The
Director of Children’s Services provided an update to the
Committee which is attached to the minutes at Appendix
B.
The
Director of Education reported that:
- From
the start of the pandemic, the focus had been on the most
vulnerable and this had resulted in the development of the
Vulnerable Children and Young People Project, through which
professionals across multiple agencies identified the 1,900
children they were most concerned about, below statutory social
care involvement. A seconded team
ensured regular contact and signposting to support or referrals as
appropriate. The line of sight provided, together with the efforts
of schools and settings to ensure regular contact, was a
significant reassurance to the senior leadership team and Portfolio
Holder.
- Rapidly changing Government guidance had been a feature of the
pandemic and a key challenge had been keeping up with sometimes
twice daily DfE updates containing multiple detailed policy
guidance documents. To assist school and setting leaders with this,
the Director of Education wrote to leaders every evening for more
than four months, to set out the key updates and local advice and
support available. Through weekly meetings with the DfE, Regional
Schools Commissioner and Ofsted, the Local Authority was able to
provide feedback and challenge to emerging guidance, which was
acted upon on several occasions.
- The
launch of the Bromley Safer Schools App, a team of named
professionals around every Bromley school and regular updating of
the Bromley Education Matters website for all education
professionals in the Borough was a key achievement.
- To
ensure support for Bromley children more than 800 laptops were
distributed to disadvantaged children and through schools the
Department ensured that eligible children received supermarket
vouchers in the school holiday periods.
This was now being extended to cover Easter.
- Attention had now turned to the full return of all children to
schools and settings, although it was important to remember that
schools and settings had continued to support critical worker and
vulnerable children throughout the past year.
- A
comprehensive package of support and the Mental Health and
Wellbeing Toolkit had been put in place and had been very well
received by professionals and was already in wide
usage. Mental Health and Wellbeing had
been a priority throughout Covid, for staff, fellow professionals
and children and young people.
- Working with Public Health colleagues, the Department had
supported schools to implement a robust system of control measures
to prevent transmission of the virus, in line with the latest
guidance.
- There
was naturally concern around the impact of the lockdowns on
children’s education and the Department would continue to
work closely with schools to support them in the recovery
programmes, with a particular focus on narrowing progress gaps for
vulnerable groups. This would remain a priority for the Department
for the foreseeable future.
- The
performance of the Directorate had continued to improve, during
what had been an immensely challenging year. This was reflected in
the increased timeliness of EHCPs and
reduction in exclusions.
- Key
projects had continued in spite of the
pandemic including the Alternative provision project, joint working
between SEN and YOS and work to deliver
two new free schools in the Borough.
- The
Director of Education thanked school and setting leaders, teachers,
Early Years professionals and other key front-line staff for their
hard work and determination to support and educate all children,
but particularly the most vulnerable.
In addition, the staff within the Department had risen to the
enormous challenges of the past 12 months with good grace, adapting
quickly to working at home and not just maintaining, but increasing
support for children throughout the pandemic.
- Going
forward there would be a continued need for services, particularly
requests for statutory assessment, which was a vulnerability going
forward. Whilst there would be future challenges ahead, the
department was in a good place to meet them.
The
Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Corporate
Transformation provided an update to the Committee highlighting
that it was clear that the Directorate had been on an improvement
journey. Whilst the Department
continued to strive towards excellence, it no longer felt difficult
as a result of the significant change in
culture over the past three years. Over
the past years the role undertaken by the Assistant Director had
evolved and moved towards one that was now 80% support and 20%
challenge. It was now clear that
managers knew their services well, knew their vulnerabilities and
were keen to drive improvements. This
provided assurance and confidence that standard processes were now
working, and this better facilitated the process of constructive
challenge.
Members
offered their congratulations to the Director of Children’s
Services and the Senior Leadership Team for the fantastic amount of
work that they had got through on behalf of the children in
Bromley.
The
Committee noted that the Early Intervention Services provided
support to those children who did not meet the social care criteria
but supported families to prevent their escalation Work was
underway to update the directory of universal services available to
ensure that support was available to all families.
Members
recognised that in terms of the recovery from Covid, teachers were
one of the most important assets. There
would be a number of aspects to the
process of recovery including physical as well as emotional
wellbeing. Covid recovery would be a
long-term programme which would need to encompass a range of
services, including the provision of Youth Services. It was noted that as well as a range of local
initiatives, there were also a range of national programmes in
place to support children as part of Covid recovery.
The
Committee noted that the Corporate Leadership Team had already
begun to reflect on the lessons that could be learnt from the
response to the pandemic. A review had
begun of the changes that had been imposed to identify what had
worked well and could be taken forward as the local authority
adjusted to a new business as usual model. There was a general acceptance that some of the
changes imposed by the pandemic would become permanent.
On
behalf of the Committee, the Chairman expressed thanks to all the
staff across the Directorate for their hard work and dedication
over the past 12 months.