Report of the Strategic Director for Children and Education Services

This report provides an update on the impact, progress and response of schools, children and education services to the presenting challenges of COVID-19 with a specific focus on the support being provided to Manchester’s schools and those children considered to be more vulnerable than their counterparts.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which provided an update on the impact, progress and response of schools, children and education services to the presenting challenges of COVID-19, with a specific focus on the support being provided to Manchester’s schools and those children considered to be more vulnerable than their counterparts.  The report noted that, through the learning and education system, children were informed about and understood environmental issues and the negative impact of carbon, promoting safe and healthy lives.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:

• An update on schools, early years settings, childminders and post-16 providers;
• Initiatives to support children and young people, including the provision of laptops and support to children at transition stages in their education;
• Support for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND);
• Free School Meals;
• Support for children who were not currently on a school roll;
• An update on Children’s Services, including the impact of lockdown on demand, interface with the Family Court and work to support Our Children and Young People (Looked After Children and Care Leavers);
• The potential impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children and young people and how this was being addressed; and
• The financial implications of COVID-19.

The Executive Member for Children and Schools recognised the achievements of Council staff and partners, including schools and early years providers, during this challenging time and welcomed the high quality of the data which had been provided to the Executive.  He also highlighted the work of the Director of Customer Services and Transaction and her team in putting in place the Manchester Free School Meals Scheme.  He reported that, while there had been some positive outcomes from the current situation, such as increased engagement from young people who preferred to communicate via digital means, there were many challenges for the Council and its partners to address.  He advised that these included most children not attending school, lower social work referrals and existing issues such as poverty and domestic abuse being exacerbated by the crisis.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Concern about children not being in school, including that there was variation in what support children were getting from their schools and how much learning they were doing at home;
• Concern that mental health issues would increase as a result of the pandemic;
• Preparations for children returning to school;
• Concern that some children and school staff were in a high risk category or lived with someone who was, noting that data indicated that Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups were at higher risk of mortality from COVID-19;
• What progress had been made in providing laptops to pupils who needed them;
• Free School Meals (FSM), including recognising the success of Marcus Rashford’s campaign for FSM to be provided to eligible families over the summer holidays and to thank him for using his platform to achieve positive change;
• Concern about the financial impact of the pandemic on Council services if the national government did not provide sufficient financial support to local government; and
• The potential for increased referrals to social services once children returned to school and issues which had arisen or worsened during lockdown were identified and how the Council would manage that increased demand.

A Member highlighted the work that some Councillors were doing to support residents during the pandemic, including producing a leaflet about support that was available.  She advised that this being distributed to try to reach residents who might not be accessing information online and encouraged other Councillors to do the same.  The Chair suggested that the Member circulate the leaflet to other Councillors.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services advised Members that the pandemic and lockdown had not impacted equally on everyone, with some children and families being worse affected by not being able to attend school, by financial problems and other issues such as mental health.  He reported that Children’s Services expected to see an increase in referrals once children returned to school and needed to plan for this.  He drew Members’ attention to the information in the report on the mental health services available to children and young people.  He advised Members that there had been an increase in eating disorders during the lockdown which was putting a pressure on the support services.

The Director of Education reported that the Council and schools were still waiting for government guidance on how schools could safely re-open to all pupils in September; however, she advised Members that her service had already been discussing this with schools and colleges.  She informed Members that schools and colleges wanted to have all pupils attending school, not just some year groups, either full-time or on a part-time basis, using a blended learning approach.  She reported that schools were currently working with “bubbles” of 15 pupils who did not mix with other pupils in the school but that in future the bubbles might potentially be increased to a full class.  She highlighted that secondary schools and colleges faced additional challenges as pupils were studying different combinations of GCSE and A-Level subjects but needed to stay in a bubble with one group of students.  She informed Members that a lot of work had taken place to develop home learning, for example online lessons, and that schools needed to continue to work on that offer, particularly as there could be another spike in virus transmissions or a case of COVID-19 within a school requiring a class to self-isolate for two weeks.  She advised Members that there would also be some children who could not attend school because they, or someone in their household, was in a high risk group so the remote learning offer would need to be available for them.  She informed the Committee that schools had also been provided with risk assessment forms to complete with individual staff members and that this took into account the risk factors relating to being from a BAME group.  She reported that the Council had received 3000 laptops from the national government and 150 from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).  She informed Members that these had been distributed to schools to give out to pupils and that a number of schools had already used their own resources to provide laptops to pupils who were most in need of them.  In response to a Member’s question, she reported that the government had announced that £650 million would be allocated to schools to support children to catch up on their education and that £350 million would be provided to the national tuition service to provide subsidised tuition but that further detail was still to be announced on how this would work in practice.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services stated that officers shared the concern that there could be an increase in demand for social work services but highlighted that the average social work caseload was currently 17.8 and the progress in the Council’s social worker recruitment campaign, both of which, he advised, provided some assurance of the capacity to cope with increased demand.  He also reported that increased use of technology during the pandemic, for example, use of virtual meetings, had highlighted some efficiencies which could be adopted longer term.  A Member requested a report at a future meeting on social work recruitment, including the impact of this recruitment on caseloads and information on how cases were allocated and responded to.  The Executive Member for Children and Schools suggested that this include information on the recent recruitment campaign, highlighting a video which had been made featuring a current Manchester social worker.

Decisions

1.            To express concern about the financial impact of the pandemic on Council services and recognise the importance of the government providing financial support to local councils.

2.            To thank Council staff and partners, including schools and early years providers, for their hard work.

3.            To write to Marcus Rashford to thank him for using his platform to campaign for eligible families to receive Free School Meal vouchers over the summer holidays.

4.            To request a report at a future meeting on social work recruitment, including the impact of this recruitment on caseloads and information on how cases are allocated and responded to.