Apologies were received from Cllr Pearce, Cllr Williscroft and Cllr Ofeimu with Cllr Bhim, Cllr Brunt and Cllr Mundy as substitutes.

Cllr Aidan Mundy is a Local Authority Governor at Sherwood Primary School in Pollards Hill.

There were no other declarations of pecuniary interest.

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

Keith Shipman introduced this report which is regarding mental health issues related to attendance. Lots of work has been completed to improve attendance in Merton and attendance levels are now above national and London averages. However, concerns regarding students missing school due to mental health issues remain. John Atherton added that the discussion sets out the range of services the ICB commissions for Children and Young People in Merton and what they are doing to get them access to services as soon as possible.

Fiona Murray explained that the ICB commission mental health support teams (school based), CAMHS Tier 3 specialist service, CAMHS Tier 2 getting help service and KOOTH. If a child needs mental health support, they can go to one of these services. The ‘Off The Record’ charity also offer a range of services to 11-25 year olds.

Moving forwards the plan is to continue to oversee and review the service offer in Merton via the CAMHS Partnership Board & contract meetings, strengthen the offer to CYP with low attendance including through a review EBSA guidance and consider new ways of working.

Waiting times for an eating disorder assessment across Southwest London, including Merton, was 1.58 weeks and last year there were 38 referrals. The key areas of development are improving outreach in the local community and preventing hospital admissions.

An update on actions recommended from the eating disorder task group were then shared.

In response to questions:

-Fiona Murray will confirm what the ‘other’ is that cause referrals to ‘off the record’.

-A regular report for the scrutiny panel regarding waiting times and referral numbers in CAMHS can be provided moving forwards.

-The link between physical health, emotional wellbeing and mental health is recognised. There is a need to make sure this link is developed to ensure there aren’t opportunities missed.

-A risk assessment set out that the impact of the removal of social workers in schools will be low as new reforms and relationships with schools will be strong and there will be a system through the Merton Safeguarding Partnership which should mean young people are not disadvantaged.

-A trauma conference was held online with Berry Street, a school in Australia, who have done lots of trauma work. After this, Berry street were invited to hold a conference ran at St Marks Primary School which was funded by the schools and was well received. Various staff members then completed online training on the area.

-Young Inspectors at Merton Council undertook a series of focus groups to hear from children and young people on the barriers in attending school. Congestion and Transport came up as issues and individual schools have had conversations with TFL about bus routes and times.

-Merton have an attendance plan which looks at elements that come together to improve attendance. Merton are working with schools on how they run attendance systems, talking to schools develop team around the family meetings, considering what intervention may be effective for autistic children who don’t attend school and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Clare Dudman summarised the report by explaining that there are concerns about the impact of misogynistic content online as Vodafone estimate that 69% of boys aged 11-14 have encountered online posts promoting misogyny.

Plans are expected to be drawn up detailing expectations on providers such as Tik Tok about keeping young people safe. This is expected to cover several areas including the effectiveness of the moderation process.

Schools are expected to take misogyny seriously and tackle all forms of harassment. Ofsted also look at safeguarding policies. Preventative education, such as sex expectation, is statutory in secondary schools and recommended within primary schools. The national curriculum breaks down expectations that by end of key stage 4 young people should be able to keep themselves safe online.

The London Grid for Learning provides filtering within the school environment and provides policy guidance and templates for schools. The local authority is particularly concerned about looked after young people who have comprehensive filtering materials on all laptops given out to them. The software will produce an alert if the young person has searched key terms online etc.

The violence against women and girls team have also commissioned voicebox and other areas used to support schools to develop healthy masculinity.

In response to questions:

-There is support available to staff who have witnessed or suffered misogyny. This includes signposting to services and employee assistance programmes.

-Any school in Merton can join ‘Rights Respecting Schools’ for free for up to 3 years. There is a curriculum review underway which is expected to recommend a greater emphasis on confidence and communication which will be helpful to male and female students.

-Resilience is a big topic for young people. Merton have talked to several schools and students to understand their experiences.

-Conversations are ongoing about how to make the violence and women and girls strategy, which is due for renewal, more impactful for schools.

-Social skills are developed through the PSHCE curriculum.

Bev Hendricks explained that the report breaks down goals for the coming year. These are:

-To enhance mental health support for children and families, ensuring access to necessary resources and services.

-Strengthen community partnerships to provide comprehensive support systems for vulnerable children, and ensuring we are ready for the much-welcomed collaboration of partners to develop a new child protection system.

-Innovate our approaches, utilising new technologies to improve our effectiveness

-Continue to advocate for policy changes that prioritise the needs and rights of children with SEND and complex needs.

In response to questions:

-Merton have recently had confirmation that there will be another year’s funding for the family hub service.

-Final budgets will be given to schools by the end of February.

-Benedict Academy received an outstanding judgement from Ofsted. Since the departmental update was drafted Raynes Park High School, Lonesome Primary School and Garfield Primary School judgements remained good and St Marks Primary was graded outstanding. Only reports on Canterbury and Lavender Campus remain unpublished.

-Merton have a process in place to make sure all care leavers have been informed about what support is available across London. The London Pledge is in place to ensure care leavers know they can get council tax relief.

Cllr Billy Christie introduced the agenda item by explaining that this is the 2^nd round of budget scrutiny. In the previous round of scrutiny, saving proposals totalling a value of around £3 million were brought forward. Since then, a further set of savings have been brought forward, bringing the total set of savings to a value of over £4.5 million.

Merton have now received the provisional financial government settlement which is projected to increase Merton’s spending power in adults and children’s social care and homelessness which are areas of financial pressure. However, further hard decisions need to be made. Cllr Christie noted his belief that the savings are fair but deliverable and allow Merton to continue to deliver on projects.

Asad Mushtaq explained that there is also a new extended producer responsibility scheme which recognises the burden on the Local authority clearing up waste and totals around £3 million for next year. However, there are still significant pressures.

In response to questions on the MTFS:

-Cllr Sally Kenny shared that she wrote to Bridget Phillipson about funding for education who said “The government recognises the strain that the rising cost of SEN provision puts on local government and in particular the impact of the DSG on LA finances. We will work with the sector on a way forward. The government intends to set out plans for reforming the SEN system this year”.

-Work is to be completed to address immediate pressures in temporary accommodation as well as work preventing families from becoming homeless in the first place. Action has been taken to create a space on 13^th February 2025 to review how children are placed in accommodation as a result of homelessness.

-The settlement received is a significant uplift in comparison to previous years and will be allocated into a variety of services.

-Merton have a good track record of delivering on savings and are confident these savings will also be delivered.

In response to questions about Children, Lifelong Learning and Families:

-The provision of community focused services for families savings is being staged over 3 years and in line with national reforms. More detail can be provided about this as it develops.

- Using alternatively qualified social workers does not mean the service is losing qualified social workers. It is about replacing agency social workers with permanent workers meaning the saving is generated through not paying the agency fee. The service is now down to 30 agency workers.

- Savings to be made in the CLLF Early Help Budget won’t have an impact as confirmation has been received from the DfE about grant funding.

In response to questions on the capital programme:

-There are opportunities through the capital programme to improve children and young people’s mental health through the borough of sport initiative. For example, £2 million is allocated for borough of sport infrastructure (for court surfaces etc), playground updates and a new basketball court.

-Merton must strike a balance between what revenue is being spent on.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Bev Hendricks and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick explained that there is not a case weighting analysis tool used for the ‘average total caseload for social workers’ data. It was noted that social workers having a lower number of cases than the London average means social workers can provide more support to each family.

The 2023/2024 LADO report will be published as an appendix to the next departmental update.

The action log will be shared with Cllr’s to show responses to questions unanswerable at meetings.

A report on child poverty will be brought to a future panel.