10 ways councils are making budgets go further
Discover 10 ways councils are stretching budgets further, from digital transformation and energy efficiency to community partnerships and data-driven decision-making.
NAO: SEND reforms must tackle £2.3bn school transport squeeze
30/10/2025 The NAO has warned that reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system must address growing pressures on home-to-school transport. |
Government delays SEND overhaul
22/10/2025 The long-awaited schools white paper, intended to overhaul special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in England, will now be delayed. |
How data-driven fines are helping councils tackle truancy
08/10/2025 Julie Scorer, MRI Software, explores how councils are using data-driven systems and digital tools to tackle rising school absences and streamline FPNs. |
Over 50% of teachers doubt SEND reforms
08/10/2025 Over 70% of teachers think the children’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is ineffective, research has revealed. |
Spending on SEND support set to hit £21bn
02/10/2025 Spending on education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and child disability living allowance (CDLA) in England is set to reach £21bn by 2029. |
Cabinet backs ‘transformational’ new high school plans
30/09/2025 Northumberland County Council has approved the business case for a £50m high school development. |
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. |
Councils face challenge as primary school enrolment declines
24/09/2025 The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published new analysis showing a sustained decline in primary school enrolments across London. |
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. |
Better Results, Smarter Spending: AllChild in Wigan
12/09/2025 Wigan Council and AllChild are proving that long-term, community-driven programmes can improve outcomes for children while reducing pressure on local services and public spending. LocalGov finds out more. |
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. |
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. |
Yorkshire schools SuDS partnership boosts flood resilience
05/09/2025 Schools are ideal for sustainable drainage systems as part of flood and storm overflow reduction strategies, says Lorna Davis, director, SuDSPlanter Ltd. |
Overstretched schools need clearer roles, says union
02/09/2025 Education staff are carrying disproportionate responsibilities, according to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). |
Overdiagnosis straining SEND system, think tank says
28/08/2025 England’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is unsustainable because of an overdiagnosis of mental health issues, think tank says |
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. |
Town halls forced to sell community assets as debts mount
26/08/2025 Local authorities across the UK are selling off public assets – such as schools and care homes – to try and reduce a collective debt of £122bn. |
Disadvantaged white pupils have ‘particularly poor’ outcomes
20/08/2025 Poor white school pupils in England have ‘particularly poor educational outcomes’, according to the Institute for Government (IfG). |
School attendance ‘priority’, says council amid rising suspensions
18/08/2025 Secondary school suspension rates in the Isle of Wight have risen by over 20% since 2023/24. |
Reducing School Stress: The Role of Local Government
14/08/2025 Discover how local authorities can tackle school-related stress through early intervention, funding, and digital tools to boost children’s mental wellbeing. |
Local youth services to receive £88m boost
06/08/2025 The Government has launched a youth service support package backed by an £88m investment. |
Councils deliver ‘inconsistent’ support for young carers, charity reveals
04/08/2025 Twenty one percent of councils lack provision for young carers during school holidays, research finds. |
Call to cap profits of ‘vulture’ SEND schooling providers
01/08/2025 The Lib Dems have called on the Government to cap ‘exorbitant’ profits of private providers of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schooling. |
Surrey schools to get longer half terms
15/07/2025 Starting in October 2026, council-maintained schools in Surrey will have a two-week half term and a shorter summer break. |
Councils to agree targets to boost school readiness
04/07/2025 Education Secretary Bridget Philipson is set to announce the Government’s aims to help close the ‘disadvantage gap’ in schools. |
LGA: SEND transport costs likely to hit £2bn
02/07/2025 Council spending on home to school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is predicted to hit nearly £2bn this year. |
EHCPs jump up 11% in a year
27/06/2025 The number of children on Education, Health and Care Plans has increased by 11% in a year, official statistics have revealed. |
Councillor warns of ‘tidal wave’ of SEND demand
24/06/2025 West Sussex County Council has warned it is facing a ‘tidal wave of demand’ for services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
Council increases road safety measures near primary schools
19/06/2025 Wirral Council has proposed the use of traffic cameras to enhance its school safety scheme. |
Council confirms funding for school repairs and SEND services
16/06/2025 Kirklees Council has approved a £5.4m investment into local schools, funding repair projects and facilities for pupils with complex needs. |
Council told to apologise for mishandling of school transport
05/06/2025 Derby City Council has been told to apologise to three families for mishandling their school transport applications. |
Croydon to cut last lollipop patrols
03/06/2025 Croydon Council is set to remove the remaining lollipop school crossing patrols by the end of the year. |
School children driven indoors by protective bird of prey
02/06/2025 A north London primary school has sought health and safety advice after a bird of prey bases itself in the children’s play area. |
Charity calls for more inclusivity in schools
22/05/2025 A charity has called for more diversity to be included in the national curriculum to promote racial inclusion in schools and prevent children from being left behind. |
Local authority launches robot pilot project in schools
09/05/2025 Wakefield Council is set to trial a pilot project involving robots, enabling students to engage in school remotely. |
Councils at liberty to sell school land, Rayner says
01/05/2025 Local authorities across England are allowed to sell off playing fields to help close budget gaps, Angela Rayner says. |
Urgent need for teacher training amidst schools crisis
29/04/2025 The Government should provide £260m to fund a new 'national entitlement' to teacher training to help raise school standards, think tank says. |
London schools to benefit from energy efficiency measures
15/04/2025 Thirty-eight schools in London are set to benefit from £2.9m of City Hall funding to help them become more energy efficient, according to the Mayor of London. |
Pupil violence costs South East councils £65k
02/04/2025 Councils in the South East paid £64,555 in compensation to staff injured during school violence from 2019/20 to 2023/24, an investigation has revealed. |
School absences up two-thirds since before pandemic
18/03/2025 Absences and suspensions from school are two-thirds higher than before the pandemic, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). |
Gloucestershire schools set to see solar panels installed
24/02/2025 Gloucestershire County Council has named six primary schools that will see solar panels installed. |
Barnet schools aim to become smartphone free
17/02/2025 Schools in the London borough of Barnet have launched an initiative to stop pupils bringing in smartphones. |
Report reveals SEND ‘blind spots’
11/02/2025 Research into the provision of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support in England has highlighted ‘inequalities’ and ‘blind spots.’ |
Council chiefs welcome Ofsted’s focus on inclusion
03/02/2025 Local authority leaders have welcomed Ofsted’s greater focus on inclusion as part of the proposed overhaul of how schools are inspected. |
‘More work to do’, councillor responds to SEND petition
29/01/2025 Nottinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for education and SEND, Cllr Ben Bradle, has acknowledged there is ‘more to do’ on SEND provision. |
Schools Bill criticised by commissioner
27/01/2025 The children's commissioner has criticised Labour's schools Bill, arguing it does not include details on how councils would cope with the extra responsibilities. |
Council bureaucracy meant child missed months of school
22/01/2025 A child went months without education because of Trafford Council’s unnecessary delays, an investigation has found. |
Number of school children receiving SEN support surges 40%
21/01/2025 The number of British school children receiving support for special educational needs (SEN) has surged by 40% since 2016-2017, a new study has revealed. |
Lancashire set to spend £14m on repairs at 61 schools
16/01/2025 Lancashire County Council has set out plans to spend a government grant on ‘urgent’ repairs at 61 schools. |
Tower Hamlets to introduce school uniform grants
10/01/2025 The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is set to introduce school uniform grants for families on low incomes. |
Special educational needs statutory override is 'abomination'
10/01/2025 Accountancy alone will not be enough to end the ‘abomination' of statutory overrides for special educational needs (SEN) budgets, a minister has said. |
Council takes steps to tackle toilet training crisis
08/01/2025 Teachers in the Welsh county of Blaenau Gwent will no longer change pupils who have wet or soiled themselves, according to the local authority. |
Bumper profits for SEN private providers
03/01/2025 Revenue at privately-run special schools has reportedly soared as councils continue to battle to manage rising costs in the area. |
Landmark Bill to introduce ‘children not in school’ registers
17/12/2024 Council chiefs welcome Bill that could bring in new registers to identify children who are not in school but say it should go further to ensure child safety. |
Councils' SEND deficits ‘could reach absurd levels’
09/12/2024 Local authority deficits for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision ‘could easily reach absurd levels’ without widespread reform, a think-tank has warned. |
Devon proposes £21,000 charge for school exclusions
09/12/2024 Devon County Council has put forward plans to charge schools £21,000 for every child they exclude. |
No more safety valve agreements, DfE says
04/12/2024 The Government will not enter any more safety valve agreements with councils that are in deficit on their high needs education budgets. |
Children eligible for free school meals twice as likely to be absent
03/12/2024 A think-tank has warned that the costs of going to school are a barrier to regular attendance for some children from low-income families. |
UNISON: School support staff face daily abuse
29/11/2024 School support staff are subjected to verbal abuse and violence on a daily basis, a new survey has revealed. |
Cambs in bid to rescue £49m funding deal
26/11/2024 Cambridgeshire County Council has drawn up a new special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategy after failing to meet the terms of a funding agreement with the Government. |
Home-to-school transport costs hit £2.3bn
21/11/2024 County council chiefs have called for a ‘system-wide approach’ to tackling escalating home-to-school transport costs. |
ShuttleID launches 90-day free trial for local authorities
18/11/2024 ShuttleID, the digital school bus pass platform, has launched a new package designed specifically for use with local authorities. |
Rethinking school communications ahead of the PSTN switch-off
06/11/2024 Cardiff Council takes PSTN switch-off as opportunity to rethink school communications, writes Dan York, Local Government Sector Lead, Avaya UK&I. |
Biggest barrier to inclusive education is lack of funding, report finds
05/11/2024 Schools in the capital must become ‘genuinely inclusive’ to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), a new report has argued. |
More than £1bn to be invested in ‘crumbling’ schools
28/10/2024 The Government has confirmed that £1.4bn will be allocated in the Budget to rebuild ‘crumbling’ schools. |
Education Secretary announces review of 44 free schools
23/10/2024 Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced a review of the funding awarded by the previous Government to open 44 new free schools. |
£15m fund launched to support childcare expansion
17/10/2024 The Government has announced a £15m funding initiative to support the creation of up to 300 new or expanded school-based nurseries across England. |
School attendance scheme gets £15m boost
10/10/2024 The Government is set to spend £15m expanding an attendance mentoring scheme to 10,000 more children in England. |
Council apologises for flawed approach to travel support
04/10/2024 Sandwell Council has apologised after the local government Ombudsman found flaws in the way it considered a family’s application for travel support. |
Council drops all-Gaelic school plan
26/09/2024 Argyll and Bute councillors have decided to drop plans for a Gaelic language and culture school following a close-run public consultation. |
Welsh council cuts free transport to English-language schools
20/09/2024 A Welsh council has made broad cuts to its school transport provision – with some only affecting children taught in English. |
Norfolk schools inspected due to ceiling collapse fears
19/09/2024 Norfolk County Council has commissioned inspections of 37 more school buildings over concerns the ceilings could be at risk of collapse. |
‘Shocking lack of urgency’ to trace children missing from education
10/09/2024 More than 11,500 children in England went missing from education within a year, the children’s commissioner has found. |
Council ‘needs financial plan’ after £60m school blunder
21/08/2024 Renfrewshire Council has been urged to develop a financial plan after its miscalculation over school places was estimated to cost £60m to fix. |
Children face holiday hunger without support fund
21/08/2024 Children in more than a quarter of council areas could go hungry during the upcoming school holidays if the Household Support Fund (HSF) is not extended. |
Call for Government RAAC remediation cash
20/08/2024 Pressure is growing on the Scottish Government to help shoulder the multi-million pound burden of replacing council buildings containing dangerous concrete. |
Glasgow faces legal action over education cuts
15/08/2024 Parents have begun legal action over ‘drastic cuts’ to education services in Glasgow City Council’s budget. |
Family to sue council over paedophile former headteacher
08/08/2024 A family whose child was subjected to emotional and physical abuse by former headteacher and paedophile Neil Foden is taking legal action against Gwynedd Council. |
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 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. |
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. |
Council pays family £1,500 after school transport failure
04/07/2024 A family in Surrey has been paid £1,500 in compensation after the county council failed to provide school transport for a child with medical needs. |
Leeds council proposes SEND transport overhaul
02/07/2024 Leeds City Council has proposed reducing transport support for post-16 learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
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. |
School staff strike over new pay structure
27/06/2024 Teaching assistants at a school in East Yorkshire have walked out amid a dispute with the council over pay and conditions. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
Government criticised over free school meals threshold freeze
14/05/2024 The Liberal Democrats have criticised the Government for failing to increase the income threshold for free school meals in line with inflation. |
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. |
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. |
Council rejects MP’s ‘inaccurate’ funding claim
26/04/2024 Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins has accused Derbyshire County Council of leaving unspent millions of pounds for school spaces for children with special needs. |
One-word Ofsted judgements to be retained
25/04/2024 The controversial one-word Ofsted judgements for schools are here to stay despite criticism after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry. |
Brum council workers vote for strike over equal pay
23/04/2024 Council workers at 35 schools across Birmingham have voted in support of strike action over the ongoing equal pay claims issue. |
Teacher vacancies rise in almost nine in 10 local authorities
19/04/2024 Teacher vacancies have increased in 86% of English local authority areas since 2010, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). |
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. |
Academy trusts have higher staff turnover than council schools
16/04/2024 Multi-academy trusts (MATs) have ‘higher’ annual turnover of classroom teachers at secondary level than council-maintained schools, according to a new study. |
