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The Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention presented the report on behalf of the Director of Children, Families and Education, which 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 spokespersons at a Performance Monitoring workshop in March 2021.

The Performance Report had been structured around seven indicator groups. The data contained in the report related to Quarter 3 2024/25 (period ending December 2024). Where Quarter 2 data was not available, the most recent information had been provided.

Members asked about the No Comment Pathway Pilot regarding first time entrance to the justice system and wanted clarity on what this meant.

The Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention responded that the No Comment Pathway was intended to help those young people that may struggle to communicate effectively and still offer the opportunity of an out of court disposal even when they have given a no comment interview.

Members asked if the figures showing that Wirral social workers had a caseload average of approximately 13 was correct, and if so, how it had been achieved.

The Assistant Director for Children and Families explained that the national average case load for social workers was between 16 and 17. Wirral had reduced the case load through a number of avenues. The main reason was due to making sure that children were moved to the correct care that they required and given the right support.

Members questioned the 2024/25 Quarter 3 figures showing that the number of initial Child Protection Conferences taking place in the month and within timescale was shown at 71%, with he national average and statistical neighbour average at 80% and 82%.

The Assistant Director for Children and Families replied that there were various reasons including the availability of service partners or staff or parents having childcare issues. She noted that work was underway to improve those numbers by making sure that families had the correct support to attend the meetings and that partners were held to account if they were regularly unavailable.

Members queried why the number of electively home educated children was rising and whether there was a breakdown available showing the ages of those that were being home educated in Wirral.

The Assistant Director for Education responded that there did not appear to be a single reason and that under current legislation, it was the parents’ decision to educate their child from home. He noted that since last year, 36 children had returned to school from home education and highlighted the work that the service did to encourage parents and children to return to school. He also noted that while Wirral had the lowest number of home educated children in the Liverpool City Region, he would have liked to see the numbers reduce further. He stated that he did not have the figures available regarding the age breakdown of home educated children but would provide this information to Members.

Members queried officers on the dental care provided to children and what the figures in the report showed.

The Assistant Director for Children and Families explained that the provisions of dental care was something that the Corporate Parenting Board was looking into and that a dentist had been commissioned specifically for looked after children. She assured Members that work was being undertaken to look into any discrepancies with dental care for those looked after children outside of the borough,

Members highlighted that some of the information was referred to by a letter code with no explanation.

The Director for Children, Families and Education committed to clarifying what those codes stood for in future reports.

Members asked about referrals for keeping children safe, and what reasons they were referred, other than domestic abuse.

The Assistant Director for Children and Families responded that she would provide Members with a breakdown of reasons why children were referred to the service.

Members noted the downward trend shown in the report for children missing episodes and asked if there was a clear reason for this.

The Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention responded that they were in the sixth year of having a dedicated exploitation and missing service with specialist staff looking into missing children and following up on it properly.

Members asked for further information on the reduction in custody rates and people reoffending.

The Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention noted that the Youth Justice Team had worked hard to reduce these rates and that Wirral was performing better than similar authorities on the key metrics used to measure youth justice success.

Resolved – That the content of the Performance Report be noted.