Our vision
Wirral wants every child to start school healthy, confident, and ready to learn, supported by families who feel knowledgeable, empowered, and able to access timely, flexible support.
This vision places strong emphasis on early identification, consistent guidance, and responsive services that help parents navigate behaviour, communication, routines, sleep, screen use, and typical development.
By ensuring clear, accessible support at every stage, Wirral aims to build a strong foundation for children’s long-term learning, wellbeing and success.
Why this matters
As children approach school age, they need consistent routines, well-developed communication skills, positive behaviour patterns, and healthy emotional regulation to thrive in early education.
Professionals across Wirral report that many families are struggling with:
- behaviour management
- establishing sleep routines
- managing screen time
- understanding typical developmental expectations
Parents often arrive at points of crisis needing immediate answers, yet structured programmes are not always accessible or timely.
Gaps in speech and language support
Alongside varying levels of parental knowledge and confidence means that some children enter nursery and reception without the foundational skills needed for learning. Strengthening support for parents in the years before school helps ensure children can settle, communicate, self-regulate, and engage fully with early learning experiences.
Our priorities
- A tiered, flexible parenting support offer.
Develop a graduated approach that includes universal guidance, drop-in targeted support, and short specialist programmes, so families receive the right help at the right time without long waits or rigid attendance requirements. - Strengthened speech, language and communication support.
Embed communication within Wirral’s graduated approach, reduce duplication of assessments (for example, WellComm vs. NELI), improve referral clarity, and expand universal communication support to early years providers. - Clear guidance on screen time, behaviour and routines.
Provide consistent, evidence-based messages across all platforms to support families with managing screen use, transitions, tantrums, boundaries, and daily routines that underpin emotional regulation and readiness to learn. - Improved support for healthy sleep.
Offer early and ongoing guidance on sleep needs and bedtime routines, starting antenatally and continuing through early childhood, helping families establish habits that support learning, behaviour and wellbeing. - Accessible information on typical child development.
Create regular digital campaigns and bitesize content explaining developmental milestones, expectations, and the impact of everyday practices (for example, dummy use, movement, independence), ensuring parents know what to expect and when to seek help.
Childcare and schools
Our vision
Wirral’s early years and childcare provision is sustainable, high quality and inclusive, that is accessible to all and nurtures every child’s unique potential. Parents are informed, empowered and feel valued as a partner in their child’s educational journey. Together we create safe, welcoming environments that respect people, planet and community.
Why this matters
The early years are a critical developmental window – 95% of brain development happens before age 5 – making access to early education and support essential for long-term life chances.
Wirral’s expanded 15 and 30 hours childcare offer, reaching almost 4,500 children, ensures that more families can access high-quality early learning from an earlier age. This supports early identification of developmental needs and reduces the likelihood of more costly interventions later in childhood.
Early years providers and schools reduce inequalities, promote healthy development, and support families with the practical and emotional foundations needed to give children the best possible start.
Our priorities
- Maximise take-up of funded entitlements:
- deliver and promote the funded 15 and 30 hours childcare offer, from 9 months old for eligible families
- ensure all children can access their full entitlement of hours particularly those on Universal Credit or with SEND
- Strengthen transitions into school:
- use the ‘Best Start in Life’ parent hub’s school readiness resources to support families as children move from early years into school
- enhance the partnership between early years settings and primary schools to support smooth transitions and continuity of learning, ensuring relevant information is shared in a timely manner
- support children, parents and schools to be ready for a seamless transition to formal education
- Identify needs early and provide timely support:
- maintain strong collaboration across Family Hubs, health services, early years providers, and schools to deliver co-ordinated early help
- ensure families can access holistic, wrap-around support through Family Hubs, including health, housing, domestic abuse, and parenting services
- strengthen multi-agency pathways for early identification of need to ensure children receive timely and effective interventions
- develop a consistent and aligned approach to assessment across the early years period
- work with providers to improve early notification processes and embed proactive pathways to identify and support children who may require additional help
- work with providers to support targeted children to receive a WellComm screening to identify and address speech, language, and communication needs early
- support early years providers to advance food inclusion by connecting families experiencing food poverty with sustainable food support services
- Provide sufficient and sustainable Early Years and Childcare provision:
- ensure early years and childcare provision is sufficient, sustainable, and accessible to all families
- expand access to free breakfast clubs and wraparound childcare to support children’s routines, learning readiness, and parents’ ability to work
- work with schools to ensure wraparound provision is accessible, inclusive, and aligned with the needs of families
- support providers to drive quality across all settings, enabling them to achieve and maintain high standards and be judged expected standard or above by Ofsted