GB-London: Understanding and learning from responses to the Covid-19 lockdown in schools and children's social care

This project supports the LGA Business Plan priority for councils 'to have the powers and resources they need to bring partners together to deliver inclusive and high quality education and help children and young people to fulfil their potential.'

All children's social care and education leaders found themselves in an entirely new situation when the lockdown and school closures were announced in March. In the first instance we would like this research to look at how councils, working with schools, parents and children, managed the transition to these new arrangements. Specifically the project should:

• Capture how councils and schools have responded to the challenges posed by Covid-19 in relation to education and safeguarding children
• Gather feedback from councils, social workers and school leaders on what has and has not worked during the initial period following the partial closure
• Gain an understanding of how education leaders have adapted to the arrangements, including arrangements for opening schools to more pupils, and how children's social care adapted its practices, including in relation to multi-agency child safeguarding
• Identify how children, families and carers have responded to new ways of working in children's social care (including foster carers and children's homes)
• Explore the role of schools acting as the 'eyes and ears' of the child safeguarding system and how they have worked with councils in this regard
• Consider any barriers to embedding new ways of working in the long-term

The final output will be a report that:

• gives examples of the leadership role of councils in supporting schools to respond to the Covid-19 crisis and also look forward, asking councils and schools how they are planning and working to ensure pupils still receive a good education.
• If possible, identify new and emerging practice that has improved, or is expected to improve, outcomes for children;
• Identifies the ways in which learning from this period can be taken forward to improve education and children's social care systems and practice in the longer-term.

Researchers will be expected to work closely with 9 councils, identified in consultation with LGA policy leads, as well as local education system leaders (Director of Children's Services and relevant assistant directors and headteachers). This could be through roundtables or interviews or other approaches that contractors may want to suggest. We would like the project to be completed in two phases - an initial phase, concluding with an interim report at the end of September 2020, to capture initial learning and make immediate recommendations to support recovery, followed up towards the end of 2020 to consider longer-term impacts.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.