Local authorities should be legally bound to provide early help, government told

The government must introduce a legal duty requiring local authorities to provide early help services to struggling families, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has said. A new report by the charity and the University of Cambridge finds that between 2010/11 and 2018/19, local authority funding on early help services fell by 44 per cent. Over the same time period the use of late intervention services, including children entering care or the youth justice system, increased by 29 per cent. Read more.