The Assistant Director of Children and Families presented the report of the Director of Children and Families. The report provided the latest performance information for the Children’s, Families and Education Directorate. The design and content of the report was developed following discussions with the Chair of the Children, Young People & Education Committee and party spokes at a Performance Monitoring workshop back in March 2021.

The report noted that the Key performance areas for Members of the Children, Young People and Education Committee to note included:

1.  Improved timeliness of Initial Child Protection Conferences– ongoing work within the Safeguarding Unit and the Locality Teams had led to 75.8% of conferences being held in time compared to 59.5% during the same period last year.

2.  Timeliness of assessments continued to improve – this was the result of regular performance meetings and increased management oversight through the use of Power BI. 76% of assessments were completed within timescale this quarter compared to 71% last quarter.

3.  The rate of youth re-offending stood at 75% at the end of quarter 4. Whilst this figure looked high, it actually equated to just eight young people re-offending between January 2024 – March 2024.

The Chair queried why the percentage of Education Health Care Plans (EHCP) issued within the 20 week statutory timescale had fallen to 18%. The Director of Children, Families and Education responded that EHCPs were measured over the calendar year, rather than the financial year and therefore the counter started again from January. 355 EHCPs had been finalised for the year, so large numbers were being processed, just not within the 20 week timescale. She noted that the target to be inline with the national average was 49% and by October 2025 the intention was to be at 75%. There were a number of factors which were currently affecting the speed that EHCPs could be finalised such as educational psychologist capacity, speech and language assessments etc. She offered to provide additional details in future reports to show how much past 20 weeks the majority of EHCPs were being agreed by.

Members discussed the number of home educated children in Wirral, which was reported as 387, and asked how this compared to other authorities nationally. The Assistant Director for Education stated that a report would come to committee in future on this subject.

Members noted that the speed that EHCPs were being agreed was likely to have an adverse impact on many children.

Members felt that there was a drop in the level of care for children as they moved from primary to secondary school and stated that this should not be the case. The Assistant Director for Education noted that this was being looked into through the Delivery Better Value programme and that the service was working with the Department for Education to look into how to improve this.

Members noted that the report showed that the current rate of youth re-offending stood at 75% and asked what  provision there was to help them out of that cycle. The Director for Children, Families and Education responded that the Youth Justice Board oversaw this cohort, she noted that there was support for these young people and the type depended on the age of the young person. Those under 18 were supported by the Youth Justice Team and those moving beyond 18, up to 25 were supported via work with the probation service.

Resolved – That the report be noted.