Submission - Covid-19 Response Impact on Children and Young People - Jersey Child Care Trust - 15 Ap

Deputy R Ward

Chair

Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel By email: a.harris5@gov.je

22nd March 2021 Dear Deputy Ward

Jersey Child Care Trust's Response to Scrutiny Review

Re: Covid19 Response: Impact on Children and Young People

As a local registered charity delivering services to children and families, we support the Government's pledge in putting children first with a focus on all' children, working to eradicate inequality. We see firsthand the inequalities that exists for the children that we support and their families. Our services prioritise their needs, ensuring inclusive practice and access to services that make a real difference to their development and wellbeing. In particular, we support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as well as those with developmental delay, living in lower income families and likely with additional adversity too. Also relevant to this submission is our role in Accrediting Nannies. We provide all the relevant checks including safeguarding, qualifications, insurances and follow a Safer Recruitment Process created with the Safeguarding Partnership Board. Our Annual Review 2020 is attached for the full range of our work and its impact.

Initial Government Response to Covid19

At the beginning of lockdown in March 2020, we saw irregularities in the treatment of childcare providertypesbyGovernment.All forms of registered childcare ceased. Accredited and non accreditedNannieshowever,continued to care for children in their employer's private homes despite nannies expressing their vulnerabilities and concerns to both their employers and the JerseyChildCareTrust. These predicaments outlined to Government by our charity, both at politicalandofficerlevelssawadelayedbuteventualinclusion of nannies within Government directives.

Aside from this and more generally, there was a swift, flexible, inclusive and efficient response from Government to enable the reopening of early years settings for children deemed as vulnerable'. The Government'scategoryofvulnerable'included every child that we supported with SEND or additional needs and in 2020, this totalled circa 120 children and their families. We were grateful for our close communication with the Government Department, Childcare and Early Years Service (CEYS) in our role supporting and funding children in registered Day Nurseries and Preschools and we felt informed and included. This continued throughout lockdown and beyond, enabling a collaborative approach for the exit strategy too.

In the early stages of lockdown, as settings began to open, some of the children that we support were unable to access their setting because of the necessary changes made to operate within bubbles' and in some instances, different locations. Additionally, many parents made the decisiontokeeptheirchildathomeexpressingsomeanxietiesaround safety. At this stage,

globally, our knowledge about Covid19 was only beginning to emerge. Indeed, as an organisation, we recognised the bravery of our front line Support Workers and the entire Early Years workforce for continuing in their roles at a time of unfolding knowledge and evidence.

The initial feelings and thoughts of parental anxiety appeared toshiftoverthe courseoftimewith an increase in those wishing to return to settings. A collaborative effort made amongst professionals (JCCT, CEYS, Childcare Providers, Early Years Inclusion Team and others) ensured those children who needed to access their settings could do so.

With some early years settings remaining closed throughout lockdown, some vulnerable' children were accommodated within other settings. A flexible approach was shown from Government for those children with additional needs throughout, together with good communication.

The Government's specialist therapeutic services workforce were either not able to provide their services to children or were redeployed at the start of the pandemic and trained to provide additional Health Care Assistant resource for the potential impact of the pandemic. This workforce includes Early Years Inclusion Team, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Health, Physiotherapy and Audiology. This continued for many months and has had a severe impact on those children who were previously accessing their services and the quality and value of our interventions that are usually informed by these professionals.

At the critical point when all children were returning to their settings, the JCCT increased its resources for each child, knowing that in general they would likely find their transitions from home into settings very challenging. This was possible thanks to the swift responsiveness from funders both locally and nationally. With early evidence indicating the greatest negative impact of lockdown being felt by the most vulnerable in society and in linewithitspledgeofPutting

Children First' we had expected Government to have similar response. To have increased its relevant resources within the therapeutic services. The opposite has occurred. Children, who were receiving therapeutic services prior to lockdown, are only just restarting to receive them. Informed by a wealth of international research, we know that their period without support will have longterm impacts on their development. In addition, there are now additional pressures with the waiting list for newly referred children being too long at a key developmental moment in their lives. . The evidence shows that our brain development is 80% fully developed by the age of 3 years. If this situation continues, many of these children will not have access to the services that they need until their vital window of opportunity has closed. They are likely to make less progress than if they were to access the interventions at the right time and this will be evident over their lifetime with the effects being felt by our entire community in the coming decades. The negative repercussions will cost us far more than the immediate investment required now.

As a charity, we have independently developed our strategy to be able to work well with others, to continue to identify and meet the growing and changing needs of children and their families longintothefuture.The realsuccess of our plans and those of our partners however, depend upon the government showing as much commitment and resource to delivering the Children and Young People's Plan with an effective, wellcoordinated approach. The Economic Council released its New Perspectives report at the end of 2020 with a clear strategic road map to enable our economy to thrive. It is our hope that with this focus and investment from Government, together we will be able to address the inequalities that many in our society face, enabling all children to thrive.

Finally, to give an insight into the inequality that families are facing due to the additional needs of their children, an example of how this pandemic has made life so much more difficult for parents who have children that need off island medical treatment. Many nonessential, but still crucial, treatmentshaveeitherbeendelayedor putonhold.Forthosethat must access treatments or surgery, a pre and post period of selfisolation creates a very difficult situation for families who use annual leave to go for treatments. Family holiday time is often forfeit and employment status canbeputinjeopardy(iftheyhavebeenabletomaintainemployment whilst juggling the

additional appointments and caring needs of a child with SEND). In addition, these extended gaps inaccessingnurserygreatlydisrupts theirroutine,whichweknow is particularly integral to

children with SEND's wellbeing.

We have included the recent wellbeing data captured from our current cohort of children on the Best Start Nursery Places Funding Programme. The results, compared to 2019 are very interesting.Thedistinctdifferencein thedatabetweenthetwo cohorts clearly shows a divide between them with those who had experienced lockdown displaying either very good or very concerning scores. We believe that this mirrors the national and international emerging evidence showingthedivideinsocietybetweenthosethathavethrivedduring lockdown and those who

clearly have not.

We appreciate being able to take part in this process and would welcome your comments or further questions.

Yours sincerely

Fiona Vacher Executive Director

Wellbeing and Involvement Data

2019 and 2020 Cohorts from Best Start Plus Nursery Funding Programme

TheBestStartPlusNurseryFunding Programmefundsparttime nursery *places for mainly 23year olds. Criteria for places includes child's developmental delay, child or parental ill health, lower income households and likely experiencing additional adversity.

TakinganOutcomesBasedAccountability approach (OBA) to measure the difference the

Programme makes, the children's development is tracked using a Prime Area Tracker, with an initial assessment completed by the nursery, then termly and finally an exit assessment.

Alongside the development of the three main areas on the Prime Area Tracker, the children's Well being and Involvement levels are also measured using The Leuven Scale, developed by Prof Ferre Laevers and colleagues at The Leuven University, Belgium. The fivepoint scale measures the wellbeing and involvement of children within their early years setting. Children who score highly are generally selfconfident, engaged in their play and are able to embrace the challenges of their environment.

*98 children in 2020, 84 children in 2019.

A Highland's College Early Childhood Degree Student undertaking a Consultancy Project with the JCCT produced this slide. The lines drawn on the top of the barsshowthesignificantdifferenceinthe data between the two cohorts.

The following two charts provide the same data with a clearer visual, minus the lines drawn over the top.

Putting Families First

There is no second chance to help a life take flight. 80% of our brain develops before we turn three. Despite a pandemic, we have continued to support children and their needs because we know how crucial our help is to them in their early years.

We are a local charity making a big difference for children living with disabilities and/or adversity. By putting families first, with your unfaltering support, we delivered a variety of programmes to enable all our children to have the best start.

Together we didn't let the pandemic stop us. We just did things differently and with lots of PPE!

Thank you

Our Patron

The tremendous challenges and impact of the 2020 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns have been felt right across the Island. However, there is no doubt that with the huge increase in demand and pressure on the Charitable Sector in particular, to deliver their services and give vital support where it is required, has been immensely challenging and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

All the more credit then to the Jersey Child Care Trust who stepped up to the mark by adapting their services and looked at ways they could still offer the much needed support for the children and families in their care. Typical of their innovative approach, they provided such brilliant things as activity boxes delivered to the families to utilise, together with videos of songs to help them with their communication skills, all the way along never losing sight of the fact of 'always putting children first'. Much credit must go to the outstanding and wonderful staff, professionals and volunteers who have supported more children and their families than ever before. Whilst the Government has done much to support the community during the pandemic, the demand for the Jersey Child Care Trust services is constant and continues to grow."

Outstanding and Lady Anne Dalton wonderful staff ... Patron and volunteers.

Wilma Allan Award Presentation 2019

Our Chair

In common with so many other organisations the Jersey Child Care Trust has been stretched this year like never before. In light of the enormous impact of Covid-19, particularly upon the most vulnerable in our community, our focus

has been to sustain our services to children and families who even in ordinary times face many additional challenges. I am very proud that not only have we achieved this, but have also supported more children than ever in 2020. Our ability to do so is a credit to the resilience and adaptability of our staff team at

all levels, and our hard working supporters and fundraisers.  

The repercussions of Covid-19 have exacerbated the needs of families in our community. The extent of this is only just being realised. We expect to be stretched further as these longer term implications are known and

understood. As always we remain ambitious to play a significant role in

providing excellent and effective services to ensure that each young life has

the best possible start.

Our focus has been to Marnie Baudains sustain our services to Chairman children and families who

even in ordinary times face many additional

challenges.

Online Trust Board Meeting 2020

Our Executive Director

You might expect me to highlight the challenges that the pandemic has presented to our charity, and yes, they have been extensive and numerous, but I wonder if you would expect me to outline how incredible 2020 has been too?

The needs of children and their families increased, as a direct result of the lockdown and the pandemic, and so too did the unfaltering support from so many, which made it possible for us to meet these growing needs.

 Our sincere thanks to every single supporter in all your various forms, we literally could not have made the difference that we made for children without you.

With the generosity of the Philip Gower Charitable Foundation, our move to new premises at Pip's Place enabled us to divert more of our funds to help more children.

Thanks to this programme, many Jersey parents were ahead of the game when the pandemic struck.

Early Years Practitioner

As we went into lockdown, we swiftly embraced new ways to communicate and work and are so impressed with their benefits and the improvements they have brought to our work, that we will certainly keep some of them post pandemic.

Whilst 2020 has given us many a challenge, we have met each one with resilience, skill, positivity and integrity. Testament to the incredible resilience and strength of our team and supporters, all of our programmes continued throughout, despite a lockdown and the ongoing threats from the pandemic.

This is an incredible, now registered, Jersey charity, making a positive impact, not only for children and families, but for every single person connected with it.

Fiona Vacher Executive Director

Our Core Programmes

Our Programmes

1. Special Needs Inclusion Programme
2. Best Start Plus Nursery Funding Programme

Our programmes continued  throughout lockdown due to the  bravery and tenacity of our team and  the wider early years workforce.

Together we enabled those most in need  to access the support they required at the most critical time.

Never before has our work been more important as more families face financial adversity, social opportunities are restricted and routines drastically disrupted.

Our Partners

The challenges of 2020 have highlighted the strong relationships we have with others and the importance of working in partnership to ensure we achieve the best outcomes for children and families in Jersey.

Special Needs Inclusion Programme

We help children with disabilities go to nursery, providing inclusion at its best in private, mainstream nurseries.

How much we did

Hours of su1pp0ort ,911 9,876 Children supported

43 Ipnr i1v8atme aeianrsltyr yeeaamr,s 20 20 settings

20 19 39 Ipnr i1v9atme aeianrsltyr yeeaamr,s

settings

Is anyone better off?

How well we did it

Children receiving support showed improvement in the areas of Social Skills and Independence.

Social Skills Independence

Made significant progress Made some progress Made a little progress Made no progress yet

"Since my child has had someone at nursery helping them understand how to take turns and find ways of communicating things have been far easier for us. Using the same strategies as their support worker when we are out and about in the community, has really helped."

Best Start Plus Nursery Funding Programme

We fund part-time nursery places for young children who are not meeting their developmental milestones at two, helping them to have their best start.

How much we did

98 Children 22002109 84 Children

14 Mpraivinastetreeaarmly years settings

How well we did it

Children showed improvement in the following areas :

Personal, Social and Emotional

Communication

Physical

Is anyone better off?

It has helped him develop so much in such a short time and his speech has come on loads.

Just great, life changing for him, me and us as a family unit.

She has come a long way since starting nursery. She is now talking and enjoying playing with all her new friends.

Made significant progress Made some progress No progress yet

1. InclusionSupportService
2. AccreditedNannies
3. EarlyChildhoodDevelopmentProgramme

Inclusion Support Service

The Jersey Child Care Trust, in partnership with the Jersey Youth Service, is the Island's approved provider of the universal Inclusion Support Service.

This service is open to all children and young people to enable access to activities in the community.

50+

4

20 20

Number of organisations we connected with across the Island offering play care, activity and social clubs.

Number of families and their children we directly worked with over the summer to ensure positive holiday club experiences.

I'm just grateful that we've had the JCCT on board as their support is invaluable!

Accredited Nannies

In line with Government's top priority of 'Putting Children First', we accredited qualified nannies conducting the vital checks necessary to safeguard children.

The effects of the pandemic were incredibly challenging for all nannies. During lockdown, only 10% of Accredited Nannies continued in their role working for their critical/essential worker employers. Many others suffered very challenging circumstances including detriment to their own income and in several cases, redundancy. Working collaboratively with Government, we ensured employers of Accredited Nannies were able to be considered within the Co-Funded Payroll Scheme and that nannies were represented in the Government's Safe Exit Framework.

How much we did

41

Accredited Nannies 71 Nannies sought our

advice and support

How well we did it

10 0 %

of our Accredited Nannies met all of our safeguarding criteria

Is anyone better off?

This year has been particularly challenging not only for us as parents but for our children and our nanny. We were delighted when she suggested helping us by reading a story over FaceTime.

 We did this each evening and the children really looked forward to

it. She has been a great help with home schooling too!

Parent

Early Childhood Development Programme

In the last four years, the programme's literacy and maths work has reached over 2,300 pre-school age children across Jersey, and encouraged 1,956 parents to create richer home-learning environments for their children.

How much we did

280 +

REAL' practitioners trained in early literacy and/or early maths, from over 50 different settings

2 KCnhoanwgleed Sgeem Minaakress

delivered online by world class speakers to over 200 practitioners in Jersey

700 received the monthly KMC newsletter

Is anyone better off?

"We can see the difference in our child's language, stories, patience, self organisation, concentration, there is more interaction, he is more confident and less judgemental."

"During lockdown and the closure of local nurseries we saw how important it is to be able to provide learning at home. Thanks to this programme, many Jersey parents were ahead of the game when the pandemic struck."

9How w2ell we% did it

of practitioners rated the quality of training as excellent or very good

"Informative and insightful. Great to hear about so much research around brain development that made sense to us in our roles and the importance of what we do day to day with our little people."

"So inspirational and really makes you feel valued as an early years educator."

Our Income

2020 proved to be a challenging environment for charities. We were very grateful for the swift and generous response from many funders in Jersey, who continued to help us meet the needs of so many more children and families in Jersey.

 2020 Income  2019 Income

£718,510 £633,589

£500,000 £450,000

£400,000 £350,000

£300,000 £250,000 £200,000 £150,000 £100,000

£50,000 £-

Charitable Income Earned Income Government of

Jersey Grant

2020 2019

Our Expenditure

Thanks to our supporters and funders, we were able to spend more than ever directly on our programmes to Help Lives Take Flight. Our team, with partners and volunteers ensured we kept our running costs, including a move to our new premises, as low as possible.

2020 Expenditure £623,689

2019 Expenditure £567,726

£500,000 £450,000 £400,000 £350,000 £300,000 £250,000 £200,000

£150,000 £100,000 £50,000 £-

Programmes Management Running Costs

& Administration

2020 2019

Our Supporters

Covid-19 has meant we have had our most challenging year ever. We think you would agree; 2020 has been a year like no other.

As we went into lockdown, within only three weeks, we lost £50,000 of expected income as a direct result of Covid-19. Events were cancelled and some agreed donations and grants were no longer possible. At the same time, our services continued to support children and families and it soon became clear that their needs were significantly increasing.

Whilst the speed of change took us all by surprise, we can honestly say that our supporters adapted as quickly as we did. You made sure that we had the support to be able to help the children who needed us the most. Thank you so much for all that you have done to help us. Together we have helped more families than we have ever done. We simply could not have done this without you.

Our Funders in 20 20 included:

Jersey Funders

Greville Bathe Fund

Roy Overland Strausser Jersey

Trust Foundation

Buckingham Foundation

Bourne Foundation

Sir James Knott Trust

Services or products in kind from:

IT Consultancy Dasa Wharton Rachel Hughes Orchid Communications Limited Photography Photography

Benest &  LGT  Cooperative Dominic William The Little Syvret Vestra Society Baslilio Psychology Co

Our Volunteers

Just a few wonderful examples of your support in 2020 ...

Our Cream Teas for JCCT were delivered to your door!  

 Volunteer baker, Belinda and our team of eight volunteer delivery drivers, created 190 cream teas and raised £4,106.

Thanks to a donation and help from staff at the HSBC St. Helier Branch, JCCT "busy boxes" were created and delivered to families to accompany activity videos that we recorded for them.

Our Support Worker, Joanne Deakin raised vital funds for us by organising a virtual 5k run to keep participants fit.

Thanks to the Buckingham Foundation, 49 children and their families received a suprise Christmas gift of £150 worth of Co-op and Bambola vouchers. In the words of one, very emotional mum "this saved our Christmas and has taken away all the stress".

Dominic Basilio collected and delivered hundreds of new toys from a Community Toy Drive, so that we could donate them to the children we support.

JCCT Trustee, Penny Byrne, author of Seymour's Seaside Picnic, was nominated for Fundraiser of the Year in the Pride of Jersey Awards.

Supporter, Kate Huntington (AKA Rocky the Bear!) has crucially raised both money and awareness through various activities and events.

To all our Funders, Supporters and Volunteers

THANK YOU

Because of you, I was confident enough to return to work part-time. And because of you, Jack has been able to flourish in a small setting with other children, and spend time away from his mummy, which has helped him grow enormously in confidence and ability.

Parent

jcct.org.je info@jcct.org.je 629901

Jersey Child Care Trust @jcctnews

Our sincere thanks to Dasa Wharton Photography and Rachel Hughes Photography for helping us tell our story through their incredible images of our work.