The Committee received a report presenting the 2017/18 Quarter 3 (October - December 2017) performance report for the Wirral Plan Pledges under the remit of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The performance report, which was included as an Appendix to the submitted report, provided a description of progress in Quarter 3 as well as providing available data in relation to a range of outcome indicators and supporting measures. 

The performance report contained details of the progress made, and overviews of that progress from the Lead Cabinet Member,  in respect of individual measures being pursued with regard to the following Wirral Plan Pledges pertinent to the Committee - 

·  Children are Ready for School;

·  Children are Ready for Work and Adulthood;

·  Vulnerable Children Reach their Full Potential;

·  Reducing Child and Family Poverty (Improving Life Chances);

·  People with Disabilities live Independent Lives; and

·  Zero Tolerance to Domestic Violence.

Paul Boyce, Director for Children presented the performance report and invited comment from Members on the content contained therein –

Councillor Moira McLaughlin noted the reduction in performance related to pregnancy scans and, while pleased to see improved performance in respect of development checks of infants by the time they were 8 weeks old, noted declining performance for health visitor reviews at 12 months and at 2–2 ½ years.  The Director undertook to respond to the query.

The Chair queried the roles and functions of the Panels referenced against the ‘rate of looked after children’ indicator.  The Deputy Director – Children’s Services advised that the Planning for Children Panel focussed predominantly on children in the care system with a care package or placement in place, or on children who received a costly care package: this Panel brought together all aspects of health, education and social care.  The Edge of Care Panel focussed on children at risk of becoming looked after and through a multi-agency approach considered what could be put in place for such children.

The Chair noted a reported decline in the number of child protection plans and queried whether this was necessarily a positive.  The Deputy Director – Children’s Services advised that when the Pledge was written the number of such plans was very high and so a reduction would have been seen as a positive at that time.  Over time, following a levelling off of the numbers of children coming into care and the inspection report, the ratio was now in line with other local authorities.  The situation would continue to be monitored as  a continuing downward trend might be a matter of concern.

The reported reduction of 40% in the number of young people presenting to A&E following self-harm or attempted suicide was noted, and it was queried whether that could be attributed to the recently introduced advice line.  The Director indicated that while that was unlikely to be what the data suggested, take up of the advice line was positive, particularly with regard to parents seeking support.  There was a need to further interrogate the data  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49