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Responding to an announcement by the Department of Education about an extra £700 million for children with special educational needs, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Children and Young People Board, said: "It is great that the Government has acted on the LGA’s call for a significant funding boost for services that support children with special educational needs next year. "Councils want to ensure every child gets the best education possible and that every parent can choose the sort of education setting they want for their child. "This funding will help councils meet unprecedented

Mainstream schools should be incentivised to take in more children with special needs, to ensure the country offers a more inclusive education system, say councils.

Councils are in a unique position of being able to make the real and effective change needed locally that will ultimately help to solve some of the biggest problems the nation is facing and changing the lives of their communities. 

“There are more than a million people on council waiting lists and councils can further get on with the job of building the new homes that people in their areas desperately need if they are able to keep all RTB receipts to replace any homes sold.”

“With more than 790,000 young people not in education, employment or training it is vital that more young people have the opportunities to increase their skills and retrain, so we can drive up productivity and start to close local skills gaps."

“We have long argued that reductions to councils’ public health grant, which is used to fund drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services, is a false economy which will only compound acute pressures for criminal justice and NHS services further down the line."

The loan sharks warning comes as latest figures show that 12,652 people a week in the UK are seeking help for problem debt – the equivalent of one person every 48 seconds.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, responds to the report by Which? that found that millions are at risk of mobile signal ‘blackouts’.

“To mark the day, councils are encouraging residents to cycle by promoting cycling proficiency tests and bike safety awareness campaigns, providing dedicated on-road cycle paths, installing secure cycle parking on high streets and supporting bike sharing schemes."

“Tombstoning is extremely dangerous and anyone doing it is dicing with death or risks ending up with life-changing or serious injuries"