Councils click into the future of planning
In town halls across the country, planning officers are racing to update their Local Plans — but this time, the process looks very different.
Early intervention spending down 40%
08/04/2025 Spending on early intervention children's services has plummeted by more than 40% since the onset of austerity, research has found. |
Children stuck in limbo amid delays for mental health support
05/02/2025 Young people seeking mental health support are not getting the help they need, according to a new survey. |
Spend on residential care placements hits £2.4bn
04/09/2024 For the first time, more is being spent on residential care placements for children than on early intervention services, leading charities warn. |
MacAlister: Not enough has changed on children's social care
23/05/2024 The author of the Government’s independent review of children’s care has warned ‘not enough has changed’ since he proposed reforms two years ago. |
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. |
Lack of capacity hindering early help
07/11/2023 A lack of capacity is hindering early help services for children and families, a joint report by three watchdogs has found. |
London boroughs form partnership to tackle domestic abuse
11/09/2023 Seven boroughs in south London have launched a two-year programme which aims to tackle domestic abuse. |
Early intervention drive amid social housing repossessions
25/08/2023 Councils with some of the highest relative rates of social landlord repossessions have described their early intervention efforts after new data was published. |
Call for 'full reset' of children's care
15/03/2023 The Government’s approach to children’s social care will not solve the issues within the system, experts have said. |
Minister accepts early intervention is 'critical'
09/12/2022 Early intervention is ‘critical,’ minister concedes as Government told to publish its delayed plan for implementing children’s social care recommendations. |
Early intervention cuts trigger crisis interventions
18/07/2022 Councils, young people and families are trapped in a ‘vicious cycle’ due to the halving of investment in early intervention over the last decade, the largest children’s charities have warned. |
Charity calls for an 'ambitious' early childhood strategy
12/07/2022 An ambitious early childhood strategy is needed to meet the 'unique' needs of families with young children, a charity has warned today. |
Ofsted to increase focus on early years education
26/04/2022 The schools watchdog will increase its focus on early years education over the next five years as part of the effort to help children impacted by the pandemic. |
Thousands of children missing out on vital early years help, charity finds
28/02/2022 Hundreds of thousands of children who missed out on early help services are being re-referred to social care within a year, new research has found. |
Budget 2021: More money for youth services and 'family hubs'
27/10/2021 A £560m cash injection for youth services and the funding of ‘family hubs’ in England to support children and parents have been confirmed in today’s Budget. |
£10m for family support programmes to prevent violence
27/09/2021 Local authorities have been urged to apply for a £10m fund to find out how family support can help prevent violence. |
Charity calls for minimum service guarantee on early years support
21/09/2021 A new report has warned that 4.3 million parents are missing out on early years support services despite needing help. |
Why ditching the checklist has helped us tackle homelessness in Plymouth
27/07/2021 Gary Wallace explains how Plymouth City Council has adopted a new way of managing public services: Human Learning Systems. |
Children’s services spending slashed in half, charities warn
15/07/2021 Council spending on crucial services that help stop children reaching crisis point has almost halved over the last decade, new research has revealed. |
Councils should have legal duty to provide ‘early help’ says report
02/06/2021 A new report is calling for a legal duty on local authorities to provide early help to children and families, rather than providing what is easiest to measure. |
Family services offered share of £4m to support conflict resolution
06/04/2021 Local authorities are now able to bid for a share of a £3.87m funding pot to help family services resolve conflicts between parents. |
Councils urged to publish Start for Life offer
25/03/2021 Local authorities are being urged to publish a single publication setting out what support is available for parents in their local area. |
Westminster Family Hubs lead the way - from partnerships to integration
18/12/2020 Jayne Vertkin explains how Family Hubs in Westminster are transforming families’ experience of services, making early help easier to access. |
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Duchess of Cambridge unveils results of UK's biggest early years study
27/11/2020 Only one in four people recognise the specific importance of the early years, according to the UK’s biggest ever study on the topic. |
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Supporting children after the second national lockdown
04/11/2020 Dr Jo Casebourne explains why more most be done to intervene at an earlier point to help the growing number of vulnerable children and families who don’t have a social worker. |
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Calls to invest £240m in early years provision
30/10/2020 A quarter of early years providers in the most deprived local authorities could close by Christmas without additional funding, a new survey has revealed. |
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Councils call for urgent reversal of early intervention cuts
15/10/2020 The Government must ‘urgently’ reverse the £1.7bn early intervention funding cuts in order to avoid families falling into crisis, councils have warned today. |
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Calls for a recovery package to tackle childhood vulnerability
29/09/2020 A comprehensive recovery package is needed to help children deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Children’s Commissioner for England has said today. |
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New parents asked to answer questionnaire on early years’ development
18/09/2020 New parents and health service professionals are being asked to contribute to a Government review on ways to improve the healthy development of infants. |
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Early years’ workers ‘overworked and undervalued’, study reveals
05/08/2020 Low pay, a high workload and a lack of career development for early years’ workers risk impacting on the provision of care and education services for the under-fives, report says. |
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Call to 'supercharge' early years services
17/07/2020 Early years services are failing to target the children that most need support, a report has warned today. |
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Disadvantaged children less likely to benefit from free childcare, auditors warn
13/03/2020 Disadvantaged families are less likely to take up free early education and childcare places, auditors have warned today. |
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Councils call for more investment in early intervention
21/11/2019 Council leaders are calling for extra funding in children’s services to ensure they can fulfil the ambitions of the Children’s Act. |
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Charity calls for re-investment in public health grant
10/09/2019 A new study of health and social care spending has found that the Government focuses too much on acute services rather than investing in long-term preventative measures. |
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MPs call for an ‘early years revolution’ in child care
26/02/2019 Members of Parliament have called on local authorities to develop plans to help improve support for children during the first 1,000 days of life. |
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MPs blast Whitehall’s ‘confused’ approach to early years education
07/02/2019 MPs have criticised the Government’s 30 hours childcare commitment arguing that it ‘confused’ and ‘entrenches’ disadvantage. |
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Vulnerable children need 'bold solutions'
30/10/2018 The scale of the challenge of vulnerable children needs ‘bold solutions’ such as a 25-year plan for early intervention, says the chief executive of the Early Intervention Foundation. |
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Welsh councils call for ring-fenced preventative funding
18/09/2018 A new Preventative Care Fund should be set up in Wales to help ease the strain on children's services, councils have said. |
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Funding for new peer reviews of children's services
01/05/2018 The Government has announced a £8.5m programme to help councils work together to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. |
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Gov’s free childcare policy undermines social mobility, report says
28/09/2017 The Government’s free childcare policy could undermine social mobility by widening the gap in school readiness between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers, social mobility experts say. |
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Intervention for vulnerable children being dictated by resources, warn social workers
13/09/2017 Vulnerable children are less likely to qualify for help from social services because of a growing lack of resources, according to new research. |
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Early years funding failing to reach disadvantaged children finds new report
01/09/2017 Only a tiny fraction of government money earmarked for supporting small children will help those most in need, according to campaigners. |
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Birmingham proposes to replace children's centres
20/06/2017 Birmingham City Council has launched a consultation on a plan to replace most of its children’s centres with system of ‘early years hubs’ and a network of community-based services. |
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Keeping kids out of care
04/01/2017 Safe Families for Children is hoping to reduce the number of children going into care by 10% through early intervention. William Eichler finds out how. |
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Quality of early years provision at risk due to reforms
28/09/2016 The quality of early years provision could be put at risk due to government funding reforms, new research has warned. |
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Councils providing patchy support to early years providers
11/08/2016 Councils do not have a consistent approach to funding early education, meaning many children are subject to poor quality services, a new report has found. |
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Boys 'twice as likely to fall behind girls' by age five
18/07/2016 Boys are twice as likely to fall behind girls in basic language skills by the time they start school, a new report has warned today. |
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Parents’ relationships not prioritised by children’s services, survey finds
14/04/2016 Support for inter-parental relationships is a high priority for those working in children’s services, but is not reflected in frontline delivery, a new poll reveals. |
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Early intervention project secures lottery funding
08/03/2016 A project aimed at taking early action to prevent social problems has been given nearly half a million pounds by the Big Lottery Fund. |
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Councils could identify potential gang members at age seven
17/11/2015 The risk of children becoming involved in gang or youth violence can be identified from the age of seven, new research has revealed. |
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Tower Hamlets reports good progress in improvements
16/09/2015 Trouble-torn Tower Hamlets council in London says it is making good progress on improving its processes after being taken over by commissioners. |
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Billions cut from early intervention funding warn charities
07/07/2015 Funding for early help services has fallen by £1.8bn in the last five years, potentially damaging the lives of children and young people, a new investigation has revealed. |
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Early action could avert cash crisis in services, finds taskforce
16/07/2014 A cash crisis in local government could be averted if more money was invested in early action rather than focusing on reactive spending, according to a new report. |
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Early intervention on youth crime could solve £60bn problem
05/12/2013 Campaigners have urged Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) for England and Wales to make early intervention a priority as the best and cheapest way of preventing youth crime – which costs an estimated £60bn annually. |
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Study finds councils 'pivotal' to early intervention
07/11/2013 Councils are crucial to the success of early intervention and must embed immediate support for families across their work, a three-year study has concluded. |
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Oxfordshire Council urged not to cut early intervention services
05/11/2013 Trade union Unite is urging Oxfordshire County Council to reconsider plans to cut 700 jobs and reduce services for vulnerable people. |
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Foundation picks pioneering early intervention councils
08/08/2013 Twenty council areas have been chosen to provide the evidence base for early intervention schemes, as part of efforts to establish a national solution for problems affecting generations. |
