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“The Government needs to urgently complete its positive ongoing review of the SEND system. This needs to set out reforms that increase mainstream inclusion, provide councils with long-term certainty of funding to meet immense demand for SEND support."

"The impacts of COVID-19 will be with us for years to come. They will show up in economic hardship, mental health issues, attainment gaps and more, and it will be up to councils, schools and their partners to support children and their families to navigate these challenges."

Councils stand ready to help the Government prioritise disadvantaged pupils in its education recovery plan and to prevent the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and young people and their peers from widening further as a result of the pandemic.

“Councils face significant financial challenges to deliver much-needed SEND support to all those who need it and to meet rising demand, reporting a spending deficit of £675 million last year."

"We fully support the investment targeted at ‘cold spot’ areas, to help provide the schooling every child deserves. However, the pandemic has hit the educational attainment of all pupils hard, particularly those from vulnerable backgrounds, and the impact of this will be felt for years to come."

More than a million additional school children could receive free school meals and be entitled to extra support funding if the sign-up process for the scheme was simplified and extended to more families.

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

"It is good the Government has acted on our call for councils to be allowed to establish their own multi-academy trusts. This recognises the important role of councils as education partners and enables maintained schools to continue enjoying a close working relationship with their council."

“We urgently need to reform our children’s social care and SEND systems, including transformational investment in the services that give all children the best start in life.”

Everybody should have the chance to work or retrain, to help increase their aspirations and skills to realise their potential. The labour market has changed significantly in recent years and continues to adapt, so people need joined up local support.