A government commission examining the barriers to becoming a councillor will consider salary hikes and accreditation for future town hall leaders, its chair has revealed.
A quarter of councils are under-performing in the services they provide to children, with the most vulnerable getting the worst service, Ofsted has said.
Campaigners have reacted angrily to news that the number of children living in relative poverty has risen in spite of the government's pledge to halve the total by 2010.
The social services inspectorate has listed 21 systematic failures to protect the most vulnerable children and warned that these might 'get lost' as responsibility for inspection is passed to Ofsted.
The Budget confirmed how much or little the Comprehensive Spending Review will have to play with. Whatever juggling goes on, something's got to give. But which government pledge will it be?
Benefits need to be made available for all disabled children and taken up by more families if the government is to eradicate child poverty by 2020, a leading think-tank has warned.
Teaching and school leaders have been muted in their response to a Budget that guarantees further real-terms increases in education spending, albeit at a much lower rate.
All children should be able to attend good schools, or at least have an equal opportunity of doing so. But that's not the case at present. The controversial new code of admissions aims to even the...
Councils and nursery providers have warned that the proposed national curriculum for babies, toddlers and pre-school children needs to be backed with adequate funding if it is to be a success.
Two heads are better than one when it comes to leading a major culture change in children's services. Sally Gainsbury meets the joint presidents of the Association of Directors of Children's Services...
Pre-school children are not meeting government-set learning goals because of variable early years teaching standards, education inspectors said this week.
Children's services in hospitals are poor because they are underfunded and not given the priority they deserve, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said this week.
A report published last week summarises the state of social housing and offers some solutions to the dilemmas the sector faces. But it promises no quick solutions to a complex set of problems
The funding system for adult social care is unsustainable and undesirable and should be replaced with an 'Every Older Person Matters' programme, central and local government leaders have said.
Whitehall's attempts at consultation leave a lot to be desired. But effective policy-making can only be achieved when there is a genuine process of engagement with all the different parties involved
Babies born in poor parts of England or to parents from ethnic minorities are up to seven times as likely to die before the age of one as those born in the richest areas, a government review has...
Government health watchdogs have criticised the 'disgraceful' lack of co-ordinated effort in reducing the number of children who have to be taken to hospital following preventable injury.
Councils are not securing appropriate or cost-effective education for children with special educational needs, the local government watchdog warned this week.
