To consider the briefing on Child Care Hubs.
Minutes:
Documents:
· Child Care briefing – 11 May 2020
Discussion:
· 5841 early years childcare hours have been delivered weekly across the county to children of keyworkers and vulnerable children.
· This is in addition to the school hubs providing care for school aged key worker children
· Demand has been met in full and has been delivered as locally as possible to meet requirements of parents
· The registration of some providers has been amended with CIW so that we have been able accommodate demand
· The early years workforce has stepped up to the challenge as has the Powys Childcare Team
· Some staff have been redeployed from closed settings to open settings to support with childcare provision.
· Payments are made direct to the provider. Bookings are made online to the central Powys Childcare Team but payments are administered through Ceredigion County Council
· The funding for settings is complex and settings receive up to five different types of funding streams
· Any questions regarding payments etc can be made direct to the Child Care Business Support Team where established relationships are in place with providers.
· Funding streams were complex pre Covid and providers are used to working within that framework. New funding has determined which settings have remained open. It has been very flexible and has allowed the Authority to tailor provision to meet requirements. A block funding model has been adopted which has allowed 29 settings to remain open. Formal guidance regarding the position after 18 June 2020 is to be released imminently. It is likely that more settings will resume work.
· Members asked if the block booking process had been adopted for residential settings. The Corporate Director informed the Committee that the Welsh Government has ringfenced £40M to allow local authorities to co-ordinate bids from the market for adult services. This has allowed voids to be bought to ensure some stability. A bid of £2.85M has already been submitted with a final bid to be submitted by the end of June 2020.
· The Childcare Assistance Scheme is fully funded by WG
· Staff have been redeployed from local authority settings that have closed so were already Powys employees
· Is the service aware of how many vulnerable children have not taken up places and how are these children being encouraged to attend? A list is cross referenced against bookings and social workers are working with families to encourage them to attend. The social worker is also able to make bookings on behalf of the family. A number of children are not accessing a place due to a variety of reasons including shielding and parental choice.
· Face to face visits are still being undertaken – this is not the case across all other Welsh authorities
· Some School Hubs and Early Years settings operate from the same sites
· The Committee asked about testing for staff and teachers – a response would be obtained from the Education Service
Members asked other questions which were not specific to the item on the agenda:
· The Royal College of GPs were providing an advocacy service for care homes – was the Authority aware of this and able to use the service? The Corporate Director was aware of the advocacy service but not that it was available to care homes. Councillor Charlton would share the information she has with her.
· The Corporate Director was asked if she was aware of any difficulties arising because of the differing guidance in England and Wales. There were no issues that she was aware of. If a child was placed in another of the home nations, the rules of that nation would apply.
· The Closer to Home strategy had not changed because of Covid
· The Foster Panel continued to meet monthly with an interim catch up in between meetings
· Track and Trace was running in partnership with the Health Board. Trace and protect has been running since 1 June but numbers have been low. An appointment for testing has to be made. Care home staff will be able to have a weekly test for four weeks starting on 15 June 2020. Those working in the community can arrange to receive a test kit
· The Chair sought the Committee’s opinion regarding the frequency of meetings – there was general support for less frequent, longer meetings with an additional meeting or briefing convened if circumstances warrant it
· The Committee was limited to discussing business critical issues, but recovery work is commencing. The Solicitor to the Council advised that a separate, joint scrutiny committee would be considering recovery issues.
· Were there any local figures for excess deaths available – this information is scrutinized by Gold Command weekly. The link to the Office for National Statistics would be circulated to Committee Members.
Supporting documents: