Poverty and inequality are financial challenges for local authorities and threaten the cohesion of their communities.
A recent guide to the London Living wage highlights the link between local authorities with Living Wage accreditation and a greater number of local employers paying the London Living Wage, Alice Woudhuysen explains.
This report, co-funded by the ESRC and the Trussell Trust, is is based on a large-scale survey of food bank users. It profiles food bank users and the nature of food insecurity, and describes what drives people to resort to using food banks.
The Taylor Review on worker rights and employer responsibilities is a comprehensive examination of the key issues and challenges facing the rapidly changing labour market. Eagerly awaited it received mixed responses. This briefing summarises the report and comments on it.
This briefing is an update on state (school) and charitable meals provision for children using two recent reports which show the need to ensure children and families receive adequate nourishment if they are to benefit from education and not go hungry.
Measuring and defining relative poverty is a contentious issue. This briefing looks at the levels and rates of poverty in the UK and includes historical trends and forecasts for future years. The primary focus defines poverty in terms of disposable household income.
The Government's Social Mobility Commission's Time for Change report on 'socially divided' Britain offers five key lessons which include making social mobility a central government goal by focusing on long term progress, allowing changes to take effect, and playing an interventionist role in regional development.
This briefing focuses on early intervention and family literacy, summarising key barriers to attainment for disadvantaged socio-economic groups, and highlighting practical strategies with which LAs can provide coordinated strategic responses.
Since April 2016, Ofsted and CQC have been inspecting local areas to assess how well the new arrangements for Special Educational Needs and Disability (under the Children and Families Act 2014) are being implemented; 31 local areas have been inspected and this briefing takes an overview of the inspection letters of findings.
This week saw the publication of LGiU’s report with the Fawcett Society on whether English and Welsh local government is working for women – the end result of a year-long Commission.
2018 marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave votes to some women for the first time. But nearly 100 years on, we are still struggling to get to a position of equality when it comes to women’s political representation, writes Lauren Lucas.
