Local Authority round-up: 15/11/24
15th November, 2024
Our Local Authority round up provides brief summaries of topical information on a weekly basis, to keep you aware of the changes and updates relevant to you.
Housing
Government invests £10 million to tackle homelessness this winter
The Government has announced an emergency £10 million investment to protect rough sleepers during the winter season by ensuring access to safe accommodation. The Budget announced that an additional £233 million will be utilised to tackle all forms of homelessness, increasing the total spending on homelessness to nearly £1 billion in 2025-26.
This money will directly fund critical services to support people into secure, stable housing as well as help those at risk of homelessness to pay deposits and negotiate with landlords, reducing the overall need for temporary accommodation.
This funding seeks to supplement the Government’s aim to tackle the housing crisis. Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions could be abolished through the Renters’ Rights Bill and £500 million has been invested in the Affordable Homes Programme to deliver 5,000 new social homes.
For more information please click here.
Regulatory
Government introduces stringent reforms for the NHS
In order to tackle the NHS crisis, the Health and Social Care Secretary has introduced a number of stringent reforms, explaining that the Government and NHS leaders have a duty to patients and taxpayers to ensure the system is efficient and cost effective.
NHS England is set to carry out a large scale review of NHS performance, which will ultimately result in providers being placed into a league table. These tables will be publicly available and regularly updated to ensure leaders, policy makers and patients know which improvements need to be prioritised.
The Government has confirmed that expert leaders will be deployed to help providers which are providing poor services for patients, offering them urgent support so they can improve their service. However, it has been made clear that senior managers which are persistently failing will be ineligible for pay increases and could be replaced.
In contrast, high-performing providers will be given greater flexibility over their capital funding to invest in modernising their facilities, equipment and technology.
To supplement this, the NHS Oversight Framework will be updated by the next financial year to ensure performance is properly scrutinised.
For more information please click here.
Education
The Department for Education publishes new guidance on making significant changes to maintained schools
The new changes in the October 2024 guidance mainly seek to remove specific references to Ofsted ratings in response to the Government’s recent reform of the inspection system. For example, on page 5, the new guidance states the following:
‘Additional new places will only be provided at schools with strong performance records, particularly taking into account Ofsted sub judgements on leadership and management and quality of education. Schools that are not currently performing strongly should only be expanded where there are no other viable options.‘
Whereas the previous guidance stated:
‘Additional new places will only be provided at schools that have an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or “outstanding”. Schools which do not fall within these categories should only be expanded where there are no other viable options‘.
The Government has argued that single headline Ofsted grades fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance and are supported by a minority of parents and teachers. It is hoped that the reforms, supplemented by the new guidance for maintained schools, will provide a more comprehensive assessment.
For more information please click here.
If you have any questions about stories please contact Tim Care in our Public Sector Team
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
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