Stories
National Children and Adult Services Conference 2022
The annual National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) is taking place in-person this year, from 2 – 4 November in Manchester. The three-day conference is for elected members and senior leaders in local authorities with responsibility for, or an interest in, the delivering effective services and opportunities for children, young people and adults.
The prestigious conference is organised jointly by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA).
The event is vital to councillors, directors, senior officers, policy-makers and service managers, and individuals or organisations with responsibilities for children and adult services in the statutory, voluntary and private sector. NCASC offers the opportunity to hear and engage to the latest updates and thinking in key policies and improvement agendas alongside an exhibition of key organisations.
Bookings for the conference are now open, and you can book your place on the NCASC website, where you can also find information on booking accommodation.
The conference programme will be made available closer to the event. Further information about the conference can be found on the NCASC website, along with helpful FAQs.
LGA webinar on youth services
To celebrate youth work week, the LGA is holding a webinar looking at partnership working when developing and delivering youth services. The session will hear from the Isos partnership, and a range of local areas and partners including Harrow and Durham. The webinar is being held on Wednesday 9 November 2022, 3.30pm - 5.00pm. You can hear about other issues affecting youth services in our Knowledge Hub.
CSA Centre – Safety Planning in Education
The Centre of Expertise on CSA has published a free “safety planning in education” guide to provide practical support to professionals in education settings to respond to children's needs and safety where incidents of harmful sexual behaviour occur. Developed by professionals for professionals, it contains the key actions for a school when an incident has occurred, including a safety plan template for recording and reviewing arrangements and broader practical advice.
Corporate parenting
A new e-learning module for councillors on Corporate Parenting has been launched on the LGA e-learning platform, which is available for all councillors. The online training provides councillors with an introduction to the corporate parenting role of councils and councillors, what it means to be a good corporate parent, and how local councillors have a role in supported and encouraging care-experienced children and young people to achieve their aspirations.
Use of restraint when transporting children
The campaign group “Hope instead of handcuffs” has issued a proposed framework of measures and best practice to reduce the use of restraint for children in care who are travelling in secure transport. Councils may wish to consider the framework when commissioning transportation services to ensure that children are safe and treated appropriately. The Welsh Government has also updated its “reducing restrictive practices framework” to reference secure transport specifically.
Support for families from Ukraine
Barnardo’s has established a helpline for children and adults fleeing Ukraine and needing support.The support offered included therapy with a qualified psychotherapist, advice on a range of issues including employment and accessing health services, and practical support such as providing toys and digital devices.
New toolkit offers practical strategies for teachers to support secondary students’ mental health
The Anna Freud Centre and the Early Intervention Foundation have released a free resource, ‘Classroom wellbeing toolkit: Simple ways to support secondary students’. It is an evidence-based resource that gives guidance on practical steps teachers and other adults in secondary schools can take to promote and support mental health, through their everyday interactions with students. A free online event on Thursday 3 November at 4:30pm will explore some of the strategies in the toolkit in more depth.
Department for Education (DfE) panel seeking experts for research opportunities
DfE researchers are seeking professionals who work with children and families to join their research panel, which is a database of people who have agreed to be contacted about research opportunities which are relevant to their work.
Roles they are looking for include anyone working within children’s social care in a council, anyone working within family hubs or as a family support practitioner, health visitors, early help workers and other related roles.
If you are in one of these roles and would like to join, please fill out this survey. If you would like more information or have questions, email CF.Recruitment@education.gov.uk for an information sheet and privacy notice.
Children’s Commissioner vision for childcare
Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza published her Vision for Childcare outlining the opportunities, challenges, and solutions to providing childcare and early education. The Commissioner’s analysis drawn from a sample of local authorities also shows that the uptake of childcare is varied across the country by local authority, ethnicity, English as additional language and Special Educational Need Status.
Support schools and colleges to create an environment that promotes and supports mental wellbeing
Please share with local schools and colleges that they can make a difference to the mental wellbeing of pupils, students and staff by training a mental health lead. It takes around five minutes to reserve a training grant to pay for beginner, intermediate or advanced level senior mental health lead training to further develop school or colleges approach to mental wellbeing. The grant can also be used to pay for supply cover to backfill the mental health lead while undertaking training, or for further training and resources to implement or sustain the whole school or college approach.
Home learning campaign
DfE, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Social Care’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), has launched a home learning environment (HLE) campaign. The campaign encourages parents and carers to chat, play and read more with their children, in order to develop their communication, language and literacy skills before starting school. Parents can be directed to the HLE online hub, where they can find local support and ideas of activities to do with their children. A full range of digital and printed resources is available via the Campaign Resource Centre for you to promote the campaign. Contact hle.coalition@education.gov.uk if you require any further information.
Early years education recovery programme
In 2021, the Government announced their plan for the early years education recovery programme. The Government has published the range of programmes that local authorities and early years practitioners have available to them, some of which many places will already have accessed. This includes the third phase of the Professional Development Programme, the rollout of the Expert and Mentors programme and training for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs). Later in the year Early Years Practitioners will be able to access: training on communication, language, early mathematics and personal, social and emotional development training and stronger practice hubs which will support settings to adopt evidence-based practice improvements.
Supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
We are looking for examples of good practice in relation to supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, in order to share experience and support other councils to provide support to these young people. If your council has successfully improved support for unaccompanied children, we would like to hear from you – please email louise.smith@local.gov.uk
UNICEF campaign on early years
UNICEF have launched a campaign to call on the government to deliver a National Baby and Toddler Guarantee after finding that 1 in 3 parents of babies and toddlers across Britain struggle to access support. The guarantee sets out the basic services, covering maternity services, health visiting services, mental health support and early education and care, that every young child and their family is entitled to.
LGA encourages take up of Healthy Start Scheme
Around 143,000 families eligible for the Healthy Start Scheme, which helps low-income families pay for milk, vegetables and fruit, failed to make a claim (looking at the latest available data). The LGA is encouraging take-up and asking for further government support of the scheme which is administered by councils. The LGA has written a 5-point plan for improving uptake of the scheme, including increasing the value of the prepaid cards in line with inflation and rolling out autoenrollment of the scheme.
Food Foundation: New food insecurity data published
The latest data from the Food Foundation’s Food Insecurity Tracker has revealed the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on families, with an estimated four million children currently living in homes that do not have adequate access to food.
The tracker found that over a quarter (26 per cent) of households with children have experienced food insecurity in the past month. This has increased by 50 per cent since April, compared to households without children where the increase has been 26 per cent.
Routine childhood vaccinations in England in 2021-22
Coverage for all routine childhood vaccinations administered to children under five in England in 2021-22 was published by NHS Digital showing that coverage decreased in 13 out of the 14 routine vaccination measures in 2021-22. These new statistics have revealed that we are still not reaching the World Health Organisation (WHO) 95 per cent targets for vaccination coverage, are particularly concerning and also show considerable regional disparities.
Cost of Living Network
The LGA is holding a series of webinars to give councils the opportunity to come together and hear from speakers on what is being done locally and nationally to help mitigate the impacts of the cost of living.
In response to rising energy bills, the first webinar will explore warm spaces and how councils can best support people who are unable to meet their homes. Speakers include Gateshead Council, Bristol City Council, Suffolk Libraries, and the Warm Welcome Campaign.
The second webinar look at hardship support and how local welfare can be administered in an integrated, strategic, and data-driven way that delivers best outcomes for communities. Speakers include East Devon Council, the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Trafford Council, and Citizens Advice (national policy team).
Please complete our sign-up form to receive invitations to both of these events.
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