After a slow start, Labour seems to be finding its feet in opposition. But with a general election a little over a year away, time is running out for the party to produce a coherent policy vision for children, young people and families.
Youth work and schools make strange bedfellows. The very essence of youth work as voluntary and non-formal is certainly at odds with the formal, compulsory nature of school.
In what ended up as an explosive exit interview, Tim Loughton lifted the lid on the inner workings of the Department for Education at a select committee hearing last week with the department's former ministers.
The country might be out of recession (again), but with the size of the deficit still enormous, public spending shows no sign of returning to growth. In our special report, we examine the long-term challenges and consequences of children's services spend continuing to fall during this decade.