The purpose of this report is three-fold: to put children, young people and their lived experiences of Covid-19 front and centre in national recovery planning; to articulate what is needed to restore the public support services they rely on; and, to capture the positives and gains made during a very complex national, and indeed, global emergency.
It says that councils will be integral to minimising any impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on children and young people, from increased mental health challenges or safeguarding issues through to increased poverty and gaps in education, and helping them to thrive again.
Councils and many others in the sector have raised concerns about the potential for increased demand for services as children return to school and issues become apparent. Tackling this will be a joint effort with central government. The ADCS calls for effective cross-government working to improve children’s lives.
The report says that Government needs to invest in preventative universal and early help services to ensure that children, young people and families receive the practical, emotional, educational and mental health support they need, as soon as they need it.
Recommendations:
- Government to initiate an ambitious and world-leading health inequalities strategy and lead a Cabinet-level cross-departmental committee charged with its development and implementation. We suggest that the new strategy is highly visible to the public and that clear targets are set… Making wellbeing rather than straightforward economic performance the central goal of policy will create a better society with better health and greater health equity.
- The Department for Education must urgently articulate the impact of Covid-19 on childhood across government and lead the response to addressing the inequalities either caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. A cross-government forum is essential in this aim.
- The government must move quickly to capture the lessons from its response to the first phase of the pandemic in order to inform planning for the next phase of lockdown easements and, crucially, the putative second wave. Supporting the most vulnerable children and families should be a key line of inquiry and local partners, particularly LAs and schools, must be meaningfully involved in this process.
- It should articulate the relationship between family and state with departments across government in a coordinated and seamless way so that families are placed at the heart of decision-making.
- It must lead in the re-setting of the role of schools to seek a more even balance between education and wellbeing via a comprehensive assessment of the needs of communities and children and young people themselves alongside that of the economy in resetting the curriculum, assessment, testing and accountability frameworks to ensure that levelling-up is accelerated.
- The Department must lead the charge for securing sufficient resources for children, young people and families in the forthcoming spending review. This must be equitable, sustainable and prioritise investment in early intervention and preventative services.
- We need urgent, strategic action to reprofile investment in children and families across government. Supporting the most vulnerable children and families must be the priority, the first step could be the rolling out nationally of initiatives, programmes and projects funded by various government departments that have been positively evaluated and demonstrate improved outcomes for children, and crucially, are effective at controlling escalating costs.
- Where there is promising evidence of impact then the innovative and/or novel approaches developed in response to the pandemic should be retained, particularly where the preferences of the children and families we work with are better met and new capacity is released into the system.