Briefings and responses

Many of the services that impact young adults are delivered by local government. The challenges facing them span a range of issues. It is vital that the Government uses the Spending Review to deliver truly sustainable funding for local government. Investing in local services is good for the nation’s prosperity and overall wellbeing.

There is evidence that while high quality childcare can support children’s development and increase academic skills, low quality childcare produces either no benefit or even negative effects. The quality of provision locally, therefore, is at least as important as the quantity.

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 to the SEND system, set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 have, however, failed to achieve the goal of improving provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The ability of councils to provide the support needed to all carers, is undermined by the funding to councils and the impact on social care budgets, coupled with increasing demands and increasing costs. We are calling on the Government to use the upcoming Spending Review to fund the £3.1 billion shortfall facing children’s services by 2024/25.

Councils work hard to support children with a range of vulnerabilities, including those who are eligible for free school meals

Below is the LGA's response to the Statutory guidance for Local Authorities on providing youth services.

Councils are particularly concerned about the proposed changes to high needs funding which will reduce council and school flexibility to make additional funding available where there are rising demand pressures for SEND support.

Councils are continuing to tell us that pressures on the High Needs funding block is one of the most serious financial challenges that they are currently dealing with and we are calling on the Government to provide councils with long-term certainty on levels of high needs funding.

There is clear evidence that where people are born into or experience poverty, it significantly impacts on their life chances.

While we support the Bill’s aim to make the skills system more responsive to employers’ needs, the reforms need to be implemented as part of an integrated, place-based approach.