The Assistant Director – All Age Disability presented the report of The Director of Care and Health which informed Committee of the findings and recommendations for greater alignment of All Age Disability Service. The scoping, initiation, planning and engagement phase is complete.

There was a greater reliance in Wirral on more traditional care services, which lead to Wirral being a higher spend Council on disability services. This also meant that outcomes achieved for people with disabilities did not always help them to achieve aspirational targets or to be as independent as they could be. This was be improved through better alignment, joining up planning, and collaboration between services. The experiences of people supported across the life course was greatly improved by focussing upon their aspirations and life goals in a more effective and clear manner.

Wirral was a high spend Council on adults with a disability and there are opportunities to optimise outcomes for people. Effectively supporting young people and their families through transition from Children’s to Adult’s Services means reduced reliance on more traditional and intensive accommodation-based services. It would enable effective planning to meet housing and employment needs alongside education and training opportunities. This should contribute to improving outcomes for individuals and families.

Four main themes have emerged from engagement with those who have lived experience either as people supported, carers or practitioners of the system. A summary of these engagements and graphic visualisations of engagement sessions can be found in Appendix 1 of this report. The four emerging themes were:

a. Starting Earlier from 14 and better joined up planning;

b. Housing Options;

c. Training, Volunteering and Employment; and

d. Better, Accessible & Relevant Information for people, parents and carers.

The deliverables and milestone plan set out in this report were aligned with these themes in appendix 4.

Members were pleased to note that lived experiences had formed part of the review, and discussed the fact that many types of disability were included but noted that it was difficult to name them all individually. All discussed were housing options, day services and shared lives.

Resolved – that the priorities and indicative timeframe for the All Age Disability Review, as listed in Appendix 4 to this report be approved.