DOZENS of checks on high-risk children in Wokingham were not done in person during the height of the coronavirus lockdown.

Between March and June, there were 132 children in Wokingham with Child Protection Plans, which are put in place when there is a risk of significant harm or suffering.

Adam Davis, Wokingham Borough Council’s assistant director of Children’s Services, said ’50 or 60 per cent’ of checks on the children during lockdown were done in person by social workers and the rest were conducted virtually.

Councillor Andy Croy (Labour) asked about “the difference in the quality” of virtual check ups and face-to-face visits, during a meeting of the council’s Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on September 8.

He said: “There must be much more your colleagues can gain from a visit to a house and seeing children in their environment, rather than in front of a screen.”

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Mr Davis admitted that “you lose a lot” with virtual visits, but said social workers in full PPE (personal protective equipment) visited the most vulnerable children throughout lockdown.

He told the meeting: “We did risk assess all cases and established those where we needed to carry on visiting and whether we should reduce the frequency and put in a virtual visit in the interim, between the real visits.

“Also, we had to take into account whether anyone in the house was shielding or anyone was isolating for that period, and the welfare of our staff, due to the availability of PPE.

“That’s going back to the early days of lockdown when we weren’t using PPE or had a very limited supply of it because we were not wanting to take it away from health colleauges.

“As that changed, we developed a very clear risk assessment that we would go through before a visit to establish whether the visit was essential or not and whether PPE was required.

“We did have workers going out in full PPE to visit children that we were concerned about during the height of lockdown.

“What you are saying is correct, you lose a lot from a visit on a screen or dialogue on a screen.

“But what some of the feedback has been, especially with some of our looked after children, is they’ve really benefitted from the increased contact they’ve had with their workers over this time.

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“Contact may be much more frequent because it’s on a medium they actually quite like.”

He added: “We started moving away from those (virtual visits) as we moved out of lockdown and activity was restarting in the community.

“Even in the height of lockdown we were achieving I think 50 or 60 per cent of visits taking place across all cases, so we had a very high number.”

Cllr Alison Swaddle said: “I think everyone went beyond what could be expected to make sure all our children were being visited.

“You were ensuring they were protected and from what we heard about other councils around here, I think we stood out for the dedication of our teams.”

A council report says the number of Wokingham children with Child Protection Plans dropped between March and June, due to “a decrease in referrals as a result of lockdown”.

The latest figures show that 32 children out of 10,000 in Wokingham require these plans – that’s lower than the national average of 43.7 per 10,000.

The council report states: “The current rate is a distinct increase on 2017/18, when the figure was 12.1, compared to an England rate of 43.3.”