Last week’s Spending Review announcement provided something of a proverbial crutch for children’s services, but offered few reassurances for the medium to long-term sustainability of what many see as the most important state function of them all. Failing to invest in young people and families who need support is just storing up more costly problems […]
The number of looked after children has reached a thirty-year high, with spending in this area accounting for over half of spending on children’s services in 2018-19. Despite the injection of an additional £542 million in 2018-19, councils continue to overspend. The scale of the challenge facing children’s services is such that it cannot be […]
Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings have got MPs exactly where they want them: defending Parliament. They may cast this right now as a battle between an executive that wants to deliver on the referendum result and a legislature that wants to stymie it but soon the rhetoric will morph. It will become a fight between […]
Levels of violent youth crime on our streets have never been so high. Over the last four years, the number of these offences has increased by 34%. This is also reflected in the New Local Government Network’s latest Leadership Index survey, with over 60% of our 207 respondents – who were council chiefs, leaders and […]
With violent youth crime firmly in the public eye, our latest NLGN Leadership Index focusses on how the issue is affecting local government and how the sector is responding to the crisis. As with all of our quarterly surveys – this being the sixth – there is also the chance to review trends in confidence […]
Support the community commissioning agenda and transform the way local authorities interact with communities For almost a decade, local authorities have struggled to manage increasing demand for public services whilst tackling the issues that communities face. As shown in the NLGN’s Community Paradigm, public services interact with communities in an increasingly transactional manner, offering quick-fixes […]
In May’s local elections, 10 areas took part in a trial requiring people to show some form of identification before casting their vote. The downside of this, we now know, was that some 750 people were denied their chance to take part in local democracy. The upside? Well that’s harder to pinpoint, as we know […]
A week ago, the UK reached its hottest recorded temperature. Over the weekend half a month’s rain fell in one hour. On Tuesday, major flooding hit Yorkshire. And yesterday, the Met Office confirmed that the UK’s 10 hottest years on record have all happened since the start of the century. In fact, our coldest year […]
