The
Director of Children’s Services will provide a verbal update to the Board.
Minutes:
The Director of Children’s Services provided a verbal
update to the Board. She advised that in the week previously Middlesbrough had
had the highest infection rate in the Country, however it has come down.
Social care- not a significant effect on staffing in
front line teams, all children who are looked after are having visits, and
although we do not have our performance figures for January 2022, there was no
concerns that these visits were not taking place. Only area of staffing what was being effected
was within the children’s’ homes, however they are continuing to manage the
homes successfully. If staffing.
Vacancy levels are monitored on a 3 weekly basis
(internally) and we have to report figures to the Department of Education (DFE)
on a fortnightly basis , however if staff absences go above 20% Middlesbrough
must be reported directly to the DFE so that they can support Middlesbrough and
offer guidance to reduce the risk overall. There has been a suggestion that
they may be able to provide financial assistance for Agency workers, however
they are difficult to come by.
Schools have been significantly affected by Covid and
whilst no school has closed, there has been high levels of staff affected and
we would like to commend our teaching staff, as they are ensuring our children
are being taught, regardless of staff sickness.
There has been a call for retired teachers to return
to support schools, however those schools whom the Director has spoken too,
have advised this is not as useful as anticipated as staff are unaware of the
running of the school.
Following the update a number of comments/ questions
were raised:
Mask wearing of parents on drop off/ pick up- are we
able to ask parents to do this? In response, the Director advised that the
local authority can ask parents but we are unable to mandate this. The Head of
Access to Education also advised that the LA are trying to encourage this and
we discuss covid related procedures with Head Teachers. The Director also advised that there is a
system in place that if vulnerable children are not in school, social workers
are notified.
From an outbreak and public health perspective, we
have been advising schools that they have preventative measures in place,
however this is difficult for the schools to enforce, especially when parents
are outdoors. It was the schools responsibility to ask why parents are not
wearing masks, however the local authority do not have this information.
Parents are asked to wear masks indoors, however it is difficult to enforce
outside.
In terms of covid numbers in schools, the rates have
slightly increased, however historically we have seen an increase in the 19-59
age group (working age) however it is starting to ease and therefore hopefully
not having a massive impact on teaching.
The Director advised that she would reiterate the mask
wearing with head teachers at a future meeting.
The
vaccination take up was further mentioned by a Board member and in particular
school staff. In response, public health advised that they do not these figures
but there have been some concerns from certain schools regarding unvaccinated
staff, however as advised the local authority are unable to mandate this, only
encourage. It was suggested that virtual schools/ social workers could ask
young people what the impact has been on their learning and it could be
discussed at the children and care council/ care leavers’ forum.
AGREED-
That the update be noted.