Briefings and responses

"Over recent years councils have created an extra 800,000 new school places. This is a demonstrable record that shows they are doing everything they can to rise to the challenge of ensuring no child goes without a place."

The LGA has set out our vision for youth services as part of our Bright Futures campaign. We are calling on the Government to develop a similar vision that recognises the important contribution youth services make to our communities.

Making sure all children and young people have the bright future they deserve is a key ambition of every council. Councils want all young people to be able to enjoy their lives, reach their full potential and make a good transition to adulthood with good health and wellbeing.

There is evidence that while high quality childcare can support children’s development and increase academic skills, low quality childcare produces either no benefit or even negative effects. The quality of provision locally, therefore, is at least as important as the quantity.

The increase in care applications highlighted by the Care Crisis review is alarming. However, it must be set within the wider context of rising demand and pressure across the children’s social care system, which illustrates the growing number of children and families who now rely on state support.

Local government has a key role to play in protecting children and young people from involvement in, and the impact of, organised crime.

Making sure all children and young people have the bright future they deserve is a key ambition of every council.

We remain concerned that the introduction of the National Funding Formula, combined with changes to High Needs Funding, will exacerbate existing shortfalls in funding to support children and young people with SEND. We want to see funding for High Needs increased to meet sharply increasing demand for SEND support.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced significant reforms to the support provided by councils and other agencies to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

This briefing sets out the LGA’s key messages on the subject and our analysis of council revenue account budgets.