A report by the Head of Intelligence introduced the 2018/19 Quarter 1 (April – June 2018) performance against the Wirral Plan pledges under the remit of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Appendix 1 to the report provided an overview of the progress made in Quarter 1 and available data in relation to a range of outcome indicators and supporting measures.

Quarter One Wirral Plan Performance was summarised as follows:

·  The percentage of women booked to access professional maternity services on or before twelve and six week gestation was 89.5%. This was a significant improvement compared to the previous quarter (76%), which was above the regional average and was just below the 90% target

·  The Percentage of early years childcare providers rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted was 93%. This was a 15% improvement since the start of the Wirral Plan and an increase of 2% since December 2017. Wirral was slightly below the regional and national figure of 94%.

·  The percentage of schools rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted was at 86%, below the very aspirational target of 100%. This was a 2% improvement since the start of the Wirral Plan, but a 3% decrease on the previous quarter. Wirral's figure was the same as the national figure, and slightly below the regional figure of 88%.

·  The achievement gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers achieving the 'expected standard' at the end of key stage 2 for the academic year 2017/18 was provisionally 23.5%, 1.5% below the previous year’s figure.

·  There had been a slight improvement at the beginning of the year on the number of children looked after. It was anticipated that it would take a considerable amount of time to reduce the overall numbers due to the high proportion of children aged 10+.

·  Numbers of children in need overall currently remained in line with/slightly below statistical neighbours. Given the factors that led to children in need it was not anticipated that these numbers would decrease significantly over the next 12 months.

·  The number of children subject to child protection plans had increased compared to previous year and was now at a rate (per 10,000 of 0-17 population) of 52 compared to 39.3. There were concerns within the service that children were being managed as children in need or children looked after when they would have most benefited from a period of time subject to a child protection plan. The new number of children subject to a plan was comparative with statistical neighbours and, therefore, seen as more appropriate.

·  In Quarter 1, 23 more disabled people were in receipt of personal budgets; including 215 children (compared to 203 in the last Quarter). Being in receipt of personal budgets allowed people more choice and control over their lives and the support they received.

·  The percentage of children and Young People single assessments authorised with Domestic Violence (DV) related factors was 36.2%, a slight improvement when compared to the same period last year (35.5%).  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11