Apologies were received from Cllr Flack, With Cllr Gould as substitute

Apologies were received from Cllr Austin, with Cllr Paterson as substitute

Apologies were received from Cllr Pearce, with Cllr Hayes as substitute

Apologies were received from Cllr Williscroft with Cllr Bhim as substitute

There were no declarations of pecuniary interest.

Panel Members confirmed that these were a true and accurate record of the previous meeting.

Cllr Sally Kenny informed the panel that Benedict Academy has been graded outstanding by Ofsted. 98% of Merton school are now labelled good or outstanding which is above national and London standards.

Cllr Usaama Kaweesa informed the panel of his current priorities, these included:

–Providing affordable and suitable placements to children in care to ensure they have stable and supportive upbringings.

-To make sure services offered through the family hub model are easy and accessible.

-Incorporating the youth voice in services offered.

-Ensuring all children, including those with additional needs, get the support that they need in and outside of school.

Bev Hendricks introduced the report which provides an update on several areas.

In response to questions:

-There is currently no additional funding outside of the agreed programme to give to schools. However, Merton always review EHCP’s to ensure the plan meets the need of the child and if the SEND panel believe that a particular child needs specialist provision schools are being provided with band 6 funding.

-Providers are commissioned to deliver programmes for Merton adult learning. There is key work to do with providers to help the service improve from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’. The biggest provider locally is Merton College who had a very good Ofsted inspection outcome which had aspects of their provision judged outstanding.

-The 2.25 Educational Psychologist vacancies represent a very small proportion of the team. Merton also employ trainee educational psychologists and support them to be successful. It is hoped that the 2.25 vacancies will be filled by January. 

-Family hubs are well used. The feedback from families who have used the service has been positive.

Cllr Billy Christie introduced the MFTS update and first round of saving proposals by advising that savings need to be made to allow Merton to continue to offer suitable services and close the budget gap faced. The 2^nd round of budget scrutiny will be held in January 2025. It is unknown what the national budget will mean for Merton until the provisional settlement is received, which usually happens before Christmas.

Asad Mushtaq added that the report details savings of nearly £6 million with £4.8 million still to find over the next financial year and beyond. These financial challenges are shared across London. Bev Hendricks stated her belief that the savings can be delivered without disruption to the core duties of the service.

In response to comments:

-The budget has been set with a provision in place for excess inflation. Bev Hendricks noted that the most pressure regarding inflation is on the dedicated school grant which supports schools to deliver needs to children with EHCP’s. The cost of transport and placements are also pressured, although no children have suffered as a result. 

-Savings are innovative to protect services. Asad Mushtaq believed the savings are deliverable, citing that Merton have a good record of delivering savings. Cllr Billy Christie noted that further savings/revenue generators will need significant choices to be made.

-Pressures have increased as a result of COVID (Mental health and speech language needs).

-The Budget is set in February before the financial year starts. Since then, more children have come into care in Merton explaining why more savings are required.

-Community focus services remain vital for early and prevention work. Savings in this area have been paced over 3 years to ensure people can continue to access the services. 

-Merton will need to become more ambitious while facing challenges to maintain ‘outstanding’ standards. Ensuring the whole network of a child is involved is also important.

-There is currently an oversupply of parenting courses. This is an opportunity to look at what other parenting-based programmes will work for families. Online courses are being considered. 

-The discontinuation of social workers in schools will not result in more to do for less staff. Differently qualified staff, who can work with the family for as long as they are needed, will take on this work.

-In 2022 the social worker agency rate was 32% but it is now 21%. The goal is to get the rate to around 10%. Only 1 service manager is an agency worker. In addition, 8 students per year work with Merton as newly qualified social workers who are offered jobs after finishing their courses. In 2022 the ‘London Pledge’ was set up to help LA’s have conversations with social workers engaged with agencies to have permanent positions. 

-Currently if a referral was made regarding a child previously known to children services an assessing social worker would work with the family to make a recommendation. However, in some cases, because work has already been completed with the family they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Keith Shipman introduced the report, noting that school attendance is an international issue. School attendance in Merton was above national levels pre COVID and although Merton is still above national levels, there has been a drop.

There was a change in guidance and law in August as a national system for attendance was created. A DfE advisor judged Merton’s needs assessment and action plan process to be an example of good practice. This led to Merton delivering national training. New guidance has themes based how to support families and understanding why the child isn’t attending school.

Merton have consulted with young inspectors to understand reasons children don’t attend school. This consultation has been linked with an Impact Ed report which surveyed 70,000 children and correlated this with attendance levels. The biggest factor behind non-attendance is ‘belonging’ and as a result Merton are working with schools to create a culture of belonging. The young inspector, Ishaal Mahmood, added that attendance can be based on EBSA or peer encouragement (not attending as a friend also isn’t attending etc).

In response to questions:

-Educational welfare officers and schools themselves do home visits to establish why children are not in school. Each case is different, but work is done with parents they have the legal responsibility to send the child to school. If a child is so unwell that they can’t be in school, it then becomes the local authority’s responsibility to educate the child.

-All schools in Merton have access to a mental health team.

-There is no data to show that a child has been taken out of a Merton school for the purpose of FGM.

-The thrive model has moved from old tier-based system and instead looked at how to get the best help and deal with risk. 

-Housing condition can be a factor for non-attendance. Social workers and educational welfare officers complete home visits. Children being re-housed into or out of the borough can also impact attendance.

-A lot of case work is done to support families of children being rehoused. It can be hard to decide if the child should stay enrolled in the school or move to a new school closer to their new home. Merton liaise with other local authorities about these children.

-Targeted support meetings started last year with local authority schools, and it has now been extended now to all school academies. Independent schools are offered a telephone service. The higher the level of non-attendance the more support the school gets.

-Children being taken out of schools for holidays is more common in middle class families. This issue remains a challenge for schools.

Aileen Buckton introduced the report which was published on the 30^th of September 2023. In 2023/2024 the working together arrangements for safeguarding become operational. These are designed to bring together joint responsibility at a senior level (LA, ICB and the police). Merton is in a strong position to be able to move into these new arrangements as agencies work together well.

The partnership undertook a section 11 audit as part of the children act and worked with 16 partner agencies who examined themselves in relation to safeguarding arrangements. Several agencies have developed new policies to protect the children they are work with or new training has been suggested which was a positive outcome.

A joint inspection on serious youth violence took place in September last year and there was a focus during the year on contextual safeguarding and potential difficulties children face when outside of the family setting.

In response to questions:

-Staff renewing DBS checks in line with policy has had no adverse impact on safeguarding.

-The section 175 audit went out with clear message that Merton want a response. Work will be done moving forward to chase unreturned audits.

Keith Shipman introduced this item by explaining that a report from the ICB on the mental health system with more data will be completed for January.

The CAMHS board takes reports from St George’s mental health trust and off the record. 1.1% of referrals to St George’s were for eating disorders and 8.1% for self-harm. 20% of referrals to off the record were for self-harm. The highest level of referral for both services was anxiety. The monitoring of the contract is done centrally by the ICB.

Several apps that can provide support have been looked at that, such as the calm app. In addition, Kooth is a 24/7 online service promoted across Merton for young people. Kooth is not an app to make sure no data is taken from the phone used. 

CAMHS and off the record try to match the young person with the right counsellor.

The eating disorders clinic attended a schools mental health forum Merton ran for schools in 2022 and are due to come back again in 2025. This covers both primary and secondary schools.

Mental health teams in schools have completed work on EBSA.

In response to questions:

-Mental health support teams provide significant resources for parents. St George’s mental health school teams have also set up a large web resource of YouTube films which give advice and support to parents on how to cope.

-Although the eating disorders clinic last attend the mental health forum in 2022, the forum occurs 3 times a year and approximately 40 schools attend. The most recent forum was on self-harm. Mental health teams in schools also do training within their clusters.

Maisie Davies introduced the agenda item and confirmed that targets are set in accordance to benchmarking data. Any further questions on the report provided can be sent to officers.

A second report on school attendance, with insight from NHS colleagues, will be heard at the next panel on 28/01/2025.

The work programme was agreed.