Briefings and responses

Healthy Start is an NHS scheme that provides additional cash support to the lowest-income families with children under 4 years old, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, to buy milk, fruits, vegetables, pulses, and vitamins. Money is provided to families on a pre-paid card that can only be spent on authorised items.

Upgrading, replacing and reconnecting these telecare devices, just one element of the PSTN switchover, to the digital network will be extremely costly. GLA Economics estimates the upgrade costs to be £31 million for London boroughs and impacting over 63,000 users.

Over recent decades, construction of new homes has failed to keep pace with population growth and social changes. At the same time, there are currently not enough affordable homes to meet current demand with more than 1.32 million households on council waiting lists in England and over 109,000 households living in temporary accommodation.

Central government should work in partnership with local government to co-design future digital inclusion policy to ensure communities are not at risk of being left behind, building on the recommendations from the LGA’s recent digital exclusion report.

The current UK financial sector is not well suited for many low-income households. The case for supporting people to access affordable and responsible finance from organisations like credit unions and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) is clear.

We are calling for the devolution of the bus service operator grant and for all councils to be given the ability to franchise local services.

High-quality early years provision can have a positive impact on children, particularly disadvantaged children, in terms of their immediate development and long-term outcomes.

A Westminster Hall Debate on School Attendance

Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with SEND gets the high-quality support that they need. The previous reforms to the SEND system set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 have, however, failed to achieve the goal of improving provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

This short guide is to help you get to the right people who will give you good advice/assistance about how to achieve the aims of your organisation.