The Head of Early Years introduced the report of the Director of Children, Families and Education which provided an overview of the early years sector in Wirral, including the importance of the earliest years of life, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children, their parents/carers and the early years sector and also set out partnership plans for Covid recovery and embedding a robust Early Years Strategy to support children under 5 to fulfil their potential.

It was reported that pre-Covid, work had been undertaken to produce an Early Years Strategy to address anomalies in the previous Ready for School programme and to integrate the outcomes of co-production with key stakeholders including parents and carers into the strategy. Whilst Covid-19 had delayed the development of the strategy, the work identified as priorities had been ongoing and the report detailed this work, including tackling health inequalities. The Board further received a presentation on the work of the Early Years’ Service throughout and since the Covid-19 pandemic, this included detail on:

·  The My Child Can online resource used to engage parents and share information and advice, the website for which had been visited 1.3 million times from March 2020 to March 2021 and the social media platforms having 5,900 followers.

·  Wirral’s Parenting Journey with work undertaken to identify points in time when they should access advice and support.

·  The First 1001 Days Pathway initiative which would be led by voluntary organisations and link in with the Marmot Programme

·  The ‘Start the Conversation’ Communication and Language Pathway which had been co-produced with families

·  The development of a Wirral Early Years Strategy 2022-25

The Board welcomed the presentation and assurances that much of the ongoing work was fitting into the overarching Health and Wellbeing Strategy as it emerged. It was reported that Brook had identified a delay in maturity for children transitioning from primary to secondary and the Chair requested a further report on the impact of covid on socialisation and peer support.

Resolved – That

(1)  the partnership response to delivering early years support and services to children under 5 and their parents/carers throughout the pandemic be noted.

(2)  the development of the Early Years Strategy be noted and the next steps for its launch, implementation and delivery be noted.