Councils and fire chiefs have warned that reckless thrill-seekers leaping from structures as high as 65 feet into water risk fatal injuries or serious disability, after a surge in the dangerous activity during the summer holidays.
Councils are seeing more than 560 cases of children with mental health disorders every day – an increase of more than 50 per cent in just four years.
The Home Office has announced it will make more funding available for councils to support unaccompanied children seeking asylum, following lobbying by the LGA.
MPs have warned that children’s services are at breaking point, and have backed the LGA’s call for a funding gap of £3.1 billion to be plugged by 2025.
The Government has acted on a long-standing call by the LGA for a register of children not in school.
More than a third of local areas in England have reduced real-terms spending on ‘low-level’ children’s mental health services, according to a report by the Children’s Commissioner for England.
The Department for Education has not done enough to make the quality or finances of children’s social care sustainable, according to MPs.