Briefings and responses

Councils have continually raised on-going concerns over residents' lack of access to fast and reliable broadband especially in rural areas

The Rough Sleeping Strategy sets out the Government’s strategy for halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it by 2027. It was published on 13 August 2018.

The Home Office is consulting with councils on a cap on safe and legal routes to the UK with a deadline of 15 December. Please read some views from the LGA to inform responses.

The LGA has raised concerns that councils do not currently have the powers to fulfil their duties to ensure home schooled children are receiving a suitable education. In particular, this is because they have no powers to enter homes or to see children to satisfy themselves that this is the case.

The funding pressures facing schools are well known, with teacher and parent-led campaigns continuing to receive extensive coverage in the media. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates schools will see a real terms cut of 4.6 per cent in schools funding between 2015 and 2019

The LGA has today responded to the Department for Education's consultation on the introduction of a national funding formula for schools.

This short guidance note aims to provide a brief overview of the role of responsible councils with regards to home to school contracts and licensing authorities with regards to safeguarding in taxi/ private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing and suggests some recommended actions.

We need to ensure that children and young people can also access high-quality mental health support outside of school. Many children and young people face challenges accessing support for their mental health. Patchy implementation of policies has also fuelled a postcode lottery in provision meaning that children and young people do not get a consistent offer of support.

A rise in mental health problems in children and young people in recent years, exacerbated by COVID-19, has placed additional pressures on services and has hindered progress in reaching access targets. Targets set to improve the quality of care within inpatient settings, and to reduce their use in the long term, not been met.

Councils have a crucial role to play in education, from ensuring every child has a school place to turning around struggling schools, which they demonstrated when providing vital support to schools during the pandemic.