Shining the spotlight on local council whistleblowing
Andy Shettle outlines how councils can create working environments where staff feel able to speak out about concerns surrounding misconduct.
Council adopts fingerprint-based drug testing
15/10/2019 Peterborough City Council has brought in fingerprint-based drug testing as part of its family safeguarding social care initiative. |
Children with special educational needs home schooled ‘as last resort’
15/10/2019 Parents of SEN children often home school their kids as a last resort rather than a preferred choice, a new Ofsted report has revealed. |
£2m loneliness fund launched
15/10/2019 The Government has launched a new £2m fund to help support grassroots organisations at the frontline of tackling loneliness. |
Nearly £300,000 paid to member of public due to typing error
15/10/2019 A council has added a new checking procedure to its finance system after an error led to a member of the public being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds. |
Council leader steps down to chair controversial tourism firm
15/10/2019 The leader of Wakefield Council, Cllr Peter Box, has announced that he is standing down following his appointment as chairman of an embattled tourism agency. |
Suffolk council postpones name change
15/10/2019 The decision to change the name of Babergh District Council has been temporarily postponed to give councillors more time to consider the proposal. |
Cities offered over £875,000 to support innovative climate change solutions
14/10/2019 Europe’s largest public-private partnership has called on cities around the world to join its ‘Climathon Global Awards’ to find new systems level solutions to tackle climate change. |
Homelessness crisis costs London councils £200m a year, report reveals
14/10/2019 The homelessness crisis and inadequate funding are costing local authorities in London an estimated £200m every year, the capital’s councils have warned. |
Queen's Speech 19: Whitehall to ‘implement’ new building safety standards
14/10/2019 The Government plans to ‘implement new building safety standards’ in order to prevent a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, according to the Queen’s speech. |
Council invests £18m in energy company
14/10/2019 Warrington Borough Council has agreed to invest £18m into a Scotland-based energy company because of its ‘unique industry business model’. |
Hull aims to be ‘one of smartest cities in the world’ with new partnership
14/10/2019 A new partnership between Hull CC and smart city operator Connexin is set to put Hull among ‘the world leaders in smart city technology’, council says. |
Whitehall announces £250m of culture spending
14/10/2019 The Government has announced £250m of funding for cultural projects, libraries, museums and the creative industries after a decade of cuts. |
Ashford BC’s local plan ‘legally sound’, court rules
11/10/2019 The High Court has rejected a case brought against Ashford Borough Council’s local plan, which the court concluded was legally ‘sound’. |
Unexplained exits from schools at ‘very high rates’
11/10/2019 A new study has warned of ‘very high rates’ of unexplained pupil exits from schools among several local authorities and multi-academy trusts in England. |
New financial management code launched
11/10/2019 A new Financial Management Code has been launched to drive improvement in financial management for councils across the UK. |
Around 58,000 reception-aged children obese, data shows
11/10/2019 New figures from the NHS have revealed that obesity levels among reception-aged schoolchildren in England have increased. |
Council makes in-house delivery of services ‘official default choice’
10/10/2019 Haringey Council has announced that the direct delivery of council services by council staff will be the ‘official default choice’. |
Give councils the powers to restrict takeaways, obesity report says
10/10/2019 Local authority leaders have welcomed a proposal to strengthen planning powers to help deal with the underlying causes of obesity. |
Council chiefs call for ‘properly resourced’ plan to improve health visiting
10/10/2019 Council leaders have called for a ‘properly resourced’ plan to encourage closer working between health visitors and other local authority services. |
Councils agree to £1m payment to struggling tourism firm
09/10/2019 Council leaders in Yorkshire have agreed to give an embattled tourism agency £1m because closing it down ‘could cost more than £3m’. |
This issue of Local Government News explores how councils can tackle modern slavery and trafficking in their supply chains, finds out more about Cambridge's first cohousing scheme and the launch of a new project to build a shared service pattern library for local government.
This issue also contains a special focus on children's services and how councils are protecting children following local safeguarding children boards being abolished.
