Forum to consider the report.

Rebecca Askew, Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist for Wellbeing (AfC), presented the Wellbeing Service, namely its current and future provision, and that the Forum needed to note the report.

Rebecca Askew gave the data highlights from September 2022 to August 2023:

·       A total of 199 individuals were referred to the Wellbeing and Getting Help Teams, representing a slight increase from last year with 172 young people being referred.

·       64 young people were referred to the Wellbeing Team, with 52% being male and 48% female.

·       108 children/young people and their families were referred to and supported by the Wellbeing Team.

·       43 young people and/or their families accessed individual, family or group-based therapy sessions during this period; of these four parents attended the Helping Your Child group course and six attended the Child Parent Relationship Therapy Group.

Moving onto ethnicity, based on the results displayed on the pie chart (page 72 in the report), Rebecca Askew informed that AfC needed to continue to find ways to meet the needs of children and families from the largest ethnic demographic, people of Asian backgrounds, and that AfC were working alongside the Specialist Parenting Worker from the Family Hub to target its provision towards these children and families.

Rebecca Askew briefly gave an overview of the Wellbeing Team Activity, highlighting that the total number of schools supported was 46 and that total individual referrals taken from the Early Help Hub was 64. She then explained that 2023 had seen an ongoing trend towards the Wellbeing Team offering play therapy and family-based therapies. Its close partnership with the Getting Help Team meant that it was now offering less CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) informed interventions. However, the increased capacity in low intensity CBT from Berkshire Healthcare Trust (NHS) had enabled the Wellbeing Team to focus its CBT capacity towards children and young people who needed a more flexible approach, particularly those with Emotionally Related School Avoidance (ERSA).

The Wellbeing Team continued to complete assessment and triage as part of their case work but tend not to offer standalone Wellbeing Assessments. In 2023, they completed 7 standalone assessments. 46 schools were supported by the Wellbeing team, the minimum number of cases supported in a school was one and the maximum number of cases supported in a school was seven.

Rebecca Askew then discussed the summary of the presenting difficulties of young people referred to the Wellbeing Service from September 2022 to August 2023. She highlighted that some cases had more than one presenting difficulty. The most frequently referred primary concerns were emotional dysregulation, attachment difficulties and anxiety. 21.8% of the cases referred to the Wellbeing Team had Emotional Related School Avoidance (ERSA) as a co-existing issue alongside the primary presenting issue noted above. This was a 12.5% increase on last year.

Regarding Play and Creative Arts Therapy, Rebecca Askew reported that during the period, 22 young people (77% male and 23% female) accessed individual Play Therapy, with the average age 8 years and 6 months old. The primary tool used to measure impact was the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) due to the younger age of this cohort. The results were positive, whereby children/young people reported a reduction in most subsets of symptoms and an increase in the kind and helpful behaviour domain. In addition, the data set indicated parents saw a reduction in most subsets of symptoms as well as a slight increase in kind and helpful behaviour. Similarly, the data set indicated teachers saw a reduction in all subsets of symptoms and an increase in kind and helpful behaviour.

On the outcome measures, the data from the Young Person’s Mood and Feelings Questionnaire illustrated a reduction of symptoms from pre- and post- SDQ scores as well as a reduction in the stress scale from parents.

In terms of Service Evaluation of the Wellbeing Service, Rebecca Askew reported that following a one-to-one therapeutic intervention with the Wellbeing Team, parents and children/

young people were sent a service user evaluation form to gather feedback on service development and delivery. The general feedback was that parents were very pleased with the provision which was offered:

·       100% of parents felt listened to by the Wellbeing Practitioner, that they were treated well, that their views were taken seriously, that the practitioner knew how to help their child and that overall the help they received was good.

·       97.4% of parents felt it was easy to talk to the Wellbeing Practitioner that their child worked with, that they were given enough information about the help available, that they would recommend the wellbeing team’s support to a friend and that professionals were together to help their child.

·       78.9% of parents felt the appointments were at a convenient time.

When it came to feedback from children and young people, with 6 young people completing the service user feedback form (an improvement to last year where none were received), the highlights were:

·       100% of young people felt listened to by the Wellbeing Practitioner who saw them.

·       83.4% said they would recommend this support to a friend.

·       100% of young people said that overall the help they received was good.

In regard to areas for development based on the service user feedback and the response to this feedback:

·       16.7% of young people said they were not given enough information about the help available. Based on this, the Wellbeing Team be clearer on the support which they could offer. This would be done through the use of a flyer for young people which included the services the Team offered and who it was best suited for.

·       16.7% of young people said they did not feel professionals were working together to help them, namely the communication between professionals during intervention. In response to this, the Wellbeing Team would ensure that young people attended Early Help review meetings; and if they did not wish to attend, they receive feedback after the meeting while being able to have their input.

Rebecca Askew then mentioned the Helping Your Child Parent Group, a group intervention which engaged with the parents of children with anxiety which was offered by the Wellbeing Team and the Getting Help Team in collaboration. She reported that there were positive results from this.

Feedback from the service user evaluation for the Parent Child Attachment Play (PCAP) was also positive.

The Forum noted the report.

Before the meeting closed, Laurence Ellis, Democratic Services Officer, highlighted that the next Forum meeting was on Thursday 14^th December 2023 (2:00pm start-time) and held virtually via Zoom.