Publications

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

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.

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.

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

The purpose of this guide is to raise awareness about online harms and empower councillors by providing an introduction to online risks, an overview of the Online Safety Bill, key considerations, signposting to useful resources, as well as a checklist to support effective decision making.

This guidance has been developed for each of the following areas: finance, human resources (HR), information technology (IT) and legal. The intention is to further support and strengthen the development of a strong corporate and whole council approach to delivering effective services for children.

Councils have a statutory duty to “secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people” and to make sure young people have a say in the local offer.

Despite considerable changes in national education policy and school organisation over recent years, councils retain the bulk of their statutory duties. They have a key role as champions of educational excellence for all children and young people in their areas.

Obesity is considered to be one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Without action, the health of individuals will continue to suffer, health inequalities associated with obesity will remain and the economic and social costs will increase to unsustainable levels.

We want all our children to have bright futures. Key to that is ensuring that they have the emotional resilience and tools to make good choices, overcome challenges and move confidently towards where they want to be in adulthood. The current system cannot deliver that – so how can we ensure that it does?