SEND debt set to hit £18bn
Stark inequalities in SEND pupil distribution revealed
Care cash extraction tops £250m, report warns
Council and ICB 'taking decisive action' to tackle SEND failings
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.
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. |
PAC: Family court delays put social care under strain
10/09/2025 Children and families are being failed by delays in the family justice system, the Public Accounts Committee has warned, with impacts felt in social care. |
Call to boost physical activity for children in care
10/09/2025 Care-experienced children and young people are a ‘hidden group’ often overlooked in physical activity policy, according to a report launched today by the LGA. |
Teenage pregnancy rise sparks call for action
10/09/2025 Council leaders have warned that teenage pregnancies are beginning to rise again after decades of progress, calling for urgent Government action. |
One in four children facing hunger, charity warns
10/09/2025 Millions of children across the UK are growing up hungry with over one in four living in households facing food insecurity, according to the Trussell Trust. |
Council denies leaving man to sleep in car
04/09/2025 A Lincolnshire man with health issues was left sleeping in his car after South Kesteven DC failed to offer him temporary housing, Ombudsman rules. |
Councils push early check service to tackle health gaps
03/09/2025 Free NHS health check invites were sent to more than one million people aged 40 and over by March this year, the Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed. |
One in 10 supported homes at risk
29/08/2025 50,000 specialist homes for people with support needs are at imminent risk of closure due to ongoing funding pressures, National Housing Federation warns. |
£600m boost secures holiday support for children
28/08/2025 Local authority leaders have welcomed the Government’s decision to invest £600m to extend the Holiday Activities and Food programme. |
Scottish care kids failing to attend school
27/08/2025 An increasing proportion of children in local authority care in Scotland are failing to attend school. |
Two-thirds of councils lack safeguarding policy for gender-questioning children
26/08/2025 Two-thirds of councils with care responsibilities could not provide a policy on safeguarding processes for gender questioning children in care, study finds. |
Cuts to council-run pools raise child safety concerns
26/08/2025 More than 120 public swimming pools have closed over the last decade, freedom of information (FOI) requests from GMB have revealed. |
Council acts on Disabled Facilities Grant backlog
20/08/2025 North Yorkshire Council has pledged to improve how it manages Disabled Facilities Grant applications after an investigation revealed a backlog of cases. |
High energy prices forcing councils to cool swimming pools
14/08/2025 Councils are decreasing temperatures in swimming pools due to high energy prices, data says. |
Council wrote to families about EHC plan reviews that never took place
13/08/2025 Stockton on Tees BC has apologised after an investigation revealed that nearly 100 young people with EHC plans have not had their support updated. |
Glasgow CC announces LEZ success
13/08/2025 The introduction of Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) has resulted in air pollution levels being cut by a third in the city centre. |
Social care services in Wales receive £30m boost
12/08/2025 Local authorities across Wales are set to receive a £30m funding boost from the Welsh Government to strengthen community-based social care services. |
Mayor of London triggers air pollution alert
12/08/2025 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has issued an air pollution alert as temperatures threaten to rise above 30C, creating dangerously high ozone levels. |
Work scheme for people with health conditions launches in West England
11/08/2025 A programme to help people with health conditions back into the workplace has been launched in the West of England. |
CQC: Stronger leadership needed to improve Blackpool's inadequate adult social care
11/08/2025 The Care Quality Commission has rated Blackpool Council's adult social care inadequate, warning that ‘stronger leadership' will be needed for it to improve. |
Child protection reforms get £18m boost
08/08/2025 The Government has announced an £18m funding boost to support the roll out of early intervention child protection reforms to councils in England. |
