cities tended to attract more staff, however, it was noted that there were not enough young doctors wishing to work in childrens health care and paediatrics.

General Developoment Assessment (GDA) referrals – these were undertaken through the health commissioned pathway with the waiting time to see a clinician at 2 and a half years but to have a virtual assessment it was much speedier.

Additional to the reference relating to changes made to the referrals following the SENCo network, the referral form was rewritten based on the feedback from SENCos, a number of drop in sessions were held to discuss what happened before referrals were made to the GDA and in November the form would be relaunched.  To summarise work was being undertaken to ensure the correct information was included and being requested and to ensure the children and young people who were waiting for a GDA were receiving the relevant support from appropriate partners.

Early Intervention funding system – it was noted that a lot of time and expense was spent on assessing young people for an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) to identify support to allow schools to meet the specific needs of a child or young person.  However many local authorities allow those funds to be allocated much earlier in the child’s journey to a point where the child or young person shows a change in their needs and ability to cope with the school environment.  Therefore where Local Authorities have these early intervention models in place it could lead to a reduced number of EHCPs, specialist placements and sometimes reduce the need for out of authority placements.  Therefore the authority was keen to see a model of this type in Doncaster and was currently in development with a view to piloting within the next calendar year.

Governance structure – In response to a question relating to the membership of the following groups, it was agreed that the terms of reference and membership of the Boards would be circulated to the Panel:

Safeguarding Board

Early intervention steering group

Young People’s mental health strategy group

SEND Board

Social and mental health needs – In response to a question from a Young Advisor, relating to the growth in the  number of pupils with social and mental health needs it was explained that the numbers could not be predicted however, whilst there had been improvements in some trends long term intelligence was required and awareness within the school system to ensure it was managed.  It was noted over the course of the next academic year one piece of specific work was to introduce and increase in specialist provision within localities for Social Mental Health needs because to many children and young people were seeking help out of the borough.

RESOLVED that:-

1.            the report be noted;   and

2.            terms of reference and membership of the Boards would be circulated to the Panel:

            Safeguarding Board

            Early intervention steering group

            Young People’s mental health strategy group

            SEND Board