The Panel will consider a verbal report on the Emotional Wellbeing of Students.
Contact Officer: Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director (Learning and Early Support)
Minutes:
The Panel considered a verbal report on the Emotional Wellbeing of Students presented by Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director for Learning and Early Support. This report had been requested by the Panel.
Jo-Anne Sanders highlighted the following key issues:-
- Support would be put in place for young people as they returned to school post third lockdown as schools agreed it was critical to the emotional wellbeing of students;
- In May 2020 the Education and Psychology Team had worked hard to develop an offer of targeted support to help youngsters during the pandemic;
- Staff in schools had also been provided with guidance and support so they could in turn help children, complemented by the Education Health and Care Plan offer;
- A training package on emotional coaching had been sent to all school’s prior to September 2020 with lesson plans which included direct resources that children could participate in;
- Further training for key staff in schools was available through the United Kingdom and was being developed for wider use;
- The Government had introduced a grant of £63,609 to support the wellbeing for educational return in September 2020; Education Leads were liaising with Public Health colleagues regarding the best use of the grant;
- A programme of resilience would be in place for children from March 2021;
- Help was in place for college staff to support the health and emotional wellbeing of their students;
- Training was available for key staff on how best to respond to young people who were anxious about school;
- Opportunities were being offered for additional SENCO support;
- More schools would be participating from February half term this year in the Alex Timpson Trauma in Schools Programme which had been underpinned by Oxford University, and would provide the best strategies to address the needs of vulnerable children who had been through trauma; positive feedback had been received from schools involved in the first waive of the roll out of this programme;
- The Mental Health Trailblazing programme was a national initiative and the Council had been successful in 2 bidding rounds and as a result 80 Kirklees schools had access to the additional support; The Council would like to sustain and widen funding opportunities already in place so these could be made available for all schools in Kirklees;
- A children and young people survey had been carried out by the Learning Service in May 2020 and another had been undertaken in December 2020 with public health colleagues and the results were currently being analysed;
- Schools had been very pro-active in working with early support colleagues to make resources available to support the health and wellbeing of youngsters.
A number of comments were made by members of the Panel, as follows:-
- The mental health of students was vitally important and concerns were raised relating to the high number of children currently attending school as their parents were classed as critical workers and whether everyone was following the rules relating to critical workers;
- Concerns were raised regarding the number of children of critical workers who had to remain at home as their schools were currently closed and that greater consideration needed to be given to ensure these families received the support they required.
The Panel acknowledged the high level of work that had been undertaken by the Learning Service to provide schools with the funding, tools and training they needed to support children’s health and emotional wellbeing during the pandemic. The Panel also noted that staff had been under huge pressures and were concerned that this could take its toll.
Jo-Anne Sanders advised the Panel that School Leaders were under a lot of pressure and that their work with school governors was important as the governing body had a role to play in supporting teachers. School Leaders had valued the support they had received from governors and teacher peer support was also very important. The Panel was informed that there were some strong Head Teachers in Secondary and Primary schools in Kirklees and good networks and peer support were in place.
The Panel was informed that there was a Head Teacher Wellbeing service in place in Kirklees which offered free coaching and support to our school leaders.
In response to a question from the Panel regarding whether attendance at school by children who had not returned following the lockdowns was in place, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that all attendance was tracked before, during and after COVID and that robust systems were in place for children missing in education. The Panel was informed that some children may have moved out of the area or parents had chosen to home educate.
In response to a question from the Panel asking if emotional coaching was tailored for children of all ages, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that emotional coaching was tailored to the age and stage of the young person and was research based.
In response to a question from the Panel asking if some things would continue in the future after COVID, Jo-Anne Sanders responded to advise that there were some challenges and opportunities being looked at by Senior colleagues in Learning with participation by School Leaders and was being led by Cllr Pattison, Cabinet Member for Learning, Aspiration and Communities.
In response to a question from the Panel asking if schools could access additional funding support during the pandemic, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that schools could put in a funding bid which enabled officers to work with schools that complimented the work ongoing within community hubs.
In response to a question from the Panel asking if schools would continue with some processes introduced during the pandemic, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that there had been challenges and opportunities as a result of COVID, and senior colleagues in Children’s Services were working with school leaders to look at this and this work had been led by Cllr Pattison as Lead Cabinet Member.
RESOLVED –
1. That the Panel noted the verbal update on the Emotional Wellbeing of Children and thanked Jo-Anne Sanders for her contributions.