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24 Aug 20
Councils across the UK are reaping benefits from collaborating with children and families in designing service provision
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31 Mar 20
An ambitious plan to expand early learning and childcare in Scotland has been halted to allow councils to focus on tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
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3 Mar 20
Ambitious plans to expand early learning and childcare in Scotland could be undermined by risks around infrastructure and workforce, auditors have warned.
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6 Sep 19
The Troubled Families Programme should be rolled out to a further half a million households, the Children’s Commissioner has said.
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4 Jun 19
Sure Start centres – that have been closing in their hundreds over the past decade - offer major health benefits to disadvantaged children, a think-tank has found.
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21 May 19
A growing number of children are being admitted to mental health hospitals unnecessarily, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned.
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1 Mar 19
The current focus on childcare entitlement can hold back toddlers from the poorest homes, says the chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation Sir Kevan Collins.
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21 Feb 19
More affordable, accessible childcare is needed in the North - for the sake of mothers and their children, argues IPPR North’s Leah Millward.
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15 Nov 18
Local bodies working with vulnerable children must not “repeat the mistakes of the past” around child exploitation, a joint watchdog has said.
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28 Sep 18
Charities fear children will be left open to “neglect and abuse” as local authorities have drastically cut their spending on children’s centres in England over the past five years.
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15 Jun 18
Spending per head on local authority-led children’s services will regress 20% to 2005 levels, according to a report out this week.
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2 May 18
More than £1bn is to be invested annually in early learning and childcare across Scotland under a landmark deal struck between councils and the Scottish Government.
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1 May 18
Early years providers in England are struggling to provide the promised 30 hours of free child care because of “insufficient” funding, a survey has found.
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5 Apr 18
The government has underestimated the number of Sure Start centre closures in England by half, the Sutton Trust has claimed in research released today.
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5 Feb 18
The Treasury has had to pay out almost £1m manually to parents following failures with the system set up to administer the Tax-Free Childcare scheme.
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8 Jan 18
MPs are to scrutinise how affordable childcare could boost the economy, in response to concerns that lack of access to services is stopping parents from being able to work.
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4 Sep 17
Only a tiny proportion of the extra £9.1bn allocated by the government for early years provision will reach the most disadvantaged children, a report for the Social Market Foundation has...
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30 May 17
The Labour party has promised to extend 30 hours of free childcare per week to all two to four-year-olds, as part of their £5bn investment in childcare.
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18 Apr 17
Government plans to extend free childcare to 30 hours for three and four year olds should be scrapped in favour of a cheaper targeted approach to help poorer families, according to the Localis think-...
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29 Sep 16
A Scottish Government report has accused the country’s councils of diverting millions of pounds of central government money away from supporting delivery of ministers’ free childcare pledge.
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27 Sep 16
Labour has launched a childcare taskforce that will consider new policy proposals to provide affordable, high-quality childcare fit for the 21st century in order to help parents get into work.
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16 Jun 16
The government’s pledge to provide 30 hours of free childcare for working families next year may not be met because of lack of capacity in the provider market, the Public Accounts Committee has...
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2 Mar 16
The Department for Education is unable to track the effectiveness of £2.7bn being spent on a flagship free childcare programme, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
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2 Feb 16
Six councils from across England are to be given £13m to pilot the government’s extension of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds later this year, ministers have announced.
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27 Oct 15
Children born into the poorest families in the North lag behind those in London in terms of their development, IPPR North has said.