Lancashire would be in line for an extra £250m of government cash per year – if ministers were to respond to a call from dozens of local authorities for fairer funding.
Day trips to London are to be included in a higher risk category when Lancashire schools are planning educational activities away from their own premises.
The NHS is taking too long to decide whether it is responsible for the on-going care needs of some Lancashire residents – and failing to quickly reimburse Lancashire County Council for any costs which the authority incurs as a result.
More than 200 elderly people who pay the full cost of attending council-run day centres in Lancashire will see the daily price go up by between £6 and £11 by next spring.
Three quarters of the predicted increase in the cost of individual “care episodes” across Lancashire over the next decade could be offset by investing in efforts to keep people living independently at home – or get them back home quicker after a stay in hospital.
The last time local government had a major overhaul in Lancashire, the Ford Cortina was the best-selling car in the UK, Terry Jacks topped the charts with Seasons in the Sun and the country had just emerged from the three-day working week.
Lancashire could struggle to show that it has made enough progress in improving its special needs services for young people before regulators return to the county later this year.
Improving the language skills of young children across Lancashire is set to be one of the priorities of an effort to boost their level of development by the time they are five years old.
