This joint action plan from Communities and Local Government and the LGA, is designed to take forward a shared community empowerment agenda. It forms an important strand of the Government’s overall strategy for constitutional renewal set out in the Governance of Britain’s Green Paper. The cross-government strategy aims to give citizens the means of participating in decision-making at every level.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has called for a dedicated Third Sector Skills Council to limit the growing skills gap. The sector recognises that not enough time is being devoted to the training and development of its employees, yet it does not have the access to the skills support currently available to the public and private sectors. The call comes as new figures reveal the continuing growth of the sector and its increasing need for professional and highly skilled people.
Less Whitehall control and greater power at local level will result from the Royal Assent of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act. John Healey, Local Government Minister, has promised that new opportunities for local action will be in place within six months.
Edited by John MeadowcroftThe authors argue that UK welfare policies are actually promoting poverty. By targeting lone parents for additional support, the government has encouraged self-defeating behaviour that increases long-term hardship and family breakdown. Lone parent families are far less likely to leave poverty at any point in their lives compared with couple families.
John Healey, Local Government Minister, has called for the retail sector and local authorities to work more closely to bring investment to deprived areas. The benefits of collaboration are that local authorities can improve the lives of their residents by tapping into the retail potential in their areas and provide an entry point to employment. At the same time, deprived areas offer commercial opportunities for retailers to fill a gap in the market.
Grants of between 10,000 – 500,000 pounds from the Big Lottery Fund will be made available to charities and voluntary sector organisations for research in the areas of health and social wellbeing. Exceptional projects will qualify for up to 1 million pound grants. Applicants who need extra support will be able to apply for development grants of up to 10,000 pounds to help develop their research proposal.
Read more on CASH TO HELP THIRD SECTOR GET INVOLVED IN SERVICE DESIGN…
New arrangements have been introduced to provide NHS funded services for people outside hospital with ongoing health needs. Continuing healthcare can be provided in any setting including in the home or in a care home. NHS continuing healthcare is free, unlike help from social services for which a charge may be made depending on income and savings.
Campaigners are claiming today that while the Government’s Environmental watchdog has made progress it still has a lot to do to show it can really protect landscapes and wildlife. The verdict comes from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which today issues a report into the work of Natural England in the year since its creation.
Council leaders have welcomed Government plans for financial incentives for authorities who act to make more homes available and speed up the building of new properties. They have warned, however, that there needs to be additional money for services to prevent the creation of what they call ‘desolate dormitories’.
Read more on WARNING THAT PUSH FOR MORE HOMES MUST NOT CREATE ‘DESOLATE DORMITORIES’…
By Noel Smith and Sue Middleton. The official UK poverty rate is calculated by point-in-time surveys made at intervals and the method assumes that the same households are in poverty at later dates. Using dynamic research the authors trace changes in the circumstances of the same households over time and plot movements in and out of poverty. This approach reveals that poverty is fluid and dynamic and it embraces a broad population whose experiences of poverty are diverse.
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