News

Ofsted to shift children's centre inspections from providers to councils

Ofsted will scrap individual inspections of children’s centres in favour of local authority-wide assessments, childcare minister Elizabeth Truss has said.

Truss told the education select committee today that the inspectorate will judge local authorities on the effectiveness and reach of children’s centres, providing an overall rating for [...]

Labour estimates 60,000 shortfall in free childcare places. Nearly half of local authorities look set to have insufficient nursery places available to deliver free childcare for all eligible two-year-olds just months before the expansion of the scheme, new figures show.

Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request by shadow childcare minister Lucy Powell has found [...]

Government dismisses '20-mile rule' for children's home placements

Nearly half of children in residential care are placed outside their home authority. Picture: Morguefile

The government has rejected calls for it to consider prohibiting local authorities from placing children in residential care more than 20 miles from home. Responding to a report by the education [...]

BAAF chief executive departs after less than six months Srabani Sen has left her post as chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) it has emerged.

Sen, former chief executive of Contact a Family and, before that, Alcohol Concern, joined BAAF in December 2013, but was replaced at the helm by Barbara Hutchinson, [...]

Call for councils to lead youth employment schemes. The government should hand over responsibility for youth employment schemes to local authorities in order to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet), council leaders have said.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has claimed that almost all young people would be in [...]