News

Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board Cllr Judith Blake, responds to an announcement by the Secretary of State for Education about reforms to the Adoption Support Fund.

“We support the call for a joined-up, whole government approach which addresses the fragmented funding streams and helps councils to create communities in which young people thrive."

“We share Ofsted’s concerns that an increasing number of families of children with complex needs are being encouraged to educate their children at home."

“This report is an important contribution to the debate on the future of health visiting and in our joint efforts to improve the delivery of the Government’s Healthy Child Programme."

Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Boards, Cllr Judith Blake, responds to a report by the Education Policy Institute on unexplained exits of pupils.

“Unless we solve this crisis, today’s obese children will become tomorrow’s obese adults whose years of healthy life will be shortened by a whole host of health problems including diabetes, cancer and heart disease.”

Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, responds to the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies’ report on childhood obesity.

Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, Cllr Judith Blake, responds to a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation which says that children leaving custody are being ‘set up to fail’ through lack of support.

“Councils are doing what they can to make sure families get the help they need and have policies in place to support the needs of children living with kinship carers.  There are many examples of good practice in terms of support for kinship carers and we need to make sure practice is consistent across the country."

“While we are pleased the Government has announced an additional £700 million for children with special educational needs, without certainty over funding for the future the situation will get worse as the number of children who need support continues to increase."