The LGA's media office provides the national voice of local government in England and Wales on the major issues of the day for national, regional and local press.
Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism report which calls for better support and services for people with autism in England.
“This cross-government review of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support is good news and is what the LGA has previously called for."
Responding to an announcement by the Department of Education about an extra £700 million for children with special educational needs, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Children and Young People Board, said:
"It is great that the Government has acted on the LGA’s call for a significant funding boost for services that support children with special educational needs next year.
"Councils want to ensure every child gets the best education possible and that every parent can choose the sort of education setting they want for their child.
"This funding will help councils meet unprecedented
Mainstream schools should be incentivised to take in more children with special needs, to ensure the country offers a more inclusive education system, say councils.
Councils are in a unique position of being able to make the real and effective change needed locally that will ultimately help to solve some of the biggest problems the nation is facing and changing the lives of their communities.
Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, responds to a report from The Education Policy Institute on educational attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s People and Places Board, responds to the report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development into employers’ under-investment in training.
The Government’s plans to introduce a compulsory register for home-educated children risk failing children’s safety unless councils are given the powers to enter a premises to check on a child’s schooling, councils warn today.
“Childhood obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges we face and these figures are yet another sad indictment of how we have collectively failed as a society to tackle it"
Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, responds to the National Deaf Children’s Society report on councils providing radio aids for children.