Agenda item
Impact of Covid 19 Children's Social Care
A verbal update to be provided at the meeting.
Minutes:
The Sub-Committee received a verbal update on the impact Covid-19 is having on social care and the supporting of vulnerable children and families.
The Sub-Committee heard from Mr Richard Baldwin, Divisional Director for Children’s social care, who stated that over the past twelve months the social care teams have had to use innovative methods to stay in touch with young people and their families. He said there had been a shift in how families relate to the Council and demand at the front-door had also been affected. He said there was plenty of new ideas as to how the Council can do things differently in the future.
The Sub-Committee heard from Ms Mubarakat Uthman, a senior practitioner on how contact with young people had been maintained throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The main points made by Ms Uthman were:
- Prior to the pandemic, face to face visits were held with young people, this would involve engaging with them in age appropriate activities such as sharing food or playing games
- During the pandemic many visits have taken place via Teams and Zoom. Creative ways have been used to support young people to open up and talk about their issues and worries. Examples of this included using TikTok dances as an icebreaker to encourage open dialogue; to arranging a pizza delivery to the young person in a placement and sharing dinner and conversation with them.
- With young babies and toddlers, puppets have been used to interact with them, playing peekaboo and storytelling whilst speaking with their carers about the child’s health, such as weight and eating habits.
- Virtual meetings can make it harder to hold difficult conversations due to privacy and confidentiality issues.
- Virtual meetings have been a positive addition to the tools a social worker can use to engage with young people, however face to face engagement is also necessary.
The Sub-Committee then heard from Ms Deion Grant, Team Manager in Family Support and Protection on how contact with young people had been maintained throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and how the welfare of staff had been managed.
The main points made by Ms Grant were:
- Despite their own fears about Covid-19, social workers continued to provide an excellent service to protect vulnerable children and families, especially for cases which involved neglect. Ms Grant said it was obvious to the social work team, that such cases could not be fully managed by virtual visits and therefore face to face visits continued throughout the pandemic.
- The pandemic had heightened fears among the looked after children and their families. Social workers had to reassure families that visits could take place safely. There was positive engagement from young people to return to education, with some more eager than previously.
- Social workers expected domestic violence cases to increase during the lockdown and as such discussions took place as to how the team would deal with this.
- Prior to the pandemic and the lockdown, social workers would meet in team meetings, to discuss cases and decompress. However, this moved to the virtual platform. As a team leader it was vital contact was maintained within the team and reflective practice, such as why are you worried, how are you feeling were encouraged and used.
- Senior management were swift in putting in place policies to support social workers, going out on visits and equipped them with PPE. This helped maintain the caseload and ensure there was not a backlog.
- Staff were encouraged to take annual leave and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal time.
In response to questions from members the following was noted:
- There had been no disconnect between conducting face to face visits and those held virtually. In respect to concerns about bruises which can be hidden, in an online scenario, Ms Uthman said of the cases managed by her, she had not experienced this, save for two cases that gave reason for concern. In both instances face to face meetings were conducted as they were considered as safeguarding issues and were thoroughly investigated. Mr Baldwin added that where there is a child protection plan or a safeguarding concern, regardless of the pandemic face to face visits had taken place.
- With regards to access to education, young people in a placement had been supported throughout the pandemic; most children were in school especially as they were classed as vulnerable children. However, children did experience stress and anxiety about the pandemic and missed their friends and social network, with a desire for things to return to normality. Children who did not want to return to school, during the height of the pandemic were given laptops to access online learning.
- In response to how mental health and wellbeing was managed during the pandemic, Ms Uthman gave examples of how vulnerable children had been supported, from providing a mobile phone to a teenager so she could stay in touch with her friends, to art therapy in schools for those dealing with bereavement. She recommended art therapy be made available to all children, especially those dealing with trauma and anxiety.
- Members commended the social workers for their efforts and said they appreciated how difficult it could be to engage with young people. Members were appreciative of the balance struck in social workers performing their work and being supported to take annual leave.
- In response to if people in need of support were being missed due to the pandemic, Mr Baldwin said the same relationships and processes were in place as previously. He said they maintained a close link with schools, and other stakeholders such as the police and health visitors ensuring concerns were picked up. He said there was an assumption that there would be additional pressure on social work from an increase in domestic violence cases, but this hasn’t filtered through. Nevertheless, the service remained vigilant to this.
- In respect to how Tower Hamlets compared with other local authorities, in terms of caseloads and new referrals, Mr Baldwin said it was comparative to trends seen nationally and regionally. He said the Corporate Director for Children and Culture met on a regular basis with his counterparts from other London Boroughs and likewise he did the same. He said data from professional organisations and Ofsted gave them information on the national picture around benchmarking.
- ACTION: Members stated it would be useful to have actual data in a report showing what the trends were and how this compared with other comparative boroughs. Mr Baldwin said he would discuss this with Mr Thomas, Corporate Director for Children and Culture and would bring the information requested to a future meeting of the sub-committee.
The Chair thanked the attendees for their contribution to the meeting and said their input had been invaluable, in helping members understand how social workers had supported vulnerable children and families.
The Chair summarised the main points of discussions as follows:
- For the Sub-Committee to receive a written report on data trends and how Tower Hamlets compares with other comparative boroughs, in relation to the referrals and caseload to see if the right families/people are being supported.
- Examples were given of the innovative methods used to support vulnerable children and families however would any of the new methods evolve into permeant changes to social work and could this lead of efficiencies, with social workers spending less time travelling or is face to face visits the best method to engage with young people. Councillor White said this ought to be discussed at a future meeting of the sub-committee.