Landmark report finds SEND system ‘broken’
25/07/2024 Major reforms introduced a decade ago have failed to improve educational outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), a report has found. |
Council resists calls for leader to quit after critical SEND report
15/07/2024 West Northamptonshire Council has resisted calls for its head of children’s services to quit following a damning Ofsted and CQC report. |
Council helps investigate after two children from same school die
11/07/2024 Liverpool City Council is working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) after two children from the same school died. |
Councils create largest fostering partnership
09/07/2024 Twenty councils in the south east of England have formed the country’s largest local authority fostering partnership in a bid to boost the number of carers in the region. |
Improving air quality in and around schools
08/07/2024 Megan Bennett, product marketing manager at Nuaire, looks at how poor air quality impacts children at school and what steps can be taken to improve it. |
Middlesbrough to trial auto-enrolment for free school meals
28/06/2024 Eligible children in Middlesbrough will be automatically signed up to receive free school meals from September. |
Councils’ confidence for childcare roll-out ‘worryingly low’
27/06/2024 Local authorities in England have raised concerns that they will be unable to meet demand in the next phase of the expansion of free childcare. |
Leicester urged not to close half its family hubs
26/06/2024 Parents have launched a petition calling on Leicester City Council to drop plans to close six of its 12 children, young people and families centres. |
Council to restrict new takeaway sites
20/06/2024 New measures to limit the development of new hot food takeaway sites have been introduced by Newcastle City Council. |
Decades of ‘neglect’ have left children shorter and overweight
19/06/2024 Children in England are getting shorter, more obese and sicker because of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, health experts warn. |
Call for urgent action on childhood obesity
18/06/2024 ‘Urgent and decisive’ action is needed to combat rising levels of childhood obesity, a public health director has argued. |
NextGov: Scrapping the two-child benefit cap
17/06/2024 Rachel Walters, ECPC, and Amanda Bailey, NECPC, argue the next government should scrap the two-child limit on benefit payments. |
Councils looking after record 576k children with SEND
13/06/2024 Local authorities are looking after record numbers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), council chiefs warn. |
Annual welfare spending to rise by £20bn
13/06/2024 Welfare spending is set to increase by £20.8bn a year by the end of the next parliament, a think-tank has found. |
Child poverty ‘directly correlated’ with two-child benefit cap
06/06/2024 Child poverty is ‘directly and strongly’ correlated with the percentage of children affected by the two-child benefit cap within a constituency, analysis has found. |
Autism care plans in North Yorkshire rise by almost 400%
31/05/2024 The number of children and young people in North Yorkshire who have autism as a primary need on their care plan has risen by 387% since 2015. |
Child pedestrian casualties on England’s roads up 16%
31/05/2024 Nearly 50 child pedestrians are killed or injured on England’s roads every day, a new study has revealed. |
Councils team up for new fostering initiative
31/05/2024 Eleven local authorities in the East of England have teamed up as part of a new initiative aimed at recruiting more people to become foster carers. |
Nearly 85,000 childcare places needed, MPs warn
29/05/2024 Around 84,500 more childcare places and 40,000 extra staff are required by September 2025 if the Government is to deliver on its childcare support plans. |
Eight councils launch fostering hub
28/05/2024 A fostering hub has been created by eight councils in Cheshire and Merseyside with the aim of ‘urgently’ recruiting carers. |
Hull rolls out tool to tackle school absence
24/05/2024 Hull City Council is providing schools with an early intervention tool aimed to boosting pupil attendance. |
Safeguarding panel calls for register of home-educated children
15/05/2024 An expert child safeguarding panel has joined calls for a statutory register of children who are electively home educated. |
Brum council-owned company reprimanded for data breach
14/05/2024 A Birmingham City Council-owned company has been reprimanded following a data breach that saw the personal information of a child disclosed to another family. |
What do safety valve agreements mean for children with SEND?
14/05/2024 Catriona Moore, policy manager at SEND legal advice charity IPSEA, looks at the impact of safety valve agreements on local SEND provision. |
SEND experience in Bury has been ‘poor for too long’
09/05/2024 Ofsted has found ‘widespread and/or systemic failings’, its lowest rating, in Bury’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision. |
Government announces 16 new special free schools
09/05/2024 New schools for 2,000 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are to open in 16 areas across England. |
£101m boost for new music hubs
08/05/2024 A ‘new generation’ of music hubs will receive £101m to provide music education to young people across England. |
Record 145,800 children live in temporary accommodation
30/04/2024 There are 145,800 children who are homeless and in temporary accommodation, new government figures have shown. |
Schools in disrepair due to funding ‘failure’, union warns
29/04/2024 More than four-fifths of headteachers (83%) have said they do not have enough money to maintain their school buildings. |
Two-fifths of children face barriers to education
26/04/2024 Millions of pupils are struggling to learn because of unstable family environments, mental health challenges and poor attendance, a major children’s charity has warned. |
Early years roll-out will get ‘significantly more challenging’
24/04/2024 Just one in 10 councils are confident they can provide enough early years places to deliver the Government’s childcare expansion on time, a spending watchdog has warned. |
Increasing number of Coventry children not in school
17/04/2024 A growing number of children in Coventry are not going to primary school due to their parents' reluctance to accept places that have been offered. |
Seven areas selected for £45m child protection trial
11/04/2024 Seven more areas in England have been selected to trial the Families First for Children (FFC) scheme, a £45m child protection programme. |
Lancashire plans to build 15 new children's homes
08/04/2024 Up to 15 new children’s homes, which aim to provide the 'right care in the right place at the right time', could be created across Lancashire. |
Union criticises Government’s ‘shameful’ SEND support
04/04/2024 Teachers and support staff are ‘losing faith’ in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system due to inadequate resources, a union has warned. |
Social workers’ concerns not addressed, union warns
02/04/2024 Welfare concerns raised by social workers are not being dealt with, putting vulnerable people at risk, a union has warned. |
Record 4.3m children in poverty
22/03/2024 More than 4m children are living in poverty, with an additional 100,000 children being pushed into hardship over the last year, Government figures reveal. |
Absence fines without tackling causes 'will not work'
29/02/2024 Plans to boost school attendance do not address the wider factors that contribute to persistent absence, a think-tank and council bosses have warned. |
Over 10,000 children missing from education system
22/02/2024 Local authorities in England have no idea what has happened to over 10,000 children who have left state education. |
Council to revisit how it calculated allowances to 300 families
21/02/2024 An investigation has revealed that Devon County Council has been calculating incorrectly allowances for families who look after children as special guardians. |
Children’s needs not prioritised, service leaders warn
21/02/2024 Children’s services directors have raised concerns that government policy does not prioritise children, while their previous asks of Whitehall ‘remain unaddressed’. |
The joys of inclusive play
12/02/2024 Nathalie Esfandi, co-founder of the Fair Play playground, discusses the important role local councils can play in creating inclusive play environments. |
Council chiefs call for oral health investment
08/02/2024 Council leaders have called for investment in oral health after research found that last year there were 33,000 operations to remove rotten teeth in children. |
Children with SEND just ‘badly behaved’, councillors claim
07/02/2024 Warwickshire CC has launched an investigation after a video revealed councillors making disparaging remarks about children with special educational needs. |
Emergency mental healthcare referrals for children up 50%
07/02/2024 Psychiatrists call for more support for young people as an analysis reveals the number of children referred for emergency mental healthcare has increased 50%. |
Crisis support requests quadruple in five years, FOI reveals
06/02/2024 Applications to council crisis funds for help with beds for children have more than quadrupled in half a decade, a children’s charity has revealed. |
Suffolk councillors resign over ‘widespread’ SEND failings
05/02/2024 Three councillors have resigned their posts at Suffolk CC after a damning report found there were ‘widespread’ failings affecting SEND outcomes. |
Campaign to raise data and safeguarding awareness launched
01/02/2024 Local authorities and social service providers have been urged to do more to raise awareness about responsible data sharing to protect children from harm. |
Children with SEND impacted by psychologist shortage
31/01/2024 The lives of children with SEND are being negatively affected by the shortage of educational psychologists, the local government ombudsman has warned. |
Disposable vapes to be banned
29/01/2024 Disposable vapes will be banned in the UK to protect children’s health, the Government announced today. |
More than 1,000 child refugees placed in adult accommodation
23/01/2024 Child refugees arriving in the UK alone are exposed to harm and abuse in adult accommodation because of the Home Office’s flawed age assessment system, according to a new report. |
The new Centre for Young Lives
22/01/2024 Anne Longfield CBE, the chair of the Commission on Young Lives, discusses the launch of the Centre for Young Lives this month. |
Abuse main driver of children’s social care demand
17/01/2024 Domestic abuse and violence is the most prevalent category of demand for children’s social care services, a groundbreaking new study has revealed. |
MPs to debate free school meals extension
10/01/2024 MPs are set to debate the extension of the free school meals scheme today as tens of thousands of eligible disabled children miss out on extra support. |
LGA calls for family hubs extension
10/01/2024 Council bosses have called for an extension of the family hubs programme after the Government announced that all local authorities involved in the scheme offer access to a centre. |
Half of teachers work with homeless children
22/12/2023 The ‘nightmare of child homelessness’ is damaging children’s education as they suffer exhaustion, hunger and poor mental health, Shelter has warned. |
Health chiefs back call for more gambling restrictions
21/12/2023 Local health chiefs have backed a call from MPs urging the Government to do more to minimise children’s exposure to gambling advertising. |
Child trafficking victim owed back payments
19/12/2023 A child trafficking victim is entitled to back payments after the Home Office and Barnet Council left him without adequate care and support, High Court finds. |
Oxfordshire publishes SEND ‘action plan’
19/12/2023 Oxfordshire County Council has published an ‘action plan’ for improving care for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
Online Safety – Time to Act
08/12/2023 Schools still have work to do despite onus being put on online platforms to conform to new safeguarding legislation, says safeguarding expert Mark Bentley. |
Cruelty to children doubles in five years
08/12/2023 The number of reported cases of children in England being subjected to cruelty or neglect has doubled in the last five years, a children’s charity has warned. |
Home Secretary acted ‘irrationally’ over National Transfer Scheme
29/11/2023 The Home Secretary’s powers have been exercised ‘irrationally’ when it comes to the decision-making process in relation to the National Transfer Scheme (NTS), the High Court has ruled. |
LGA lays bare ‘astronomical’ care costs
29/11/2023 There has been a 1,000% rise over five years in the number of children’s social care placements that cost councils £10,000 or more a week, the Local Government Association (LGA) has found. |
Plan for schools needs local government ‘at its heart’
29/11/2023 England’s children’s services chiefs have set out a future vision to fix an ‘incoherent and fragmented’ education system. |
School support staff paying for pupils’ essentials
24/11/2023 The cost-of-living crisis is forcing school support staff to use their own money to help pay for pupils’ food and clothing, union reveals. |
MPs slam ‘beyond unacceptable’ condition of schools
20/11/2023 Thousands of children are learning in potentially unsafe buildings, with MPs ‘extremely concerned’ about the Department for Education’s understanding of the risks, a new report says. |
Councils call for emergency school transport funding
20/11/2023 ‘Spiralling’ transport costs for children with special educational needs are threatening the financial stability of England’s largest councils, according to a report. |
Homeless children left without care
16/11/2023 Almost 6,500 16- and 17-year-olds presented as homeless to their local authority in England last year, according to new data. |
South Gloucestershire families not getting agreed respite
08/11/2023 Almost a third of families with children with special needs in South Gloucestershire have not been receiving sufficient respite care, an investigation has found. |
One million UK children in poverty
24/10/2023 There were 3.8 million people, including a million children, living in destitution in the UK in 2022, with state support ‘relatively absent’, a new report has found. |
Families with children struggling most with living costs
18/10/2023 Action for Children have found that one in five homes with children, a total of 1.5 million households, are struggling with ‘serious financial difficulties’. |
Child poverty warning over possible benefit freeze
16/10/2023 A freeze on working-age benefits would push 400,000 children into poverty, new research has found. |
Councils 'vital' to social prescribing success
09/10/2023 Children’s charity Barnardo’s has said local authorities are ‘vital’ to the success of social prescribing as it called for a national strategy. |
Safeguarding review after 10-year-old's death
05/10/2023 An independent safeguarding review is to begin following the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif. |
One in 20 children sleeping on the floor, survey finds
29/09/2023 More than a million British children may be sleeping on the floor or having to share beds, a children’s charity has found. |
MPs call for SEND support to tackle school absences
27/09/2023 MPs have called for more support for pupils with special educational needs (SEND) to tackle school absences and a consistent approach to the issuing of fines. |
Childcare expansion has ‘little to offer’ poorest families
26/09/2023 The free childcare expansion continues a trend of prioritising support for working parents rather than helping low-income families, financial experts warn. |
Unions call for £4bn investment in school estate
26/09/2023 In response to the RAAC crisis, trade unions have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to invest £4.4bn per year to improve the school estate. |
Nottingham to boost SEND provision
25/09/2023 Nottingham is set to bolster school capacity for children with additional needs as the city sees an increasing number of pupils requiring support. |
Concern over Bristol schools’ app use to monitor children
22/09/2023 Campaign groups have accused Bristol schools who use an app to monitor pupils and their families of ‘intrusive monitoring’. |
‘Shockingly high’ justice system involvement among care-experienced children
21/09/2023 A third of care-experienced children born from 1996-99 received a youth justice caution or conviction – a finding described as a ‘terrible indictment of the failure of local authorities’. |
Over 900 children in Stockport receive free school meals
20/09/2023 Over 900 children in Stockport are being provided with free school meals thanks to a council-run scheme. |
Cuts see ‘children’s services run like A&E’, charities warn
14/09/2023 Councils are spending more on crisis intervention in children’s services, a group of leading charities has warned today. |
Claimants losing benefits in ‘managed migration’ to UC
31/08/2023 More than a quarter of claimants who are required to move to universal credit (UC) have not claimed UC and have had their tax credits stopped as a result, new analysis has revealed. |
Kent ‘once again’ cannot meet UAS children duties
29/08/2023 ‘Ever-escalating’ arrivals of asylum seekers and a ‘wholly inadequate’ National Transfer Scheme (NTS) have left Kent unable to meet its statutory duties in caring for children, the county council has warned. |
Children referred to social services twice as likely to fail GCSEs
22/08/2023 Children who have been referred to social care are twice as likely to fail an English or Maths GCSE than their classmates, a children’s charity has found. |
Let renting childminders work from home, minister tells landlords
21/08/2023 Children and families minister Claire Coutinho has told developers and social landlords to allow childminders to work from rented properties. |
Council confirms murdered Sara Sharif was known to authorities
21/08/2023 A 10-year-old girl who was found dead in Surrey nearly two weeks ago was known to the county council. |
Complaint handling failure leaves children at risk
15/08/2023 Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been criticised after a complaint handling failure left vulnerable children in a damp and mouldy property. |
Ofsted warns against placing children in unregistered homes
15/08/2023 Ofsted has warned councils against placing vulnerable children, including those subject to deprivation of liberty orders, in unregistered children’s homes. |
Virtual school service risks becoming ‘victim of own success’
15/08/2023 County council leaders have praised virtual schools as ‘education’s hidden asset’ but called on the Government to provide them with additional resources. |
Deprivation of liberty applications surge
07/08/2023 The number of applications seeking authorisation to deprive children of their liberty has increased following the launch of a dedicated court. |
20,000 vulnerable children taught in unregistered settings
07/08/2023 Tens of thousands of children are being taught in unregistered settings, some of which do not meet safeguarding standards and one which had a firearm on site. |
Luton Council restricts advertising of unhealthy foods
04/08/2023 Luton Council has become the latest local authority to restrict the advertising of sugary and fatty foods. |
LGA: council-maintained schools outperforming academies
03/08/2023 Schools that are still maintained by local authorities receive better Ofsted outcomes than schools that have become academies, according to new research. |
Half of children saw emotional skills worsen during pandemic
01/08/2023 The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the social and emotional skills of almost half of children, according to a new study by IFS. |
‘Systematic’ housing of child refugees in hotels unlawful
27/07/2023 Kent County Council has acted unlawfully by failing to accommodate and look after all unaccompanied children seeking asylum, the High Court has ruled. |
Councils chosen for family-focussed social care trials
27/07/2023 The Government has announced the councils that will test two new children’s social care programmes, which aim to support families through early help. |
Deprivation of Liberty laws are not fit for purpose
26/07/2023 Baljinder Bath, barrister at 4PB, argues that Deprivation of Liberty laws are not fit for purpose in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children. |
Nearly £2bn left unclaimed in Child Trust Funds
26/07/2023 Nearly a million young adults are missing out on an estimated £1,900 each in financial support, MPs have said. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.