The fund supports adopted children and their families in England and is administered by local government. The DfE and an APPG have produced reports on the fund in the light of it needing to be renewed as part of the forthcoming spending review.
This briefing covers a report published by an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in July 2019 on Universal Credit (UC). The report makes a large number of recommendations for reform and its conclusions are consistent with a range of expert opinion.
Local authorities play a vital role in mitigating the decline of their town centres by working in partnership with others and making use of funding streams available to create more sustainable community centres. This briefing summarises what councils can do to help with this.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre published its annual briefing of useful financial statistics in July 2019. This Swift Read aims to summarise the briefing and to pick out some key statistics to help to identify how the financial landscape is changing and how Scottish councils are being affected.
In May 2019 the North of Tyne Combined Authority elected its inaugural Mayor. The Mayor has pledged to create10,000 jobs, adding over £1 billion in goods and services and levering over £2 billion of private sector investment. What are the prospects and challenges for this new combined authority?
While some SEND pupils are receiving high quality support, NAO express “significant concerns” that many others are not being supported effectively, and those without Education, Health and Care plans are particularly exposed.
This briefing looks back on some less-scrutinised aspects of the May 2019 local election results. The impact of the election results for political governance at local authority and Municipal District levels is briefly considered.
Up to £2.5 billion is to be spent on modern, efficient prisons which will include the creation of 10,000 additional prison places. However, is all of this funding new? We also consider here local authorities’ responsibilities to prisoners under the Care Act.
The UK2070 Commission has published its first report into spatial inequalities in the UK. Regional disparities affect everyone, whether they live in a prosperous or struggling area, but are not inevitable. With the right policy interventions and institutional reforms the trends can be reversed.
As the effects of climate change become better recognised, more attention is being focused towards the issue of food impacts on climate change. This briefing will make recommendations on the ways in which local governments can address issues of health and climate change through diet.