UPDATE NO 387 24 January 2020

Access to CAMHS – EPI’s Annual Report

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published its Annual Report on access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). 

The study examines access to specialist services, waiting times for treatment, and provision for the most vulnerable children in England.

The research is based on new data obtained using freedom of information (FOI) requests to mental health providers and local authorities over the course of a year. This data is not published by the NHS. The majority of lifelong mental health problems develop early on, during childhood or adolescence. The wider economic costs of mental ill health in England are vast, estimated at £105bn each year.

You can download the full report here. 

Complex LAC Project – IMPORTANT reading before the SEADCS meeting on 31 January

The Complex LAC Project has reached a critical point. The regional needs analysis is almost complete and DfE funding for this phase will end on the 31 March 2020.

Preparation for the meeting

To prepare for the discussion please can you read:

• The Executive Summary of the Needs Analysis
• PowerPoint Slide Deck that was prepared for the 17 January (both are included in the meeting papers).

We would like to use the time allocated at the meeting on the 31 January to answer the questions outlined above.  

Structure of the Discussion

• Introduction (Lucy Butler)
• Working with Providers (Peter Sandiford CEO The Independent Children’s Home Association)
• Discussion (all)
• Closing (Lucy Butler)

In this context we need decide what appetite and capacity exists to continue the work. The purpose of the session planned for the 17 January (but cancelled due to low numbers) was to spend a day exploring insights from the work to date and to consider how it could be used collaboratively to improve outcomes and value.

The key questions that need to be answered by the end of the item are:

1. Do authorities recognise the picture described in the needs analysis?
2. Are there specific gaps in provision highlighted by the work?
3. Is there an appetite to work together in some way to address the needs identified?

• With additional DfE funding?
• If further DfE funding is not forthcoming?

4. If there is an appetite to continue the work which of these options would you like to pursue:

• Thematic commissioning project (i.e. working together to commission/extend provision to meet a specific identified need)
• Sub-regional commissioning project (i.e. support a group of authorities to commission/extend provision to meet a specific identified need)
• Commissioning Hub (i.e. work to pool resources across the region or sub regionally to collaboratively commission/extend provision)
• Other options

Examples of each of these options are described in the slide deck distributed with the papers for the meeting.  

Pass the parcel: children posted around the care system

The Children’s Commissioner has published (24 December 2019) a report “Pass the parcel: children posted around the care system” 

There are over 30,000 looked after children living ‘out of area’ in England. This is 41% of all children in care and has risen by 13% since 2014. Over 11,000 of these children are more than 20 miles from what they would call home, with over 2,000 further than a hundred miles away.

The report makes three recommendations:

1. That the Government should include the subject of children in care outside of their local areas in its upcoming review of the care system

2. That the DfE should tackle six specific issues relating to residential care home provision, financing, staffing etc

3. Ofsted should ensure that its inspections of local authority children’s services effectively capture the experiences of children living away from their hometowns.

Improving data on child sexual abuse – practical guide – produced by the Centre for Expertise on CSA

To improve the quality and consistency of the data on CSA that organisations collect in the delivery of their services, the CSA Centre has developed a core dataset – the CSA data collection template – which sets out a recommended list of information that organisations responding to CSA should be collecting, and how they should be recording it.

There is a practical guide on implementing the recommendations

There is an excel speadsheet template

The CSA data collection template includes data fields and categories across four sections relating to:

1. the victims of abuse
2. the people who commit it
3. the context of the abuse
4. the services involved in responding to it.

If these core data fields were routinely and consistently recorded by agencies, it would significantly improve agencies individual and collective local understanding of CSA.  The data collection template sets out a list of 30 data fields with recommended definitions to be used by services working with CSA cases to support them to improve their data collection and therefore their capacity to extract meaningful insights and improve practice.

Improving Behaviour in Schools: Evidence Review December 2019

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a literature review “Improving Behaviour in Schools” conducted by a team from the University of Exeter.

“This EEF guidance report is designed to support senior leaders in primary and secondary schools to make better-informed decisions about their behaviour strategies. It includes a number of practical examples of programmes and approaches that should be helpful in schools and classrooms where behaviour is generally good as where there are problems.”

EEF summarise the conclusions in these 6 recommendations:

1. Know and understand your pupils and their influences
2. Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour
3. Use classroom management strategies to support good classroom behaviour
4. Use simple approaches as part of your regular routine
5. Tailor targeted approaches to meet the needs of individuals in your school
6. Whole-school: Consistency and coherence at a whole-school level are paramount

The full 121-page report is here

Developing Models of Social Work Project – Hold the Date Monday 8 June 2020

The Developing Models of Social Work Summer Conference will be held on Monday 8 June at the Arora Hotel Gatwick.

More details of this project can be found here, or from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

Developing Quality Assurance Capacity – 11 February

The next meeting of the QA leads will be held on 11 February at the LGA offices in London.  By the end of the meeting the group plans to have a proposal for the agreed common components of a Quality Assurance Framework to be shared with the DCS group.  The group will also start work on developing a shared understanding of “good practice” and what good quality assurance looks like.

A restricted area is being set up on the SESLIP website so that authorities can share Quality Assurance Frameworks, practice standards and audit processes and tools.

For more details of the Developing Quality Assurance Capacity project please contact Diane Williamson (details below)

ASGLB Making Better Use of Data Workshops – 31 January and 14 February

The ASGLB is undertaking a review of whether we are making good use of all the data that is already collected in relation to children in care, and in particular with respect to special guardianship and adoption.

To provide a framework for the review, they have drafted a Data Model to provide a structure for their thinking. This is intended to address both adoption and special guardianship with respect to children who are taken into care. 

1. Permanency Planning – are appropriate permanence plans for children in place in a timely manner?
2. Securing Permanency – is permanency achieved for a child without unnecessary delay?
3. Maintaining Permanency – once permanency is achieved, are we maintaining it so that children are able to thrive?

As part of this review ASGLB are running three workshops which will be held at Coram Campus, London WC1N 1AZ on:

• 18 December 2019 (Permanency Planning) – (already held)
• 31 January 2020 (Securing Permanency) – book here
• 14 February 2020 (Maintaining Permanency) – book here

The ASGLB want these workshops to be attended by people who can help them define the Data model as well as those who are familiar with the data currently. For more information follow the links provided above.