ENGLAND

The Local Government Association (LGA) has a Children and Young People's Board, which has responsibility for activity to do with the wellbeing of children and young people.

It is chaired by Conservative councillor Les Lawrence, the lead member for children, young people and families at Birmingham City Council.

The board's objectives are to promote a strategic role for local authorities in improving outcomes for people up to the age of 19, secure maximum support for local government to deliver change and learning, and to consolidate the role of councils in joining up services and developing multi-agency working.

SCOTLAND

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) recently signed a concordat, or voluntary agreement, with the Scottish Government where both parties agreed to work together when shaping policy and setting targets.

Cosla's spokeswoman for education is Scottish National Party councillor Isabel Hutton. She is charged with strategy and policy development for children and young people. The focus is on improving outcomes, rather than monitoring inputs. To aid this, the vast majority of ringfenced funds have been incorporated in the main local authority settlement and there will be reductions in bureaucracy to improve outcomes.

WALES

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has a range of policy officers focused specifically on children and young people who disseminate information to councils. There is a directors' group within the WLGA structure that leads work on children and young people.

The WLGA has developed Excellence Wales and one of its central themes this year is children and young people. The Child Poverty Solutions Wales website, developed by the WLGA and Save the Children, provides councils with a toolkit to measure their success in tackling child poverty and guidance on developing children and young people's plans.

NORTHERN IRELAND

While local government does not have responsibility for the development and delivery of children and young people's services in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) has argued that these powers should be transferred to councils.

Councils are already involved in work to tackle antisocial behaviour and have spent money on different projects for young people in their local areas.

To back up its argument, recent NILGA research showed that more than 400,000 children and young people between the ages of four and 25 have participated in council initiatives worth £7m.