The government is delaying publication of its child poverty strategy until the autumn as it considers scrapping the controversial two-child benefit cap.
The financial benefits generated by the last Labour government’s Sure Start centres were more than double the amount of the programme’s costs, according to a leading think-tank.
The government has come under pressure to provide a long-term funding solution for children’s social care in the light of analysis showing 1,700 children are referred to social services every day in...
Councils have warned they face financial catastrophe in a year’s time unless the government takes action to remove “unmanageable” high-needs deficits from their balance sheets.
More than half of councils with education remits face Section 114 notices when the temporary fix keeping high-needs spending deficits off their main balance sheets expires next year, according to new...
Interventions by CIPFA and the Education Policy Institute lay bare the issues facing the English system of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and suggest ways to...
The crisis in support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) risks creating a “lost generation” as well as posing an existential financial threat for local authorities,...
Soaring costs for special needs provision are set to wipe out any potential for school savings on the back of declining pupil numbers, according to a report.
The local government sector has welcomed an injection of £740m to boost the number of specialist places in mainstream schools but said it must be accompanied by action to write off councils’ “...
Scrapping the two-child limit would be a quick and cost-effective fix for child poverty – but the benefit cap would wipe out the gains for the poorest families, research has revealed.
The mayor of the North East has set out plans to help parents with the cost of childcare as part of a drive to tackle “unacceptable” levels of child poverty in the region.
An ambitious expansion in free childcare for working parents may not represent value for money, and could undermine wider socio-economic objectives, the national spending watchdog has warned.
