Sefton Council

Councils across the Liverpool City Region, including Sefton, are set to receive a pooled fund of £159,000 to support parents facing continued conflict in their relationships and prevent lasting impact on their children.

Designed to tackle the knock-on impact of parental conflict on children’s learning, relationships and future work life, the £4million Government funding pot will support 147 councils across England to develop targeted support for families.

From couples counselling to specialist learning tools, including videos and dedicated online advice, the initiatives will help parents learn how to recognise, de-escalate and solve conflict.

Frontline staff across Sefton and the rest of the City Region will get specialist training so they can spot the signs of parents who need help addressing frequent conflict. The funding will also be used to develop online tools and relationship programmes to help parents identify and resolve issues at home, delivered by Early Help Workers, Health Visitors, Social Workers and staff from voluntary sector agencies.

Wirral, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, Halton, St. Helen’s and Cheshire East councils will receive the funding to work together as a cluster.

DWP Lords Minister Baroness Stedman-Scott said:

“Family dynamics are complicated, and the pandemic will have tested the strongest of couples. That’s why looking after the mental health of the whole family is vital to giving children the best start in life, and I want to ensure that help is available here across Liverpool City region and Sefton.

“This money means better support for more families to help ensure prolonged conflict doesn’t negatively impact children or their future.”

Studies show that frequent, intense and poorly resolved conflict can negatively impact children’s mental health. From their early social and emotional development to school grades, with lasting impact on their job prospects.

The programme is designed to resolve parental conflict, not domestic abuse. Those in abusive relationships will instead be referred to specialist support.

Margaret Jones, Sefton Council’s Director of Public Health, has written to parents and guardians across the Borough to remind them about the arrangements in place for returning to school.

In her letter she explained that before the the start of term, each Sefton school has completed a risk assessment and identified specific measures for their settings.

Sefton’s schools will be following the national guidance. This means ‘pupil bubbles’ and social distancing/mixing measures have been removed and pupils are no longer be required to wear face coverings in school, although it is recommended they be worn in crowded and enclosed places.

Regular hand washing, personal hygiene and ventilation is also being recommended to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  Should case numbers in a school or educational setting rise substantially, some control measures need to be temporarily reintroduced.

Although NHS Test & Trace are now responsible for contact tracing of all positive cases, if a child or young person tests positive for COVID-19, their school should still be informed.

Young people are no longer being advised to isolate if they are identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case, but they will be asked to take a PCR test. If the PCR result is positive, the individual will then be required to self-isolate. All known contacts of positive COVID-19 cases should be reported to NHS Test & Trace, no matter vaccination status or age.

The letter reminds parents and guardians that if a child develops COVID-19 symptoms, they should book an appointment for them to have a PCR test and that the child should not come into school whilst they are awaiting the test results, even if they feel better. If their test result is negative, they can return to school. If their result is positive, they should continue to isolate and follow public health advice.

Appointments for PCR tests can be booked at www.gov.uk/coronavirus  or by calling 119.

Mrs Jones’ letter also encourages parents, carers, secondary pupils and college students to take regular rapid lateral flow (LFD) tests. Taking LFD tests twice a week remains one of the most effective ways to reduce transmission of COVID-19.

Free rapid tests are available through schools, colleges and nurseries for everyone who attends them or works at them. Primary age pupils in Year 6 or below do not need to do testing if they do not have symptoms or are not a contact of a positive COVID-19 case.

She also reminds readers that vaccination remains the best protection against the virus and encourages everyone eligible to get both doses as soon as possible.

Margaret Jones said:

“We appreciate that this is a challenging time for parents, guardians, pupils and students as well as for teachers and school staff and Sefton Council would like to thank them for their support in keeping the Borough’s helping keep our schools open and safe.

“We also know it’s a lot to take in so we have set up some Frequently Asked Questions on our website which can be found at www.sefton.gov.uk/schools-faqs

“Finally, I like to wish all the Borough’s pupils and students every success in this coming academic year.”

Councillors at today’s Sefton Council Cabinet meeting have approved more than £2 million to fund new roles in its Children’s Social Care Department.

This investment in staff is in addition to an extra £7 million, Sefton Council committed to children’s social care in its budget earlier this year.

Demand

Cllr Mhairi Doyle MBE, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “We are currently facing very high levels of demand for our children’s social care services and this has been intensified by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit some parts of Sefton particularly hard.

“Today’s agreement of an extra £2 million of additional investment in new roles over the coming two years will be key to enabling us to make further improvements to children’s social care in Sefton and represents the latest step in our improvement journey following an OFSTED visit earlier in 2021.”

Since March this year, Sefton Council has appointed a number of additional staff to its Children’s Social Care service have been recruited and has established a transformation team support by the Department for Education (DfE).

Improvements

Cllr Doyle added: “We acknowledged the issues and challenges raised through the OFSTED inspection and immediately started work to make the improvements needed to address them.

“We have already put in place a new interim Executive Director of Children’s Social Care and Education to ensure the service’s management is focused and to drive the development work.

“Our Children’s Social Care staff are committed and skilled but are facing levels of demand unlike anything we’ve known before. We are working to support them in providing the high-quality, responsive service that families, children and young people across Sefton have every right to expect and which we are committed to delivering.”

“I am confident that recruitment these new posts agreed today combined with the valuable support being provided by the Department of Education, will enable us to achieve that commitment.”

You can find out more about Sefton Council services for children and young people here.

Sefton Council’s Children’s Social Care department looks set to receive over £2 million worth of new roles over the next two years if approved at the Council’s Cabinet meeting next week (Thursday 2nd September) and supported by the financial strategy for 2022/23. The £2 million due to be spent on extra staff forms part of the £7 million investment approved by Full Council earlier this year.

Additional investment

The additional investment into Children’s Social Care is to improve the service and help deal with the unprecedented increase in demand, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is an additional step on Sefton’s Children’s Services’ improvement journey following an OFSTED visit in March 2021 which highlighted areas in need of improvement. Since March, a number of additional staff have been recruited, bolstered by a transformation team and support from the Department for Education.

Committed and skilled

Cllr Mhairi Doyle MBE, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “We have a committed and skilled workforce, dedicated to working on behalf of our children and I can assure families, children and young people across Sefton that we are determined to deliver to them the high-quality, responsive service they rightly expect and deserve from us.

“But the level of demand for our services is unlike anything we’ve known before, and with additional pressures from Covid-19, we recognise that improvements need to be made to Children’s Services in Sefton.

“We acknowledge the issues and challenges that OFSTED raised, and are committed to facing these head on. I am confident that the recruitment of these new posts to the Children’s Social Care team, in addition to external support from the Department of Education, will help ensure we make the improvements necessary to achieve better outcomes for children and families, and quickly. We need to make immediate improvements, and our existing staff need to see immediate relief in capacity and positive outcomes.

“We are aware of the need to focus on the management of the service and already have a new interim executive director of children’s social care and education and transformation team in place to drive the improvements.”

You can find the agenda and papers for the meeting here.