Addressing regional inequalities
Andrew Borland, Chief Innovation Officer at the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), University of Liverpool discusses the importance of levelling up for growth.
Lack of capacity hindering early help
07/11/2023 A lack of capacity is hindering early help services for children and families, a joint report by three watchdogs has found. |
London boroughs form partnership to tackle domestic abuse
11/09/2023 Seven boroughs in south London have launched a two-year programme which aims to tackle domestic abuse. |
Early intervention drive amid social housing repossessions
25/08/2023 Councils with some of the highest relative rates of social landlord repossessions have described their early intervention efforts after new data was published. |
Call for 'full reset' of children's care
15/03/2023 The Government’s approach to children’s social care will not solve the issues within the system, experts have said. |
Minister accepts early intervention is 'critical'
09/12/2022 Early intervention is ‘critical,’ minister concedes as Government told to publish its delayed plan for implementing children’s social care recommendations. |
Early intervention cuts trigger crisis interventions
18/07/2022 Councils, young people and families are trapped in a ‘vicious cycle’ due to the halving of investment in early intervention over the last decade, the largest children’s charities have warned. |
Charity calls for an 'ambitious' early childhood strategy
12/07/2022 An ambitious early childhood strategy is needed to meet the 'unique' needs of families with young children, a charity has warned today. |
Ofsted to increase focus on early years education
26/04/2022 The schools watchdog will increase its focus on early years education over the next five years as part of the effort to help children impacted by the pandemic. |
Thousands of children missing out on vital early years help, charity finds
28/02/2022 Hundreds of thousands of children who missed out on early help services are being re-referred to social care within a year, new research has found. |
Budget 2021: More money for youth services and 'family hubs'
27/10/2021 A £560m cash injection for youth services and the funding of ‘family hubs’ in England to support children and parents have been confirmed in today’s Budget. |
£10m for family support programmes to prevent violence
27/09/2021 Local authorities have been urged to apply for a £10m fund to find out how family support can help prevent violence. |
Charity calls for minimum service guarantee on early years support
21/09/2021 A new report has warned that 4.3 million parents are missing out on early years support services despite needing help. |
Why ditching the checklist has helped us tackle homelessness in Plymouth
27/07/2021 Gary Wallace explains how Plymouth City Council has adopted a new way of managing public services: Human Learning Systems. |
Children’s services spending slashed in half, charities warn
15/07/2021 Council spending on crucial services that help stop children reaching crisis point has almost halved over the last decade, new research has revealed. |
Councils should have legal duty to provide ‘early help’ says report
02/06/2021 A new report is calling for a legal duty on local authorities to provide early help to children and families, rather than providing what is easiest to measure. |
Family services offered share of £4m to support conflict resolution
06/04/2021 Local authorities are now able to bid for a share of a £3.87m funding pot to help family services resolve conflicts between parents. |
Councils urged to publish Start for Life offer
25/03/2021 Local authorities are being urged to publish a single publication setting out what support is available for parents in their local area. |
Westminster Family Hubs lead the way - from partnerships to integration
18/12/2020 Jayne Vertkin explains how Family Hubs in Westminster are transforming families’ experience of services, making early help easier to access. |
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Duchess of Cambridge unveils results of UK's biggest early years study
27/11/2020 Only one in four people recognise the specific importance of the early years, according to the UK’s biggest ever study on the topic. |
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Supporting children after the second national lockdown
04/11/2020 Dr Jo Casebourne explains why more most be done to intervene at an earlier point to help the growing number of vulnerable children and families who don’t have a social worker. |
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Calls to invest £240m in early years provision
30/10/2020 A quarter of early years providers in the most deprived local authorities could close by Christmas without additional funding, a new survey has revealed. |
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Councils call for urgent reversal of early intervention cuts
15/10/2020 The Government must ‘urgently’ reverse the £1.7bn early intervention funding cuts in order to avoid families falling into crisis, councils have warned today. |
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Calls for a recovery package to tackle childhood vulnerability
29/09/2020 A comprehensive recovery package is needed to help children deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Children’s Commissioner for England has said today. |
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New parents asked to answer questionnaire on early years’ development
18/09/2020 New parents and health service professionals are being asked to contribute to a Government review on ways to improve the healthy development of infants. |
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Early years’ workers ‘overworked and undervalued’, study reveals
05/08/2020 Low pay, a high workload and a lack of career development for early years’ workers risk impacting on the provision of care and education services for the under-fives, report says. |
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Call to 'supercharge' early years services
17/07/2020 Early years services are failing to target the children that most need support, a report has warned today. |
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Disadvantaged children less likely to benefit from free childcare, auditors warn
13/03/2020 Disadvantaged families are less likely to take up free early education and childcare places, auditors have warned today. |
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Councils call for more investment in early intervention
21/11/2019 Council leaders are calling for extra funding in children’s services to ensure they can fulfil the ambitions of the Children’s Act. |
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Charity calls for re-investment in public health grant
10/09/2019 A new study of health and social care spending has found that the Government focuses too much on acute services rather than investing in long-term preventative measures. |
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MPs call for an ‘early years revolution’ in child care
26/02/2019 Members of Parliament have called on local authorities to develop plans to help improve support for children during the first 1,000 days of life. |
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MPs blast Whitehall’s ‘confused’ approach to early years education
07/02/2019 MPs have criticised the Government’s 30 hours childcare commitment arguing that it ‘confused’ and ‘entrenches’ disadvantage. |
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Vulnerable children need 'bold solutions'
30/10/2018 The scale of the challenge of vulnerable children needs ‘bold solutions’ such as a 25-year plan for early intervention, says the chief executive of the Early Intervention Foundation. |
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Welsh councils call for ring-fenced preventative funding
18/09/2018 A new Preventative Care Fund should be set up in Wales to help ease the strain on children's services, councils have said. |
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Funding for new peer reviews of children's services
01/05/2018 The Government has announced a £8.5m programme to help councils work together to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. |
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Gov’s free childcare policy undermines social mobility, report says
28/09/2017 The Government’s free childcare policy could undermine social mobility by widening the gap in school readiness between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers, social mobility experts say. |
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Intervention for vulnerable children being dictated by resources, warn social workers
13/09/2017 Vulnerable children are less likely to qualify for help from social services because of a growing lack of resources, according to new research. |
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Early years funding failing to reach disadvantaged children finds new report
01/09/2017 Only a tiny fraction of government money earmarked for supporting small children will help those most in need, according to campaigners. |
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Birmingham proposes to replace children's centres
20/06/2017 Birmingham City Council has launched a consultation on a plan to replace most of its children’s centres with system of ‘early years hubs’ and a network of community-based services. |
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Keeping kids out of care
04/01/2017 Safe Families for Children is hoping to reduce the number of children going into care by 10% through early intervention. William Eichler finds out how. |
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Quality of early years provision at risk due to reforms
28/09/2016 The quality of early years provision could be put at risk due to government funding reforms, new research has warned. |
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Councils providing patchy support to early years providers
11/08/2016 Councils do not have a consistent approach to funding early education, meaning many children are subject to poor quality services, a new report has found. |
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Boys 'twice as likely to fall behind girls' by age five
18/07/2016 Boys are twice as likely to fall behind girls in basic language skills by the time they start school, a new report has warned today. |
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Parents’ relationships not prioritised by children’s services, survey finds
14/04/2016 Support for inter-parental relationships is a high priority for those working in children’s services, but is not reflected in frontline delivery, a new poll reveals. |
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Early intervention project secures lottery funding
08/03/2016 A project aimed at taking early action to prevent social problems has been given nearly half a million pounds by the Big Lottery Fund. |
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Councils could identify potential gang members at age seven
17/11/2015 The risk of children becoming involved in gang or youth violence can be identified from the age of seven, new research has revealed. |
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Tower Hamlets reports good progress in improvements
16/09/2015 Trouble-torn Tower Hamlets council in London says it is making good progress on improving its processes after being taken over by commissioners. |
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Billions cut from early intervention funding warn charities
07/07/2015 Funding for early help services has fallen by £1.8bn in the last five years, potentially damaging the lives of children and young people, a new investigation has revealed. |
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Early action could avert cash crisis in services, finds taskforce
16/07/2014 A cash crisis in local government could be averted if more money was invested in early action rather than focusing on reactive spending, according to a new report. |
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Early intervention on youth crime could solve £60bn problem
05/12/2013 Campaigners have urged Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) for England and Wales to make early intervention a priority as the best and cheapest way of preventing youth crime – which costs an estimated £60bn annually. |
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Study finds councils 'pivotal' to early intervention
07/11/2013 Councils are crucial to the success of early intervention and must embed immediate support for families across their work, a three-year study has concluded. |
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Oxfordshire Council urged not to cut early intervention services
05/11/2013 Trade union Unite is urging Oxfordshire County Council to reconsider plans to cut 700 jobs and reduce services for vulnerable people. |
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Foundation picks pioneering early intervention councils
08/08/2013 Twenty council areas have been chosen to provide the evidence base for early intervention schemes, as part of efforts to establish a national solution for problems affecting generations. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.
