Publications

Councils, schools, colleges and health services must work together to support children and young people with special needs and disabilities.

Is your council in a strong position to continue to improve outcomes for children and young people and their families? This guide, specifically developed for the council leader, has been shaped by current and former leaders, lead members and chief executives with experience of children’s services improvement.

Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any stage in a child's life. The aim is to ensure problems do not escalate to become more acute, and more costly, to the detriment of children and families.

When problems first arise in families, early help is not only beneficial for children but essential for making the best use of resources.

The lead member for children's services (LMCS) has a statutory role in ensuring the council fulfils its duty for safeguarding children; in partnership with education, childcare and health services, the police and communities.

The National Child Measurement Programme provides a valuable opportunity to engage children, schools, parents and other partners in tackling health inequalities.

They address a number of transitional issues relating to the transfer of responsibility for delivering the National Child Measurement programme, which moved from PCTs to local government in April 2013.

Since then we have consulted widely with children and young people and with partners in the public and voluntary sectors, and have now set out a clear set of shared ambitions for children that we would seek to deliver in the context of ‘rewired' public services.

This resource pack is designed to help councillors understand what permanency is, the factors that can have an impact and the questions that will help to understand what’s working well and what could be improved.

In January 2020, the Local Government Association, the Association of Colleges and Natspec commissioned acl consulting to undertake a review of arrangements for planning, commissioning, funding, and supporting provision for post-16 high needs students.