Agenda item

Report of the Designated Nurse, Safeguarding Children City & Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group.

Members received a report of the Designated Nurse, Safeguarding Children City & Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Members asked how meeting the health needs of children and families, including Looked After Children (LAC) had been impacted by staff redeployment in the health system. It was reported that there had been fortnightly meetings with the CCG and LAC health services team to monitor health provision to ensure health issues were identified before they were too severe to manage. In terms of staff redeployment, two junior doctors were redeployed from the LAC health team at an early stage in the pandemic, but the risk to health assessments had been mitigated by a locum doctor. Children requiring follow-up visits were seen in person.

There had been a lower footfall of children than typically seen during this time of year, however this could be related to fear of accessing health services due to the risk of contracting the virus, and lower instances of communicative illness as children were not mixing socially.

In response to a question on how agile and flexible mental health services were in meeting the needs of LACs, a social worked had been embedded in the London Borough of Hackney, particularly due to an increase in eating disorders. This trend was noted across London.

RESOLVED, that – the report be received and its contents noted.