Agenda and minutes

Paxton Hood-Williams was confirmed as Convener of the Child and Family Services Panel.

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

No disclosures were made.

No declarations of interest were made.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

The Panel considered letters and minutes from the previous meeting and agreed the minutes of the meeting on 24 March 2021 as an accurate record of the meeting.

Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting.  Questions must relate to items on the agenda.  Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period.

No questions were submitted.

Joanne Abbott-Davies, Assistant Director of Strategy & Partnerships, Swansea Bay University Health Board

Julie Davies, Head of Child and Family Services

Joanne Abbott-Davies, Julie Davies, Isobel Davey, Helen Osborne and Gavin Evans presented an update to the Panel on progress with CAMHS including the impacts of Covid, partnership initiatives and progress, performance, opportunities and challenges and answered the Panel’s questions.

Discussion Points:

·         Joint Service elements have slowed down due to Covid. 

·         Impact of the last year on young people’s mental health has been significant.

·         Waiting time for Neurology Development Service had improved from 26 weeks.  However, increase in referrals has now increased three-fold, so waiting period has increased to over 6 months.  Discussions being held Wales-wide on what can be done. 

·         Scrutiny had previously recommended this Service had a single point of access, and is very pleased to see this now in place. 

·         Some of the performance indicators need to be re-developed to show what we need to know locally and to evidence the work now being done. 

·         New building on Kingsway is appointment only.  Discussions taking place on how to link and benefit from Infonation being next door.

·         Single Point of Access Telephone lines will be open five days per week Monday to Friday.  It was only open two hours per week before.  Crisis Service is available on the weekend. 

·         Cwm Taff is still providing the CAMHS service for the Swansea area.

·         A new app called ‘Kooth’ is being made available for children.  This facility is being put in place by Swansea Bay. 

·         A new regional website is launching in June.  It will monitor the number of ‘hits’ and who has accessed what.  There is also a ‘Comments’ section. 

·         Director of Social Services thinks the progress is very impressive and the continuum of support is much more developed.  Specialist CAMHS has demand issues but more confident can have discussions now about how to try and deal with the short term increase in demand. 

·         Panel sought reassurance that when a child is in absolute crisis, despite the pressures, the Service is able to provide an urgent response.  Officers confirmed the Crisis Team is fully staffed and would be able to respond to a child in absolute crisis, despite access to beds being at crisis point.

·         Panel congratulated everyone on the good progress being made despite the pandemic and hoped this will continue.

Jay McCabe, Principal Officer Bays+ and Youth Justice Services

Jay McCabe, Principal Officer Bays+ and Youth Justice Services attended to brief the Panel on progress with the Youth Offending Service. 

Discussion Points:

·         Youth Justice Board has provided a letter of de-escalation as they are satisfied the service is working in the right direction.  This is a great achievement and shows huge improvement over last year. 

·         Operational Manager, Helen Williams is now in post, the senior practitioner role has been developed to become Practice Lead and Asset Plus Training has been undertaken by most staff. 

·         Mobilisation of Speech and Language Service has been funded by further investment and led by Swansea to help young people engage and understand what is expected of them.  The service is starting in July and is an effective communications system. 

·         Helen Williams gave an overview of the recent performance monitoring report which was very positive.

·         Director of Social Services stated partnership commitment was evident.  Optimistic when inspectors return they will find considerable improvement and innovation.

·         Concern about young people’s involvement in riots in May Hill.  Word ‘culture’ being raised.  Officers confirmed there was a huge coordinated response with 50 agencies involved.  

·         Panel thanked everyone including residents for all their hard work on the night of the riot and since then.

·         Service is involved in working in partnership with various agencies to get messages out, for example, outreach work to engage with young people and working on a project in schools.  

·         Issues around violence and young people are being looked at across Swansea with partners.  Will need to continue to think about this and plan.  Officers believe having more of a presence in the community should make a difference. 

Items for next meeting:

·         Performance Monitoring

·         Update on Regional Adoption Service

·         Draft Work Programme 2021/22

The Panel considered items for the next meeting.