Agenda, decisions and minutes

RESOLVED that Cllr Luke Sorba be appointed as Chair and Cllr Caroline Kalu as Vice Chair of the CYP Scrutiny Select Committee for the municipal year 2021-22.

RESOLVED that Cllr Luke Sorba be appointed as Chair and Cllr Caroline Kalu as Vice Chair of the CYP Scrutiny Select Committee for the municipal year 2021-22.

RESOLVED that the following non-prejudicial interests be declared:

1.    Cllr Luke Sorba is the Lewisham Council appointee to SLaM NHS Trust council of governors

2.    Cllr Liz Johnston-Franklin is the Lewisham Council representative on the Youth First board

3.    Cllr Jacq Paschoud declared that her spouse, Cllr John Paschoud, is a school governor of the Lewisham virtual school.

RESOLVED that the following non-prejudicial interests be declared:

1.    Cllr Luke Sorba is the Lewisham Council appointee to SLaM NHS Trust council of governors

2.    Cllr Liz Johnston-Franklin is the Lewisham Council representative on the Youth First Board

3.    Cllr Jacq Paschoud declared that her spouse, Cllr John Paschoud, is a school governor of the Lewisham virtual school.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting held on 4 March 2021 be agreed as a true and accurate record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting held on 4 March 2021 be agreed as a true and accurate record.

None.

None.

RESOLVED

1)    that the report be noted;

2)    that the committee be provided with more detailed information on BAME access to mental health services.

Claude Jousselin – SLaM Lewisham Service Manager, Harold Bennison – Service Director for CAMHS at the Maudsley, Martin Wilkinson – job title, James Lowell – Chief Operating Officer of SLaM were in attendance. Caroline Hirst – job title, presented the report and provided a summary of April and May data. In 2019-20 referrals to CAMHS averaged 124 per month. In 2020-21, CAMHS referrals averaged 125. In March this year, the service received 173 referrals. Referral numbers dropped in April to 113 and went up to 213 during the month of May. Some fluctuation from month to month is normal and for that reason a better comparator is the monthly average across the year. It was noted that the referral acceptance rate for May stayed at 74%.

The following was noted in response to questions from the committee:

1.    Emotional wellbeing and diagnosable mental health conditions are different issues and these are picked up at the front door. Early support can prevent the onset of more significant issues further down the line.

2.    An online NHS survey of young people after the first wave of covid showed an increase from 11% to 16% of recognisable mental health conditions compared to 2017. This used a strengths and difficulties questionnaire, which is a recognised way of identifying mental health conditions. 

3.    Standardised NHS approach to recording gender and ethnicity had been used. ACTION: CH to provide committee with more detailed information regarding BAME access to services, which was showing around a 10% increase.

4.    Different disorders have different representations and therefore aggregating all interventions up to an average re-referral rate is not particularly meaningful. However, NHS benchmarking suggests a 16% re-referral rate nationally. In Lewisham it is lower than the national average at about 10%.

5.    Individuals complete the strengths and difficulties questionnaire before, during, and at the end of treatment, which provides an idea of sustainability and effectiveness of treatments.

6.    SLaM was committed to delivering ethnically and culturally appropriate services having called themselves out to be an anti racist organisation. Some of the steps it was taking to stamp out racism included creating a parent carer race equality framework, tackling institutional racism, working with partners to deliver services representative of the population.

7.    A second Mental Health in Schools Team (MHST) was being created in wave 2. The increased capacity would allow trainees to stay on. A third team would come onstream from January.  Total funding for the MHST was approximately £800k in total with the new investment.

8.    There is a range of mental health training for schools including youth mental health first aid training, MHST training in 19 schools and plans to roll out self-harm training across all schools as part of the Early Help programme.

9.    One councillor described difficulties that parents had when trying to get support for their children and young people. CH advised sending the list of services appended to the report.

10. Cllr Chris Barnham – Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and School Performance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

RESOLVED that:

1)    the report be noted

2)    the Chair would recommend to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the Mayor and Cabinet decision on 14^th July be considered for post-decision scrutiny.

Catherine Bunten – Service Manager for Joint Commissioning summarised the report. Questions were taken from the Committee and the following was noted:

1.    The virtual family hub would bring together online services such as midwives and health visitors, as well as providing online information and signposting to other services for communities. Family Thrive would be available online for short interventions. Families could also access speech and language and ASD assessments as a ‘one stop shop’. This would avoid clients being ‘buffered’ between referrers.

2.    It was important to make sure the online information was kept current and correct and that the same information was available across all of the places it was published. The virtual hub would complement physical services such as GPs, shops, schools, libraries etc.

3.    One Member expressed concern about the Youth First timetabled hours, and staffing levels. The committee heard that young people had contributed to the creation of the draft timetable. The intention was to attract more volunteers.

4.    One Member noted that the change of opening hours at the Honor Oak venue meant that a hot lunch would no longer be available. This had been an important part of alleviating food poverty in the area, which had worsened since the pandemic. Holiday activities including food programmes were being put in place for the summer.

5.    The Committee heard that in Telegraph Hill ward, a local food provider, Feed the Hill, now linked to the tenants association on the estate where the youth provision is.

6.    The youth service was looking at having a youth foundation who could bring youth services together and bring more income into borough to meet need. The Young Mayor was working with young people to define what youth provision in Lewisham could look like.

7.    The Compass contract decision was going to Mayor and Cabinet on 14 July which meant that the Committee would not get to scrutinise the report. In summary, Compass had worked reasonably well, particularly as regards sexual health and substance misuse. Sexual health would eventually become the focus, with the provider using the hub building.

8.    The Chair said he would recommend to the Overview and Scrutiny Business Panel that the decision that Mayor and Cabinet would take on 14July be considered for post decision scrutiny. He encouraged members to attend the meeting and comment.

9.    There were plans to increase sex education and to do proactive work with schools to tackle the issue of sexual harassment in schools. Officers said the scale of the issue is greater than initially though and social media had probably played a part. Strengthening prevention and joining up services was important. Historically, teams and services had not always connected up well. Young people might have a key person that they trust – a teacher, youth worker, or someone else. It was vital to ensure a joined up network of professionals around young people so that when concerns are raised, help would be available.

RESOLVED that:

1)    the report be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

RESOLVED that the work programme be finalised to reflect the following:

1)    Add Cost and quality of care placements to September;

2)    Chair to write to the Housing Select Committee chair to explore the possibility of joint work on house repossessions involving families;

3)    The January report on embedding race equality in schools should include information on alternative provision placements, attainment and exclusion information for Black Caribbean boys;

4)    Elective Home Education move to November.

The Chair explained that the Scrutiny Manager had prepared a draft work programme for the Committee to consider. It comprised suggestions from officers, Members, the previous CYP Select Committee. The Chair invited committee members to comment on the draft work programme.

The following comments were made:

1.    Committee to look at use of private homes for children in care, including where they are placed, cost and quality of provision. This should be considered at the September meeting.

2.    Elective Home Education was an important issue in the wake of the pandemic. Some parents were anxious about sending their children to school and there was concern that reactively deciding to electively home educate may not ensure good quality education for children without ongoing support and monitoring.

3.    One member suggested looking at home repossessions involving children, and how this impacts on families and children’s education. The Chair agreed to write to the Chair of the Housing Select Committee to see if that committee planned to look at repossessions. If so, he would suggest that both committees scrutinise the matter together. ACTION: Chair

4.    Elective Home Education should be moved to the November meeting to allow it to be considered in the same meeting as the Play Strategy and School Place Planning.

5.    The report on embedding race equality in schools, scheduled for January, should include alternative provision placements, and include attainment and exclusion information, particularly for Black Caribbean boys.

6.    Councillor Elliot had submitted a member question regarding exclusions. The response had revealed that permanent exclusions had decreased, but temporary exclusions had increased slightly. He agreed to email the response to the Committee ACTION: Cllr Elliot

RESOLVED that the work programme be finalised to reflect the following:

1)    Add Cost and quality of care placements to September

2)    Chair to write to the Housing Select Committee chair to explore the possibility of joint work on house repossessions involving families

3)    The January report on embedding race equality in schools should include information on alternative provision placements, attainment and exclusion information for Black Caribbean boys.

4)    Elective Home Education should move to November.