Start Well

For children and young people our vision means ensuring they are supported to have the best start in life with access to services which support a safe and healthy childhood and work seamlessly when moving to adulthood.

Our Children and Young People’s plan sets out our vision for children and young people in Cheshire West focussing on emotional health and wellbeing, SEND, early years and school readiness, early help and prevention and children in care and care leavers. Our Corporate Parenting Strategy makes clear the Council’s and our Partner’s commitment to supporting children and young people in our care throughout their lives.

Over the next five years we will be transforming the way we support children, young people and their families within Cheshire West and Chester by ensuring that we have the right services in place to intervene earlier and prevent the need for longer term care and support.

Cheshire West and Chester has a smaller proportion of children and young people compared to the national average.

Age group	CW&C number	CW&C %	England %
Aged 0-4	18,300	5.3%	5.9%
Aged 5-9	20,200	5.9%	6.3%
Aged 10-14	19,500	5.7%	6%
Aged 15-19	17,700	5.1%	5.5%
Aged 20-25	23,100	6.7%	7.5%

Source: 2019 Mid-year population estimates, Office for National Statistics

We anticipate that the number of 0-5 year olds in Cheshire West and Chester will increase by around 2% over the next five years.

In Cheshire West there are 2,588 children and young people aged 0-25 with an EHCP maintained by CW&C and 6,310 SEN support pupils attending CW&C schools (including 777 in independent schools).

At the time of writing, there were 558 children in care, of those 59% were placed within the borough and 41% placed out of borough. The following graph provides details of the type of placements children are placed in. The majority of children and young people are placed with both long and short-term Foster Carers.

We take a trauma informed approach. Our way of working is about developing a common and consistent approach to working with families. It has been researched and driven forward by the Children’s Trust and has a strong preventative approach at all levels across the continuum of need. It is based on shared language and shared understanding across all partners. Many of the families we work with can experience a broad range of difficulties that need support and interventions. We want to work with them in a new, integrated and targeted way.