Ahead of the Spring Budget on 6 March, the Society of London Treasurers (SLT) has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP to urge the government to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) into the 2024/25 financial year.

The SLT, which is the professional network for London local authorities’ most senior finance officers, previously wrote to the government in December calling for the HSF to continue. With boroughs required to finalise their budgets by March, the treasurers reiterate the urgent need for clarifying whether the HSF will be extended, or if transitional funding will be available to help maintain local support services.

In their letter, President of the SLT, Clive Palfreyman, says: “Boroughs under severe financial strain will be challenged to fill the gaps cancelling the HSF would create.” You can read the letter in full here.

London Councils this week briefed London MPs ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on the potential merits of a register of not in school children (home educated children).

London Councils believes that the government should introduce and fund a duty for local authorities to maintain a register of children who are not registered at specified schools or being educated under s.19 arrangements. This should include a duty for parents to register their children when they elect to home educate them, alongside a brief summary of the guidance for parents in an easily digestible format.

You can read our Parliamentary briefing in full here.

London boroughs are always looking for new and innovative ways to engage with their communities.

The Supporting London Boroughs Engagement Project is funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and is being led by London Councils, in collaboration with our London Community Engagement Network. The project aims to:

• ensure that Londoners’ voices are heard by the decision makers.
• share community-led insights, especially from underrepresented groups such as people who are deaf or hard of hearing
• work with residents on innovative community engagement projects and sharing this learning with all London boroughs.

The project will run until the summer, but we are already seeing some great outcomes, including, for example, the setting up of the Kingston Disability Network.

The GLA Community Engagement Team has also commissioned The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) to deliver a research project to map community engagement practice across London and highlight areas of innovative work.

The outputs from the research, including case studies, a practical toolkit to improve engagement practice, and a key insights document, can be found here.

The Metropolitan Police are seeking the views of Londoners on stop and search. They have launched a new survey that asks Londoners what they think about stop and search practises to help inform a charter between local communities and the Met.

The 32-question survey focuses on the public’s perception of stop and search, personal experiences of the tactic, training for officers, and what could be done better.

It takes approximately 20 minutes and results will have a lasting impact on how the Met carries out the tactic to better police London. You can complete the survey here.

Congratulations to all the London councils who have been shortlisted for this year's LGC Awards, including (category in brackets):

(Campaign of the Year): Havering, The Havering characters; Lewisham, A warm welcome for all; Waltham Forest, Let's talk Waltham Forest. (Children’s Services): Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, We got u, u got this; Westminster clinical work; and virtual reality for relaxation and wellbeing in response to serious youth violence. (Community Involvement); Ealing, Let’s go Southall; Kensington and Chelsea, Co-designing service standards; Lewisham, Streets trees for living; Redbridge, Disability Awareness Festival 2023. (Diversity and Inclusion): Tower Hamlets, Creating diverse and inclusive schools in Tower Hamlets; Westminster, Taking action to increase representation on boards across Westminster voluntary and community organisations and supporting career development. (Economic Development): Haringey, with Policy in Practice, Reduce barriers to work with data-led employment campaigns; Islington, leading inclusive futures through technology. (Environmental Services): Hackney, flash food waste trial. (Future Places): Barnet, A brilliant new gateway: Brent, Cross West station; Hammersmith & Fulham, clean air neighbourhood scheme; West London Alliance , Shaping a digital West London. (Health and Social Care): Newham, Independent Living Support Service trusted assessors; Redbridge, How do you redesign adults social care to give better outcomes for residents? (Housing): Greenwich; Haringey, Housing delivery programme; Newham, Newham's private sector licensing schemes. (Large Team of the Year); Haringey, Housing delivery team; Newham, with London Network for Pest Solutions, Raising the standard for council pest control. (Medium Team of the Year): Merton, Air quality team at the regulatory services partnership; Southwark, Old Kent Road team, planning & growth; Tower Hamlets, Tackling poverty. (Small Team of the Year): Kingston Upon Thames, Employment, Skills and Enterprise team; Tower Hamlet , Tower Hamlets viability. (Net Zero): Hammersmith & Fulham, Embedding climate culture; Sutton, Green enterprise partnership: delivering innovative green tax incentives for local businesses; Westminster, Waste fleet decarbonisation. (Outstanding Individual Contribution): Lambeth, Sophie Konradsen; Westminster, Serena Simon. (Public/Private Partnership); Enfield and Countryside Partnerships, Working together to deliver homes in a challenging market. (Public/Public Partnership): Lambeth, with APCOA Parking, Lambeth lead on national blue badge day of action. (Rising Star): Kensington and Chelsea, Molly Pritchard.

You can read this year's shortlist in full here.