What's worked during lockdown will shape future of children's services

So far there is complete acceptance and adherence to staggered drop off and collection times, social distancing measures and routine hand washing. There is patience in queues and the pressure of time seems to have eased with one day rolling into the next and being much the same as the one before.

So, has this experience made us all kinder? Has family resolve to conquer the pandemic borne a new resilience? Is there a new appetite to manage risk differently, more creatively? We are definitely up for the latter! Our recovery plan details the steps we will take as we move from response to resume our services, but we are determined to rebuild and recalibrate our offer to reflect what we have learned over the past three months. 

• Analysis: Covid-19 response offers lessons for improving children’s services

• Practice: How play can help children transition back to school

Technology, social media and digital platforms now provide choice about how we deliver our services. Quite obviously more parents are able to engage with online parenting courses delivered outside office hours. Young people are finding it much easier to connect with our staff using WhatsApp and Instagram. Engaging with families through an initial digital contact is proving successful in overcoming barriers and challenging assumptions; and professional meetings can certainly be managed successfully remotely, questioning whether quite so many are needed or how we might manage them more creatively.

• How Bi-borough is helping prepare children for life after lockdown

• Responding to children's evolving needs during lockdown

As we rebuild and recalibrate our local offer, we will be revisiting purpose, considering choice and promoting participation. Parents, young people and children are telling us clearly what is working for them and what isn’t. They are either engaging or they are not. Where they are not, we now recognise it is us that have to change. Finally, we have a cadence for learning and improvement. 

Sarah Newman is executive director of Bi-borough Children’s Services