It focuses on how kinship carers are coping financially and on the impact of welfare reforms and changes
in local authority support.
«No amount of effort to redefine the meaning of «poverty» will make up for the services that the Coalition Government has destroyed — closure of libraries; limits on access to free school meals; all but abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance; tuition fees up; huge reduction in the number of Sure Start centres; cuts to funding for
local authority support services.
Tina Allison discusses what schools need to be aware of as they move towards academy transition, and what it means to have responsibility for finances
without local authority support.
Cllr David Borrow, finance spokesman for the County Councils Network, added that cutting the ESG to a point where it is «almost non-existent» in two years» time will «
stop local authorities supporting their schools and communities».
He also said a review of difficulties for
local authorities supporting maintained schools — after a # 600 million cut in the Education Services Grant — had led to a further # 50 million - a-year fund in that area.
Fewer social workers and education psychologists and
less local authority support for hard - to - place students means that schools will struggle to provide support for students with behavioural and emotional difficulties.
It's called Kinship Connected, and
helps local authorities support and empower kinship families in their area through independent project worker and peer support.
The full impact of cuts to education services are yet to be realised but with cuts to
local authority support services and libraries many schools are already struggling to afford vital resources such as those for special needs and ethnic minority pupils.
Transitioning schools will face responsibilities far more expansive than in their current form including legislation — meeting the needs of both the Companies and Charities Acts - and managing their finances
without local authority support.
Challenges presented by the current reforms to the education system come at a time of overall reform of
local authority support and changes to the health service, resulting in a set of challenges that will require careful guidance and measured progress to overcome.
If we accept that this needs to be achieved within a backdrop of a more challenging fiscal environment and a dilution of
local authority support, schools and academies will need to assess their capacity to cope with the new - landscape.
Academies are outside of
the local authority support structure, and receive no services - like special educational needs support - from councils.
Fragment still further access to
local authority support services, such as support for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs, and weaken local co-ordination of education provision.
Government cuts to local authority funding mean a significant reduction in the support available to schools, while the changes to the high needs funding system do not take account of the value that
local authority support can add.
We do not yet have a positive vision for the future of smaller schools in the absence of
local authority support.»
These carers are often facing the unexpected challenge of bringing up children in difficult family circumstances without access to
local authority support.
These carers are often facing the unexpected challenge of bringing up children without access to
local authority support.
Depending on the arrangement in place, most aren't entitled to
any local authority support, and say they struggle to access the help the children need — of children with special needs, a quarter had received no specialist support.