Councils launch campaign to counter seasonal rise in domestic conflict
Redbridge agrees SEND improvement plan following inspectors’ criticism
Councils to be handed free school money to deliver SEND places
Regulators call for NHSE to offer greater SEND support to local area partnerships
Underfunding, Not Demand, Is Breaking SEND
Jack Lowman, Sense, says properly funding the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is vital for disabled children to get the best start.
Most vulnerable families missing out on benefits of council run holiday schemes
09/12/2025 Councils are concerned that the most vulnerable families are missing out on benefits of their holiday activity and food (HAF) schemes for low-income families. |
Councils face hurdles housing low-income applicants, charity warns
09/12/2025 Almost a quarter (24%) of housing associations in England have confirmed that local social housing registers can sometimes see low-income households ruled out, research has found. |
Festive display supports Dorset Council’s appeal for more foster carers
08/12/2025 Dorset Council has created a Christmas display to increase awareness about the need for additional foster carers in the region. |
Councils must tell schools and GPs about homeless children, says Government strategy
05/12/2025 The Government’s Child Poverty Strategy includes a new legal duty on councils to ensure they notify schools, GPs and health visitors when a child’s family is made homeless and placed in temporary accommodation. |
Councils set for winter surge in demand for food bank support
03/12/2025 Councils are set for a surge in demand from residents for information about food bank support this winter, latest figures from the charity Trussell indicate. |
Call to end ‘shadow market’ of unregistered children’s homes
03/12/2025 Almost nine in 10 councils placed children in unregistered homes this year due to limited registered options, research has found. |
SEND campaign to prioritise local voices
02/12/2025 A public engagement campaign on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has been launched to include local families in decisions about reforms. |
Council takes action against ‘unacceptable’ street staining
01/12/2025 Brent Council has announced its ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to paan spitting on streets, which is costing the local authority more than £30,000 annually to clean up. |
National HIV Action Plan will remove barriers to care, Government says
01/12/2025 Councils are to help the Government introduce its new HIV Action Plan, aimed to improve access to HIV testing and treatment, while combatting stigma around seeking support. |
Sport England announces 27 new ‘Place Partnerships’
28/11/2025 Sport England has unveiled 27 additional ‘Place Partnerships,’ expanding its drive to tackle inactivity across England. |
Budget: Over 100 neighbourhood health centres to launch by 2030
26/11/2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that 120 of 250 new neighbourhood health centres will be operational by 2030. |
Complex care needs drive up social care costs for young people
25/11/2025 The growing complexity of care and support needs have increased social care costs by almost a third in 2025, according to a new survey. |
Rising demand threatens early years support, LGA warns
24/11/2025 A new report reveals that councils and early-years practitioners are seeing a sharp rise in both the number and complexity of needs among under-fives. |
LGA: Councils face ‘huge pressures’ to deliver children’s services
20/11/2025 Over 80,000 children are being looked after by councils across England, figures have revealed. |
Call for interim funding for early support hubs
20/11/2025 A termination of funding could leave mental health support hubs vulnerable to closure, a youth organsiation has warned. |
SEND debt set to hit £18bn
14/11/2025 England’s councils have warned that the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is ‘on course for total collapse’ without urgent reform. |
Council staff visited wrong house before Sara Sharif’s murder
13/11/2025 A safeguarding practice review has found that children’s services in Surrey failed to identify abuse suffered by 10-year-old Sara Sharif. |
Stark inequalities in SEND pupil distribution revealed
13/11/2025 Councils are warning of mounting pressures as study reveals inequalities in the distribution of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
Care cash extraction tops £250m, report warns
12/11/2025 Private providers extracted over £250m from public spending on care in just three UK regions between 2021 and 2024, according to a new analysis. |
Council and ICB 'taking decisive action' to tackle SEND failings
10/11/2025 Slough Local Area Partnership, which comprises Slough BC and NHS Frimley ICB, have said it is taking decisive action to improve quality of SEND services. |
Reform-led council care home consultation ‘rushed’
06/11/2025 A public consultation on proposals to close council-run care homes in Lancashire should not be ‘rushed’, opposition members say. |
Islington Council wins baby vaccination court battle
06/11/2025 Islington Council has won a High Court battle to vaccinate a baby against her mother’s wishes. |
LGA calls for public health budget boost
05/11/2025 Council leaders are urging the Government to make significant public health funding commitments in the Autumn Budget to help deliver ‘healthiest generation’. |
Government 'won't look' away as children become unhealthier
05/11/2025 Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting says that the Government ‘won’t look away as kids become unhealthier’, his comments come as new figures reveal the scale of the childhood obesity problem. |
'We need urgent clarity on redundancies funding,' warn ICB leaders
04/11/2025 ICB leaders have warned the Government that clarity on £1bn funding for redundancies is urgently required to move NHS reforms forward. |
Dozens of missing child asylum seekers unaccounted for in Kent
03/11/2025 More than 50 unaccompanied child asylum seekers who disappeared after arriving in the UK remain missing, according to data obtained through an FOI request. |
Government lacks understanding of the value of hospices, NAO finds
29/10/2025 The DHSC and NHSE do not know how funding is used by hospices for palliative and end-of-life care due to a lack of central oversight, according to the NAO. |
LGA welcomes Awaab’s Law but flags resource gap
27/10/2025 Council chiefs have welcomed the introduction of Awaab’s Law, but called for more funding to support implementation. |
Deprived areas hit hardest by pharmacy closures
24/10/2025 England’s most deprived areas are bearing the brunt of pharmacy closures, new research from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has revealed. |
Watchdog criticises council for failing disabled resident
24/10/2025 West Sussex County Council unlawfully cut transport funding for a disabled man attending a day centre, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ruled. |
Government pledges £80m to support children’s hospices
15/10/2025 Children’s and young people’s hospices in England will receive £80m over the next three years. |
Town pollution levels fall due to speed limit
13/10/2025 A 20mph speed limit has contributed to improved air quality in a local town, the Forest of Dean District Council has confirmed. |
Reading BC’s adult social care ‘requires improvement’, says CQC
10/10/2025 Reading Borough Council’s adult social care service has been rated ‘requires improvement’ in its latest assessment by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). |
Government to crackdown on traders selling vapes to children
09/10/2025 New rules for retailers selling tobacco, vapes and nicotine products are being proposed by the Government. |
Care system reform in Scotland held back by ‘confusion’
07/10/2025 Scotland’s efforts to reform its care system are being held back by a lack of clear planning, accountability, and defined roles, according to Audit Scotland. |
Ombudsman slams council over safeguarding backlog
02/10/2025 The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has exposed a major safeguarding failure in Haringey, as hundreds of police welfare reports go unread. |
Labour conference: McGuinness calls for more health devolution
02/10/2025 More should be done to devolve health, mayor of the North East Kim McGuinness has told a Labour Party conference fringe session. |
LADO reform proposed to safeguard vulnerable children
30/09/2025 The Children’s Commissioner has called for the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) role to be fully independent of local councils. |
Care sector to benefit from £500m fair pay initiative
30/09/2025 The UK Government has announced a £500m investment to establish the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for adult care workers in England. |
Surrey’s neurodiversity programme expands to 70 schools
29/09/2025 Surrey CC’s Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINs) has officially launched its second year, expanding to support 70 schools. |
Call for better training for adult social care workforce
26/09/2025 Working conditions and workforce training in adult social care need urgent improvement, according to a new report from the Royal Society for Public Health. |
Ombudsman slams delays in Leeds SEND support plans
25/09/2025 Leeds CC has been criticised after an Ombudsman investigation uncovered significant delays in providing EHC Plans for children with special educational needs. |
Coventry secures £1m to support disadvantaged young people
22/09/2025 Coventry City Council has received almost £250,000 in additional Government funding, bringing total investment in youth education programmes to over £1m. |
Call for overhaul of adult care complaints system
18/09/2025 The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman is calling for urgent reform in how adult care complaints are handled in England. |
MPs call for 'root and branch' transformation of 'broken' SEND system
18/09/2025 A cross-party report has called for ‘root and branch transformation' of the ‘broken' special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. |
Edible playgrounds sprout up in Sunderland schools
12/09/2025 Three primary schools in Sunderland are embracing outdoor learning with the installation of new Edible Playgrounds. |
Council wrongly threatened to remove children
11/09/2025 Cheshire East Council has been criticised after it nearly had a mother’s children taken into care without proper evidence, Ombudsman finds. |
NAO: Children’s residential care market failing
11/09/2025 Care for looked-after children is costing councils more than ever, but many young people are still being placed in settings that don’t meet needs, NAO warns. |
Billions spent on SEND – but is it paying off?
11/09/2025 Financial experts have warned there is almost no way to assess whether the billions spent on England’s SEND system represent value for money. |
Ombudsman escalates housing complaint against Leicester council
10/09/2025 Ombudsman has written to the Government after Leicester CC refused to fully accept recommendations following a complaint from a domestic abuse survivor. |
