1.    Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations

 

Will the Cabinet Member outline their plans to reduce the risk of homelessness during the continued concern of the Covid-19 pandemic?

 

2.    Councillor A Hussain to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

 

There is a warning following publication of a joint LGA report with the Centre for Mental Health which sets out the need for preventative local services to help reduce health inequalities and ensure better mental health for all.

 

Could the Cabinet Member let us know what preventative measures are we taking in our County to help everyone to stay mentally well, including those affected by COVID-19?

 

Question from Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations

 

Will the Cabinet Member outline their plans to reduce the risk of homelessness during the continued concern of the Covid-19 pandemic?

 

Response of the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations

 

As you have previously been informed, individuals become homeless for a plethora of reasons, for example, a relationship breakdown, difficulties in a parent and child relationship, domestic abuse. These reasons (risks) have not changed due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, but what has changed is the expectation on local authorities.

 

As you will know, at the start of the pandemic all local authorities were expected to ensure that no individual was street homeless during the lockdown.  Welsh Government expected Bridgend County Borough Council to provide suitable temporary accommodation with en-suite facilities to this group.  Welsh Government expanded the definition of vulnerability under the current Housing Act to consider the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic.  Their view is that the COVID- 19 pandemic presents a grave and exceptional risk to those persons who are homeless as these individuals may be unable to adhere to health advice, self- isolate, socially distance or maintain necessary hygiene requirements and it appears almost inevitable that a person who is either street homeless or faced with street homelessness is less able than an ordinary homeless person to fend for himself or herself.  One impact of this change in the guidance has meant accommodation units where we would usually place homeless individuals did not meet the current requirement i.e. due to social- distancing the capacity threshold was reduced, and need for en-suite facilities due to the highly contagious nature of the COVID-19 virus.

 

Last year Cabinet set our strategy to tackle homelessness in Bridgend County Borough, with the aim being “To work collaboratively on a corporate basis with external partners, and service users, in a responsive, creative and timely manner to prevent and relieve homelessness throughout the county borough, ensuring people can access suitable accommodation, with the support required to meet their needs”.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has not changed our ambition, but with the additional funding provided by Welsh Government it has allowed us to expedite some of our plan and bring forward projects which otherwise would have been waiting in the pipeline for funding to be made available.

 

Our co-produced plan understood homelessness is a complex and multi-layered issue requiring a multifaceted response.  Analysis of needs of the cohort of people that have been housed during the COVID-19 pandemic confirms this to be the case.  For example, out of those households placed during the COVID-19 pandemic, only 1 in 15 had no support needs with everyone else having needs which required mental health and/or substance misuse support - providing accommodation is not the only answer.  In order to ensure that the housing provided is suitable for the individual, the individual must be willing and wanting to address some of their other needs. 

Bridgend County Borough Council has submitted funding bids to Welsh Government for both capital and revenue projects to help ease the additional housing requirement.  I’ve set out below some examples of the types of projects we have supported with the additional funding from Welsh Government, which I hope you find useful and as always I am happy to meet to discuss in more detail or if possible arrange visits such as the one we carried out at the Brynmenyn Hostel last week.

 

The revenue projects include providing additional support services for Brynmenyn Hostel which has allowed for the hostel to be used for triage and identify the support need of service users.  We have also used the revenue grant to support Pobl to manage accommodation on Commercial Street in Maesteg and the officers are working regionally with neighbouring authorities and the Cwm Taff Morgannwg Health Board to deliver a joint pilot outreach project related to substance misuse, which has had a positive start and I hope will be sustainable for the future. 

 

The capital projects have received indicative support from Welsh Government and will look to increase the number of accommodation units in Bridgend.  These projects range from the purchase of properties in the private sector by RSLs, and conversions of homes that no longer meet the needs of our homelessness demographic to extending the capacity in our current schemes.

 

The Housing Solutions Team, in my opinion has gone above and beyond to find every homeless person in Bridgend accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so during this period of global concern.

 

Councillor Thomas in his supplementary question asked what the Council is doing to support armed forces veterans from the risk of becoming homeless.  The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations informed Members that the Council is working with the third sector to support veterans and has signed a commitment to support armed forces veterans.  The Armed Forces Champion informed Council that it actively supports veterans charities and he outlined a recent case where a veteran had become homeless, was placed in temporary accommodation pending a move to more permanent accommodation.  Councillor Thomas thanked the Members for their response and stated that he would follow this up with a written question to the Armed Forces Champion. 

 

A member asked a supplementary question referring to the extensive discussions at the Recovery Panel and questioned the partnership working and response received from partners during the pandemic.  The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations informed Council that the Council has collaborated with the third sector which has responded rapidly during the pandemic with excellent support from the Wallich, Caer Las and Pobl.  She stated that key to this was the support element and that the third sector and Housing Solutions had worked excellently together and meeting weekly.  In addition, South Wales Police had responded quickly to anti-social behaviour incidents and had undertaken preventative work in the community.  Local businesses, such as hoteliers and owners of bed and breakfast establishments had responded positively by providing accommodation to the homeless.  Registered Social Landlords had attended meetings of the Rapid Rehousing Panel but had furloughed their staff. 

 

Question from Councillor A Hussain to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help    

There is a warning following publication of a joint LGA report with the Centre for Mental Health which sets out the need for preventative local services to help reduce health inequalities and ensure better mental health for all.

 

Could the Cabinet Member let us know what preventative measures are we taking in our County to help everyone to stay mentally well, including those affected by COVID-19?

 

Response of the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

In response to the question on what preventative measures are in place to help people stay mentally well within the County Borough.

The following describes the services that are currently in place

Children’s Services:

Many children will benefit from early help and support at some time in their childhood and some will require help from specialist mental health services. In addition to those young people with identified mental health needs, there are many more with early stage difficulties, including those living in situations that increase the risk of developing significant problems and who may benefit from receiving early support to actively promote good mental health.

 

The key to good mental health, in children and young people, is a robust graduated approach involving the family in issues such as: a healthy birth, consistent, positive parenting, balanced nutrition and exercise, attainment at school, having friends and an ability to cope with life events. Children and young people with good mental health are able to develop emotionally, creatively and intellectually and have the resilience to cope with life’s difficulties. It is recognised that childhood experiences impact significantly on the ability to be an effective and nurturing parent in the future.

 

There are a wide range of preventative services within the integrated working and family support portfolio to support better mental health for children and young people. These include:

 

·         Three early locality hubs located in the north, west and east of the county borough. These include family support workers, family engagement officers, school based counsellors, lead workers (youth workers), education welfare officers, emotional wellbeing workers and community counselling.

·         A central hub including a range of specialist services including those to support children on the ‘edge of care’ and the youth justice service.

·         Youth development service – youth workers, participation workers, part-time youth service etc.  Specifically, there is a youth emotional wellbeing team that provide support to young people 11 to 25 years old based on an assessed need.

·         Early years and childcare including Flying Start.

 

More specifically, there is a child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) resource within the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) alongside two public health nurses who are able to signpost and direct children, young people and families to the correct services.

 

Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

The EPS has continued to support our children, young people, school staff and families with a specific focus on well-being in the following ways:

·         continued contact and consultation support for schools and families using a telephone support line, emails and virtual meetings;

·         developed and distributed 11 packs of materials to schools to support the mental health and well-being of staff, pupils and families during the spring summer term 2020;

·         set up and led a returning to school task and finish group in summer term 2020 with representation from schools and local authority officers;

·         sent out well-being surveys for school staff across BCBC and followed up all the respondents who requested support;

·         developed a Recovery, Re-introduction and Renewal Handbook for Schools and Education Settings following critical incidents to support the reintegration of pupils back into school in autumn term 2020;

·         following requests for support, set up two projects this autumn:

o   Year 11 support for pupils in Brynteg School;

o   Year 7 transition support for vulnerable pupils in Archbishop McGrath Catholic School;

·         PERMA well-being profiling tool will be piloted this year across 10 Bridgend schools;

·         100% increase in online emotional learning support assistant (ELSA) supervision delivered by EPS focused on recovery and well-being this academic year;

·         undertaking a mindfulness research project initially at Ysgol Bryn Castell;

·         adverse childhood experiences (ACE)s training rollout pilot via webinars and live EPS support;

·         planning meetings by the link educational psychologist (EP) with all schools to identify their priority and support needs.

There will be an increased focus on well-being and recovery this academic year, in addition to the projects specified above. Well-being and good mental health will continue to underpin all our consultation and intervention work.

Adult Services

There are a wide range of preventative services for adults including those provided jointly with the Health Board

 

In 2019 the Local Authority remodelled their mental health provision to offer a Prevention and Early Intervention service (DEWR) that provides a community service for citizens experiencing mental ill health. This was to ensure we could support our citizens who did not meet the criteria for some specialist services.

 

The ethos of DEWR is to address social issues that are impacting on an individual or their families/supporters to prevent the onset of a mental illness. DEWR offers a number of flexible, person-centred approaches to ensure that citizens are able to fully participate in society and that the focus remains on their views, wishes and feelings. We engage in direct work with citizens and families targeting their identified support needs in order to promote mental wellbeing.

 

We can support citizens aged 16 and above who are at high risk of developing poor or impaired mental health, and their families and carers. This can include people experiencing homelessness, high functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder or aspects of a Learning Difficulty.

 

DEWR can provide high-quality, person-centred support to citizens designed to enable them to achieve and sustain optimum levels of independence and mental wellbeing, either by group activity or on a one to one basis. The team also supports colleagues in Children Services to assist with the development and transition of a child into adulthood, by addressing any emerging mental health issues.

 

During these unprecedented and unique times, our service has had to adapt to continue to meet the needs of our population. The introduction and increased use of technology has enabled us to support the community, and with the commitment of staff, we have met the challenges that Covid 19 has produced. Regular contact and assistance were vital for many within our locality, and all forms of contact were doubled, to provide reassurance and confidence to those we support.

 

Via the medium of Skype, staff have continued to offer group work such as gardening, crafting, cooking, and Mindfulness sessions. The day to day preventative work for sustaining mental health continues as the wellbeing of those under our care has been our priority, and we have also increased our involvement and engagement with carers and supporters to sustain stability within the home during such difficult periods. Alongside the tremendous efforts of our third sector partners such as BAVO, the team has endeavoured to support those most vulnerable in the community, to ensure their safety and manage their anxieties about the current situation.

 

As expected, the pressures and associated outcomes of lockdown and such uncertainty has taken its toll on many of our residents, and the team remains extremely busy. The aim for the future is to continue developing new approaches to target challenges that have surfaced during these extraordinary times. This may include self-esteem and body image anxiety, an increase in addictive behaviours and more intensive work with families where ASD is prominent. The disruption of routine has hit this group particularly hard and a section of the team will concentrate on providing targeted intervention to minimise the impact of the pandemic for those in this category.  We will continue to provide support to those who require help at the earliest stage to prevent the need for long term intervention at a later period.

 

Assisted Recovery in the Community (ARC) is joint Health and Local Authority Prevention and Wellbeing service which provides Occupational Therapy, community support and practical advice, guidance and structured support for individuals with mental health issues. The team offer assessment, which can then provide a wide and varied range of medical interventions, psychological therapies, either in groups or on a one to one basis.

 

The adult team do liaise closely with our third sector partners and voluntary organisations, police, education, housing, employment services and interlink the support they can provide.

 

Councillor Hussain was pleased to note that the Council its best to keep residents mentally, physically and socially very healthy.  He was concerned about the absence of mention about elderly population who do suffer with depression, isolation, loneliness and alcohol dependence and not to forget in this vulnerable group ‘post COVID 19 stress syndrome’.   Councillor Hussain in his supplementary question was curious to know more about PERMA well-being profiling tool which you are going to pilot this year across 10 Bridgend schools and could the Cabinet Member let the Council know more about it?  The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help undertook to provide a written reply. 

 

A member of Council asked what the Council’s plans are for working with the third sector and did it dovetail with the Regional Partnership Board.  The Head of Children’s Services informed Members that the service is working very closely with the third sector who report to the Regional Partnership Board and is a priority for the region and its sub-groups. 

 

A member of Council referred to the possibility of a local lockdown and asked if the Council could do anything differently.  The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help informed Members that the Council is having to respond daily to a rapidly changing picture.  The Head of Children’s Services informed Council that the service continues to operate on semi lockdown basis, while continuing to support citizens.  Operations are subject to review daily and support to citizens is in line with the Service Delivery Plan and with Welsh Government guidance.  She stated that in the event of a local lockdown, the service would resume tighter oversight mechanisms.  The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help informed Council that pressures are being experienced by staff working in schools which impact on services and that experiences of Caerphilly and RCT Councils will be picked up on.