Delivering Regeneration: How collaborative contracts are transforming place-making
Discover how collaborative contracting is helping councils deliver regeneration more effectively with this free special report from LocalGov and NEC Contracts.
London Mayor launches £12m AI fund for small businesses
6/8/2026 Mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a £12m programme to help London's small businesses adopt artificial intelligence (AI), announced today at London Tech Week. |
Council leaders call for central role in tackling youth unemployment crisis
5/28/2026 Council leaders have said local authorities are best placed to tackle the youth unemployment crisis, responding to report warning of a ‘lost generation’. |
'We survived the election': The wellbeing crisis facing electoral services teams
5/13/2026 LocalGov speaks to the Association of Electoral Administrators about the human cost of delivering elections and whether it is sustainable. |
Council launches petition to guarantee job interviews for care leavers
4/28/2026 Staffordshire CC has launched a petition calling on businesses with 50 plus employees, or a turnover above £5m, to guarantee job interviews to care leavers. |
Social work funding must match nursing and teaching, says LGA
4/24/2026 More than half of adult social workers are experiencing increasingly complex caseloads while resources fail to keep pace with demand, new LGA survey reveals. |
Training the carers who champion care leavers
4/13/2026 Become's Personal Adviser Development Programme is giving Personal Advisers the skills and confidence to better support young people leaving care. |
Government confirms 80 new Youth Hubs
3/26/2026 Government has announced 80 new Youth Hub locations, as part of a drive to tackle the nearly one million young people currently neither earning nor learning. |
Youth Jobs Grant welcomed as councils call for coordinated local delivery
3/17/2026 The Government has unveiled a major employment drive aimed at creating 200,000 jobs and apprenticeships for young people, including a new Youth Jobs Grant. |
Report finds uneven AI readiness across councils
3/10/2026 A major new study has revealed a mixed picture of artificial intelligence (AI) readiness among local councils across the UK. |
Public libraries face volunteering workforce pressures
2/17/2026 A new report has warned that England’s public libraries face mounting workforce and infrastructure pressures as volunteering continues to expand. |
AI skills push aims to equip 10m workers by 2030
1/28/2026 The Government has launched an expansion of free AI training for workers, including local government employees, aiming to upskill 10 million people by 2030. |
Why upskilling the workforce is mission-critical
1/15/2026 Local government’s digital future depends on its people — and councils like Sheffield are proving that investing in data skills is the fastest way to deliver. |
How partnerships can help LAs grow the labour market through apprenticeships
1/8/2026 Partnerships can help councils fill critical skills gaps and grow the labour market by boosting apprenticeship starts, according to leading training provider. |
National recruitment campaign for local government launched
1/5/2026 A new national recruitment drive aiming to boost council workforces has been launched amid growing staffing pressures across local government. |
From Ambition to Action: how to turn digital vision into reality
11/28/2025 James Towner, ArvatoConnect, argues that while public sector digital transformation is advancing, true value lies in turning ambition into measurable outcomes. |
Lords: Devolve powers to tackle youth unemployment faster
11/19/2025 Devolution of power and resources to councils could reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), a new study suggests. |
Digital Transformation, AI and Local Government: The Case for Workforce Upskilling
11/14/2025 The new LocalGov and Multiverse report explores how workforce upskilling is driving smarter, more efficient, and inclusive local government transformation. |
Autumn Budget Insights: What the local government workforce really needs
11/4/2025 Pam Parkes, President of PPMA, argues that local government cannot deliver reform or growth without investing in its workforce. |
10 ways councils can boost staff retention
9/30/2025 Budget strain and heavy workloads are driving council staff away. Here are 10 simple changes that can make a big difference. |
Call for better training for adult social care workforce
9/26/2025 Working conditions and workforce training in adult social care need urgent improvement, according to a new report from the Royal Society for Public Health. |
Planning recruitment at risk as apprenticeship funding cuts bite
9/25/2025 Thirty-three organisations across planning, housing, nature, and energy are urging the Government to provide £7m to recruit and train apprentice planners. |
Coventry secures £1m to support disadvantaged young people
9/22/2025 Coventry City Council has received almost £250,000 in additional Government funding, bringing total investment in youth education programmes to over £1m. |
Audit warns of ‘critical governance failings’ at Wrexham Council
9/9/2025 An audit has revealed that Wrexham County Borough Council has made ‘insufficient progress’ in solving ‘critical governance issues’. |
Why age alone shouldn’t define local government leadership
8/8/2025 Age should never define leadership in local government, says Graeme McDonald, Managing Director of Solace. Instead, councils should invest in inclusive, skills-based development for officers and councillors to deliver effective public services. |
‘Skills revolution’ boosted with 120,000 training places
5/27/2025 The Government has made available 120,000 new training opportunities to help young people develop skills in key areas such as social care. |
Skills England 'needs time to prove itself'
5/6/2025 The agency created by the Government to boost post-16 skills in England needs a year to show whether it will be effective, a prominent educationalist says. |
Urgent need for teacher training amidst schools crisis
4/29/2025 The Government should provide £260m to fund a new 'national entitlement' to teacher training to help raise school standards, think tank says. |
Streeting: Care staff to be trained in ‘cutting-edge’ tech
4/9/2025 Social care workers will be trained to use the latest ‘cutting-edge technology’ to help improve the social care system, Wes Streeting has said. |
CCN: Planning legislation would ‘dilute’ local oversight
3/11/2025 Legislation aimed at speeding up planning decisions would ‘dilute’ the role of councillors on planning committees, warns the County Council Network (CCN). |
Devolution would help skills 'mismatch' - report
12/3/2024 Government should give local areas greater powers over skills to address the ‘mismatch' of people needed for future industries, Birmingham Uni has urged. |
Kendall: Local government to join up work opportunities
11/26/2024 Mayors and councils will be given powers to join up services locally to tackle worklessness, the work and pensions secretary will announce today. |
Fixing care’s recruitment and retention issue
7/31/2024 Ben Weatherall, co-founder and director of Curam, looks at what local authorities can do to fix the care sector’s recruitment and retention issue. |
New Advanced CPD Set to Combat False Fire Alarms
7/22/2024 Advanced is pleased to announce the launch of its latest Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course: Managing False Fire Alarms: Tools & Techniques. |
Care sector needs 540,000 workers by 2040
7/18/2024 The care sector will need 540,000 additional social care posts by 2040 to cope with the aging population, care workforce body Skills for Care estimates. |
Six tips to improve public services in the UK
7/15/2024 From social care and schools to bins and the criminal justice system, public services touch the lives of everyone. Here are six tips for improving them. |
Local Government Apprentice of the Year announced
5/24/2024 Sara Jenner-Akehurst from Cambridgeshire County Council has been named as the 2024 Local Government Apprentice of the Year. |
SkillGate’s Classroom Booking System - Training course booking made easy!
4/29/2024 Streamline your training course booking operations with SkillGate’s Classroom Booking System. |
UltraCrete wins Employment and Skills Award at RSTA Annual Conference
4/18/2024 UltraCrete are delighted to announce that they have been presented with the coveted Employment and Skills Award at the 2024 RSTA Annual Conference. |
LGA announces 2024/25 Sector Support programme
4/12/2024 The Local Government Association (LGA) has announced the 2024/25 Sector Support programme to help councils ‘deliver critical services to communities.’ |
UltraCrete partners with Salford City College
3/27/2024 A new UltraCrete and Salford City College Group partnership will see Highways Maintenance Skilled Operative Apprenticeship students become UCARS Accredited. |
National Apprenticeship Week: The importance of a national skills strategy
2/5/2024 Nichola Hay MBE, director of Apprenticeship Strategy and Policy at BPP, discusses the importance of a national strategy with a regional approach. |
Study reveals ‘worrying’ state of local government leadership
1/25/2024 Just over half of council leaders and managers believe their local authority isn’t ensuring accountability for failure, an alarming new study has revealed. |
Social care career reforms ‘only scratch the surface’
1/10/2024 The Government today announced new measures to improve the career prospects of social care staff but concerns remain that this ‘may only scratch the surface’. |
Skills shortage ‘putting brakes’ on net zero
12/12/2023 The skills shortage is undermining efforts to reduce carbon emissions and effectively tackle the climate crisis, local authority leaders in London have warned. |
VR training on coercive control rolled out
11/7/2023 An immersive training programme that aims to raise awareness of gender-based violence and support those affected has been rolled out in Greater Manchester and North Wales. |
County leaders call for ‘adult education revolution’
9/4/2023 County council leaders have urged the Government to ‘fast track’ devolution deals to help boost the number of people taking part in adult education. |
Councils face £18m bill from new housing standards
8/8/2023 Local authorities could be stuck with an £18m bill to implement new government housing standards, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned. |
LGA: ‘Radical shift’ towards local employment support needed
7/25/2023 Council leaders have called for a ‘radical shift’ from centralised employment support after a consultation emphasised the benefits of 'local involvement'. |
Skills shortage set to worsen with end of European fund
7/21/2023 Local authority leaders have warned that the ongoing skills shortage could get worse as the European Social Fund (ESF) finishes at the end of this year. |
MPs call for devolution of employment support
7/19/2023 The delivery of support aimed at helping people into employment should be devolved to groups of local authorities, MPs have said. |
Government backtracks on ‘employment only’ adult education outcomes
7/17/2023 The Department for Education (DfE) has scrapped its plans to end funding for adult education courses that are not directly linked to employment outcomes. |
Skilled worker shortage undermining net zero drive
6/1/2023 A skilled worker shortage means that at the current rate of heat pump and insulation installation it could take ‘several hundred years’ to meet net zero. |
Council chiefs welcome £165m skills fund
5/25/2023 Local authority leaders have welcomed the launch of a £165m skills fund but say councils should be given more powers to help people into employment. |
Guidance to support social care digitisation published
5/18/2023 The Government has published new guidance to help local authorities and care providers develop digital skills and drive digital transformation. |
Government launches £500,000 know-your-rights scheme
4/19/2023 Social housing tenants in seven cities are to be offered a place on a Government-funded training scheme aimed at helping them hold their landlords to account. |
Council welcomes ‘significant’ £20m Blyth investment
2/24/2023 The Government has announced a multi-million-pound funding package to help spread opportunity and boost local pride in Blyth. |
Council chiefs call for devolution of skills powers
2/24/2023 Local authority leaders have called for the devolution of skills budgets and powers to help them support young people into education, employment or training. |
Solving the homelessness sector’s workforce crisis
2/14/2023 Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, discusses the first ever accredited qualification for the homelessness workforce. |
Khan announces £14m to restore trust in Met
1/27/2023 The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has set out proposals for £14.2m of new funding to rebuild the trust and confidence of London’s communities in the Met Police. |
First ever qualification for homelessness workforce launched
1/24/2023 The first ever accredited qualification for the homelessness workforce has been launched to help frontline staff develop their skills. |
Be Part of a Net-Zero Future – BEIS-funded training available through the Retrofit Academy
1/23/2023 Retrofit Academy secures funding to deliver over 1200 retrofit courses in England to help the UK achieve its net zero goals by building a skilled workforce. |
Nine in 10 councils experiencing staffing issues
1/20/2023 Council leaders have warned that the workforce crisis is threatening local services as a survey reveals nine in 10 councils are experiencing staffing issues. |
Better together: how to retain IT talent in the public sector
12/21/2022 Arun Kumar, regional director at ManageEngine, looks at how the public sector can get over its digital skills problem. |
Government’s £4bn annual skills spend ‘failing to deliver’
12/14/2022 Council chiefs have called for an end to the centralised approach to training as report finds that the Government’s £4bn skills spend is ‘failing to deliver’. |
DWP urged to devolve employment support to councils
12/2/2022 Local authority leaders have called for all employment support to be devolved to councils rather than contracted out to large providers. |
How tech can help councils handle customer vulnerability
11/30/2022 Paul Mander outlines how local government can use tech to spot vulnerable individuals. |
Thousands of apprentices quit due to ‘poor quality’ of scheme
11/28/2022 Thousands of people who have taken up apprenticeships to help them develop new skills have dropped out due to the poor quality of schemes, research reveals. |
Social care vacancies up by a record 52%
10/11/2022 The number of vacant posts in adult social care has increased by a record 52% in one year, an alarming new report has revealed. |
Nearly half of teachers not confident teaching sex education
9/29/2022 Almost half of secondary school teachers say they don’t feel confident teaching sex and relationships education, a new survey has revealed. |
Council chiefs welcome call for £1bn skills funding
9/22/2022 Council leaders have welcomed a call to move away from the top-down approach to skills, and to provide communities with the funding needed to boost employment. |
£500m social care workforce fund approved
8/10/2022 The Government has announced a support package worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in an effort to tackle the social care staffing crisis. |
Councils urged to boost local digital skills
6/6/2022 Councils urged to do more to help small businesses with digital training as evidence suggests businesses are struggling with the social media revolution. |
Devolve powers to tackle jobs crisis, council chiefs say
5/17/2022 Local authority leaders have called on the Government to devolve more powers to councils to free them up to tackle the growing job crisis at the local level. |
Training carers key priority for social care sector
5/12/2022 Reform and training carers are two of the key priorities for the social care sector during the year ahead, according to the annual report of the CSW Lyn Romeo. |
Adult social care workforce receives £500m boost
4/5/2022 People working in adult social care in England are set to benefit from a £500m boost that will go towards improving the recruitment and retention of staff. |
Social housing staff training review confirmed
1/18/2022 The Government today confirmed a review of the training of social housing staff after receiving thousands of complaints in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy. |
Mayor Khan announces £600,000 fund to ‘rewild’ London
12/15/2021 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has launched a new fund to help restore wildlife sites and create more natural habitats for plants and animals across the capital. |
Council chiefs call for devolution of skills powers
11/30/2021 Local authority leaders are urging MPs to support measures that would see councils have more say in the delivery of skills development at the local level. |
Government launches £7m flexible apprenticeship scheme
8/3/2021 Anyone looking to get experience and training to work in adult social care will now be able benefit from new flexible apprenticeships, the Government says. |
Homes England invites council officers to join summer training programme
5/17/2021 Homes England are inviting council officers to join a Summer Learning Programme aimed at sharing knowledge on topics that could enhance home-building efforts. |
UC claimants given access to longer work-related training
4/1/2021 An initiative aimed at increasing access to training for UC claimants will see an extension to the time people can receive UC during work-focused study. |
PM pledges to transform skills and training system
9/29/2020 The Prime Minister has outlined plans to transform the training and skills system to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic. |
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Council cuts damaging ‘grassroots’ grass pitches
10/30/2019 Local authority austerity and budget cuts have had a damaging effect on ‘grassroots’ grass pitches, a groundskeeping organisation says. |
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Funding to train nurses should be expanded to public health workers, council chiefs say
9/11/2019 Funding to train nurses should be expanded to cover public health workers including health visitors and school nurses, the Local Government Association says. |
