The Heritage Lottery Fund has published its second State of the UK Public Parks report which shows that many local authorities now face a growing problem of how best to manage their parks and green spaces in a time of austerity. The report examines alternative approaches to management of parks.
The Government has renewed its strategy for young people leaving local authority care, now called Keep on Caring. Key developments include a local offer for care leavers and a personal adviser up to the age of 25 for all care leavers.
This briefing considers the issue of active travel, a current policy focus for the UK and Scottish Government, and its central role in achieving sustainable transport, and furthermore wider sustainable development, objectives.
Tobacco use continues to be a major public health issue and the prevalence of under-age smokers presents challenges which go beyond legality and physical health towards issues of inequality. This briefing summarises the latest data and national strategy with the aim of informing local strategy to ensure Scotland achieves its aim for a tobacco-free generation.
The DfE is consulting (until 22 September 2016) on funding arrangements for the new entitlement to free childcare for children aged 3 and 4-years old of eligible working parents. A new fair national funding system will be introduced for all childcare provision as a consequence. This CSN Briefing looks at the consultation.
The health, public health and social care round-up summarises new policy, research and publications that are relevant to elected members and officers interested in health and social care. It is intended to be a digested read and provides links to the source documentation of major reports for further consideration.
Ten years on, the ban on smoking in public places is widely considered to be a public health success story. This briefing considers the role that local authorities are now playing in the regulation of tobacco, and upcoming developments in smoking enforcement.
The All-Party Commons Education Committee has reviewed the Government's social work reform programme and invites the Government to change its mind over a proposed feature of its reforms, or to remedy a significant short-coming.
The Home Office with DfE support is consulting on whether practitioners, and their managers, working with children should be placed under a new statutory duty to report and act on children abuse and neglect. The consultation closes on 13 October 2016.
The Government regularly commissions surveys of the attitudes of young people enabling comparisons to be made over time. The Longitudinal study of young people in England: cohort 2, wave 2 publication shows that over ten years, young people have become more serious about school although the distress level of girls, but not boys, has increased.…
