Agenda and minutes

County Councillors Stuart Morris and Eddie Pope replaced County Councillors Matthew Salter and Stephen Clarke respectively for this meeting.

Apologies were received from County Councillor David Smith and co-opted members Mrs Janet Hamid and Simon Smith.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None were disclosed.

Resolved: The minutes from the meeting held on 10 November 2020 were confirmed as an accurate record.

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Dave Carr, Head of Service: Policy, Information & Commissioning (Start Well), Lancashire County Council; Sally Nightingale, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit; and Barbara Edwards, CAMHS Transformation Manager, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Also welcomed to the meeting were K Murray (Deputy Member of the Youth Parliament for Lancaster/Fylde/Wyre) and M Graham (Member of the Youth Parliament for Hyndburn/Ribble Valley/Rossendale).

The report presented provided the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee with information on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people in Lancashire and the response of partners and future plans.

During the pandemic mental health issues for children and young people such as anxiety and depression had increased. Disruption to young people's sense of control and meaning had contributed to this. There were also concerns about returning to schools. It was pointed out however, that for some, the pandemic had had positive mental health impacts due to a sense of support and potentially reduced stressors, such as social pressures at school.

Lancashire County Council commissioned a service called Child Action North West Partnership Early Help Service which had provided a focus on younger children for emotional health and wellbeing. Half the requests that came to this service were primary age children. Much of the partnership's work had moved online.

There were pressures on the workforce due to the pandemic, particularly in schools. Schools in Lancashire had stayed open in Lancashire during the pandemic, providing support to vulnerable and valuable young people and also key workers.

In terms of NHS services, Lancashire and South Cumbria Care Foundation Trust had found that for its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), there had been a 46% rise in demand for their services in September and October compared to last year.

Many services had gone online as children and young people were now turning to online support. Lancashire and South Cumbria Healthy Young Minds website had been expanded to include Covid-19 specific resources. There was also Kooth which was an online service providing free access to online support and counselling for young people.

Members were informed of the CAMHS THRIVE redesign journey. It was a framework that provided practical strategy and integrated pathways to support children when they started to struggle. THRIVE provided wrap around support to children and young people when they needed it. Before THRIVE there were too many confusing routes to get into CAMHS. What was needed was a single point of access with one phone number. Due to Covid, services which could be accelerated were looked at. The Care Partnership had now a fully signed off THRIVE model and now needed resources to implement it. The partnership needed to invest in children's mental health at a greater rate and make things better for young people.

Comments and questions raised by the committee were as follows:

·  On evaluating the redesign and evidence of outcomes it was reported that the Child Action  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The report presented provided information on the single combined work programme drafted for all of the Lancashire County Council scrutiny committees.

The next meeting would focus on the Early Help offer. The item originally scheduled for January on the Early Years sector would now be presented at the meeting in February with the school attainment report being deferred until further notice.

In addition West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group and Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust were hoping to commence early engagement with the committee on their Shaping Care Together programme and the transformation of hospital and community services provided to children in West Lancashire and Sefton. They would also be presenting to the Health Scrutiny Committee.

There was a request for West Lancashire councillors to be informed of this and possibly have an invite to the meeting.

Resolved: That the work plan presented be noted.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee will be held on Wednesday 13 January 2021 at 10.30am.

The next virtual meeting of the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee would take place on Wednesday 13 January 2021 at 10.30am.