SEND JSNA 2022

• As of July 2022, Wirral has 3436 Children and Young People with an EHCP. This equates to 3.8% of the population and compares to the national figure of 3.7% (Section 2.2: Population).

• Of all pupils identified as having SEND; as attending an education setting on Wirral and residing in Wirral (via the School Census), 19.3% (1822 Children and Young People) have an EHCP, 80.7% (7,637 Children and Young People) have SEN Support (Section 2.2: Population).

• Of those pupils with an EHCP in an education setting on Wirral, the largest proportion are aged 9 years old, this equates to 9.9% of the total EHCP population and compares to the England rate, where 8.5% of the EHCP population is aged 9 years old (Section 2.3: Age).

• For Pupils with SEN Support in an education setting on Wirral, the largest proportion are also aged 9 years old, equating to 10.8% of all pupils with SEN Support. Rates of SEN Support is higher for pupils aged 10 years and younger on Wirral compared to England and lower for those aged 11 years and older (Section 2.3: Age).

• The most common Primary Need amongst pupils with SEND in an education setting on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health, accounting for 27.7% of all Primary Needs. This is followed by Speech, Language and Communication needs, accounting for 20.7% and then Specific Learning Difficulties accounting for 15.8% of all Primary Needs (Section 2.8: Primary Need).

• The most common Primary Need for pupils with an EHCP in an education setting on Wirral is Severe Learning Difficulty, with 25.1% of all pupils with an EHCP having this as their Primary Need. This rate is over double the rate across England, which is 10.3% (Section 2.8: Primary Need).

• The most common primary need type for pupils with SEN Support in an education setting on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs, accounting for 30.1% of Primary needs, which compares to the rate in England at 19.5% (Section 2.8: Primary Need).

• For pupils under 5 and identified as having SEND in an education setting on Wirral, the most common Primary Needs is Speech, Language and Communication needs, with this Primary Need accounting for 60.4% of all Primary Needs. In England for 2021/22 the most common Primary Need is also Speech, Language and Communication needs, but the rate is lower at 58% (Section 2.8: Primary Need).

• The largest proportion of pupils with SEND in an education setting on Wirral reside in Bidston St. James. This ward accounts for 9.3% (879 Children and Young People) of all those with SEND (Section 2.6: Residence Location).

• For all pupils with SEND settings, the majority attend mainstream Primary, with this making up 47.5% of where all SEND pupils are educated. 34.1% in mainstream Secondary, 12.1% in a Special school and 6.3% in mainstream Nursey. Of the 12.1% in a special school, 51.7% attend secondary special school, 44,9% primary special school and 3.5% nursery special school (Section 3.2: Education Setting).

• For Wirral pupils with an EHCP and in an education setting on Wirral, 48.9% are eligible for Free School Meals. This is higher than the England rate for 2021/22, which was 39.7%. For pupils with SEN Support the rate is 43.8%, compared to the England 2021/22 rate of 36.4% (Section 3.3: Free School Meals).

• For pupils with an EHCP in the period January to March 2022, the school attendance rate is 90.5%. For pupils with SEN Support, the school attendance rate is 93.1%. For the same period, the England rate for EHCP attendance is 91%. There is no SEN Support data available for this period at the time of this report (Section 3.4: Attendance and Exclusions).

• For Children and Young people with an EHCP in 2021; Wirral has a rate of 19.2% which are also Child Looked After. This rate is significantly lower than the England rate for 2021, which was 28.9%. Wirral has a rate of 28.8% which are also a Child in Need. This rate is slightly higher than the 2021 rate in England, which was 27.9% (Section 4.3: EHCP).

• For Children and Young People with SEN Support in 2021; Wirral has a rate of 30.3% which are also a child Looked After. This rate is higher than the 27.4% seen in England in 2021. Wirral has a rate of 24.2% which are also a Child in Need. This rate is higher than the 27.4% seen in England in 2021 (Section 4.3: EHCP).

• Amount of EHCP’s issued per year, excluding exceptions in the full year 2021 was 314 (Section 6.1: Plans Issued).

• New EHCP’s issued within 20 weeks on Wirral is 24% for 2021. This is from the 314 issued and 75 in time (24%). The England average for EHCP’s issued in 20 weeks is currently 58.0%. Looking at the latest data, May 2022 shows that the percentage of new EHCP’s issued within 20 weeks is 37% (Section 6.1: Plans Issued).

• EHCP Mediations undertaken has shown an upward trend, with an increase of 196.1% between 2019 and 2021. EHCP Tribunals have gone up year on year also. The numbers have risen by 120% between 2019 and 2021 (Section 6.3: Mediations and Tribunals).

• The number of referrals into the paediatrics speech and language therapy service has seen a large increase in referrals, to a high of 806 in Q1 2021/22 (Section 7.2: SALT).

• Data show that the rate of Occupational Therapy referrals seen within timescale has reduced from 37.84% in April 2022 to 31.43% in May 2022 (Section 7.8: Occ. Therapy).

Population

Wirral has an estimated Early Years population (under 5’s) of 17,149 (Table 1), of which 52.1% is boy and 47.9% is girl (ONS). This compares to the England gender estimate of 51.3% boy and 48.1% girl (ONS). The under 5 population accounts for 5.3% of the estimated total Wirral population. This compares to England, where the rate is 5.7% (ONS).

Wirral has an estimated under 18 population of 67,431 (Table 2), of which 51.4% is boy and 48.6% is girl. This compares to the England estimate of 51.3% boy and 48.7% girl. The under 18 population accounts for 20.8% of the estimated total Wirral population. This compares to England, where the rate is 21.4% (ONS).

Wirral has an estimated under 25 population of 89,657 (Table 3), of which 51.6% is boy and 48.4% is girl. This compares to the England gender estimate of 51.4% boy and 48.6% girl. The under 25 population accounts for 27.6% of the estimated total Wirral population. This compares to England, where the rate is 29.7% (ONS).

View Table 1: Population distribution Mid 2020, by Wirral Ward, of the total population (%) under 5 years old.

View Table 2: Population distribution Mid 2020, by Wirral Ward, as a percentage (%) of the total population under 18 years old.

View Table 3: Population distribution Mid 2020, by Wirral Ward, as a percentage (%) of the total population under 25 years old.

Birth Data

As Table 4 suggests Data for 2019, 2020 and 2021 suggests a steady increase in the rate of births across Wirral (where the mother was resident on Wirral). In 2019 there were 2,837 births, in 2020 2,869 and in 2021, 2,908 (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document).

View Table 4: Birth data, by year and gender, 2019, 2020 and 2021 as percentage (%).

Between 2019 and 2020, the England birth rate decreased by 4.1% (ONS), which shows that Wirral rates differ from England as they increased by 1.1% (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document). In 2021 the national birth rate increased again, as is also seen on Wirral. However, the England 2021 rates are still over 2% below that of 2019 (ONS), whereas Wirral rate are over 2% higher for the same period (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document).

It is worth noting that 2021 saw more girls born than boys born on Wirral (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document), which doesn’t fit with the usual trends. Historically, more boys are born than girls both on Wirral and across England (ONS).

Language is known or believed to be English

Those who’s language is known or believed to be English is 95.6% for all Children and Young People attending an education setting on Wirral (Wirral School Census).

Deprivation

According to data published in 2020, 17.4% of children under 16 on Wirral live in low income families, which compares to a national rate in England of 18.1% (ONS). This figure of 17.4% is the same as the full Wirral population that is estimated to be income-deprived (ONS).

The index of Multiple Deprivation (Latest version is IMD 2019) allows for the Local Super Output Areas (LSOA) to be ranked between 1 and 10 amongst the 32,844 LSOA’s across England. These deciles are calculated by dividing all the LSOA’s into 10 equal groups. LSOA’s in decile 1 are within the most deprived 10% of all the national LSOA’s and those ranked 10 and within the 10% least deprived. For more information on how Deprivation is calculated visit Deprivation; Exploring local income deprivation (ons.gov.uk)

Using the 2019 IMD Data, across Wirral, 32.1% of pupils reside within the bottom 10%, or decile 1 (ONS). As such, these pupils reside within the most deprived areas of England. For comparison, 4.8% reside within areas of least deprivation, in decile 10 (ONS).

Free School Meals

As Figure 1 details, Wirral Free School Meals eligibility rates are 22.7% for Nursery and Primary (17.8% England), Secondary is 22.7% (17.8% England) and 43.8% Special schools (33.4% England) (LG Inform).

View Figure 1: The rates of Free School Meals on Wirral and England, by education setting as percentage (%). Academic year 2020/21.

Education Setting

Of those attending an education setting on the Wirral in September 2021, the majority, at 44.4% or 22,026 Children and Young People attend a Primary school. This population compares to 41.4% or 20,526 Children and Young People in secondary, 11.9% or 5,921 Children and Young People in Nursery and 2.3% or 1,148 Children and Young People in a Special school (Wirral School Census). This is shown in Table 5.

View Table 5: Type of education setting attended (2021), numbers and percentage (%).

Of those in an Education setting on the Wirral, the highest number, at 3,146 (Table 6) Children and Young People, reside in Bidston and St. James. This accounts for 6.3% of all Children and Young People in an education setting on Wirral (Wirral School Census).

View Table 6: Population of Children and Young People attending an education setting, by number and as a percentage (%) rate of the total number of all Children and Young People attending an education setting on Wirral (2021).

Attendance

As published in the 2020 DfE release, the latest school attendance data (for Autumn Term 2020) show an overall attendance rate of 94.9% across all education settings on Wirral (Gov.UK).

Absence

Using the data available from the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) in March 2022, for all Wirral pupils, the rate of authorised absence for those in a primary school setting is 3.3%. This is above the England average, which is 2.9%. For Wirral pupils in a secondary school the rate is 4.2%, which is again above the England average, which is 3.7% (Gov.UK/LAIT).

The rates of unauthorised absence for those attending a primary school on Wirral is 1.2%, above the England average of 1.1%. For pupils attending a secondary school on Wirral it is 1.5%. This rate is lower than the England average, which is 1.8% (Gov.UK/LAIT).

Exclusions

Across all education settings, the rate of permanent exclusions in primary schools is below 0.01%, compares to the England average of 0.02% The rate for secondary schools is 0.08%, which is below the England average of 0.13% (Gov.UK/LAIT).

Social Care

Figure 2 shows that in the year 2021/22, there were 10,869 contacts to Children’s Social Care on Wirral. This number is an increase from 10,157 over the same period in 2020/21, but still significantly lower than the 20019/20 number of 14,926 (Wirral Liquid Logic, Internal Document)

View Figure 2: The number of contacts that have been received into Children’s Social Care, via the Integrated Front Door on Wirral in financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021.

In 2020/21, there were 3041 referrals into Social Care on Wirral (Wirral Liquid Logic, Internal Document). This equates to a referral rate of 449.3 per 10,000 and compares to England, where the referral rate was 494.3 per 10,000.  A referral into social care is a where an initial contact has been made to Children’s Social Care and has met the threshold for Level 4 services.  A level 4 service is where a child may be at risk of significant harm and as part of section 17 of the Children’s Act 1989, it is the duty of the local authority to safeguard the child/ren.

The number of referrals (Table 3) starting in Children’s Social Care saw a significant drop between 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 (3041), before an increase again in 2021/2020 (3271), yet still much lower than the referrals started in 2019/2020 (3970) (Wirral Liquid Logic, Internal Document).

View Figure 3: Children’s Services Referrals Starts 2019/20 to 2021/22

Demand for early help in 2020/21 resulted in 11,101 Children and Young People entering this service (Wirral Liquid Logic, Internal Document). Early Help means taking action to support a child, young person or their family as soon as a problem emerges. It can be required at any stage in a child’s life, from pre-birth to adolescence, and applies to any problem or need that the family can’t deal with alone. This level of intervention is to resolve problems before escalation to Level 4 services. Children can also step down from Level 4 services into Early Help if further help is required to support the child and family.

In 2020/21, the rate of Children in Need on Wirral was 379.9 per 10,000 (Wirral data book, Internal Document). This rate compares to England, where the rate was 321.2. The rate of Child Protection plans was 47.0 per 10,000 on Wirral, which compares to a rate of 41.4 in England. The rate of Children Looked After in Wirral was 123.0 per 10,000. This compares to England, where the rate was 67.0 per 10,000 (DfE).

For Care leavers in reasonable accommodation during 2020/21, Wirral had a rate of 98% (Wirral data book, Internal Document) compared to a rate of 93% in England (DfE).

As shown in Figure 4, over the 2019, 2020 and 2021 period, the rate of Births on Wirral has increased by over just 2%. From 2837 in 2019 to 2869 in 2020 and finally, 2908 in 2021 (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document). This differs from the national rate, which over the same period has reduced by just over 2% (ONS). Varying birth rates will impact upon the number of children living on Wirral and therefore gives an indication of the number of Children and Young people who will potentially have SEND in the coming years.

View Figure 4: The total Births per year, and ward in 2019, 2020 and 2021 as percentage (%).

Table 7 details the latest full year data, from 2021, shows that the largest proportion of births on Wirral were in Bidston St. James, at 236, or 8.1% of all births in 2021 having the mother residing within this Ward. West Kirby and Thurstaston, with 76 births, along with Hoylake and Meols, with 75 births, each accounted for 2.6% of births within the same period (Wirral Birth Report, Internal Document).

View Table 7: Births, by Ward and as a percentage (%) of the total births in 2021

This JSNA uses data from the School Census, as this data collection is currently the most accurate way to allow for profiles of Children and Young People to be collected from one place. It details the Children and Young People SEND Status, be it with an EHCP or with SEN Support. It also provides profiles of the Children and Young People Primary Need, Age, Gender, Post Code, Free School Meal status, School and many more data sets to help profile the Children and Young People. This information is only currently available for Children and Young People who are reported via the School Census returns at the time data was collected for this return.

In addition to this data set, there are Children and Young People who are in receipt of an EHCP who are not recorded within the School Census.

For all Children and Young People with and EHCP, the total as of 1 July 2022, is 3436 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document). There are additional Children and Young People who are at a status of ‘Assessment in Process’ 431 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

Looking at the 3436 Children and Young People with and EHCP, this shows that for the population under 25, Wirral has an EHCP rate of 3.8% (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document and ONS). This compares to England, which is 3.7% (ONS) Wirral is ranked 75^th out of 152 local authorities for pupils with an EHCP (ONS).

The rest of the data within this document will be using data from the October 2021 School Census and as such will be profiling the Children and Young People who attend an education setting that returns data via the Wirral School census and is also a resident of Wirral.

Using the October 2021 School Census, Children and Young People can be identified as pupils within an education setting. From this Census return, Children and Young People, or pupils within an education setting are identified as having an EHCP or SEN Support.

Of the current pupil cohort from this October 2021 Census, data shows 19.1%, or 9,459 pupils, who are also resident on Wirral have been identified as having SEND. This is made up of 1,822 having an EHCP and 7,637 having SEN Support (Wirral School Census).

The SEND population from the school census alone is made up from 19.3% with an EHCP and 80.7% with SEN Support (Wirral School Census) (Figure 5). Nationally, they make up is 23.1% with an EHCP and 76.9% with SEN Support (Gov.UK/LAIT).

View Figure 5: The percentage (%) breakdown of Wirral SEND 2021

The percentage of pupils on Wirral with an EHCP is 3.6% (1,822 Children and Young People). EHCPs account for 23.1% of all pupils with SEND on Wirral (Wirral School Census).

Population – SEN Support

Figure 6 shows the percentage of pupils with SEN support on Wirral is 14.5% (Wirral School Census), 7,637 Children and Young People, compared to the national figure of 12.2% (Gov.UK/LAIT), 1,083,083 Children and Young People. Wirral is ranked 15^th highest for SEN Support out of 152 local authorities (Gov.UK/LAIT). SEN Support accounts for 76.9% of all pupils with SEND on Wirral (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 6: Rates of SEN Support on Wirral and in England as percentage (%) of CYP population (2021).

Figure 7 illustrates that there appears to be a pattern in the trends when looking at the ages of pupils with SEND on Wirral, with the rates steadily increasing from Children and Young people (pupils) aged two at 0.1% of all pupils, up to 10.6% for pupils aged 9. The rate then follows a steady decrease from 9.9% at aged ten, through to 6.0% at aged 15.

From this point onwards, the rates drop significantly, from 6.0% to 2.1% for those pupils aged 16 and 1.6% at aged 17 before again another significant drop off if rates for those pupils aged 18 and 19 (Wirral School Census).

The data also shows how the SEND ages differ from the ages for the full school pupil cohort. Although they are similar between the ages of 2 and 4, they differ significantly as the full Children and Young Person (for children within Early Years provision, they may be identified as child rather than pupil) cohort sees relatively level rates of ages between 5 and 16.

Whilst the SEND rates rise and fall within these age group. In addition, with pupils ages 17 and 18 being noticeable higher amongst the full Wirral pupil cohort compared to the SEND cohort (Wirral Schools Census).

View Figure 7: Percentage (%) of Children and Young People (pupils) at each age for all SEND and All Pupils attending an education setting on Wirral (2021).

Age – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Figure 8 shows the ages of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) on Wirral follow a very similar trend to that seen in England with significant increases in rates in pupils aged four and over. However, with Wirral seeing the highest proportion of pupils with an EHCP aged 9 (Wirral School Census), this differs from England, where the highest proportion are aged 11 (Gov.UK).

For Wirral 9.9% are aged 9 (Wirral School Census), comparing to England, where those aged 9 account for 8.5% (Gov.UK). For those aged 11, England has a rate of 9.5% (Gov.UK), just above the Wirral rate of 9.3% (Wirral School Census). Both Wirral and England follow a very similar profile, with both seeing a significant drop off in rates between pupils aged 15 and 16.

Wirral drop from 8.2% aged 15 to 3.5% aged 16 (Wirral School Census), whilst the England drops from 8.1% at 15 to 3.0% at 16 (Gov.UK). Both have low number for those aged 3.

View Figure 8: Percentage (%) of all EHCP’s, by age of the Children or Young People. Wirral and England (2021).

Age – SEN Support

As seen in Figure 9, for pupils with SEN (Special Educational Needs) Support, the ages of pupils are very similar to the rates in England (Gov.UK), with rates rising from aged 2 and under, peaking at aged 9, before dropping away again.

However, it can be noted that on Wirral (Wirral School Census) the rates of pupils with SEN support aged 2 and under and 3 are higher than the rates in England (Gov.UK) and whilst rates increase up to a pupil being aged 9, the peak, Wirral rates (Wirral School Census) are, on the whole, higher than that in England.

This contrasts the rates for pupils aged 11 through to 12, inclusive. For these ages, Wirral rates are noticeable lower than that in England (Gov.UK). This shows that as a profile, Wirral has a higher proportion of pupils with SEN Support at a lower age that in England.

View Figure 9: Percentage (%) of all SEN Support, by age of the Children or Young People. Wirral and England (2021).

Within the full SEND Cohort, there are 4843 boys and 2794 Girls (Wirral School Census). When looking at the gender breakdown by age for the full SEND cohort, Figure 10 shows the boys and girls do follow similar patterns of increasing from the age of 1 and then dropping away before a significant drop between ages 15 and 16. However, at the younger ages, rates in boys are higher.

At age 4 are 4.6% of boys, compared to 2.8% girls, similarly aged 5, with 6.9% boys and 5.2% girls (Wirral Schools Census). In contrast for pupils with SEND aged 10, 11 and 12, girls have higher rates. Age 10 girls are 10.7%, compared to 9.5% boys (Wirral Schools Census). Age 11 girls are 8.8% with boys 8.6% and age 12 girls are 8.5% and boys are 7.4%.

Rates in boys are higher at younger ages ang for girls’ rates are higher in older ages (Wirral Schools Census).

View Figure 10: SEND gender, by age as percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

Gender – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Wirral has 75.5% (1375) boy and 24.5% girl (447) who have an EHCP who attend an education setting on Wirral. (Wirral School Census).

When looking at gender is age groups (Figure 11), both boys and girls follow a similar trend of increasing rates as the pupil age increase, before rates dropping once the pupil is ages 16 and over.

However, there are noticeable difference between the ages of boys and girls with an EHCP, most significantly is the rate of pupils aged 4 and 5. 3.8% of boys with an EHCP are aged 4, this compares to 1.3% of girls. 5.5% of boys with an EHCP are aged 5, compared to girls where the rate is 4.3% (Wirral School Census).

The majority of boys with and EHCP are age 9 and under, this being 54% of all boys (Wirral School Census). This compares to the majority of girls being age 10 and over, being 51.7%. Whilst the highest rates for boys are age 9 at 10.2%, age 11 at 9.6% and age 8 at 8.6%, the highest rates in girls are age 13 at 10.5%, followed by ages 12 and 14 both at 9.8% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 11: EHCP gender, by age as percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

Gender - SEN Support

Wirral has 63.4% boys (4843) and 38.6% girls (2794) who have SEN Support who attend an education setting on Wirral (Wirral School Census).

 The ages of boys and girls with SEN Support follow a similar trend between those aged 1 and those aged 18, with a steady rise followed by a steady drop, as seen in Figure 12. The highest proportion of girls are aged 8 and for boys aged 9 (Wirral School Census).

The genders show other differences with the frequency rising quicker amongst boys at younger ages. At age 3, 2.3% of boys have SEN Support, compared to 1.5% girls, then a gap widens, with 4.9% of boys being age 4, compared to 3.0% girls and 7.4% of boys being age 5, compared to 5.3% girls (Wirral School Census).

The frequency in boys drops away quicker than in girls and between the ages of 10 and 17 the rates in girls are never below that of boys and are noticeably higher for most ages.

As such, the age profile for pupils with SEN Support shows boys are more likely to be towards the younger ages and the girls towards the higher ages.

View Figure 12: SEN Support gender, by age as percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

Those who’s language is known or believed to be English is 97.1% for all Children and Young People attending an education setting and with SEND (Wirral School Census).

English as first language – EHCP

The rates for pupils with an EHCP where it is known or believed that their first language is English is 97.4% (Figure 13) (Wirral School Census).

English as first language – SEN Support

The rates where English is known or believed to be the pupils first language on Wirral is 97.1% for pupils with SEN Support (Figure 13) (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 13: Percentage (%) rate of English as First Language for pupils with an EHCP or SEN Support on Wirral (2021).

Wirral consists of 22 wards, out of a total of 7026 in England (ONS). A ward is a local authority area and typically used for electoral purposes. However, there geographic areas are used by UK Government, Local Government, the Office for National Statistics and many other areas to build population profiles and distribution and allow for greater insight into how a population or service is distributed without being too specific and therefore making the data more anonymous, yet extremely useful and widely used and recognised.

For pupils with SEND and in education, the distribution across the Wirral differs considerably regarding where the Children and Young people reside. The largest proportion of pupils who have been identified with SEND reside in Bidston and St. James. This ward accounts for 9.3% (879 Children and Young People) of all those with SEND and compares to Heswall ward, where 1.2% (116 Children and Young People) of all those with SEND reside (Wirral School Census).

For all pupils with as detailed in Figure 14, SEND in education and under 18, the greatest proportion by population, reside in Bidston St James. With a rate of 2067.7 per 10,000. Bidston St. James has a SEND population that is 20.7% of the total under 18 ward population. This equates to 879 (Wirral School Census) Children and Young People in education under 18 years old out of a total under 18 years old population of 4251 (ONS).

With a rate of 2051.8 per 10,000 in Leasowe and Moreton East, 744 (Wirral School Census) out of a total under 18 years old population of 3626 (ONS). Rock Ferry at 1946.6 per 10,000, 692 (Wirral School Census) out of a total under 18 years old population of 3555 (ONS) and Seacombe at 1939.5 per 10,000, 795 (Wirral School Census) out of a total under 18 years old population of 4099 (ONS). These four wards all have an under 18 years old SEND population that is 20.0% of the full under 18 years old population, a combined total of 3110 out of a combined total under 18 years old population of 15531.

In contrast, Greasby, Frankby and Irby, Hoylake and Meols, Clatterbridge and Heswall all have the lowest rates per 10,000, or under 10%, at a combined rate of 7.6% from a combined number of 732 pupils (Wirral School Census) with SEND in education under 18 years old out of a total under 18 years old population of 9672 (ONS). Heswall, with a rate of 508.7 per 10,000 has the lowest rate of SEND per 10,000 of all wards, or 5.1%.

This equates to 114 Children and Young People in education (Wirral School Census) with SEND out of a total under 18 years old population of 2241 (ONS).

View Figure 14: SEND as a rate per 10,000 population, by ward (2021).

The data show how the residential location of those with SEND, both SEN Support and EHCP are distributed at a higher rate towards the east of the Wirral.

The data show Bidston St. James, Leasowe and Moreton East, Rock Ferry, Seacombe and Birkenhead and Tranmere having the highest rates of pupils under 18 years old and with SEND per 10,000 ward population.

View Table 8: Under 18 years old population along with percentage (%) of all SEND, SEND rates per 10,000, EHCP rates per 10,000 and SEN Support rates per 10,000, by ward (2021).

Table 8 details how the total SEND pupil cohort, the highest proportion of SEND pupils reside in Bidston St. James with 9.3% of all SEND pupils residing here. This is followed by Seacombe with 8.5%, Birkenhead and Tranmere with 8.1% and Leasowe and Moreton East with 7.9%. The data also show that at 33.8%, over a third of all pupils with SEND reside in four wards: Bidston St. James, Seacombe, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Leasowe and Moreton East. These 4 wards are 18% of the total 22 wards.

Whilst these four wards account for 33.8% of all pupils with SEND, this is higher than the 24.1% of total under 18 population that reside in these wards combined and also higher than the 24.7% of pupils attending school who reside in these wards combined there.

It must also be noted that using the rate per 10,000 of ward population under 18 years old gives different profile of pupils with SEND distribution, with the highest rates being Bidston St. James at 2067.7, followed by Leasowe and Moreton East on 2051.8, Rock Ferry on 1946.6 and Seacombe on 1939.5 per 10,000.

For pupils with an EHCP the highest rate per 10,000 of under 18 years old population reside in Leasowe and Moreton East, with a rate of 430.2 per 10,000. This is followed by Rock Ferry on 368.5, Upton on 344.0 and Bidston St. James on 341.1 per 10,000. For pupils with SEN Support the highest rate per 10,000 under 18 years old population reside in Bidston St. James, with a rate of 1729.0 per 10,000.

This is followed by Seacombe on 1654.1, Leasowe and Moreton East on 1624.4 and Rock Ferry on 1583.7 per 10,000. Therefore, although the highest total proportion of all pupils with SEND reside in Bidston St. James, as a proportion of the total under 18 years old population the rates change depending on if the Children or Young people have an EHCP or SEN Support (Wirral School Census and ONS).

Figure 14 and Figure 15 show how the total pupil attending school population distribution differs to that of all SEND pupils population. This highlights that the wards of Bidston St. James, Birkenhead and Tranmere, Leasowe and Moreton East and Seacombe, along with Rock Ferry have rates of pupils with SEND higher than that of the rates of overall pupils.

View Figure 14: Wards where pupils in a Wirral school reside. All SEND pupils and all school pupils (2021) as a percentage (%).

View Figure 15: The total percentage (%) of SEND pupils aged under 18 and the total ward population under 18 (2021).

Using a mapping of the wards (Map 1), by the total number of pupils with SEND allows for the distribution of the numbers to be viewed in a different format. The following map follows a colour saturation between blue to orange, with the deepest orange representing the highest numbers of pupils with SEND. The maps shows that Bidston St. James (ward number 2) is the darkest orange. The map shows how the more orange wards, those with higher numbers, being towards the east of Wirral.

View Map 1: SEND Density across wards using School Census October 2021 data (see Table 9 for legend).

Residence location – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

For all pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) under 18, Figure 16 shows the greatest proportion by population, reside in Leasowe and Moreton East. With a rate of 430.2 per 10,000, Leasowe and Moreton East has an EHCP population that is 4.3% of the total under 18 population.

Rock Ferry has a rate of 368.5 per 10,000, Upton 344.0 per 10,000 and Bidston St. James at 341.1 per 10,000. This compares to Heswall, with a rate of 80.3 per 10,000, which is 0.8% of the under 18 population having an EHCP.

This is significantly lower that the Wirral average of 270.2 per 10,000 (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 16: EHCP rate per 10,000 of ward population (2021).

Of the total EHCP pupil cohort (Figure 17), the highest numbers reside in Leasowe and Moreton East, with this ward being where 8.6% of all pupils with an EHCP residing.

This method of displaying the data shows how total numbers differ from the rate per 10,000 as the second highest number of pupils with an EHCP reside in Bidston St. James, with 8.0% of the total residing here.

This is different to the rate per 10,000, where Bidston St. James was the four highest prevalence in the under 18 population (Wirral School Census and ONS)

View Figure 17: Rate of pupils with an EHCP and All pupils in education, by ward (2021) as percentage.

Figure 18 illustrates that Leasowe and Moreton East, Bidston St. James, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Upton are where 31.7% of all pupils with an EHCP reside, yet these 4 wards account for 18% of the total 22 wards on Wirral.

The data show that within these 4 wards, along with Rock Ferry and Liscard, the number of pupils with an EHCP is significantly higher rates than the number of pupils residing there from the overall school pupil population.

This is in contrast Heswall, Hoylake and Meols along with Greasby, Frankby and Irby where the number of pupils with EHCP residing here are lower rates then the overall school pupil population (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 18: The total number of EHCP pupils aged under 18 and the total ward population under 18 (2021).

Mapping the wards (Map 2), by the total percentage of pupils with an EHCP shows that that those with higher numbers reside at a higher proportion in East Wirral.

View Map 2: EHCP Density across wards (2021) (see Table 10 for legend).

Residence Location - SEN Support

For all pupils with SEN Support, the greatest proportion by population, reside in Bidston St. James.

It can be seen in Figure 19, with a rate of 1729.0 per 10,000, Bidston St. James has a SEN Support population of 17.3% of the total under 18 ward population. With a rate of 1654.1 per 10,000 is Seacombe, Leasowe and Moreton East at 1624.4 per 10,000 and Rock Ferry at 1583.7 per 10,000.

These four wards have a SEN Support population of over 15% of the total ward under 18 population. This contrast to Heswall, which has a rate of 473.3 per 10,000, Clatterbridge at 576.8 per 10,000 and Pensby and Thingwall at 719.1 per 10,000 (Wirral School Census and ONS).

View Figure 19: SEN Support rate per 10,000 of ward population (2021).

Of the total SEN Support (Figure 20) pupil cohort and showing correlation to the rates per 10,000, the highest numbers of pupils with SEN Support reside in Bidston St. James. This ward alone is where 9.6% of all pupils with SEN Support reside. This is followed by Seacombe, where 8.9% of the SEN Support pupils reside, Birkenhead and Tranmere with 8.1% and Leasowe and Moreton East with 7.7%. These 4 wards account for 34.3% of all pupils with SEN Support (Wirral School Census and ONS)

Comparing the wards that pupils with SEN Support reside, to the school pupil cohort, the data show that the top four wards; Bidston St. James, Seacombe, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Leasowe and Moreton East are joined by Rock Ferry when identifying a significant difference in the population distribution of pupils. Pupils with SEN Support are far more likely to reside within one of these 5 wards.

View Figure 20: Wards where pupils reside, All SEN Support and All pupils in education (2021) as percentage (%).

Mapping the ward (Map 3), by the number of pupils with SEN Support, shows that there is a concentration of pupils with SEN Support to the East of Wirral, where the darker orange colours are more prevalent.

View Map 3: SEN Support Density across wards using School Census October 2021 data (see Table 11 for legend).

Rates of deprivation are calculated by splitting all wards in England into 10 equal Deciles, with Decile 1 being the bottom 10%, or most deprived, wards in England. The Decile rate increases to 10, where these 10% of wards are the least deprived wards in England. Between 1 and 10 are Deciles 2 to 9 inclusive. For more information on how Deprivation is calculated visit Deprivation; Exploring local income deprivation (ons.gov.uk)

View Figure 21: Percentage (%) of each SEND Cohort that reside in Decile 1, in Wirral (2021).

Figure 21 shows that for all pupils with SEND on Wirral, there is a higher proportion of pupils with SEND that live within the most deprived areas. At 44.9% (Wirral School Census), nearly half of all pupils with SEND on Wirral the most deprived 10% on wards in England.

This compares to 32.1% of the full school population (Wirral School Census). The data also show that the rates of pupils with SEND in the least deprived areas is significantly lower too, with a shift towards higher deprivation for the SEND pupils (Figure 22).

View Figure 22: Deprivation rating. All SEND pupils and All pupils in Education on Wirral (2021) as percentage.

Deprivation – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

For all pupils with an EHCP on Wirral (Figure 23), there is a higher proportion that live within the most deprived areas. A rate of 42.4% (Wirral School Census) of all pupils with an EHCP reside within the most deprived 10% of wards in England.

This compares to 32.1% of the full school population (Wirral School Census). The data also show that the rates of pupils with an EHCP in the least deprived areas is lower that the full school population.

This is particularly noticeable within the wards with the least deprivation, decile 10. Of the full school population, 4.8% reside here, yet for the EHCP population, just 1.8% reside here (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 23: Deprivation rating. All EHCP pupils and All pupils in Education on Wirral (2021) as percentage.

Deprivation – SEN Support

For all pupils with SEN Support on Wirral (Figure 24), there are a higher proportion who reside within the most deprived areas. Data show 45.6% (Wirral School Census) of all pupils with SEN Support reside in the most deprived 10% on wards in England.

This compares to 32.1% (Wirral School Census) of the full Wirral school pupil population and shows that SEN support pupils are more prevalent in the most deprived wards. The data also show that the rate of pupils with SEN support drop as the wards become less deprived, with the least deprived 10%, Decile 10, having a SEN Support rate of 2.6% (Wirral School Census), compared to all school pupil population at 4.8% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 24: Deprivation rating. All SEN Support pupils and All pupils in Education on Wirral (2021) as percentage (%).

Through the school census a Primary Need is recorded for pupils with SEND. There are 13 categories of Primary Needs. By recording Primary Needs in specific categories allows for an understanding of current resource requirements along with helping predict levels of future resources. This data is that for all pupils attending an education setting, that reports to the Wirral school census and resides on Wirral

The most common Primary Need amongst pupils (Figure 25) with SEND attending an education setting on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health, accounting for 27.7% (Wirral School Census) of all Primary Needs, followed by Speech, Language and Communication needs, accounting for 20.7% (Wirral School Census) and then Specific Learning Difficulties accounting for 15.8% (Wirral School Census) of all Primary Needs.

These three categories of Primary Need account for 64.2% (Wirral School Census) of all Primary Needs. It must be noted that there is a rate of 3.0% (Wirral School Census) of pupils with a Primary Need of Other. Whilst this is below the England figure of 4.2% (Gov.UK), it does mean that there is a small number of pupils who have a Primary need that is not specifically categorised.

The Wirral Primary Need on Wirral profile has some noticeable differences to the profile across England. The rate of pupils with a Primary Need of Social, Emotional and Mental Health is significantly higher in Wirral at 27.7% (Wirral School Census) than England at 18.3%.

The rate of pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties as their Primary Need is 5.2% (Wirral School Census) on Wirral, which is double the England rate of 2.6% (Gov.UK). In contrast the rates of pupils with Moderate Learning difficulties in Wirral in under half that of England, with Wirral at a rate of 9% (Wirral School Census) of all with SEND having this as their Primary Need, compared to England where it is 18.9% (Gov.UK).

View Figure 25: Percentage (%) of all SEND pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Needs, Wirral and England (2021).

Looking at the gender within Primary Need (Figure 26), there are noticeable difference. Autism Spectrum Disorder is significantly higher amongst boys than girls with 12.1% of boys having this as Primary Need, compared to 7.1% of girls (Wirral School Census).

A noticeable difference is also noticeable within those pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health as their Primary Need. For boys, this accounts for 30% of all, yet for girls this is 23.2% (Wirral School Census). In contrast, for No Specialist Assessment of type of need, is over twice as prevalent amongst girls than boys with girls at 3.5% and boys at 1.5% (Wirral School Census). Similarly, girls with Vision impairment as Primary Need, is nearly twice that of with boys with girls at 1.5% and boys at 0.8%.

The rates of Other as a Primary Need, although low, is noticeable higher amongst girls than boys (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 26: Percentage (%) of all SEND pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Need, by gender (2021).

Primary Need – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

As detailed in Figure 27, the most common Primary Need for pupils with an EHCP on Wirral is Severe Learning Difficulty, with 25.1% (Wirral School Census) of all pupils with an EHCP having this as their Primary Need. This rate is over double the rate across England (Gov.UK), which is 10.3% and shows as a significant difference between Wirral and England pupils with EHCP.

Other notable differences can be seen with the levels of Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs on Wirral, at 18.4% (Wirral School Census), being higher than the England rate of 14.9% (Gov.UK). In contrast, there are Primary Needs that are higher in England than on Wirral, with the most noticeable being Speech, Language and Communication Needs.

With England at 16.3% (Gov.UK) and Wirral at 9.7% (Wirral School Census), Wirral has a rate at nearly half that of England. In addition, although Wirral sees 25% (Wirral School Census) of Primary Needs being autism spectrum disorder, this is noticeably below the rate in England, which is 30.1% (Gov.UK).

View Figure 27: Percentage (%) of all EHCP pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Needs, Wirral and England (2021).

The difference in Primary Needs amongst pupils with an EHCP is significant with boys and girls having different profiles (Figure 28). The most significant differences are for the Primary Needs of Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties and Physical Disabilities and Other.

Although all three of these Primary Needs are low rates, girls have over twice the frequent than boys in each of the three. For the Primary Need of Moderate Learning Difficulty, girls are also significantly higher at 15.7%, compared to boys at 8.2% (Wirral School Census). In contract to this, there are two stand out Primary Needs where rates are higher amongst boys.

At 20.3%, the rate of Social, Emotional and Mental Health amongst boys in significantly higher than girls, which is 12.8% (Wirral School Census). To a lesser extent, but still as a stand out difference, the rate of Autistic Spectrum Disorder, at 26.4% amongst boys, is higher than 20.8% amongst girl (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 28: Percentage (%) of all EHCP Pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Need, by gender (2021).

Primary Need – SEN Support

The most common primary need type for pupils with SEN Support (Figure 29) on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs, accounting for 30.1% (Wirral School Census) of Primary needs, which compares to the rate in England at 19.5% (Gov.UK).

The rates on Wirral being noticeably different than England are also seen for the Primary Need of Physical disability, which although is low rates, the difference between Wirral at 3.2% (Wirral School Census) and England at 2.3% (Gov.UK) shows Wirral rate is over a third higher than that in England. In contrast, the Primary Need of Moderate Learning Difficulty in Wirral, at 8.7% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 29: Percentage (%) of all SEN Support pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Needs, Wirral and England (2021).

When looking at the gender breakdown of Primary Needs for pupils with SEN Support (Figure 30), there are noticeable differences. The highest frequency of Primary Needs for boys is Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs.

At 32.9% (Wirral School Census), this accounts for nearly a third of all boys Primary Needs and is at a rate 25% higher than that in girls, which is 25.1% (Wirral School Census). A similar disparity between genders can be seen within the Primary Need of Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

In boys the rate is 7.9%, which is over 50% higher than the girls’ rate of 4.7% highlights the difference between genders (Wirral School Census). In contrast the higher rates in boys amongst some Primary Needs, girls have higher frequency in No Specialist Assessment of Type of Need.

With these as a Primary Needs, there is still SEN support and as such it is noteworthy and with a girl’s rate of 4.2% compared to a boys rate of 1.9% (Wirral School Census), is over double within girls. Girl’s rate with the Primary Need of Specific Learning Difficulties are also significantly higher at 22.7%, compared to the boys rate of 16.4% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 30: Percentage (%) of all SEN Support Pupils attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Need, by gender (2021).

All SEND Cohort

Of all pupils with SEND on Wirral, 80.7% have SEND Support, which is higher than England at 76.9%. 19.3% have and EHCP, which is lower that the England rate of 23.1%.

Age Profile

For pupils with SEN Support, the rates on Wirral are higher amongst pupils up to the age of 10, as a total proportion of the SEN Support cohort, then between the ages of 11 and 15 Wirral rates are lower than the rates in England. As a proportion of the SEN Support cohort.

The largest proportion of pupils with an EHCP are aged 9 on Wirral, compared to age 11 in England.

Primary Needs

The most common primary need type for pupils with SEN Support on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. This is followed by Speech, Language and Communication needs, Specific Learning difficulties and Moderate Learning difficulties.

The Wirral profile does differ significantly from the England profile. Wirral has 30.1%, comparted to England having 19.5% of the SEN Support pupils having Social, Emotional and Mental health as their Primary Need. This is a 54.3% difference. In addition, with Wirral on 8.7% and England on 20.3% for Moderate Learning Difficulties, there is 1 133.3% difference.

For pupils with an EHCP, the Primary Need with the greatest rate is Severe Learning Difficulties, followed by Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Moderate Learning Difficulties. There is a large variance between Wirral and England for EHCP Primary Needs, with Wirral at 25.1% of Primary Needs being Severe Learning Difficulties, compared to 10.3% in England. This is a 143.6% difference.

It can also be noted that for the Primary Need of Speech, Language and Communication needs, Wirral is 16.3%, whilst England is 9.7%.

Wirral has 10 Special schools that provide education to children and young people with SEND (Wirral Local Offer). In addition, there is the Wirral home and continuing education service and Wirral Hospitals’ school.

Map 4 show Wirral’s maintained special schools are Orrets Meadow Primary School, serving children with autism and learning needs. Hayfield Primary School, serving children with autism and learning needs.

Gilbrook Primary School, serving children with Social, Emotional & Mental Health needs. Stanley Primary School, serving children with complex learning difficulties. Ellery Park Primary School, serving children with complex learning difficulties (Wirral Local Offer).

Clare Mount Specialist Sports College, serving children with autism and learning needs. Kilgarth School, serving children with Social, Emotional & Mental Health needs. The Observatory School, serving children with Social, Emotional & Mental Health needs. Meadowside School, serving children with complex learning needs. Foxfield School, serving children with complex learning needs (Wirral Local Offer).

Wirral Home and Continuing Education Service and Wirral Hospitals’ school, serving children who are unable to attend school due to medical needs.

The data show that the schools are clustered towards the middle of the Wirral, with the majority just west of the M53. This is clearly seen in the Map 4 below.

Wirral also has bases within mainstream schools which offer specialist provision to pupils with SEND. 

For pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties, bases are in:

• New Brighton Primary,
• Bidston Village Primary,
• The Co-Op Academy Bebington,
• The Oldershaw Academy and
• Hilbre High

For pupils with Social and Communication needs, bases are in: 

• Woodslee Primary,
• Fender Primary,
• Eastway Primary,
• Devonshire Park Primary,
• Woodchurch High and
• Hilbre High.

For pupils with Speech and Language needs, bases are in: 

• The Priory Parish CE Primary school,
• New Brighton Primary and
• Devonshire Park Primary. 

For pupils with Social Emotional and Mental Health needs, bases are in:

• St. Michael & All Angels Primary and
• Riverside Primary.

For Children and Young People with a Hearing Impairment a base is in:

• Townfield Primary (Wirral Local Offer).

View Map 4: Mapped locations of the Special Schools on Wirral (2022).

When looking at the settings that all pupils with SEND (Figure 31), the majority attend a mainstream Primary school, with this making up 47.5% (Wirral School Census) of where all SEND pupils are educated.

This compares to 34.1% attending mainstream Secondary, 12.1% attending a Special school and 6.3% attending mainstream Nursey settings (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 31: Type of Education setting attended on Wirral by pupils with SEND, as percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

Looking specifically at the pupils with SEND that attend a special school in Figure 32 (12.1% of all pupils with SEND). Of those pupils that attend a special school, at 51.7% (Wirral School Census) the majority attend a special Secondary school.

This compares to 44.9% attending special Primary and 3.5% a special Nursery (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 32: Breakdown of Wirral Special Schools attended by pupils with SEND, as percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

As detailed in Table 12, for pupils with SEND, the ward with the largest proportion attending a special school is Pensby and Thingwall, with 15.6% (Wirral School Census) of the wards SEND pupil population attending a Special school.

For those attending a mainstream nursery, the largest rate is in Seacombe, with 11.8% (Wirral School Census) of the wards SEND pupil population.

For pupils with SEND and attending mainstream primary school, Heswall with 55.2% (Wirral School Census) of the wards SEND population at this level, has the highest rate.

For mainstream secondary schools with pupils attending with SEND, Hoylake and Meols, with 47.1% (Wirral School Census) has the highest rate.

Education Setting – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

For pupils with an EHCP, the majority attend a Special school, with these pupils accounting for 62.8% (Wirral School Census). This leaves 18.8% within a mainstream Secondary, 16.3% in mainstream Primary and 2.1% in mainstream Nursery. This is illustrated in Figure 34.

View Figure 34: Type of Education setting attended on Wirral by pupils with an EHCP, as Percentage (%) of cohort (2021).

Of the pupils that attend a Special school with an EHCP, Figure 35 shows that the majority, 51.7% (Wirral School Census), attend at Secondary level. This compares to just 3.5% (Wirral School Census) with an EHCP being at nursery age.

View Figure 35: Percentage (%) breakdown of the Special school type on Wirral, for pupils with an EHCP (2021).

Table 13 shows that for pupils with an EHCP, the ward with the largest proportion attending a special school is Rock Ferry, with 77.9% (Wirral School Census) of the wards EHCP population. Attending a nursery school is Leasowe and Moreton East, with 5.1% (Wirral School Census) of the wards EHCP population.

Attending a primary school is Heswall with 33.3% (Wirral School Census) of the wards EHCP population. Attending a secondary school is West Kirby and Thurstaston, with 37.0% (Wirral School Census) of the wards EHCP population.

View Table 13: Percentage (%) Breakdown of all pupils with an EHCP, by ward and Education setting type (2021).

Education – SEN Support

As illustrated in Figure 36, of all pupils with SEN Support, the majority, at 54.9% (Wirral School Census), attend a Primary School. This rate compares to 37.8% in a Secondary School, 7.3% in a Nursery and 0.04% in a Special School (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 36: Percentage (%) of type of Education setting attended on Wirral by pupils with SEN Support (2021).

For pupils with SEN Support (Table 14), the ward with the largest proportion attending a special school is Prenton, with 0.3% (Wirral School Census) of the wards SEN Support population attending a special school.

Attending a nursery is Seacombe, with 13.6% (Wirral School Census) of the wards total SEN Support population.

Attending a primary school is Pensby and Thingwall, with 63.9% (Wirral School Census) of the wards total SEN support population.

Attending a secondary school is Hoylake and Meols, with 51.4% (Wirral School Census) of the wards total SEN Support population.

View Table 13b: (p.54) Percentage (%) breakdown of all pupils with SEN Support, by ward and Education setting type (2021).

Free School Meals (FSM) are means tested and eligibility is assessed by Wirral on a set of criteria. Information on the Free School Meal criteria can be found on the Wirral.gov website: https://www.wirral.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/funding-and-financial-support/free-school-meals-pupil-premium.

For all pupils with SEND on Wirral, 44.8% (Wirral School Census) are eligible for FSM. This compares to the full school pupil cohort, where 25.8% (Wirral School Census) are eligible for FSM.

The largest proportion of pupils eligible are within a Primary school setting, with this accounting for 51.7% of all (Figure 37) (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 37: Percentage (%) of all SEND pupils eligible for Free School Meals, by Education setting type, (2021).

Free Scholl Meals – Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

For those with an EHCP, 48.9% (Wirral School Census) are eligible for Free School Meals. This rate is higher than the rate for pupils with SEN Support and significantly higher than the overall pupil FSM rate of 25.8% (Wirral School Census). Figure 38 shows most pupils eligible for FSM attend a Special school setting, with this accounting for 67.0% (Wirral School Census) of all eligible. For England in 2021/22 the 39.7% (Gov.UK) on pupils with an EHCP are eligible for Free School Meals.

View Figure 38: Percentage (%) of all EHCP pupils eligible for Free School Meals, by Education setting type (2021).

Free Scholl Meals – SEN Support

Of those with SEN Support, 43.8% (Wirral School Census) are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). This rate shows that those with SEN Support are much more likely to be eligible for FSM than the overall pupil cohort, where the rate is 25.8% (Wirral School Census).

Of all those eligible with SEN Support, Figure 39 shows the vast majority, at 61.3% (Wirral School Census), attend a Primary school setting. For England in 2021/22 the 36.4% (Gov.UK) on pupils with SEN Support are eligible for Free School Meals.

View Figure 39: Percentage (%) of all SEN Support pupil eligible for Free School Meals, by Education setting type (2021).

For pupils with an EHCP in the last period, the school attendance rate is 90.5%. For pupils with SEN Support, the school attendance rate is 93.1% (Wirral Capita One Report, Internal Document).

Exclusions – EHCP

For pupils with an EHCP, the school attendance rate is 90.5%. The rate of fixed term exclusions for pupils with an EHCP is 0.1%. Rates of permanent exclusions for Children and Young People with an EHCP is 0.9% (Wirral Capita One Report, Internal Document).

Exclusions – SEN Support

For pupils with SEN Support, the school attendance rate is 93.1%. The rate of fixed term exclusions for pupils with SEN Support is 0.1%. Rates of permanent exclusions for Children and Young People with SEN Support is 0.5% (Wirral Capita One Report, Internal Document).

As illustrated in Figure 40, the current rate of all SEND children and young people who are in KS4 year who are EET is 88.3% (Q3 2021/22). For those children and young people aged 16 – 24 the rate lowers to 73.4% (Q3 2021/22) (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document).

Table 14b shows the rates of Young SEN people who are KS4 and identified as EET has fluctuated between a low of 55.1% in Q2 2020/21 to a high of 90% in Q4 2020/21 since 2019/20 (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document). Most increases are followed by decreases.

The rate for young SEN people who are aged 16-24 and identified as EET has seen rates increase over the last 12 months of data and is not showing the same low levels that were seen in 2019/20and 2020/21 (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document).

View Figure 40: Wirral rate of EET as percentage (%). KS4 pupils and 16-24 year olds. Q1 2019/20 to Q3 2021/22.

View Table 14b: (p.57) NEET and EET percentage (%) rates Q1 2019/2020 to Q3 2021/2022 inclusive.

The current rate of all SEND children and young people who are in KS4 year who are NEET is 9.6%. For those children and young people aged 16 -24 the rate is 14.2% (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document).

 Figure 41 shows the NEET rate for young people with SEND Year 12 to Year 16 + (academic ages 16 to 24) is 14.2% (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document), which is higher than the England rate, which is 9.1% (NCCIS). Figure 41 shows the NEET rate for young people with SEND Year 12 to Year 16 + (academic ages 16 to 24) is 14.2% (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document), which is higher than the England rate, which is 9.1% (NCCIS).

However, the rate of those where the current activity is not known is 11.8% in Wirral (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document), which is significantly lower than the England rate of 37.2% (NCCIS).

With having less where the activity is unknown on the Wirral, the rates engaged in activities in higher on the Wirral, at 70.7% (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document). compared to 52.0% in England (NCCIS).

The proportion of those engaged in activities can be broken down as; Mainstream education and training at 70.2% (49.7% England average), 0.5% ISP (1.7% England average) and 0.0% Supported internship (0.6% England average) (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document and NCCIS).

View Figure 41: Wirral rate of NEET as percentage (%). KS4 pupils and 16-24 year olds. Q1 2019/20 to Q3 2021/22.

The data in Figure 41 show that the rates of young SEN people that are NEET in KS4 has fluctuated over the past three years between 11.1% in Q1 2019/20 to 4.2% in Q2 2019/20 (Wirral (N)EET report, Internal Document).

However, the data shows that Q1 data is at a higher rate each year, before dropping away in Q2 and rising again in Q3 and Q4. The latest data, for 2021/22, follows this pattern.

The percentage of young SEN people aged 16 – 24 that are NEET is on an upwards trajectory since 2019/20, with 2021/22 seeing the highest rates over the reporting period.

School Provision

For all pupils with SEND under 18, the greatest proportion by population, reside in Bidston St James. This is followed by Leasowe and Moreton East, Rock Ferry and Seacombe. However, if looking at total numbers rather than rate per 10,000 the highest number residing in each ward are firstly, Bidston St. James, Seacombe, then Birkenhead and Tranmere followed by Leasowe and Moreton East.

Both the proportion by population and total numbers appear to correlate to levels of deprivation, with 44.9% of all pupils on Wirral with SEND residing in the most deprived 10% of wards in England.

When looking at those on an EHCP, the greatest proportion, using the rate per 10,000, reside in Leasowe and Moreton East. This is followed by Rock Ferry, Upton and Bidston St. James. Looking away from the rate per 10,000 towards pure numbers, the highest number reside in Leasowe and Moreton East, then Bidston St. James, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Upton. 42.4% of all pupils with an EHCP reside in the 10% most deprived wards.

For pupils with SEN Support, the largest as a proportion of population per 10,000 reside in Bidston St. James, followed by Seacombe, Leasowe and Moreton East and Rock Ferry. Looking away from the rate per 10,000 towards pure numbers, the highest number reside in Bidston St. James, followed by Seacombe, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Leasowe and Moreton East. 45.6% of all pupils with SEN Support reside in the 10% most deprived wards.

Data show that there has been a significant increase in demand for specialist provision across Wirral, with the number of EHCP’s issued increasing by 20.9% between 2019 and 2020 and, although down on the 2020 figure, the 2021 figure is still 7.9% above that of 2019. Therefore, extra provision is required. (See What are we doing Section, for further information on school provision).

Education setting

Of all pupils with SEN Support, 54.9% attend a Primary School setting. Looking at the individual Wards, Seacombe has 13.6% of the wards total SEN Support population in a Nursery setting. Pensby and Thingwall has the highest proportion of all Wards SEN Support population in a Primary School Setting, At 63.9%. Hoylake and Meols, at 51.4% has the highest of all Wards total SEN Support population being in a Secondary school.

Of all pupils with an EHCP, 62.8% attend a Special School, with the majority attending a Special Primary school. Of all Wards, Rock Ferry has the highest proportion of pupils with an EHCP attending a Special School, at 77.9% of the ward EHCP population. The ward with the highest proportion attending a Nursery is Leasowe and Moreton East. For Primary is Heswall and for Secondary is West Kirby and Thurstaston.

Free School meals

43.8% of pupils with SEN Support are eligible for Free School Meals. For pupils with an EHCP, the rate is higher, at 18.9%. Both these rates are significantly higher that the ‘all Wirral’ school pupil rate of 25.8%.

Attendance

Each Wirral School has a named Locality Attendance Officer to support them in increasing attendance at school. This can be in the form of attending meetings with parents, undertaking some home visits, signposting to other agencies, analysing data and undertaking a 360 review of attendance within the school to ensure a whole school approach has been adopted. The Service is also developing a data dashboard system which will enable Locality Attendance Officers to compare schools of similar size, similar free school meal numbers etc. In May 2022 we have circulated an updated media campaign to all schools including leaflets and posters as well as a digital toolkit that schools can use to add to their own website or materials.

Wirral Attendance Service leads on the Vulnerable Children’s Panel which meets weekly in term time to discuss young people referred by schools. These are young people who are generally not attending school and not engaging with any other service but do not meet the threshold for social care involvement. The panel is a multi-agency approach to finding ways to engage some of these young people and their families.

The Service also supports a CME25 panel which considers cases brought by social care colleagues where the young person does not have a full time offer or is not attending full time.

The number of Electively Home Educated young people continues to rise since before the start of the pandemic and we have temporarily taken on extra staff to monitor the education these young people are receiving.

The Service also continues to license young people taking part in performances or the likes of marketing campaigns as well as Chaperones. As theatres have re-opened with the relaxing of Covid restrictions this area of work has picked up again.

The Service reports regularly to both the Children, Young People & Education Committee and Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership.

NEET

Significant work has been undertaken by the 14-19 and SEND Teams, alongside the Council commissioned NEET participation service delivered by Career Connect, to reduce the numbers of young people ‘not known’. Young people may be classed as ‘not known’ due to a number of reasons ranging from not being contactable to their education or employment status expiring in accordance with national guidance. In reducing the ‘not known rate to 0.8% (3x young people) for the 16-18 age group in Q4 2021/22 some of the ‘not knowns’ have converted to a NEET status (13.9% or 47x young people).

A further deep dive into the SEND NEET cohort was undertaken at the end of Q4 to understand better the barriers to participation faced by young people in this cohort. The analysis illustrated that 15% of the NEET cohort (7 of 47 young people) highlighted anxiety and poor mental health as their key barrier to positive participation with the main causal factor being Covid.

Developments for the next 12 months include partnership working with Wirral Met College to ensure that those SEND young people leaving the College’s supported internship programme have a sustained positive employment outcome. This is including using Council European Social Funds to provide grants to incentivise employers through wage subsidies.

In the 2022/23 academic year the Council 14-19 Team will be supporting the development of an employer forum – working alongside key partners including the Wirral Chamber of Commerce, DWP, cornerstone employers. The employer forum will be charged with developing and promoting local employment opportunities for SEND young people maximising use of the supported internship approach. This development will be supported by a grant from the Department for Education with anticipated challenging key performance indicators linked to increased access to employment opportunities.

School Improvement

• In September 2021, a refreshed school improvement strategy was launched to bring better to quality assurance to the education system. In additional, the school effectiveness team now have additional capacity to support schools in areas of focus that are identified.

• As part of an annual process all Wirral maintained schools receive an assurance visit from a School Assurance Professional, this helps to identify areas for development for each school. A key focus of the report has been in relation to young people with SEND accessing the full curriculum.

• In addition, training is being developed in specific areas that have been identified as needing improvement across Wirral. The next academic year lead teachers from Wirral schools will support schools in Numeracy, Reading and Early Years.

• The performance of Wirral schools using the 2022 headline data will be analysed during the summer of 2022, this will allow for accurate support for schools identified in relation to the outcomes for young people who are SEND support or with an EHCP.

• Wirral data will be compared with national and statistical neighbours to identify the key areas that need the greatest priority.

Special School Provision

• Due to a significant increase in the need for specialist provision, a temporary expansion of six of our specialist settings has been made for September 2022.

• In September 2022, we will see a new phase of inclusive base provision opening for children with Autism and Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.

Wirral has a Children with Disabilities Social Work Team. The services provided are to support children in need and their families who have severe or substantial disabilities, specifically, Severe or profound learning disability, Severe physical disability. Substantial degree of visual impairment/moderate and severe hearing loss. Complex Autistic Spectrum Condition with severe learning difficulty, (a diagnosis of Autism or Autism Spectrum Condition does not of itself meet the criteria for the service).

Complex medical health condition, (for the youngest children with complex health needs or technological dependence there will usually be involvement from the Continuing Care Co-ordinator). The criteria does not include children whose primary identified needs are emotional and behavioural difficulties, nor will it include children/young people with mental health problems or attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The specialist social work and support services for children with disabilities are prioritised for children with substantial levels of disability only.

Children with moderate conditions, albeit ones which present families with challenging behaviours to manage, should be viewed as children in need of ‘mainstream’ support available on a preventative basis though Targeted Services.

Children with special educational needs arising from conditions diagnosed as learning disorders of a mild/moderate nature are unlikely to be viewed as fitting the criteria if their difficulties are related to limited communication – behaviour management needs alone without accompanying severe learning difficulties; Children with Asperger Syndrome are not eligible for specialist respite support unless they present extra ordinary management challenges to their families such as to need quite specialist and structured support. Children with Attention Deficit Disorder would not be seen as meeting the overall criteria for specialist services.

Families in need of support with children with such conditions as described above are provided with support through Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), this service can assess situations. Where that proves insufficient and respite is required, they can refer in according to the above criteria.

Services available to those children and young people eligible for services from the Children with Disabilities Team; Willowtree Short Breaks for young people aged between 8 and 17 years old and has a complex learning and/or physical disability which cannot be supported via family placement. Family Support specialises in planned time-limited support for young people who have complex disabilities, providing tailor made support to assist families in meeting the unique challenges of living with complex disability. This support is provided in family homes, school settings and local community activities.

Transition Services are a continuation and extension to the Children with Disability Service within the Children and Young People’s Department. All young people in receipt of support services from the CWD will transfer to Transition Services at age 16yrs.

Their allocated Social Worker will work with the young person and their family to assess eligibility for on-going support from Adult Services, together with any relevant support from Health and other partner agencies. Involvement from the service will continue until completion of school education provision and the young person’s circumstances are settled to allow transfer onto a mainstream Adult Services Team.

The service also works closely with Children’s Services Locality and Child in Care Teams. Where it is identified that a young person is likely to require support into their adulthood, Transition Services will assist and work collaboratively with the CYPD Social Worker to ensure all preparatory work is undertaken to enable a smooth transition from Children to Adult Services on their 18th birthday. The young person will at 18yrs of age then transfer to a Transition SW to continue until settled post school education.

Data shows that in May 2022, 35% (Wirral Capita One Report, Internal Document) of Children and Young People open to Social Care as a Child Looked After having been identified as SEND. 31% (Wirral Capita One Report, Internal Document) of Children and Young People open to Social Care and in Child Protection have been identified as SEND.

Of the referrals started, they are categorised at this point for the referral category of need. From this, it can be identified if the referral has a category of need which is ‘Child N2 Disability’. This is then further specified by adding a contact category.

As the data show in Figure 42, the number of children with a referral starting with a category of need being ‘Child N2 Disability’ has increased year on year for the period (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 42: Number of referrals starting, where the category of need is ‘Child N2 Disability’, per year (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).

Of the referrals starts within the disability category on need, the contact category provides more insight. Over the three year period, ‘Disability’ has the highest number each year. This is followed by Child Health and Child Learning Difficulty.

Figure 43, Figure 44 and Figure 45 show the Contact Category for Referral starts for 19/20, 20/21 and 21/22, please note numbers with a count under 5 have been removed and as such some categories will appear to have no data (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 43: Contact Category for Referral Starts 2019/20, where the category of need is ‘Child N2 Disability’.

View Figure 44: Contact Category for Referral Starts 2020/21, where the category of need is ‘Child N2 Disability’.

View Figure 45: Contact Category for Referral Starts 2021/22, where the category of need is ‘Child N2 Disability’.

Of those Children and Young people with an EHCP in 2021, Figure 46 shows that Wirral has a rate of 19.2% which are also Child Looked After (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document). This rate is significantly higher than the full Children and Young People cohort, where 1.2% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document) are Child Looked After.

The rate of EHCP with CLA has risen between 2019 and 2021 on Wirral and in England year on year. It compares to the England rate in 2021 of 28.9% (LAIT). The Wirral pupil rate is significantly lower than the England rate.

View Figure 46: Percentage (%) of EHCP pupils who are Child Looked After, by year. Wirral and England (2019, 2020, 2021).

For the Children and young people with an EHCP in 2021, Figure 47 shows that Wirral has a rate of 28.8% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document) also being a Child in Need. This rate has increased between 2019 and 2021 at a rate greater than that in England, with Wirral at a rate higher than that in England in 2021 (LAIT).

The rate is significantly higher than the 0.4% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document) of all Children and Young people on Wirral who are Child in Need. It compares to the England rate for 2021 of 27.9% (LAIT). The Wirral rate is above the England rate.

View Figure 47: Percentage (%) of EHCP pupils who are Child in Need, by year. Wirral and England (2019, 2020, 2021).

For the Children and Young People with an EHCP (Figure 48), Wirral has a rate of 8.6% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document) also being within Child Protection. This rate has increased from 4.2% in 2020, which was a reduction from 4.6% in 2019 (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document). This overall rate of Children and Young People within Child Protection has followed the same trend over the three years with it currently at 0.5% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 48: Percentage (%) of EHCP pupils who are in Child Protection, by year. Wirral (2019, 2020, 2021).

For pupils with SEN Support and a Child Looked After (CLA) in 2021, Figure 49 shows the Wirral rate is 30.3% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document). This compares to 27.4% (LAIT) in England and is down from 33.4% in 2019 and 30.9% in 2020 (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document). This Wirral rate is significantly higher than the full Children and Young People cohort, where 1.2% are CLA (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 49: Percentage (%) of SEN Support pupils who are a Child Looked After, by year. Wirral and England (2019, 2020, 2021).

For Children and Young People with SEN Support in 2021, Figure 50 shows Wirral has a rate of 24.2% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document) also being a Child in Need. This compares to an England rate of 20.9% (LAIT). The rate on Wirral has increased between 2019 and 2021 by 3.6 percentage points, whilst the rate in England has decreased over the same period by 0.8 percentage points. The SEN Support rate is significantly higher that the full pupil cohort rate of 0.4% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 50: Percentage (%) of SEN Support pupils who are a Child in Need, by year. Wirral and England (2019, 2020, 2021).

For the Children and Young People with SEN Support and being subject to Child Protection, Figure 51 shows Wirral has a rate of 18.1% (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

This rate has stayed level for the period 2019 to 2021, whilst the overall pupil cohort has seen rates fluctuate over the same period, rising by 25% between 2020 and 2021 (Wirral Liquid Logic Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 51: Percentage (%) of SEN Support pupils who are in Child Protection, by year. Wirral and England (2019, 2020, 2021).

For Children and Young People with SEN Support, data shows that 24.2% are also Child in Need and this rate is increasing, whilst the national rate decreases.

Rates for Children and Young People with SEN Support and Child Protection have stayed level between 2019 and 2021, whilst the full Children and Young People cohort has seen rate fluctuate.

30.3% of Children and Young People with SEN Support are also a Child Looked After. This rate is higher than the England rate of 27.4% but has dropped by 3.1 percentage points since 2019.

19.2% of the Wirral CLA cohort also has an EHCP, which is significantly higher that then full Children and Young People cohort, where 1.2% are CLA. However, this rate is noticeably lower than the rates in England.

For Children and Young People with and EHCP, latest data has 28.8% also being a Child Looked After, a rate that is similar to that in England, but significantly higher than the 0.4% of all Children and Young People on Wirral being a Child Looked After.

The rate of Children and Young People with an EHCP and also Child Protection has grown significantly between 2020 and 2021, to 8.6%

The rate of children in need who are receiving SEN Support/EHCP has risen at a significantly higher rate than the rest of England.

Regarding the EHCP’s and the Social Care Advices within 6 weeks, the numbers of requests for assessments has risen this has affected capacity within the service and the percentage returned on time has dropped slightly.

We want to better understand the profile Children and Young People within Social Care to be able to offer targeted early help services.

• We will look at ways of bringing the 6 weeks advices rate back to 100%, where is has historically been.

• A bespoke piece of work will be undertaken to provide a profile of the children to understand their ages, schools they attend and area the reside in to build a pattern which may result in targeted early help services being identified and provided.

• A review piece of work will be undertaken to better understand the Social Care 6 weeks advices for the EHCP process, to see if this can be brought back up to the 100% rates that have until recently been the norm.

• Social Care will endeavour to contact all parents/carers of young people when completing social care advice.

• If the family do not require a social care assessment they will be signposted to the following services: Koala North-West. Ferries Families. Positivitree. Family Toolbox. This will ensure that all services available are being utilised.

Children under the age of 5 years old (Early Years) account for 10.3% (Wirral School Census) of the total Wirral pupil in education population and 6.4% (Wirral School Census) of those in education identified with SEND. Within this document these Children and Young People in education may be identified as ‘Under 5’s’.

For children under the age of 5 years old with SEND and attending an education setting that report via the school census, Figure 52 illustrates that 9.2% have an EHCP, leaving the remaining 90.8% with SEN Support (Wirral School Census). The under 5 year olds with SEND account for 7.1% of all pupils with SEN Support and 3.8% of all with an EHCP (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 52: Percentage (%) breakdown of Early Years SEND (2021).

Figure 53 shows that for pupils under 5 and identified as having SEND, the most common Primary Needs is Speech, Language and Communication needs, with this Primary Need accounting for 60.4% of all Primary Needs (Wirral School Census). In England for 2021/22 the most common Primary Need is also Speech, Language and Communication needs, but the rate is lower at 58% (Gov.UK).

This Wirral rate is noticeably significantly higher than any other Primary Need, with the second highest Primary Need accounting for 13.3% (Wirral School Census), which is Social, Emotional and Mental Health (in England second most common is Autistic Spectrum Disorder at 12.1%). It is worth noting that there are no pupils with a Primary Need of Vision Impairment on Wirral, whereas in England this rate is 0.9% (Gov.UK).

There is also a low rate under the category Other on Wirral, which could be seen as a positive as this means that the vast majority, 99.2% of all children have been categorised into a specific Primary Need (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 53: All Wirral SEND Children and Young people under 5 years attending an education setting on Wirral Primary Needs (2021) as percentage (%).

For pupils under 5 years old and in receipt of an EHCP (Figure 54) the most common Primary Needs is Severe Learning Difficulty, making up 65.9% Primary Needs (Wirral School Census). This is followed by Speech, Language and Communication needs at 11.4% and Autistic spectrum disorder at 9.1% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 54: All Wirral Children and Young people under 5 years with an EHCP and attending an education setting on Wirral, Primary Needs percentage (%) (2021).

For pupils with SEN support (Figure 55), the most common Primary Need is Speech, Language and Communication needs, being 65.4% (Wirral School Census) of all under 5’s with SEN support. This is followed by Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs at 14.4% and Autistic spectrum disorder with 6.4% (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 55: All Wirral Children and Young people under 5 years with SEN Support and attending an education setting on Wirral, Primary Needs percentage (%) (2021).

Figure 56 details that for those under 5 with an EHCP, 87.1% are boys and 12.9% girls. For those with SEN support, the rate is 72.5% boys and 27.5% girls (Wirral School Census).

View Figure 56: Percentage (%) of Children and Young people under 5 years old with SEND, Gender (2021).

For those with an EHCP the largest proportion reside in Bidston and St James, with 15.7% (Wirral School Census) of all pupils under 5.

This is followed be Seacombe with 12.9% and Rock Ferry with 10% (Wirral School Census). Seacombe is where most with SEN Support reside, accounting for 16.5% (Wirral School Census).

This is followed by Bidston and St James with 13.4% and Birkenhead and Tranmere with 10.4% (Wirral School Census).

Rates of deprivation are calculated by splitting all wards in England into 10 equal Deciles, with Decile 1 being the bottom 10%, or most deprived, wards in England. The Decile rate increases to 10, where these 10% of wards are the least deprived wards in England. Between 1 and 10 are Deciles 2 to 9 inclusive. For more information on how Deprivation is calculated visit Deprivation; Exploring local income deprivation (ons.gov.uk).

 For Early Years SEND pupils, 62.5% (Wirral School Census) reside within areas of the most deprivation, with the highest 10% of deprivation within England. This is seen in Figure 57, where 54.3% are within Decile 1 and in receipt of an EHCP, whilst the rate is 63.3% for those with SEN Support and in Decile 1.

View Figure 57: Children and Young People under 5 rates of deprivation. All EHCP and SEN Support pupils in education on Wirral (2021) as percentage (%).

Portage is a home-visiting educational service for early years children. The Portage team received referrals for 40 Children and Young People in the latest Quarter (Q3 2021/22), of which intervention has been provided to 37.5% (Wirral Early Years Report, Internal Document).

This is available to ensure the inclusion of children with additional needs in early education/childcare.

‘Additional needs’ includes physical, sensory or learning disability, difficulties in areas such as communication, attention, or behaviour and problems, which may be related to children from socially excluded families. This fund is for 3 year olds who are in funded places at their setting.

As of Q3 2021/22, there are 242 (1.4% of under 5 population) in receipt of Inclusive Practice Funding (Wirral Early Years Report, Internal Document).

This is funding for early years providers including Foundation 1 classes in schools, to support children with disabilities or special educational needs. It aids access to early years places by supporting providers in making reasonable adjustments to their settings. This fund is for 3 and 4 year old in early year settings and for 3 year old (Year F1) for those is schools.

There have been 32 pupils that have been assigned Disability Access fund this financial year (Wirral Early Years Report, Internal Document).

Birth rates on Wirral continue to rise, with them increasing by 2% between 2019 and 2021, which is in contrast to the National rate decreasing by 2% over the same period. The highest rates of birth in last full year, were in Bidston St. James, where 8.1% of all birth mothers from Wirral resided.

Of all Early Years pupils with SEND, 9.2% have an EHCP and 90.8% have SEN Support. Of those with an EHCP, the most common Primary Need is Severe Learning Difficulty, making up 65.9% of all EHCP Primary Needs.

Of those with SEN Support, most common primary need is Speech, Language and Communication needs, being 65.4% of all those with SEN Support.

The largest proportion of under 5’s with an EHCP reside in Bidston St. James and for those with SEN Support they reside in Seacombe. This is supported by the fact that 62.5% of all Early Years SEND pupils reside in areas on most deprivation, decile 1, with which is the bottom 10% in England.

Wirral is ambitious for its Children and Young People with SEND and have listened to many parents who tell us that pathways/systems/access to information and referrals to services can be too wielding. They seek a “tell it once” approach. They want access to services in one place and professionals to collaborate in “real time” on presenting need and issues.

As such Wirral will respond with two key developments that should effect change to a “clunky” system.

Family Hubs

• Wirral has been successful in securing up to £1 million pounds, through central government’s, Family Hub Transformation Fund which will support the development of a 0-19's and up to 25’s where there is SEND, service delivery model.

• Building on the best practice of its children centres and innovation across Wirral’s Early Help and Prevention services the Family Hub model will embed the core principle of inclusion and accessibility.

• Families with Children and Young People with SEND who may not have had needs identified in the earliest years will have a pathway to self-refer and walk-in to Family Hubs within their immediate communities to receive an integrated offer across school nursing, specialist services, GP’s and many more.

Keyworker programme

• Wirral Council in partnership with Wirral CCG have secured funding from NHS England and Improvement (NHSE &I) Transforming Care Programme to be an ‘early adopter’ site for key-working.

• This role and function is a key objective in the NHS Long Term Plan. This new way of working will be targeted to support children and young people with Autism and/or Learning Disabilities and their families.

• Primary aim is to prevent hospital admissions for those children/young people who face multiple vulnerabilities. Uniquely, Wirral has decided to house the keyworker roles within the Council’s Early Help and Prevention’s Early Years services to ensure early identification and prevention is a key strategy to reducing escalation to Tier 4 services.

Amount of EHCP’s issued per year, excluding exceptions in the full year 2021 was 314. This compares the 291 issued in in 2019 and 352 issued in 2020 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 58: Percentage (%) of Wirral EHCPs issued within the 20 week statutory timescale, by year for Wirral, with England average (2020, 2021, 2022).

The percentage of new EHCP’s issued within 20 weeks on Wirral is 24% for 2021 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document). This is from the 314 issued and 75 in time (24%) (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document). The England average for EHCP’s issued in 20 weeks is currently 58.0% (Gov.UK).

As Figure 58 shows, the rates for 2022 are on an upward trajectory and at 37% for May are above the rates seen in the second half of 2021. (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

In order to produce high quality and fit for purpose EHCP’s, that are produced in a collaborative format that includes the child or young person (where applicable), parents / carers, professionals and partners, advices must be obtained. Advices come from Social Care (where applicable) and Health to ensure that the EHCP meets the needs of children and young people.

Educational Psychology

The latest data, from May 2022 and shown in Figure 59, show that the Advices completed within timescale rate was 12%. The data show that the rate completed in May 2022 is the lowest over the three year period, being half that seen in May 2021. (Wirral Educational Psychology Team 6 week Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 59: Educational Psychology Advices Completed within 6 weeks, May, Wirral, by year (2020, 2021, 2022) as percentage (%).

Social Care Advices

The latest (Q3 2021/2022) Wirral rate is 96.0% (Figure 60), which is down from 98.3% in Q2 2021/2022 and from a rate of 100% which has been seen for the previous 2 years. (Wirral Social Care Team 6 Week Report, Internal Document)

View Figure 60: Percentage (%) of Advices received within 6 weeks from Social Care, Wirral, (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).

Health Advices

The Advices received within 6 weeks from Health are from 6 services within Health. The six services are Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Paediatrics, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Educational Psychologist and the 0-19 Team. For the Q1 and Q2 data in 2019/2020, the data do not include 0-19 Team figures.

The data in Figure 61 show that throughout 2019/2020, the rates received within 6 weeks was on an upward trend, before being relatively steady in 2020/2021. Rates have fallen back again throughout 2021/22, with three quarters of continued rate drops. (Wirral Health Care Team 6 Week Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 61: Percentage (%) of Advices received within 6 weeks from Health, Wirral, (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).

Figure 62 shows that over the past three years the number of Mediations undertaken has shown an upward trend, with an increase of 196.1% between 2019 and 2021, to 77 in the full year 2021 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

This same trend can be seen with the number of Tribunals that have taken place, with these going up year on year. The numbers have risen by 120% between 2019 and 2021, to 77 (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 62: Rates on Mediation and Tribunal within the EHCP process, Wirral, (2019, 2020, 2021).

Tribunal reasons

Data in Figure 63 show that through 2019, 2020 and 2021 Decision not to assess is the most common tribunal reason, except in 2021, when this is second to Section B. Data also show a change in the profile of tribunals in 2020 and 2021, with the introduction of reasons, Sections B, F and I, which by 2021 account for the majority of tribunal reasons (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

For reference, Section B of an EHCP must set out the child or young person’s special educational needs. Section F must contain the special educational provision to meet all needs identified in Section B. Section I must contain the educational setting that the child or young person attends (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 63: EHCP Tribunal reasons 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Mediation Outcomes

Mediation outcomes in Figure 64 from 2019 (26), 2020 (91) and 2021 (77) (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document), the last three full years, show that in 2019 the outcomes were across 7 reasons, with Assess the most common outcome reason, followed by Do no assess. Numbers were too low for the remaining used outcome reasons.

By 2020 the outcomes were spread across 9 reasons. For these 9 reasons, assess was the highest number, as in 2019. There is a relatively even distribution between Amend EHCP, No Outcome and Do not assess. By 2021, No outcome was the most common outcome reason, followed closely by Assess.

All other outcome reasons were significantly lower and spread across 7 outcome reasons (Wirral PowerBI Report, Internal Document). 

View Figure 64: Mediation Outcome reasons, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The number of EHCP’s issued, although up from 2019 is down from 2020 and lates data shows a rate of 37%, which is still significantly lower than the England rate of 58%.

Advices completed in 6 weeks have seen rates drop over the past three full years. With the latest data from Q3 2021/22 showing that none of the areas completed 100% of advices within 6 weeks. The past 12 months has seen significant drops in rates completed within 6 weeks. This is having an impact upon the timeliness of EHCPs.

Since January 2022, the finalisation rate has seen an improvement due to new team practices, which in turn has a positive impact on the rate of plans completed, which can be seen in the upward trend in 2022.

The number of Mediations taking place has increased by 196.1% between 2019 and 2021, whilst the number of Tribunals has increased by 120% over the same period.

This is linked to the delays in the EHCP process along with parent and carers reaching out advocates of the EHCP process, who help support parents and carers through the processes.

EHCPs and Annual Reviews

• Additional support has been brought into the service to assist with demand management and capacity. There are six additional staff members in the SEND team covering a combination of roles including EHCP writing, annual reviews and EHCP coordination.

• The introduction of more robust compliance checks being carried out by SEND managers along with a new targeted approach that includes additional SEND Managers, has resulted in improved compliance of EHCP’s and made the process have less delays.

• To help address the tribunal and mediation process, the team has a designated SEND manager who is focussed on resolution. This dedicated resource ensures that focus is not shifted and will build a good case knowledge to support the process.

• Education Psychology assessments are being commissioned and delivered by an external provider, focussing solely on EHCP assessments in order to help reduce these delays within the EHCP process. There has been agreement to extend this service for an additional 12 months to ensure that advice can be provided within the 6-week timescale.

Figure 65 show referrals into CAMHS shows an upward trend from Q1 2019/20. The full year data for 2019/20 shows 926 referrals and 1417 (CAMHS Report, Internal Document) in 2020/21 and the data from 2021/22 shows an increased number of referrals, with Q1 in 2021/22 showing the highest rate within this timeframe, at 522 (CAMHS Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 65: CAMHS referral number, per quarter, Wirral, (2019/20, 2020/21, 20201/22).

(No Figure 66) 

Figure 67 illustrates that since Q1 2019/2020, the data show an improvement in the rate seen within 18 weeks (from date referral received to first attended Choice Appointment), with the rate since Q2 2020/2021 above the 95% target (CAMHS Report, Internal Document).

This compares to a low figure within this time period of 47.6% in Q4 2019/2020 (CAMHS Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 67: CAMHS percentage (%) rate seen within 18 weeks between referrals and first attended choice appointment (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).

Figure 68 illustrates that over the same period from Q1 2019/2020 the rates seen within 6 weeks has fluctuated with rates in 2019/2020 on a downward trend, rates in 2020/2021 Q1 – Q3 inclusive, seeing higher rates and Q4 2020/21 to Q2 2021/22 inclusive showing a more even level. The data also show that only within two reporting periods, Q2 and Q3 2020/2021, the rate has been above the 75% target (CAMHS Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 68: CAMHS percentage (%) rate seen within 6 weeks between referrals and first attended choice appointment, Wirral, (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).

The number of referrals into the paediatrics speech and language therapy service has seen fluctuations over the reporting period, Figure 69 shows Q1 and Q2 2020/2021 show a significant drop off in rates. Rates since this period, Q3 2020/2021 onwards, has seen a large increase in referrals, to a high of 806 in Q1 2021/22 (NHS Wirral Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 69: Referrals to SALT, per quarter (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22). Wirral.

Figure 70 details how the proportion of babies eligible for newborn hearing screening who were seen within timescale is currently 99.3% (Wirral Audiology Report, Internal Document) (Q3 2021/2022), which is above the target of 98% (Wirral Audiology Report, Internal Document) and for the last year of data, the rate has been above the target.

There are different timescales within this service: by 4 weeks Hospital programmes-well babies, NCU babies. By 5 weeks community programmes-well babies

View Figure 70: Percentage (%) rate of newborn screening undertaken within timescale, Wirral, (2020/21, 2021/22).

Latest data in Figure 71 show that the rate of patients offered an audiological assessment within timescale is 100% (Wirral Audiology Report, Internal Document). The rate of assessments that have actually taken place within timescale fluctuated over the period, with the last two quarters till up from Q1 2021/2022.

View Figure 71: Audiological assessment rates percentage (%), for patients offered and patients undertaking assessments within timescale (2021/22).

Figure 72 shows that for newborn hearing screening that have led to a hospital referral the latest data show a rate of 3.4% (Q3 2021/22), which is above the 3.0% (Wirral Audiology Report, Internal Document) target and up from two consecutive periods of Q1 and Q2 2021/22 which were 2.3% and 2.1% respectively (Wirral Audiology Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 72: Audiological assessment that have resulted in a hospital referral (2020/21, 2021/22) percentage (%).

This covers Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) / autism spectrum disorder  (ASD) / Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

Figure 73 shows that across the service during the period 2019 to 2021 inclusive, the rates of referrals into the service, as a combination of Neurodevelopmental Pre-Diagnosis Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) / autism spectrum disorder  (ASD) / Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) within the 0-19 Service has increased from 432 (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document) in 2019 to 2118 in 2021.

2020 saw a 127% increase (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document), over double what was received in 2019. 2021 saw referrals double again, with another 116% increase, with over 4 times as many referrals than before Covid (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 73: Total ADHD, ASD and DCD Referrals, Wirral, by year (2019, 2020, 2021).

Figure 74 illustrates that since 2020, and the Covid Lockdown, ASD, DCD and dual referrals have each increased at a rate of over 300% (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document). The ADHD referrals have seen similar rates of increase and these remain the largest number of referrals each year over the period.

During 2021 the Neurodevelopment team saw 2118 referrals (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document). This was more than 2020 & 2019 combined (981 & 431 respectively).

View Figure 74: ADHD/ASD/DCD/Dual Referral, percentage (%) increase, Wirral, by year (2020 & 2021).

The service also has dual referrals (Figure 75 (p.80)). These are a referral for any combination of ADHD, ASD, and/or DCD at the same time. All elements of a dual referral must wait for the longest pathway to complete.

View Figure 75: ADHD/ASD/DCD/Dual Referral. Total number of Referrals, Wirral, by year (2020, 2021).

Of the referrals that are received into the service pathway, the majority are for ADHD. As Figure 76 details, the latest data (from Q1 2022 / 23) show that 53% (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document) of all referrals received are for ADHD. This compares to 37% ASD and 10% DCD (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 76: Percentage (%) of referrals per pathway, Q1 2022, Wirral.

Data shown in Figure 77 also show that over a third (37%) of referrals received have been for a dual referral assessment, for Q1 2022 (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 77: Dual or Single Referral received percentage (%), Q1 2022, Wirral.

Data illustrated in Figure 78 also show that not all referrals are accepted. There are numerous reasons why the service is unable to accept a referral; No signature of parent/carer consent (or confirmation of verbal consent). Mandatory questions not filled in. Concerns noted do not meet criteria. Submitted on wrong referral form. Latest data (Q1, 2022), show that over 25% (Wirral Neurodevelopmental Health Report, Internal Document) of referrals into the service are declined.

View Figure 78: Referrals into service acceptance rate percentage (%), Q1 2022, Wirral.

Assessment times vary depending on the pathway.

• ADHD – Waiting times to progress the pre-diagnostic pathway is currently between 4 and 6 months. Due to the increased volume of referrals the QB tests and classroom observation waiting times are increasing.

• ASD – Waiting times to progress the pre-diagnostic pathway is around 9 – 12 months as a Speech and Language Therapy social communication assessment is required. Due to the increased volume of referrals the waiting list for assessment continues to increase.

• DCD – There is no delay for DCD alone however if this is part of a dual referral (ADHD/ASD) then the waiting time is dependent on the completion of the other pre-diagnostic pathway.

• The waiting times for the community paediatrician is around 9 months after the ADHD, ASD or DCD referral is sent and this waiting time is increasing.

Data in Figure 79 show since 2021/22 the rates have improved within three out of four data measure areas, with face-to-face new birth visits within 14 days by a health visitor being lower in 2022/23 that the end of 2021/22.

There has been improvement in rate of 12 month reviews being received by children by the time they turn 12 months, with the rate increasing to 72% in May 2022, from 67% in April 2022 and 57% at the end of 2021/22 (Health Visitor and School Nurse Report, Internal Document). Children who have received their 12 month review by the time they are 15 months has increased from 2021/22. However, rates in May 2022 are slightly down from

April 2022, yet still significantly higher than the end of 2021/22. Data show that after a five percentage point increase from 2021/22 to April 2022, rate have dropped back again for children who have received a two and a half year review.

Rates in May 2022 are still slightly up from 2021/22 (Health Visitor and School Nurse Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 79 (p.83): Health Visitor / School nurse rate within timescale as percentage (%), Wirral, 2021/2022% (2021/22, 2022/23).

The latest data (Figure 80), from May 2022, show that the rate of patients seen within timescale has increased significantly for paediatric continence. The greatest increase can be seen between April and May 2022, where rates have increased from 25.7% to 72.7% (Health Visitor and School Nurse Report, Internal Document). The May 2022 rate is over triple the rate of 20.7% seen at the end of 2021/22 (Health Visitor and School Nurse Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 80: Paediatric Continence percentage (%)rates within statutory timescale, Wirral, (2021/22, 2022/23).

Data for 2022/23 and in Figure 81 show that both the number of referrals received and the number that have been progressed have seen an increase between April 2022 and May 2022. There have been 60 additional referrals received and 42 additional referrals progressed (Wirral Health Report - Physiotherapy, Internal Document).

View Figure 81: Numbers of Physiotherapy referrals received and progressed, April & May 2022, Wirral by month (Apr 22, May 22).

Data in Figure 82 also show that along with the number of referrals received and referrals progressed increasing between April and May 2022, there has been a very slight increase in the rate of referrals progressed being seen within 6 weeks. It must be noted that the increase is 0.06% and at a rate of just over 73% (Wirral Health Report - Physiotherapy, Internal Document).

However, data also show that the average waiting time has seen an increased from an average of 4.55 weeks to 4.91 weeks (Wirral Health Report - Physiotherapy, Internal Document).

View Figure 82: Physiotherapy, average waiting times, in weeks per month, April & May 2022, Wirral (Apr 22, May 22).

Figure 83 shows data for 2022/23 and that whilst the number of referrals received by Occupational Therapy has increased from 53 to 63, the number of referrals that progressed has reduced from 37 to 35 between April 2022 and May 2022 (Wirral Health Report - OT, Internal Document).

View Figure 83: Occupational Therapy numbers received and progressed, April & May 2022, Wirral by month (Apr 22, May 22).

Data show in Figure 84 that the rate of Occupational Therapy referrals seen within timescale has reduced from 37.84% in April 2022 to 31.43% in May 2022 (Wirral Health Report - OT, Internal Document). This is a reduction of over six percentage points.

View Figure 84: Occupational Therapy; Referrals percentage (%) seen within timescale, April & May 2022, Wirral by month (Apr 22, May 22).

Over the same period, it was also seen that the average waiting time (in weeks) has increased from April 2022 to May 2022, from 7.89 weeks to 8.53 weeks (Wirral Health Report - OT, Internal Document).

Data in Figure 85 show that between April 2022 and May 2022 there has been an increase, although still low numbers, the number referrals received by Diabetics has increased. The data also show a significant increase, from 1 to 11 (Wirral Health Report - Diabetics, Internal Document), in the number of referrals that progresses, across the same period.

View Figure 85: Diabetics numbers received and progressed, April & May 2022, Wirral by month (Apr 22, May 22).

Data show that in April 2022 there were no referrals seen within timescale. This rate increased to 45.45% in May 2022 (Wirral Health Report - Diabetics, Internal Document). Over the same period, the average wait time reduced from 9 weeks to 7 weeks (Wirral Health Report - Diabetics, Internal Document).

Data illustrated in Figure 86 show that the number presented to Accident and Emergency for Self-Harm increased slightly from 40 in April 2022 to 42 in May 2022 (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document). Of those presented to A&E for Self-Harm those spending less than the 4 hours target in A&E has increased from 75% to 78.57% (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 86: A&E Self Harm percentage (%) rate spending under 4 hours target in A&E, April & May 2022, Wirral by month (Apr 22, May 22).

Data illustrated in Figure 87 show that of those presented to A&E with Self Harm, there has been a reduction in the rate admitted, rather than discharged. The rate admitted has reduced from 15.0% in April 2022 to 11.9% in May 2022 (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 87: A&E Self Harm Admitted and Discharged percentage (%) rate, by month, April & May 2022, Wirral (Apr 22, May 22).

For those presented to A&E with Mental Health, Figure 88 shows the number has increased from 236 in April 2022 to 281 in May 2022 (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document). Of those who presented to A&E with Mental Health, the rate seen within the 4 hour target has increased from 67.8% in April 2022 to 72.2% in May 2022 (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 88: A&E Self Mental Health spending under 4 hours target in A&E percentage (%), April & May 2022, Wirral by month.

Data illustrated in Figure 89 show that for those presented to A&E with Mental Health, the rates admitted have increased from 19.1% in April 2022 to 24.2% in May 2022, thus reducing the rate discharged (Wirral Health A&E Report, Internal Document).

View Figure 89: A&E Mental Health Admitted and Discharged percentage (%) rate, April & May 2022, Wirral by month.

Monday 29th November 2021 saw the launch of Wirral’s co-produced health passport.

Background: Wirral CCG completed a review of the then current available hospital passports/health and well-being passports revealed a clear need for local, co-produced information and links. The passport needed to be meaningful, workable, and engaging for parents and children. The aim of the Health Passport is to provide service staff with all the necessary information about a child/young person when using hospital services.

Passports help children and young people and their parents/ carers to communicate their needs so that health practitioners can consider reasonable adjustments when they visit hospitals. Health Passports are designed to support and facilitate effective communication and shared understanding between people with disabilities and/or additional needs, family and practitioners who are providing care and support.

The Queens Nursing Institute’s Fund for Innovation focusses on nurse led projects to improve health outcomes for people with learning disabilities. There was an application submitted with the specific aim of the proposal being to develop a co-produced, local health passport for children and young people with learning disabilities in Wirral that enhances communications and access to services.

Pleasingly, Wirral learned their application had been successful and a project team comprising Health and LA practitioners, parent/carers and young people was set up. The project was facilitated by Wirral’s Clinical Lead for Children and Young People’s Learning Disability Services as an initiative to improve the service experience for children and young people and the parent carers.

The fully co-produced passport proved to be a fantastic opportunity for collaborative working and positive outcomes. By listening to different views, opinions and experiences the resultant Health Passport is now an example of best practice and has been nominated for a Health Service Journal (HSJ) award.

The launch of the passport was an informal coffee morning where parent/carers/ practitioners could drop in and collect a copy of the Passport.

Third sector services/organisations supported the event and helped to share word of the passport launch across their membership. Information is available directly from.

https://www.sendlowirral.co.uk/

The number of EHCP’s issued, although up from 2019 is down from 2020 and lates data shows a rate of 37%, which is still significantly lower than the England rate of 58%.

Advices completed in 6 weeks have seen rates drop over the past three full years. With the latest data from Q3 2021/22 showing that none of the areas completed 100% of advices within 6 weeks. The past 12 months has seen significant drops in rates completed within 6 weeks. This is having an impact upon the timeliness of EHCPs.

Since January 2022, the finalisation rate has seen an improvement due to new team practices, which in turn has a positive impact on the rate of plans completed, which can be seen in the upward trend in 2022.

The number of Mediations taking place has increased by 196.1% between 2019 and 2021, whilst the number of Tribunals has increased by 120% over the same period.

This is linked to the delays in the EHCP process along with parent and carers reaching out advocates of the EHCP process, who help support parents and carers through the processes.

Neurodevelopmental Pre-Diagnosis Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) / autism spectrum disorder (ASD) / Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) within the 0-19 Service

• Additional temporary funding has been secured to work through some of the issues arising from COVID-19. The additional post is currently addressing these through:

  • Reviewing escalated cases within waiting lists.

  • Supporting the resources ensuring access for non-English speaking/ difficult to engage / reducing health inequalities, variety of tools- developing a toolkit.

  • Supporting the capacity to manage increase in referrals.

  • Capturing data and themes for evidence re early trauma pathway need within the SEND referrals.

This highlighted Co-production as an area requiring improvement. A specific workstream for Communication, Co-production and Relationships with Stakeholders has been established to drive the improvements needed. Work is underway across all six of the workstreams and more information can be found by following this link. https://www.sendlowirral.co.uk/  

There is also a designated section for Co-production on the Local Offer website. https://www.sendlowirral.co.uk/

Numbers of SEND children and young people in Wirral are significant and subsequently the potential pool of Parent/Carer engagement is vast, and we recognise that to shape future provision that is fit for purpose, proactive not reactive the voice of a diverse representation of parent/carers needs to be heard.

Meetings with Parent Carer Participation Wirral (PCPW), the designated Parent/Carer forum for Wirral and SENDIASS (WIRED) are held monthly and latterly during the reporting period, weekly, with PCPW.

Extensive engagement with parents and carers has taken place with a mix of face to face, online, in groups, 1:1 basis, informal and strategic approaches to facilitate and maximise wider scale engagement.

The feedback received is honest, emotionally charged, at times difficult to hear but largely constructive. Parent/carers applauded the step to put faces to names and give them the opportunity to share their frustrations, experiences, make suggestions and in many cases seek higher levels of support/intervention.

The information shared helps to shape the services on offer, the accessibility of the provision and informs the JSNA of real need over perceived need. Whilst several problematic themes in terms of processes, timescales and communication emerged, it should be noted that comments were in the main, conveyed constructively, with a real sense of gratitude at being listened to and a definite desire to play a supportive role in evoking changes to existing processes/services. Many offered to give of their time to support the “we’re better together” approach. Below is a comprehensive list of the participation events held.

September 2021

• 15/9/2021 - Capitalising on the Power of Parent/Carers twilight open session at Leasowe Primary School. Live streamed Q & A with approximately 120 Parent/carers in attendance. Feedback was sought to capture views and areas for improvement.

• 28/9/2021 – Parent/Carers were invited to attend a series of online meetings with Ofsted/CQC inspectors.

• 29/9/2021 – Open Session with Parent/Carers twilight at Fender Primary School.

• Event was cancelled on the day due to an outbreak of COVID in the setting.

October 2021

• 04/10/21 - SEND Parent/Carer Afternoon Clinic by appointment via the Local Offer at Bloom Building, Birkenhead. Parent/Carers were offered 1:1 20-minute appointments with key staff from the Statutory Assessment Team; namely the Head of SEND, Principal Educational Psychologist, SEND Manager and an EHCP Co-ordinator. The SEND Participation Manager and SEND Youth Engagement Officer also attended to support and signpost Parent/Carers.

November 2021

• 22/11/201 – Feedback from Parent/Carers was that some were unable to travel/attend evening events due to childcare responsibilities. In response, online open sessions were arranged. Wirral SEND staff hosted two 90-minute meetings via MS Teams. Parent/carers again booked via the Local Offer and were sent the links to join at the time slot (11am or 6pm) most convenient to them.

• 29/11/2021 – Launch of Wirral’s co-produced Health Passport at the Belvedere Centre, Wallasey. Parent/Carers were invited to attend and learn more about the benefits of the Passport scheme in relation to their child/young person’s healthcare.

December 2021

• No events – seasonal pressures on Parent/Carers.

• Pursuant to an expression of interest opportunity, Parent/Carers who are keen to work strategically with the Local area leadership attended their first meetings.

January 2022

• No events – Written Statement of Action remedial action workshops involving PCPW and a pool of Wirral Parent/Carers.

• 21/1/2022- Parent/Carer panel members for the recruitment of Commissioning Lead.

• 24/1/2022 – Parent/Carer panel member for the recruitment of Head of SEND.

February 2022

• No events – Written Statement of Action remedial action workshops involving PCPW and a pool of Wirral Parent/Carers.

March 2022

• 04/3/22 Open Session with Parent/Carers after school drop off at 9.30am hosted by Castleway Primary School. Approximately 40 Parent/Carers attended. Q & A session and signposting to support via PCPW, The Positivitree and Crea8ing Careers. The Headteacher and SENCO also attended to support the event.

April 2022

• 28/4/2022 Open Session with Parent/Carers at 6pm (to accommodate working Parent/Carers) hosted by St Albans Primary School. Approximately 45 Parent/Carers attended. Q & A session and signposting to support via The Positivitree. The Headteacher, SEND Governor and SENCOs also attended to support the event.

May 2022

• 18/5/2022 Open Session with Parent/Carers after school drop off at 9.30am hosted by Hoylake Holy Trinity Primary School. Approximately 60 Parent/Carers attended. Q & A session and signposting to support via PCPW, The Positivitree, Koala NW, Involve NW Community Connectors, and the SEND Youth Participation service. The Headteacher SENCO and a local Councillor also attended to support the event.

• 28/5/202 In direct response to a request for weekend SEND events, a mid-day Saturday SEND meet up at Castleway Primary school was facilitated by Inclusion Officers. The session was attended and supported by PCPW.

June 2022

• 16/6/2022 - Parent/Carer panel members for the recruitment of a Keyworker Lead. Collated feedback from Parent/Carer engagement

Parent/Carer voice is championed via the Parent Carer Forum PCPW and engagement with many local third sector organisations such as The Positivitree, Crea8ing Careers, Wirral Mencap, Autism Together, Koala NW, Resilient CIC, Open Door Charity, The Sensory Shack, Utopia Wirral, Wirral Unplugged, Next Chapter, Healthwatch and Advanced Solutions.

Parent/Carers are invited to participate in recruitment exercises. These Parent panels and Children & Young People’s panels carry weight towards the final decision.

Parent/Carers have the opportunity for feedback at all events and via the Local Offer. Views on specific topics e.g., the EHCP process, Annual Reviews and Local Offer website have been sought to assist with the post Ofsted/CQC inspection required actions.

Communication channels for active Participation and Engagement with Parent Carers include but are not limited to;

• SEND events organised by Wirral LA. SEND SNAPSHOT – This is a newsletter to keep Parent/Carers informed.

• Local Offer website (https://localofferwirral.org/).

• The Local Offer Facebook page.

• Local Offer Twitter (@lowirral).

• Via Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO).

• Locality Chairs/Deputies.

• Early Years settings.

• Parent Care Participation Wirral (PCPW - Wirral’s Parent Carer Forum).

• Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS - Wirral’s impartial. Independent and confidential service for SEND matters).

• Third sector organisations and their associated social media.

Parent and Carer Engagement via Wirral schools has involved;

• Presented to Parent/Carers at Wirral schools by SENCO invitation at Local Offer SEND information evenings.

• Presented to Parent/Carers at Wirral schools by SENCO invitation at Local Offer/SEND Coffee & Cake mornings.

• Inclusion Officer presence in Wirral schools - assisting Parent/Carers and the children and young people.

• Support SENCOs at Year 6/7 Transition evenings when meeting Parents of the new intake. Attended Parent Evenings in Wirral schools by SENCO invitation. Wirral SEND presence advertised ahead of the evenings to maximise parental engagement with Parent/Carers of SEND children. Held Local Offer drop-in clinics in Wirral schools.

• Attended summer fairs and Christmas fairs along with a range of PTA organised events.

• Parent and Carer Engagement has also been undertaken via the Parent/Carer support 3rd sector organisations, which include, but are not limited to; The Positivitree. Crea8ing Careers. Next Chapter. Advanced Solutions. Koala NW. Autism Together. Next Chapter. Resilient CIC. Open Door Charity. The Sensory Shack. Utopia Wirral. Wirral Unplugged. Healthwatch.

• There has also been support at Mencap events to raise awareness amongst Parent/Carers.

• Attendance at Wirral Kinship group meetings to engage with grandparents/family members raising SEND children.

• Attendance at the ADHD Foundation training events hosted in the Wirral for Parent/Carers.

• Working closely with SENDIASS who help reach parent/carers audience.

• Weekly review meetings between the SEND Resolution Officer and SENDIASS help to bring about swift resolution and avoid escalation to complaints and Tribunal.

Creative Youth Development facilitates the Youth Voice Group which acts as an overarching mechanism for young people’s engagement and offers young people an opportunity to build skills in debating, citizenship, political education, peer education training and conference planning.

Work undertaken by the Youth Voice Group in 2021.

• Ongoing – posh, digital, police commissioner, Liverpool Cit Region Youth Assembly. All these projects are ongoing and developing.

• Budget consultation - January 2021 ‘HAVE YOUR SAY’ – The SEND Youth Voice Group had a say on this. With workers supporting their input.

• Youth justice ‘children first plan’ and set up July 2021 – The group had an online meeting with Youth Justice to input on the new plan.

• Keeping streets safer survey ‘females’ June 2021 - The females of the SEND YVG put in their views as young women about public spaces where they may feel unsafe.

• KAISEN Consultation Feb 2021 – Ofsted COVID-19 feedback FAQs about the National Children’s Bureau Consultation for Children and Young people with SEND about the impact of the pandemic.

• Interviews for JUNO – The group were part of interviewing for the Registered Management Job for Capacity Lab. They introduced themselves and ran an activity task for themselves and candidates.

• Interview for new head of SEND – A young person sat on the interview panel for this role.

• Interview strategic transforming care project – A young person sat on the interview panel for this role.

• Worked on the co-produced health passport - A young person sat on the interview panel for this role.

• Regeneration of Birkenhead – Representatives of the SEND YVG were part of a feedback discussion with regeneration regarding the Hamilton Square Developments and the new park. This led to future meetings being planned as regeneration were impressed with the young peoples views and opinions.

• LCRYA environment voice panel – representatives of the SEND YVG were involved in discussions with Merseytravel on behalf of the Liverpool Metro Mayor on the environmental issues of the Liverpool City Region, focusing on transport firstly.

• Meeting new head of disability – 2 SEND young people welcomed and showed the new Assistant Director of Education around Pilgrim Street Arts Centre and introduced the SEND voice groups work to him.

• Commissioning of new disability care home – transforming care SEND YVG representatives have gathered the views of SEND young people to bring to a planning meeting regarding the development of a SEND Supported housing process.

• Development of a SEND Police YVG in Wirral – Merseyside Police have approached the SEND YVG to become a pilot project in setting up a future SEND Police YVG for Wirral and wider Merseyside.

2022 built upon 2021 with new themes identified.

• UK MYP elections - 31 young people applied for 4 roles. These young people will be representing the young people of Wirral and their needs at a national level.

• Make your mark – BYC - Voting on 6 issues across UK. Which ones came top in Wirral.

• Wirral youth partnership - Working with improvement around the constitution, membership, election layout and process for a group of 11 young people whom would lead on a project area. Group working on a theme of ‘Hate/Mate crime’ for 2022 SEND youth conference.

• Digital health and care - Andy from the Cheshire and Mersey Health and Care Partnership is doing some engagement with citizens on digital and health and care and is looking to hold an online workshop on 19th May between 7pm and 8pm with a group of young people aged 16 plus. Would you be able to see if a couple of people from your group might be interested? Link is below containing more info.

• Regeneration – Seacombe/New Brighton - We are planning a consultation on regeneration plans for Seacombe and New Brighton in July/August. We have secured government funding to support a digital consultation (using a 3-d model of the areas) with a clear objective to engage young people.

• County lines comms campaign - Eyes Open (www.eyes-open.uk) – basically this is a campaign that looks to ask people to looks for the signs of young / vulnerable people being exploited and tells them who to speak to if they need help etc.

• Hosting interviews for WBC. SEND YVG have taken part in interviews for varying members of staff in the educational dept. Making sure SEND young people are involved in the hiring of staff. Involving Key workers, Lead workers, Commissioning roles etc.

• SEND policy inspectors - SEND Young Inspectors – reviewing organizations offers via the short breaks funding for SEND young people. Making sure that it matches the standards set by the funding.

• POSH environment - group event planning for Wirral Cool Climate Board. Having a seat on the Wirral cool climate board. The group have attained funding to run a conversation with young people in areas of Wirral regarding the issues in their area which may affect the environment. This discussion will be wider engaged with at a one-day online Environment event which the group planned.

• KAISEN Consultation on the SEND and Alternative Provision GREEN PAPER for Government. The group answered 8 questions about their needs as young SEND people and their education. We devised the session to involve a PLAY DOH response so young people could demonstrate nonverbally what was important to them (by engaging the creative aspect of the brain to promote deeper thought and introspection).

• RCPCH Annual Conference - Children and Young People’s Engagement at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Young people from youth voice projects (We took 2 SEND YVG) had the chance to take part in a 3-hour session looking at children and young people’s rights and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on child health. The session included presentations from the Children’s Commissioners from each of the four UK nations (a first to have them all together!), followed by a workshop led by RCPCH to look at challenges and youth led solutions on rights and the cost of living. These will be shared with paediatricians and the child health sector to improve outcomes for children and young people as part of our work on The State of Child Health and Health Inequalities.

A series of face to face and virtual meetings with parents and carers from across Wirral has been held in community settings and online. Parents have been able to share their experiences and receive answers back. A SEND Wirral Facebook page has been set up to act as a key conduit with parents and signpost parents to support. Third sector support groups can advertise their offer to parents and carers which has been well received. A review of the Parent Carer Partnership has been undertaken and new membership identified.

From the many sessions that have taken place over the period the following themes and comments have been received;

• SEND Budget is insufficient and we need to inform how Wirral is going to address this concern. Parents are being ignored by Coordinators & SEND team staff, as a result, communication channels need to be significantly improved.

• There is a need for additional Transitional support in the widest sense, for children/young people & parent/carers.

• Health waiting lists and the further damage caused by protracted wait needs to be addressed.

• There is a ‘hit & miss’ communication with SENCOs.

• Mental Health issues for SEND children/young people & parent/carers is concerning.

• Better investment in SEND activities is needed in both term time and during holidays.

• SEND Transport issues are impacting on families.

• There is an ask to train school personnel to have a better understanding of additional needs.

These feedback themes are accompanied by general comments;

• Improve communication with Parents at every stage of the EHCP process.

• LA runs over deadlines with zero communication.

• More training in schools for all staff.

• Give examples of the issues Parents are facing so school has a better understanding.

• Enable Parents to speak with Coordinators – email exchanges are protracted, and the time delay a huge frustration.

• Waiting time for Paediatricians. – No tailored support as they wait, Children and Young People falling further behind, no parental support whilst waiting.

• Communication between the Local Authority and Parents should not leave the Parent feeling like they are an inconvenience for having a children/young people with SEND.

• Transitional support. Structured support as SEND Children and Young People prepare to leave High School.

• Budget is too small to cope with demand – what are you going to do?

• Educate teachers and SEND CYP peers re what it is like to have additional needs.

• Better support through EHCP process.

• Support for Parents dealing with the Local Authority.

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services waiting lists – criteria issues and children/young people in crisis and suicidal cannot wait.

• Post 16 support, advice, prep.

• Professional support for children/young people who are aware they are ‘different.’

• Better use of Peer support.

• More Youth clubs for SEND children/young people.

• Holiday clubs – SEND children/young people & siblings can attend.

• Holiday respite for Parents.

• SEND Transport process, issues, and unfriendly staff.

It is evident that the concerns and issues shared span a wide range of topics although there are common themes which are being prioritised as part of the Written Statement of Action.

Solutions to all matters raised may not be possible in the short term but the Local Authority and Local Area has a commitment to refer the issues to the relevant bodies to influence future decision making.

Strategically

• Parent Carers are represented by PCPW who sit on the SEND Transformation Board and work with Stakeholders to effect the improvements required.

• Parent/Carers also attend focussed workstreams such as Data Analysis & Joint Commissioning, Education Health Care Plans (EHCP) & Annual Reviews, Co-production, Relationships and Communication, Inclusive Practices, Local Provision and Strategic oversight and the commissioning of a new Local Offer website.

• The SEND Participation Manager undertook an expression of interest exercise overseen by the Strategic Board co-chairs.

  • The aim was to develop diverse strategic parent/carer representation across designated sub-groups such as Transition to Adulthood, Early Intervention, Data Measuring & Co-production.

  • The response was fantastic, and roles have been found for all those expressing an interest in working with us.

  • Already their lived experience contributions have significantly benefitted the remedial action to address the written statement of actions.

• A schedule of regular surveys to be produced with the survey content and questions to be co-produced with the PCPW with the purpose of monitoring outcomes and driving services improvement. Surveys will have clear themes across the year, linking to the headlines that were agreed after previous Council for Disabled Children sessions. The data will follow strict question sets at their core, allowing for distance travelled to be clearly identified through like for like question sets.

9.1 Demographics

All SEND Cohort

Of all pupils with SEND on Wirral, 80.7% have SEND Support, which is higher than England at 76.9%. 19.3% have and EHCP, which is lower that the England rate of 23.1%.

Age Profile

For pupils with SEN Support, the rates on Wirral are higher amongst pupils up to the age of 10, as a total proportion of the SEN Support cohort, then between the ages of 11 and 15 Wirral rates are lower than the rates in England. As a proportion of the SEN Support cohort.

The largest proportion of pupils with an EHCP are aged 9 on Wirral, compared to age 11 in England. 

Primary Needs

The most common primary need type for pupils with SEN Support on Wirral is Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. This is followed by Speech, Language and Communication needs, Specific Learning difficulties and Moderate Learning difficulties. The Wirral profile does differ significantly from the England profile. Wirral has 30.1%, comparted to England having 19.5% of the SEN Support pupils having Social, Emotional and Mental health as their Primary Need. This is a 54.3% difference. In addition, with Wirral on 8.7% and England on 20.3% for Moderate Learning Difficulties, there is 1 133.3% difference.

For pupils with an EHCP, the Primary Need with the greatest rate is Severe Learning Difficulties, followed by Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Moderate Learning Difficulties. There is a large variance between Wirral and England for EHCP Primary Needs, with Wirral at 25.1% of Primary Needs being Severe Learning Difficulties, compared to 10.3% in England. This is a 143.6% difference. It can also be noted that for the Primary Need of Speech, Language and Communication needs, Wirral is 16.3%, whilst England is 9.7%.

School Provision

For all pupils with SEND under 18, the greatest proportion by population, reside in Bidston St James. This is followed by Leasowe and Moreton East, Rock Ferry and Seacombe. However, if looking at total numbers rather than rate per 10,000 the highest number residing in each ward are firstly, Bidston St. James, Seacombe, then Birkenhead and Tranmere followed by Leasowe and Moreton East.

Both the proportion by population and total numbers appear to correlate to levels of deprivation, with 44.9% of all pupils on Wirral with SEND residing in the most deprived 10% of wards in England.

When looking at those on an EHCP, the greatest proportion, using the rate per 10,000, reside in Leasowe and Moreton East. This is followed by Rock Ferry, Upton and Bidston St. James. Looking away from the rate per 10,000 towards pure numbers, the highest number reside in Leasowe and Moreton East, then Bidston St. James, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Upton. 42.4% of all pupils with an EHCP reside in the 10% most deprived wards.

For pupils with SEN Support, the largest as a proportion of population per 10,000 reside in Bidston St. James, followed by Seacombe, Leasowe and Moreton East and Rock Ferry. Looking away from the rate per 10,000 towards pure numbers, the highest number reside in Bidston St. James, followed by Seacombe, Birkenhead and Tranmere and Leasowe and Moreton East. 45.6% of all pupils with SEN Support reside in the 10% most deprived wards.

Data show that there has been a significant increase in demand for specialist provision across Wirral, with the number of EHCP’s issued increasing by 20.9% between 2019 and 2020 and, although down on the 2020 figure, the 2021 figure is still 7.9% above that of 2019. Therefore, extra provision is required. (See What are we doing Section, for further information on school provision)

Education setting

Of all pupils with SEN Support, 54.9% attend a Primary School setting. Looking at the individual Wards, Seacombe has 13.6% of the wards total SEN Support population in a Nursery setting. Pensby and Thingwall has the highest proportion of all Wards SEN Support population in a Primary School Setting, At 63.9%. Hoylake and Meols, at 51.4% has the highest of all Wards total SEN Support population being in a Secondary school.

Of all pupils with an EHCP, 62.8% attend a Special School, with the majority attending a Special Primary school. Of all Wards, Rock Ferry has the highest proportion of pupils with an EHCP attending a Special School, at 77.9% of the ward EHCP population. The ward with the highest proportion attending a Nursery is Leasowe and Moreton East. For Primary is Heswall and for Secondary is West Kirby and Thurstaston.

Free School meals

43.8% of pupils with SEN Support are eligible for Free School Meals. For pupils with an EHCP, the rate is higher, at 18.9%. Both these rates are significantly higher that the ‘all Wirral’ school pupil rate of 25.8%.

Attendance

Each Wirral School has a named Locality Attendance Officer to support them in increasing attendance at school. This can be in the form of attending meetings with parents, undertaking some home visits, signposting to other agencies, analysing data and undertaking a 360 review of attendance within the school to ensure a whole school approach has been adopted. The Service is also developing a data dashboard system which will enable Locality Attendance Officers to compare schools of similar size, similar free school meal numbers etc. In May 2022 we have circulated an updated media campaign to all schools including leaflets and posters as well as a digital toolkit that schools can use to add to their own website or materials.

Wirral Attendance Service leads on the Vulnerable Children’s Panel which meets weekly in term time to discuss young people referred by schools. These are young people who are generally not attending school and not engaging with any other service but do not meet the threshold for social care involvement. The panel is a multi-agency approach to finding ways to engage some of these young people and their families.

The Service also supports a CME25 panel which considers cases brought by social care colleagues where the young person does not have a full time offer or is not attending full time.

The number of Electively Home Educated young people continues to rise since before the start of the pandemic and we have temporarily taken on extra staff to monitor the education these young people are receiving.

The Service also continues to license young people taking part in performances or the likes of marketing campaigns as well as Chaperones. As theatres have re-opened with the relaxing of Covid restrictions this area of work has picked up again.

The Service reports regularly to both the Children, Young People & Education Committee and Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership.

NEET

Significant work has been undertaken by the 14-19 and SEND Teams, alongside the Council commissioned NEET participation service delivered by Career Connect, to reduce the numbers of young people ‘not known’. Young people may be classed as ‘not known’ due to a number of reasons ranging from not being contactable to their education or employment status expiring in accordance with national guidance. In reducing the ‘not known rate to 0.8% (3x young people) for the 16-18 age group in Q4 2021/22 some of the ‘not knowns’ have converted to a NEET status (13.9% or 47x young people).

A further deep dive into the SEND NEET cohort was undertaken at the end of Q4 to understand better the barriers to participation faced by young people in this cohort. The analysis illustrated that 15% of the NEET cohort (7 of 47 young people) highlighted anxiety and poor mental health as their key barrier to positive participation with the main causal factor being Covid.

Developments for the next 12 months include partnership working with Wirral Met College to ensure that those SEND young people leaving the College’s supported internship programme have a sustained positive employment outcome. This is including using Council European Social Funds to provide grants to incentivise employers through wage subsidies.

In the 2022/23 academic year the Council 14-19 Team will be supporting the development of an employer forum – working alongside key partners including the Wirral Chamber of Commerce, DWP, cornerstone employers. The employer forum will be charged with developing and promoting local employment opportunities for SEND young people maximising use of the supported internship approach. This development will be supported by a grant from the Department for Education with anticipated challenging key performance indicators linked to increased access to employment opportunities.

For Children and Young People with SEN Support, data shows that 24.2% are also Child in Need and this rate is increasing, whilst the national rate decreases.

Rates for Children and Young People with SEN Support and Child Protection have stayed level between 2019 and 2021, whilst the full Children and Young People cohort has seen rate fluctuate.

30.3% of Children and Young People with SEN Support are also a Child Looked After. This rate is higher than the England rate of 27.4% but has dropped by 3.1 percentage points since 2019.

19.2% of the Wirral CLA cohort also has an EHCP, which is significantly higher that then full Children and Young People cohort, where 1.2% are CLA. However, this rate is noticeably lower than the rates in England.

For Children and Young People with and EHCP, latest data has 28.8% also being a Child Looked After, a rate that is similar to that in England, but significantly higher than the 0.4% of all Children and Young People on Wirral being a Child Looked After.

The rate of Children and Young People with an EHCP and also Child Protection has grown significantly between 2020 and 2021, to 8.6%

The rate of children in need who are receiving SEN Support/EHCP has risen at a significantly higher rate than the rest of England.

Regarding the EHCP’s and the Social Care Advices within 6 weeks, the numbers of requests for assessments has risen this has affected capacity within the service and the percentage returned on time has dropped slightly.

Birth rates on Wirral continue to rise, with them increasing by 2% between 2019 and 2021, which is in contrast to the National rate decreasing by 2% over the same period. The highest rates of birth in last full year, were in Bidston St. James, where 8.1% of all birth mothers from Wirral resided.

Of all Early Years pupils with SEND, 9.2% have an EHCP and 90.8% have SEN Support. Of those with an EHCP, the most common Primary Need is Severe Learning Difficulty, making up 65.9% of all EHCP Primary Needs.

Of those with SEN Support, most common primary need is Speech, Language and Communication needs, being 65.4% of all those with SEN Support.

The largest proportion of under 5’s with an EHCP reside in Bidston St. James and for those with SEN Support they reside in Seacombe. This is supported by the fact that 62.5% of all Early Years SEND pupils reside in areas on most deprivation, decile 1, with which is the bottom 10% in England.

The number of EHCP’s issued, although up from 2019 is down from 2020 and later data shows a rate of 37%, which is still significantly lower than the England rate of 58%.

Advices completed in 6 weeks have seen rates drop over the past three full years. With the latest data from Q3 2021/22 showing that none of the areas completed 100% of advices within 6 weeks. The past 12 months has seen significant drops in rates completed within 6 weeks. This is having an impact upon the timeliness of EHCPs.

Since January 2022, the finalisation rate has seen an improvement due to new team practices, which in turn has a positive impact on the rate of plans completed, which can be seen in the upward trend in 2022.

The number of Mediations taking place has increased by 196.1% between 2019 and 2021, whilst the number of Tribunals has increased by 120% over the same period.

This is linked to the delays in the EHCP process along with parent and carers reaching out advocates of the EHCP process, who help support parents and carers through the processes.

Within the Neurodevelopmental Pre-Diagnosis Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) / autism spectrum disorder  (ASD) / Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) within the 0-19 Service.

• There is a national increase in Neurodevelopmental (ND) referrals and other areas are experiencing the same unprecedented demand of referrals for assessment.

• Whilst it is recognised that the Covid pandemic has had an effect on the volume of referrals, it is unclear when the increase will plateau as the service continue to experience elevated referral numbers for all 3 pathways.

• It is difficult to identify those children and young people who are presenting with behaviours that could be similar to ADHD (for example) but are unlikely to gain a diagnosis of ADHD as their behaviours are linked to the emotional impact of the Covid pandemic.

• In essence there are children and young people being referred to the ND pathways that would not previously have been made.

• The number of CAMHS referrals is considerably up from the same period last year, showing a 9.1% increase. Increased referral numbers have meant increased numbers seen by the service. Rate seen within 6 weeks have seen an improvement of 24.1 percentage points. However, the rate for seen within 18 week has reduced, but is still high.

• The SALT service has seen an increase in referrals over the past year, an increase of 19.1%.

A series of face to face and virtual meetings with parents and carers from across Wirral has been held in community settings and online. Parents have been able to share their experiences and receive answers back. A SEND Wirral Facebook page has been set up to act as a key conduit with parents and signpost parents to support. Third sector support groups can advertise their offer to parents and carers which has been well received. A review of the Parent Carer Partnership has been undertaken and new membership identified.

From the many sessions that have taken place over the period the following themes and comments have been received;

• SEND Budget is insufficient and we need to inform how Wirral is going to address this concern. Parents are being ignored by Coordinators & SEND team staff, as a result, communication channels need to be significantly improved.

• There is a need for additional Transitional support in the widest sense, for children/young people & parent/carers.

• Health waiting lists and the further damage caused by protracted wait needs to be addressed.

• There is a ‘hit & miss’ communication with SENCOs.

• Mental Health issues for SEND children/young people & parent/carers is concerning.

• Better investment in SEND activities is needed in both term time and during holidays.

• SEND Transport issues are impacting on families.

• There is an ask to train school personnel to have a better understanding of additional needs.

These feedback themes are accompanied by general comments;

• Improve communication with Parents at every stage of the EHCP process.

• LA runs over deadlines with zero communication.

• More training in schools for all staff.

• Give examples of the issues Parents are facing so school has a better understanding.

• Enable Parents to speak with Coordinators – email exchanges are protracted, and the time delay a huge frustration.

• Waiting time for Paediatricians. – No tailored support as they wait, Children and Young People falling further behind, no parental support whilst waiting.

• Communication between the Local Authority and Parents should not leave the Parent feeling like they are an inconvenience for having a children/young people with SEND.

• Transitional support. Structured support as SEND Children and Young People prepare to leave High School.

• Budget is too small to cope with demand – what are you going to do?

• Educate teachers and SEND CYP peers re what it is like to have additional needs.

• Better support through EHCP process.

• Support for Parents dealing with the Local Authority.

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services waiting lists – criteria issues and children/young people in crisis and suicidal cannot wait.

• Post 16 support, advice, prep.

• Professional support for children/young people who are aware they are ‘different.’

• Better use of Peer support.

• More Youth clubs for SEND children/young people.

• Holiday clubs – SEND children/young people & siblings can attend.

• Holiday respite for Parents.

• SEND Transport process, issues, and unfriendly staff.

It is evident that the concerns and issues shared span a wide range of topics although there are common themes which are being prioritised as part of the Written Statement of Action.

Solutions to all matters raised may not be possible in the short term but the Local Authority and Local Area has a commitment to refer the issues to the relevant bodies to influence future decision making.

Due to the pandemic no external data has been captured for Wirral since the summer of 2019. In several areas improvements are needed in the attainment of Wirral pupils, specifically for children with an EHCP.

Attainment KS2

• The percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths and have an EHCP is 2%. This rate is down from 3% in 2016 and 6% in 2018. Comparing this rate to England shows that the Wirral rate is significantly lower than the England average. For England, the latest rate is 9%, which is up from 7% in 2016 and level with 9% in 2018.

• Key stage 2 Progress score for SEN pupils – Reading. The latest Wirral rate is -3.6%, which is an improvement from -3.7% in 2018 but down from -3.0% in 2017. Compared to the England average, Wirral is the same, with both being -3.6%. However, the England rate has improved since -3.8% in 2018 and – 3.7% in 2017.

• Key stage 2 Progress score for SEN pupils – Writing. The latest Wirral rate is -5.3%. This rate come after an improvement from -5.8% in 2017 to -4.8% in 2018 and is lower than the England rate of -4.3%. Although the England rate has moved down from -4.1% in 2018, the change is –.2 compared to a Wirral change of –.5, showing the Wirral rate is moving downward at a larger rate.

• Key stage 2 Progress score for SEN pupils – Maths. The latest Wirral rate is -4.0, which is the same as the rate for England. However, the Wirral rate has improved from -4.8% in 2018. Over the same period, the England rate has reduced from –3.8%. It can be noted though that in 2017, the Wirral rate was -3.1%, compared to -4.1% in England.

(Pupil progress is calculated by working out the difference between the pupils actual key stage 2 outcome and the average key stage 2 outcome for the other pupils nationally. Figures closer to zero show progress closer to the national average. Negative figures are below the national average, whilst positive figures are above the national average)

Reference: Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT)  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait

Attainment 8

• The average attainment 8 score per pupil at the end of Key Stage 4 for pupils with SEN Support on Wirral is 40.50%. This rate shows a continued increase from 35.5% in 2019 and 37.30% in 2020. The Wirral rate is higher than the England average, which is 37.7%. Like Wirral rate, the England rate is also on an upward trend, rising from 32.6% in 2019 and 36.4% in 2020. Between 2020 and 2021 the gap between Wirral and England has increased as the Wirral rates rise at a higher rate.

• The average attainment 8 score per pupil at the end of Key Stage 4 for pupils with an EHCP on Wirral is 14.7%, which although up from 14.0% in 2020, is down from 2018 and 2019. Compared to England, which has a rate of 15.7%, Wirral is low. However, between 2020 and 2021 the rate in Wirral increased at a rate higher than that in England.

(Attainment 8 scoring: Measures the average achievement of pupils in up to 8 qualifications. It aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of key stage 2 to the end of key stage 4.)

Reference: Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT)  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait

Progress 8

• The average Progress 8 score per pupil at the end of Key Stage 4 for pupils with SEN support is -0.42, which is a downward trend from -0.29 in 2018 and moves the Wirral rate to very close to that in England, which is -0.43. Whilst the Wirral rate has trended down, the England rate has stayed stable at -0.43 since 2017.

• The average Progress 8 score per pupil at the end of Key Stage 4 for pupils with EHCP is -1.12. This is on a downward trend from -0.80 in 2016 and -0.85 in 2018. However, the Wirral rate is currently closer to zero than that in England, where the rate is -1.17. The England rate in also on a downward trend, although at -1.03 in 2016 and -1.09 in 2018 is not moving at a rate as high as that in Wirral.

For both Progress 8 scores, the closer to zero, the better the progress is being made.

(The progress 8 score: is a relative measure, therefore the national average Progress 8 score is close to zero for mainstream schools. When including pupils at special schools, the national average is not zero as progress across for special schools are calculated using attainment 8 estimates based on pupils in mainstream schools).

Reference: Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait

This section covered in other topics below

School Improvement

• In September 2021, a refreshed school improvement strategy was launched to bring better to quality assurance to the education system. In additional, the school effectiveness team now have additional capacity to support schools in areas of focus that are identified.

• As part of an annual process all Wirral maintained schools receive an assurance visit from a School Assurance Professional, this helps to identify areas for development for each school. A key focus of the report has been in relation to young people with SEND accessing the full curriculum.

• In addition, training is being developed in specific areas that have been identified as needing improvement across Wirral. The next academic year lead teachers from Wirral schools will support schools in Numeracy, Reading and Early Years.

• The performance of Wirral schools using the 2022 headline data will be analysed during the summer of 2022, this will allow for accurate support for schools identified in relation to the outcomes for young people who are SEND support or with an EHCP.

• Wirral data will be compared with national and statistical neighbours to identify the key areas that need the greatest priority.

Special School Provision

• Due to a significant increase in the need for specialist provision, a temporary expansion of six of our specialist settings has been made for September 2022.

• In September 2022, we will see a new phase of inclusive base provision opening for children with Autism and Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.

We want to better understand the profile Children and Young People within Social Care to be able to offer targeted early help services.

• We will look at ways of bringing the 6 weeks advices rate back to 100%, where is has historically been.

• A bespoke piece of work will be undertaken to provide a profile of the children to understand their ages, schools they attend and area the reside in to build a pattern which may result in targeted early help services being identified and provided.

• A review piece of work will be undertaken to better understand the Social Care 6 weeks advices for the EHCP process, to see if this can be brought back up to the 100% rates that have until recently been the norm.

• Social Care will endeavour to contact all parents/carers of young people when completing social care advice.

• If the family do not require a social care assessment they will be signposted to the following services: Koala North-West. Ferries Families. Positivitree. Family Toolbox. This will ensure that all services available are being utilised.

Wirral is ambitious for its Children and Young People with SEND and have listened to many parents who tell us that pathways/systems/access to information and referrals to services can be too wielding. They seek a “tell it once” approach. They want access to services in one place and professionals to collaborate in “real time” on presenting need and issues.

As such Wirral will respond with two key developments that should effect change to a “clunky” system.

Family Hubs

• Wirral has been successful in securing up to £1 million pounds, through central government’s, Family Hub Transformation Fund which will support the development of a 0-19's and up to 25’s where there is SEND, service delivery model.

• Building on the best practice of its children centres and innovation across Wirral’s Early Help and Prevention services the Family Hub model will embed the core principle of inclusion and accessibility.

• Families with Children and Young People with SEND who may not have had needs identified in the earliest years will have a pathway to self-refer and walk-in to Family Hubs within their immediate communities to receive an integrated offer across school nursing, specialist services, GP’s and many more.

Keyworker programme

• Wirral Council in partnership with Wirral CCG have secured funding from NHS England and Improvement (NHSE &I) Transforming Care Programme to be an ‘early adopter’ site for key-working.

• This role and function is a key objective in the NHS Long Term Plan. This new way of working will be targeted to support children and young people with Autism and/or Learning Disabilities and their families.

• Primary aim is to prevent hospital admissions for those children/young people who face multiple vulnerabilities. Uniquely, Wirral has decided to house the keyworker roles within the Council’s Early Help and Prevention’s Early Years services to ensure early identification and prevention is a key strategy to reducing escalation to Tier 4 services.

EHCPs and Annual Reviews

• Additional support has been brought into the service to assist with demand management and capacity. There are six additional staff members in the SEND team covering a combination of roles including EHCP writing, annual reviews and EHCP coordination.

• The introduction of more robust compliance checks being carried out by SEND managers along with a new targeted approach that includes additional SEND Managers, has resulted in improved compliance of EHCP’s and made the process have less delays.

• To help address the tribunal and mediation process, the team has a designated SEND manager who is focussed on resolution. This dedicated resource ensures that focus is not shifted and will build a good case knowledge to support the process.

• Education Psychology assessments are being commissioned and delivered by an external provider, focussing solely on EHCP assessments in order to help reduce these delays within the EHCP process. There has been agreement to extend this service for an additional 12 months to ensure that advice can be provided within the 6-week timescale.

Neurodevelopmental Pre-Diagnosis Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) / autism spectrum disorder (ASD) / Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) within the 0-19 Service

• Additional temporary funding has been secured to work through some of the issues arising from covid. The additional post is currently addressing these through:

  • Reviewing escalated cases within waiting lists.

  • Supporting the resources ensuring access for non-English speaking/ difficult to engage / reducing health inequalities, variety of tools- developing a toolkit.

  • Supporting the capacity to manage increase in referrals.

  • Capturing data and themes for evidence re early trauma pathway need within the SEND referrals.

Strategically

• Parent Carers are represented by PCPW who sit on the SEND Transformation Board and work with Stakeholders to effect the improvements required.

• Parent/Carers also attend focussed workstreams such as Data Analysis & Joint Commissioning, Education Health Care Plans (EHCP) & Annual Reviews, Co-production, Relationships and Communication, Inclusive Practices, Local Provision and Strategic oversight and the commissioning of a new Local Offer website.

• The SEND Participation Manager undertook an expression of interest exercise overseen by the Strategic Board co-chairs.

  • The aim was to develop diverse strategic parent/carer representation across designated sub-groups such as Transition to Adulthood, Early Intervention, Data Measuring & Co-production.

  • The response was fantastic, and roles have been found for all those expressing an interest in working with us.

  • Already their lived experience contributions have significantly benefitted the remedial action to address the written statement of actions.

• A schedule of regular surveys to be produced with the survey content and questions to be co-produced with the PCPW with the purpose of monitoring outcomes and driving services improvement. Surveys will have clear themes across the year, linking to the headlines that were agreed after previous Council for Disabled Children sessions. The data will follow strict question sets at their core, allowing for distance travelled to be clearly identified through like for like question sets.

Governance

• The establishment of a SEND Transformation Board, which is a time limited Board, will sit alongside the SEND Strategic Board (this is business as usual).

• The SEND Transformation Board is the reporting point for the six workstreams that were identified within the Wirral statement of Action.

• These six workstream will provide the SEND Transformation Board with regular progress updates.

• The SEND Transformation Board work closely with the Parent Carer Forum Wirral, the SEND Youth Voice Group and Healthwatch with an open dialogue.

• The SEND Transformation Board are then accountable to six different committees: Children, Young People and Education Committee, Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee, Health and Wellbeing Board, Joint Health and Care Commissioning Executive Group, Schools Forum and Transition Committee.

Co - production of the Wirral Statement of Action.

• A lack of value afforded the contributions and support of parents, carers and young people, and a lack of investment in building trusting, mutually supportive relationships, together with failures in service delivery, has led to five related areas of weakness in the inspection report. There are significant cultural changes in practice to secure, and significant challenges to overcome.

• The Local Area SEND Inspection Outcomes has driven home the importance of gaining and maintaining the support, confidence and good will of its parent and carer community, of valuing and respecting families and children and young people with SEND.

• It is our intention to place their views, insight and wellbeing at the heart of all our service improvement, and to engage more closely, regularly, and transparently, with Parent Carer Participation Wirral, SEND Youth Voice Group and all stakeholders.

• To that end, work has already begun following the inspection report on a series of engagement meetings to share findings, gain views and support with a range of stakeholders.

• The introduction of parents and carers on the SEND Transformation Board is an indication of the commitment Wirral Council and the CCG makes to accelerating the pace of transformation and improvement and to embracing the spirit of the SEND reforms through co-production.

• Governance of the Written Statement of Action takes its example from the best practices of other regional and national local authorities, from guidance outlined in the inspection findings, and from insights gained from the early stakeholder meetings which have been invaluable in shaping this statement.

• With the 6 workstream established and meeting on a regular basis, there will be monthly reporting on the progress of all workstreams against identified actions.

• Progress updates will be visible when added on the Wirral Local Offer linking to the Written Statement of Action.

• A rag rating system is being used for each Workstream to indicate progress against a simple traffic light system, colour coded red, amber, green. Red rag rating indicates an alert that actions are significantly off track or not yet commenced, amber indicates that progress is slightly behind agreed timeframes and green indicates that progress is good, sustained and on track.

• Further detail to substantiate progress will be included in the monthly progress updates.

Workstreams

• Workstream 1: Data Analysis and Joint Commissioning. The areas to address have been set out as: Lack of accurate, up to date and useful information which informs the area’s plans and evaluates the impact of their actions. The lack of joint commissioning of services in the area. This has a workstream lead of Jason Oxley, Care and Health and commissioning for People, Wirral Council.

• Workstream 2: Educational Health Care Plans (EHCPs) and Annual Reviews. The areas to address have been set out as: Weaknesses in the quality and timeliness of Educational Health Care assessments and Annual Reviews. This has a workstream lead of Carly Brown, Assistant Director, Strategy and Partnerships (People), Wirral Council.

• Workstream 3: The lack of meaningful co-production with parents and carers. Fractured relationships between the area and the Parent Carer Partnership Wirral and the impact of this on the area’s progress in implementing the reforms. Poor communication with parents and carers across. This has a workstream lead of Elizabeth Hartley, Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention, Wirral Council.

• Workstream 4: Inclusive Practices. The area to address has been set out as: The graduated response not being consistently applied across all schools and settings. This has a workstream lead of James Backhouse, Assistant Director Education, Wirral Council.

• Workstream 5: Local Provision and Strategic Oversight. The area to address has been set out as: High level of parental dissatisfaction with the area’s provision. Lack of effective strategic oversight to ensure effectiveness of plans and provision and hold leaders, managers and partners to account. This has a workstream lead of Richard Crockford, Deputy Director of Patient Safety and Quality, Wirral Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG).

• Workstream 6: The Local Offer with the areas to address of: The published local offer not being well publicised and not providing parents and carers with the information that they need.

Appointed a Joint commissioner for Children & Young People

Develop new contract management approach with KPI’s developed with providers to support an understanding of the progress of SEND Children and Young People and the quality of services that work with Children and Young People that have SEND. The new approach will be outcomes focused and providers will be expected to demonstrate impact. This will be supported with the development of an outcomes framework.

Grow our own Wirral Educational Psychologists

This will mean that through a strong link with the University of Manchester we have been able to offer trainee educational psychologists the opportunity to work with Wirral council. This approach commenced in September 2021, with the first trainee joining, this is facilitated through a bursary that is funded by the council. The intention is to continue this model moving forward, with trainees offered a place each year. Evidence nationally shows that trainees stay with the local authority for the first years of their career.

New system for SEND data recording

The introduction of a new LiquidLogic system (EYEs) that captures Early Years & Education data (including SEND). This new system will mean that Social Care, Early Years, Early Help, Education and SEND data is all recorded in one system allowing professionals to view a child’s entire record in one place. It will allow data to be easily matched across common data sets and build a more detailed profile of children and young people with SEND. System testing and configuration has already begun and LiquidLogic EYEs is due to go live in September 2023.

Performance Quality and accountability Framework

Through the development of new data relationships between all areas of SEND across Wirral, a new SEND Dashboard has been developed, which will track the quantity and quality of send services provided against benchmarks. New data sets from partners in Health will provide timely and quantitative data to better understand children and young peoples experiences within these specific services; This is in addition to existing Children’s Services data sets that will provide a bigger picture of service performance.

To support the quality of data, new data definitions have been completed by all data owners. This provides a good understanding of who is responsible for specific data sets and where these data sets are stored. The definitions give clear rationale and methodology of each data set. The definitions will undergo an audit, to give clear understanding of data storage and accessibility. The new data Dashboard will be produced on a quarterly basis, with a focus on predetermined headline data sets reviewed at SEND Board, using a report by exception model, which will require any anomalies in data returns to be explained via reviews being undertaken by service areas.

All reviews will feed back to SEND Board and, where applicable form part of a new Data Risk Register to ensure that and Risks and Issues are recorded and monitored on a regular basis.

SEND JSNA

The development of a new SEND Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) will combine information and narrative from partners across services to show a clear understanding of SEND on Wirral and the life experiences of children and young people with SEND along with the parent / carers.

This document should allow for a better understanding of the numbers of children and young people that access services across Wirral, how this is changing over time and how the services that are provided across Wirral impact upon this along with insight into how the evolving nature of SEND can result in service changes in the future in order to meet the needs of children and young people.

SEND WAVEs of support

A new inclusive pathway has been designed around the concept of three WAVEs of support. Wave 1 will cover a universal offer that is covered by school provision. The local authority is working with school leaders to explore what support training can be offered to school staff to support this.

Wave 1- universal offer for all.

• We have asked our schools to produce a `Wave 1 Offer` which documents what all children and young people have access to in the setting.

• Most of our children and young people will make progress accessing the `Wave 1 offer`. Wirral Local Authority have also produced a `Wave 1 Offer` aimed at supporting children, young people, families, schools and other stakeholders. This is set to go live on our Local Offer in Sept 2022.

Wave 2- intervention support & `reasonable adjustments` to provision.

• We have asked our schools to determine what support/intervention they can deliver at the `Wave 2` level. This may well be for children and young people who are identified on the schools register of SEND needs (K coded).

• Wirral Local Authority have developed a `Wave 2 Offer` which has involved significant recruitment (March-June 2022).

  • The Wave 2 team are starting in September 2022.

  • The `Wave 2` Team consists of three Inclusion strategy Managers, Three Inclusion Officers and one participation Officer (we are set to recruit additional Participation Officers)

  • The team will work with schools, families, and stakeholders to facilitate increased access for children, young people and families.

  • The Officers will work in schools to offer advice to practitioners and promote inclusive practice.

  • The Officers will work with families to advise, support and signpost.

• As well as our new `Wave 2` Team we have our existing services; ASC Team, MEAS, Sensory Service, Educational Psychology Team, all positioned at the `Wave 2` level, available for schools, families, and stakeholders to access.

• Head of SEND and Inclusion are currently working with our Special School leaders to develop a new, collective approach to outreach support, which will also form part of our `Wave 2` offer

Wave 3- Statutory assessment / EHCP

• If a child or young person does not demonstrate appropriate progress (a range of assessment indicators will be used both social and academic) an application for an Education, Health, Care Plan should be submitted to Wirral SEND.

• We have re shaped our Assessment Team and formed a `Wave 3` Assessment Team and a `Wave 3` Review Team.

• Significant recruitment has resulted in increased capacity, aimed at improving the service delivery in terms of assessment and reviewing.

Inclusive Practices

• A dedicated learning and development event for headteachers and governors to place at the beginning of December 2022 and will form part of a wider continued professional development for schools with specific sessions focused on SEND and inclusion.

• The commission of school assurance professionals to review and audit school settings will include a focus on SEND and will enable the local authority to analyse evidence around the quality of practice in schools.

• This will enable intervention and support to be targeted where it is needed.

• The Head of SEND has been undertaking regular visits to schools across the borough to build relationships, share learning and understand the quality of offer provided by individual schools.

The graduated response not being consistently applied across all schools and settings

• The developments of a new training plan for the local area that can support school and staff and SENCO’s will go in hand with establishing a SEND update that will be distributed to all school and settings, this will also be available on the local offer.

• Develop, through co-production, the universal offer that young people with SEND should receive in schools and settings.

• Collate feedback from school assurance reports conducted during the spring and autumn term that identifies good practice of supporting young people with SEND.

Green Paper

• This is currently going through consultation with it expected to close on the 22^nd

• The main implications of the green paper focus on the need for early support and intervention for young people with SEND. In addition, the intention is bringing the oversight of Alternative Provision (AP) under the same umbrella as SEND, given that 80% of young people accessing AP have been identified with SEND.

• Further areas for consultation will look at the funding levels for different for of SEND and AP provision, a new local area OFSTED/CQC inspection which has a closer focus on impact, the linkage with the White Paper and the focus on all schools being part of a family of schools

Asset Sufficiency – School placements and capacity in the right places

• Working with colleagues within the special school sector, additional places have been secured in both of the last academic years.

• Sufficiency planning will now commence in July 2022 for the following academic year of September 2023 with the knowledge of current cohorts in years 5 and the early years sector.

• In addition, we have commissioned 4 new bases to open in September 2022, which will offer an additional 62 places in primary and secondary mainstream schools, this will allow children with SEND to access support that allows then to stay in a mainstream setting, additional commissioning of base placed provision will continue in the next academic year to add additional places.

• This approach also supports the graduated response work that is being overseen by workstream 4 as part of the written statement of action

FULL PDF OF WIRRAL'S SEND JSNA (2022)

This is the latest version of our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities JSNA. 

Please note: we are aware that elements of the PDF are not fully accessible. If you require further support or an alternative format, please email wirralintelligenceservice@wirral.gov.uk