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Dear colleagues,
Welcome to this month's Children and Young People bulletin.
I'm pleased to report some good funding news in this bulletin, including extended funding for the Adoption Support Fund and maintained nursery schools, and additional funding for Staying Put and Staying Close. All of these programmes are really important when it comes to delivering good outcomes for the children and young people involved, so it's great that we have certainty of funding for another year.
I'd like to draw your attention to two ongoing consultations, looking at the statutory guidance on councils' youth services duty, and at the Early Years Foundation Stage. I would encourage you to submit your views to both consultations to make sure that councils' voices are heard in government's deliberations. The LGA will, of course, be responding to both on behalf of all member councils.
This month is the 30th anniversary of the Children Act 1989 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. You may have seen my comment piece reflecting on these in First magazine - both the Act and the UNCRC put children at the centre of decision-making, and this is something we must continue to strive to do. In Leeds, we have adopted a Child Friendly Leeds approach to make sure children are considered at every step, in every decision we take.
This month we have also launched new research on the growing pressure on council home-to-school transport budgets. The findings show that while councils have worked hard to reduce spending on mainstream transport, this has been more than off-set by a significant rise in demand for transport for pupils with SEND.
I hope to see many of you at the National Adult and Children Services Conference at the end of this month where we can discuss ways to make sure children are getting the very best support, whatever their needs.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Judith Blake
Chair, LGA Children and Young People Board |
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Stories
Home to school transport
Research commissioned by the LGA explores the drivers of increased pressures on home-to-school transport budgets; how councils seek to bring budgets under control; and what they need to support them to do this.
Commissioning services for young people: guidance
We are pleased to have supported the National Youth Agency to produce a new guide to commissioning services for young people, which includes guidance on involving young people in the process.
EYFS Consultation
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage. This includes a question seeking views on the removal of the statutory requirement for councils to moderate early years foundation stage profile judgements.
The deadline for responses is 31 January 2020. If you have any comments you would like the LGA to consider in its response, please email mala.mistry@local.gov.uk
New funding for children in care, care leavers and adoption
The Government has made a range of announcements in relation to funding for children’s social care over the past month, including:
- the extension of the Adoption Support Fund to 2021
- £10 million to expand Staying Put
- £6 million in 2021/22 to roll out Staying Close
- £3 million to extend the Pupil Premium Plus to all 16-18 year old care leavers
- £650,000 investment into Regional Adoption Agencies to coordinate work to find more adopters across the country, especially for harder to place children.
Find out more about:
Brexit and children’s services
Ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU, councils should ensure that all looked-after children and care leavers who are EU nationals have applied for the EU Settlement Scheme, or if appropriate, registered for British citizenship. More information is available in this guide by the Coram Children’s Legal Centre. Councils should also consider how they wish to support other children and families supported by children’s services, adoptive families or those supporting children under special guardianship orders.
If any councils are having difficulties with this process or have broader concerns, please email louise.smith@local.gov.uk so that these can be raised in our conversations with Government.
Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, chaired by Edward Timpson, has announced its second national review. This will focus on sudden unexpected infant death in families where the children are considered at risk of harm. The review is expected to take six months.
Maintained nursery schools
We have been calling for some time for certainty for maintained nursery schools around their funding from 2020. We are pleased that the Department for Education has recognised this call and announced a further year's supplementary funding for 2020-21. We will continue to push for a long-term funding solution for these nurseries, which provide significant support for children with SEND and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, along with further uplifts in funding for all childcare providers.
Call for evidence: Review of Youth Services Statutory Guidance
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's consultation on the statutory guidance review for local youth services closes on 1 December. This is an opportunity for local authorities, youth organisations, key stakeholders and young people to feed into the review and have their say on what this guidance should look like.
Legal aid for unaccompanied children
Vulnerable migrant children who have been separated from their parents are now entitled to legal aid. The Legal Aid for Separated Children Order 2019 brings non-asylum immigration and citizenship matters into the scope of legal aid for under 18s who are not in the care of a parent, guardian or legal authority. This includes support for children in care who might be struggling to get through the EU Settlement Scheme because of complex cases.
Events
Children's services Leadership Essentials
Wednesday 27 - Thursday 28 November 2019
Thursday 16 - Friday 17 January 2020
To book please contact grace.collins@local.gov.uk
Taking a public health approach to tackling serious violent crime
London 13 November 2019, free for LGA member councils
National Children and Adult Services Conference 2019
Bournemouth 20 - 22 November 2019
Childhood obesity
The Health and Social Care Committee heard from former Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Duncan Selbie, Public Health England and a number of Ministers from across Government as part of their follow up inquiry on childhood obesity. The session explored the progress that has been made since the publication of the childhood obesity plan and what the next steps should be. Ministers agreed with our evidence that councils are playing their part in tackling health inequalities through the Trailblazer programme and their public health responsibilities.
School transport under threat as bill set to rise to £1.2 billion by 2024
1 November 2019
Thousands of young people missing out on vital careers support, councils warn
28 October 2019
LGA responds to the Education Select Committee report on SEND
23 October 2019
Sharing ideas
NCMP for England: 2018/19 data available in LG Inform
The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for England records height and weight measurements of children in state-maintained schools in reception (aged 4–5 years) and year 6 (aged 10–11 years) and is a key element of the Government’s approach to tackling child obesity.
The latest data for your area is now available in LG Inform. Use modifiers to tune the report into your area.
#OurDay 2019
This year's #OurDay will take place on Tuesday 19 November. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate colleagues’ work and the huge breadth of services councils deliver every day. Download our social media toolkit to help your council get involved.
first magazine
'first' is LGA's membership magazine and is received as a hard copy by over 18,000 councillors and 400 Chief Executives. In a response to demand, we have made it easier to read online by creating a dedicated website to read all of its articles, interviews and opinion pieces.
Both the hard copy and online pdf are still available to readers, and subscriptions can be amended online.
Highlights:
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