South Gloucestershire Council is bracing itself for a surge in demand on its services as the easing of lockdown restrictions unleashes a torrent of pent up social issues. 

Housing, mental health and children’s services are all expected to come under pressure as the scale of the impact of Covid-19 on residents emerges.

A report to the council’s scrutiny commission on June 24 warned of a “potential surge in homelessness arising from family breakdown (violent and nonviolent) following easing of lockdown”.

The report, from cabinet member for adults and public health Ben Stokes, said the problem would be exacerbated by the financial strain on families of an economic downturn and the lifting of a temporary ban on landlord evictions on August 23.

A “dramatic” increase in referrals for mental health assessments was also expected after a drop of 30 per cent during lockdown “exacerbated a pent-up demand”, Cllr Stokes said. 

Meanwhile, children’s services are already experiencing a rise in referrals to the “access and response” team and that number is only expected to increase, the commission heard.

Team manager Jennie Lowe said: “As we’re coming out of lockdown, the amount of enquiries that we’ve been getting and new referrals [coming] through is going up on a daily basis.

“We’re going to have children going back to school at some point and talking about things that have happened during lockdown. 

“And there may be children who may never have been known to children’s services before.

“But we know that lockdown has been a really stressful time for every family.

“So undoubtedly there are going to be more children telling stories and giving accounts that are worrying.”

Ms Lowe said her team was encouraging schools to talk through any concerns they have about an individual child before writing a referral as one may not be needed.

“We don’t want schools referring everyone of those children in and thinking that everything is safeguarding,” she said.

“That’s why we’re really pushing the point about the anonymous case discussions.

“We’ve got people there ready to take that call from the school… and really help to decide whether a referral is needed.”

She said the call takers would help schools and other agencies to “understand the difference between stress in a family during lockdown and safeguarding”.

“It can be quite a fine line,” she said. “A lot of these families are going to need lower level support.”

Ms Lowe said the access and response team was working very hard to keep up with demand but was struggling to recruit enough social workers amid a national shortage of qualified staff.

Cllr Stokes said the council was equipped to cope with the expected spikes in housing applications and new mental health assessment referrals.