Briefings and responses

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

Keeping children safe is one of the most important roles a council fulfils. While England remains one of the safest places in the world to grow up thanks to the tireless work of our children’s services colleagues and their partners, we agree that significant reform is needed to ensure the right systems are in place to not only protect children, but to help them and their families to thrive.

As providers seek to offer children spaces within the current funding constraints, there is a risk to provision for disadvantaged two-year-old children and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), for whom provision is more expensive.

Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) gets the high-quality support that they need. Reforms set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 failed to achieve the goal of improving provisions for children with special educational needs and disabilities and were not supported by sufficient powers or funding to allow councils to meet the needs of children with SEND or hold health and education partners to account for their contributions to local SEND systems.

Councils are supporting children and young people with high quality mental health support. Children’s services see more than 500 cases a day of children presenting with a mental health problem.

Improving and maintaining good mental health for children is a vital priority for councils. Intervening early can dramatically improve an individual’s life chances and save our public services money in the longer term.

Councils have been calling for the Government to take tough action on sugar including reducing the amount of sugar in soft drinks and introducing teaspoon labelling on the front of products.

The LGA has long highlighted that funding for early entitlements is insufficient, which is resulting in a recruitment and retainment crisis in the sector, impacting the quality of childcare provision and the availability of good support for children, particularly those with special education needs and disabilities (SEND).

"We remain concerned that the introduction of the NFF, combined with changes to High Needs Funding, will exacerbate existing shortfalls in funding to support children and young people with SEND."

Through their public health functions, councils have responsibilities around tackling addiction and other public-harm issues. There is increasing evidence that social media can become addictive and harmful. We have also seen it used as an additional gambling platform, enticing young and vulnerable people without adequate safeguards for their protection.