UPDATE NO 420 11 September 2020

NSPCC Coronavirus briefing: guidance for social workers

Social workers have an important role to play in protecting children from abuse and neglect, especially during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as many children are spending less time in school and more time at home.

This briefing summarises guidance from across the UK on how social workers and local authorities should work during the pandemic to ensure that children are protected.

It answers questions including:

• how does the Coronavirus Act 2020 affect local authorities’ responsibilities?
• how will the child protection system work during the pandemic?
• what is temporary registration and how does it work?
• can social workers continue to visit children and families?
• how should support be prioritised?
• do case reviews still need to be carried out?

The full pdf document is here. This briefing was updated on Thursday 3rd September 2020.

No way out – children stuck in B&Bs during lockdown

The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report looking at the number of children living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation during lockdown and the impact on children and their families. She is calling for:

• support for children who were homeless during lockdown;
• families housed in B&Bs to be moved out of them in the event of further lockdown; and
• action to prevent new family homelessness in the coming weeks and months.

Findings from a survey of 15 local authorities in England (including Slough from the South East) with highest numbers of children in B&Bs show that at the start of lockdown on 23 March there were 714 families housed in B&Bs, and 476 families living in B&Bs by the end of the full lockdown on 31 May.

The full report is here

CAMHS and children-in-care placed out-of-area

Many of you have already had the privilege of working with Andrea King – and now she has a new role in NHS England (Specialist adviser, CYP mental health) covering the whole of the SESLIP area. She has now joined the SESLIP family as one of the team supporting and cordinating the 19 children’s services authorities. One of her current projects is looking at CAMH services for children-in-care who are placed out-of-area. She will be presenting it to next week’s joint DCS/Lead member meeting.

Andrea writes:

Children-in-care who are placed out-of-area have inconsistent experience of accessing health, and specifically mental health, support in their placement. COVID-19 lockdown further intensified these difficulties for some children. As statutory partners we are corporate parents to our children-in-care; resolving inequitable access to mental health assessment and treatment out-of-area is placing additional pressures on our social care workforce and mental health commissioning leaders. This strategic project is intended to support improved outcomes for our children-in-care.

 For more information go to the project page on this website or contact Andrea (details below)

Ofsted interim phase: area SEND

An operational note for HMIs and CQC inspectors carrying out interim visits to local areas regarding their special educational needs and disabilities arrangements from October 2020.

On 17 March 2020, all routine Ofsted inspections were suspended due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. As part of Ofsted’s phased return to routine inspection, the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have commissioned Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to carry out a series of ‘interim visits’ to local areas from autumn 2020.

This guidance sets out the process and range of activities that inspectors will carry out for these interim visits, from inviting a local area to take part in an interim visit to sharing feedback.

The purpose of the visits is to:

• support individual local areas to understand the impact of the pandemic on children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families
• find out what has worked well for them during this time, what the challenges have been and any lessons learned
• work with the local area to identify opportunities for improvement that address the remaining challenges faced by children and young people with SEND
• highlight positive case studies and share insights nationally to promote whole-system learning

The visits will also give Ofsted, CQC and the government insights into how well the SEND system as a whole is working. They will also enable us to understand when local areas will be ready for routine inspections to restart.

Keeping Children Safe in Education – Update

On 1 September 2020, DfE published a revised version of Keeping Children Safe in Education. The new edition includes revised material on statutory Relationship and Sex Education. 

The Sex Education Forum have published a guide and materials for making learning about RSE accessible for pupils with SEND.

Future dates for Network meetings

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 December 2020 – more information from Mark Evans (contact details below) 

QA Network: Thursday 17 September 2020 – more information from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

SEND SE19: more information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Tuesday 15 September 2020 – more information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 25 September 2020 – 10.30am to 1.30pm *NB this will be Education only – the joint meeting with SEND has been postponed to another day*- more information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 20 October 2020 – more information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

A Perfect Storm: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic abuse survivors and the services supporting them

Domestic abuse has worsened during Covid-19 and frontline services expect rising demand – Women’s Aid report published 18 August

The report shows how domestic abuse has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines the impact on survivors; how abusers use the pandemic as a tool of abuse; and how the services supporting survivors are affected.

Read the full report here

Sarah Davidge Women’s Aid Research and Evaluation manager said: 

“Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic did not cause domestic abuse, it has created a perfect storm of challenges for survivors and the services supporting them. The Covid-19 virus, and lockdown measures designed to fight it, gave perpetrators a tool that they quickly learnt to use for coercion, manipulation and to induce fear. This in turn exposed survivors to worsening domestic abuse, whilst restricting their access to support. At the same time, the pandemic created challenges for the specialist domestic abuse support sector in providing life-saving support, including lost income, staff shortages and additional costs of remote working.”

NSPCC – How Safe are our Children? 2020

Since 2013, our annual How safe are our children? report has compiled and analysed data from across the UK to show the current child protection landscape. In 2020, for the first time, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) took on this task.

We took this opportunity to refocus our annual report. This year we’ve looked in more detail at statistics relating to abuse perpetrated against adolescents. We’ve also included an overview of emerging data on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the safety of children and young people in the UK.

NSPCC say their 2020 report found:

• rates of police recorded physical, sexual and online abuse offences against adolescents are higher than rates against younger children
• rates of adolescents in care are higher than rates for younger children, with the exception in some nations of infants under the age of one
• rates of adolescents subject to a child protection plan or on a child protection register are lower than rates for younger children
• many of the risk factors associated with abuse and neglect have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, while the support services that would traditionally identify and respond to these concerns have been unable to see many of the children and families they work with face-to-face.

Download How safe are our children? 2020 (PDF)

DfE High Needs Benchmarking Tool

DfE high needs benchmarking tool – A comparative tool to help local authorities plan for future high needs spend and provision. Information about high needs funding and the review and planning role of local authorities is in the high needs funding operational guide.

Local authorities can use this tool to periodically assess their own level of need, spend and pattern of provision against:

• those of neighbouring local authorities (both geographically and statistically)
• national trends