Responding to a report by the Children’s Commissioner on local area spending on low level children’s mental health services, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, said:

Millions of pounds are to be spent on a brand refresh for the Government’s National Citizen Service (NCS), despite calls from councils for some of the scheme’s funding to be devolved to plug £300 million cuts to local youth services.

Efforts to stop children joining gangs and getting involved in violent crime will be undermined if the Government makes further cuts to the money councils receive to tackle youth offending, town halls warn today.

The amount of money spent by councils on providing vital care and support for unaccompanied children seeking asylum has almost doubled in four years, latest figures show.

Responding to the report by the Civic University Commission, which sets out the place of universities in civic life, Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s People and Places Board, said: