
£5bn council SEND debts to be paid off by government
It comes days after the Local Government Association warned that eight in 10 English councils would face bankruptcy, if they had to honour deficits.
FRIDAY, 13 MARCH 2026, 23:27

It comes days after the Local Government Association warned that eight in 10 English councils would face bankruptcy, if they had to honour deficits.

Cap-busting tax hike will be embarrassing for the party, which has made low council tax a priority
Reform-led Worcestershire county council is likely to issue England’s largest council tax rise this April after it was given special permission by the government to increase it by up to 9%.
Worcestershire is one of a handful of authorities whose requests to be allowed to increase local rates above...

Thousands walk out after talks with district failed to reach agreement on wages, healthcare and resources for students with special needs
About 6,000 public schoolteachers in San Francisco went on strike on Monday, the first public schoolteachers strike in the city in nearly 50 years.
The strike comes after teachers and the district failed to reach an agreement over higher wages, health...

Georgia Gould reassures parents that no child will be asked to leave school or have levels of assistance removed
Children with special needs will not lose their places at special schools or current levels of assistance, an education minister has told parents anxious that the government would strip away their child’s support.
Facing questions at an online forum, part of the Department for...

A disciplinary panel hears how the teacher reacted after having liquid sprayed in his face.

Former head teacher Michelle Stone was attacked by a student at a Hampshire special school.

More than a quarter of students at The London Academy of Excellence are offered places at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Ministers say UK universities have become a “prime target for foreign states and hostile actors”.

By freezing thresholds, Labour is quietly loading the cost of public services on to young graduates, while insisting it has not raised taxes at all
The personal finance expert Martin Lewis upbraided the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, for freezing the threshold at which millions of graduates repay their loans, saying that this was treating student debts like tax. He was right, and Ms Reeves’s...

Young people are hungering for meaning. A lack of spiritual education in childhood can reverberate across a lifetime
Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life
As a parent, I want nothing more than for my children to grow into healthy, happy, purposeful human beings. Yet all around me – in classrooms, in conversation and in alarming...

Move by Pete Hegseth marks latest escalation by Trump administration against the Ivy League school
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said the Pentagon is ending all military training, fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University, marking the Trump administration’s latest escalation against the Ivy League school.
“The @DeptWar is formally ending ALL Professional...

Campaigners have criticised the terms of loans that were issued in England and still exist in Wales.

Teachers, Ofsted and unions will study how new report cards affect school leaders’ wellbeing.

A cross-party group calls on the government to “align funding to need”, as ministers consider SEND reforms.

The government is due to publish plans to reform the special educational needs system in early 2026.

Operator Merlin Entertainments said the pass was no longer working as intended because of increasing demand.

Surrey County Council puts forward proposals to reduce the speed limit near schools.

The Scottish Charity Regulator said Fernhill School in Rutherglen had not submitted accounts for years.

The move comes just weeks after peers supported legislation to ban under-16s in the UK from social media.

The Department of Education plans will be presented to MLAs for approval.

The University of Sussex says the watchdog overstepped its legal powers in imposing the fine last year.