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“We want to work with the Government to ensure that schools are given the support they need over the immediate term, and this includes urgently placing a temporary pause on academy conversions during this time.

The next government needs to invest in children’s services so councils can fulfil the ambitions of the Children’s Act, the Local Government Association says as it marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark legislation. The 1989 Act puts children at the centre of any decisions made that affects them, with councils given the role of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. In the same year the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child set out the rights a child is entitled to and how adults and governments must work together to make that happen.  At the National Children and Adult

With 90 children entering the care system every single day last year, the LGA is calling on the Government to use the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement to resolve the £2billion funding gap that is facing children’s services by 2020.

We remain concerned that additional funding for children’s social care reform is significantly lower than that recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

A coalition of councils, charities and campaigners - including those with experience of the children’s care system - has written a joint open letter to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt urging him in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement to provide the funding children’s social care “desperately needs…before it is pushed to the brink”.

The largest independent providers of children’s social care brought in profits of more than £300 million last year, a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association reveals today.

"We’ve reached a tipping point where this service can no longer be ignored. It is absolutely crucial that the forthcoming Local Government Finance Settlement addresses this funding gap."

Care leavers should be exempt from paying for council tax, prescriptions, NHS dental treatment and optician costs, to help prevent them from falling into financial hardship when they leave care and support their transition to independence.

Latest figures released today show there are 83,630 children in the care of councils. The number of looked after children as of 31 March 2024 is 4.5 per cent higher than in 2020, according to annual Department for Education figures published this morning.

Families face the prospect of seeing more children’s centres close in their community after figures analysed by the Local Government Association showed councils have been forced to cut their spending on the service by nearly a quarter in four years.