Soaring demand for health visitors – survey
A survey by the Institute of Health Visiting has found an increase in complex needs among families, alongside a severe shortage of health visitors and significant disparities in service provision.
The Editorial Team
Local growth
National economic growth can only be achieved if every local economy is firing on all cylinders.
Funding for UAS children
The Home Office has ended key funding incentives for councils receiving unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children through the National Transfer Scheme.
Pathways to planning
Councils can sign up to hire planners to start work in September 2025, via the LGA’s ‘Pathways to Planning’ graduate scheme.
Additional funding for councils ‘falls short’
The UK Government has announced additional funding for councils in England, including towards the cost of increases in employers’ National lnsurance contributions – as called for by the LGA in December (see first 700).
Devolution ‘must not distract from funding’
Two-tier council areas will be forced to reorganise if they don’t come up with their own plans under proposals set out in the Government’s English Devolution White Paper.
Local government set mandatory housing targets
Councils must meet new mandatory housing targets as part of government plans to build 1.5 million homes by the next general election.
New registers for children not in school
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, introduced to Parliament in December, includes plans for new registers to identify children who are not in school – something for which the LGA has lobbied for years.