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13 May 13
Councils have begun to help more than a quarter of the 120,000 troubled families that Prime Minister David Cameron wants to ‘turn round’ by 2015, the government announced today.
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19 Apr 13
Almost a quarter of a million children are in nurseries that need to improve, Ofsted said today as it announced tougher inspections.
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12 Apr 13
Ofsted has ditched plans for separate inspections of child protection and looked-after children services following discussions with councils.
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3 Apr 13
Local authority bosses have put forward plans to speed up adoptions and keep councils involved in the recruitment of adoptive parents.
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19 Mar 13
The government is to ‘massively extend’ the tax-free childcare support available to working parents with young children, Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced...
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15 Mar 13
More than a quarter of a million extra school places will be needed in England next year, but it is not clear if the Department for Education has provided enough funding to meet demand, auditors...
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6 Mar 13
Local authorities should be legally required to provide continuing support to adoptive parents, peers said today.
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6 Mar 13
There are still big gaps in childcare provision in the UK despite councils’ obligations to ensure adequate services, according to a survey published today.
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4 Mar 13
Councils in England have helped to improve the lives of more than 1,600 problem families in just nine months, according to figures published today.
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20 Feb 13
Child poverty campaigners are pressing councils to prioritise the needs of low-income families as figures published today showed wide disparities in wealth across the UK.
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8 Feb 13
More than 2 million deprived children in the UK are not counted in the government’s child poverty measures, the Policy Exchange think-tank said today.
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29 Jan 13
Councils are to lose their power to inspect and assess local child care services, ministers have announced.
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24 Jan 13
A £150m funding cut to local authority children’s services is to be returned as part of reforms to the adoption system, the government has announced.
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23 Jan 13
Early results from the cross-government Troubled Families Programme indicate that effective intervention can save councils substantial sums, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said today.
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22 Jan 13
The government’s decision to transfer the statutory careers guidance duty for young people from councils to schools is ‘regrettable’, MPs have said.
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15 Jan 13
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service should be subject to a single annual inspection from September, Ofsted has proposed.
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15 Jan 13
Councils are calling on the government to explain why it has made new and unexpected cuts of almost £50m to funds intended to support disadvantaged children and families.
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14 Jan 13
Councils have urged the government to speed up reforms to the adoption system, warning that ‘ridiculous’ bureaucracy is hampering attempts to recruit more parents.
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7 Jan 13
Government plans to limit benefits increases to 1% in each of the next three years will push more families into poverty, campaigners warned today.
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4 Jan 13
Imminent changes to eligibility for Child Benefit will create ‘incoherence’ in the welfare system, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.
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18 Dec 12
Health providers should be legally compelled to provide Special Educational Needs services and assessments, according to MPs.
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17 Dec 12
Almost 25,000 extra nursery places will be required in London next year to meet a pledge by the deputy prime minister to provide free part-time early-years education for the poorest 20% of two-year-...
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30 Nov 12
Councils have criticised the latest publication of adoption scorecards by the government, warning that the data could lead to ‘misleading’ comparisons between authorities.
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19 Nov 12
Education Secretary Michael Gove has urged local authorities to take more at-risk children into care, saying an increase in young people being looked after by councils was not a cause for concern.
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15 Nov 12
Ministers are consulting on a new measure of child poverty, saying the current focus on relative income excludes other vital factors.