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.
Increasing levels of child poverty are affecting children and young people’s education, with schools dealing with ‘Dickensian’ levels of squalor, a major teaching union has warned.
The rising number of children in care places “huge demand” on councils and reinforces the need for greater funding for children’s services, council leaders have said.
An additional commissioner is likely to be sent into troubled Northamptonshire County Council after Ofsted found children’s services have “significantly declined”.
The NHS and councils need to collaborate to develop a system to support children with mental health problems, the Local Government Association has said.
A reduction in child arrests is obviously good for the young people themselves - but also for public services, says the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Andrew Neilson.
The government must reverse spending cuts to public health funding to tackle rising levels of childhood obesity in England and Wales, council leaders have urged.