Queen's Speech
It is disappointing there is no mention of the urgent challenges
facing children’s services in the Queen’s Speech. The pressures are rapidly
becoming unsustainable, with councils facing a £2 billion funding gap by 2020.
We are calling on the Government to act now to ensure councils have the
resources to keep children safe.
Again, we are disappointed that the Queen’s Speech did not give
schools and councils any detail about additional education funding or how the
Government’s school funding reforms will be implemented.
Read the LGA’s full response to the Queen’s Speech here.
National Fostering Stocktake
DfE
has launched the National Fostering Stocktake. The aim is to better understand
current fostering provision, how needs and skills match, where this works well,
and lessons from good practice.
The LGA is closely involved, responding to the
call for evidence. We would be grateful for views or good practice examples. Please
contact Louise
Smith.
11-13 October 2017, Bournemouth International Centre
Widely recognised as the most important annual event of its kind,
come along and share, engage, network and participate with your peers. You will
leave informed, stimulated and motivated to develop and improve your offer to
your communities.
Models of care and care pathways
Together
with an Expert Working Group, the Social Care Institute for Excellence has
developed care
pathways, models of care and quality principles to improve access to
high quality services to address mental health and wellbeing needs of looked
after children. The LGA is represented by Cllr Gillian Ford.
Please
contact Ian Dean with any views or
practice to share.
Based
on an analysis of the careers landscape and discussions with councils, this
paper sets out what we would see as the five guiding principles underpinning a
good careers system for all ages and the role we would like to see councils
play.
Evaluation of 'See Me, Hear Me' framework
The University of Sussex
has published a suite
of documents on the pilot and
evaluation of the 'See Me, Hear Me' Framework, on behalf of the Office of the Children's Commissioner. The framework sets out a child-centred multi-agency
approach for preventing sexual exploitation of children.
Recent trends in adoption
The Adoption
Leadership Board has published a briefing
paper outlining its views
on recent trends in adoption and permanency decision-making. Data suggests
while the fall in decisions for adoption and placement orders seems to have
halted, this masks a high degree of variation at local and regional levels.
Hidden Savings Report, Rainbow Trust Children's Charity
A recent report published by Rainbow
Trust Children’s Charity shows their work with families saves the health
and social care system at least £2 million annually.
What are you proud of?
The
LGA is always keen to share learning, and we’re updating our children’s
services case studies. If your council has seen positive outcomes, we’d love to
hear about it.
We
would be particularly interested in:
- Youth
justice
- Unaccompanied
asylum seeking children
- Youth
work
- Permanency
- Early
help
- Child
sexual abuse
- Modern
slavery
- Children’s
centre services
Please
contact Louise
Smith
with a brief outline.
Child sexual abuse evaluation fund launched
The
Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse has launched a new evaluation fund,
offering grants of up to £25,000 for organisations providing programmes for
children and young people at risk of or experiencing CSE or CSA.
Applications
close 7 July 2017, more information is available here.
Financial capability in vulnerable young people
The
Money Advice Service (MAS) has an opportunity for local authorities to work
with them to scope and test ways to embed financial capability into existing
services for vulnerable young people, for whom managing money can be a complex
challenge.
If
you are interested, please contact Ann Griffiths.
Free workshops for young people
The
National Youth Agency is working with MAS providing free workshops for young
people aged 16-21 to learn about looking after their money. These could be
particularly helpful for young carers and care leavers.
Find out more about
putting on a session in your area.
Impact of academisation on early years provision
The
Family and Childcare Trust is conducting research into the impact of
academisation of primary schools on early years provision. They’re keen to hear
more about local experiences, so if you’ve got any (positive or negative),
please contact Head of Research Claire Harding.
NGA/TES
school governance survey
Have your say in the biggest school governance
survey of the year!
Good Practice in Early Years and Childcare
The Family and Childcare Trust is running a
project identifying examples of good practice across the country in early years
and childcare. They’re also interested in improved models of data collection.
If you have any
examples (particularly ones which haven't previously received attention), please
email Head of Research Claire Harding.
A case study on the support provided by the London Borough of Hillingdon to support children with SEND, and their families, to ensure positive outcomes.
1 March 2018, London
Setting 22,000 school budgets from Whitehall won't work, say councils
29 June 2017
Queen's
Speech: Councils respond to lack of measures to address children's social care
funding pressures
21 June 2017
Councils
respond to NSPCC’s “How Safe Are Our Children?” report
21 June 2017
LGA
responds to Localis report on children’s mental health
21 June 2017
LGA
responds to primary and secondary school offers
13 June 2017
Councils
face £2 billion funding gap to support vulnerable children by 2020
11 May 2017
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