The government has announced a £24 million regional fund for children's social care, including funding to support unaccompanied minors.

Further plans announced to reduce the national default speed limit in Wales from 30mph to 20mph on residential roads and busy pedestrian streets.

A recent survey from CIPFA has shown that more than half of public sector organisations do not currently report on their climate impact.
The research provides a baseline from which the evolution of sustainability reporting in the public sector can be managed and evaluated. Of the 44 per cent of respondents who said their organisation does produce a sustainability report, only around half said they used a standard definition of sustainability, while only 25 per cent of reports prepared were subject to an audit or verification process.

The LGA has warned that girls and young women are being deliberately and increasingly recruited into drug-dealing ‘county lines’ gangs.

Pupils in participating schools are set to benefit from more support in maths and English, as part of a £10 million scheme.
The Department for Education has said that specialist training and materials will be provided to support focused sessions to boost numeracy and literacy skills and help pupils catch-up in these core subjects. Schools with high proportions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will be prioritised for the schemes in order to support those most impacted by the disruption to education.

The government has announced that a new drugs unit will be set up to help end illegal drug-related illness and deaths.
The Joint Combating Drugs Unit will bring together multiple government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care, Home Office, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Ministry of Justice – to help tackle drugs misuse across society.

Local authorities need greater powers to combat non-traffic sources of air pollution, according to a debate heard in the House of Lords this week.
London Councils, which represents the capital’s 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation, is supporting amendments to the Environment Bill which would enable councils to limit toxic emissions from boilers, construction machinery and diesel generators. The City of London Corporation, the governing body of the Square Mile, also supports the amendments.

A BBC investigation has shown that UK councils face a £3 billion black hole in their budgets as they emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
The government says it has handed councils £12 billion during the pandemic, but as many as ten councils have has to ask to borrow £300 million of emergency money from the government to plug financial holes.
As a result of the funding shortfall, some local authorities were struggling to carry out statutory duties and were at risk of bankruptcy.

Nick Gibb has said that school funding will be made simpler, fairer and more transport as a result of government efforts to ‘level up’ education.
The government currently provides funding for schools according to a formula that takes account of factors including the needs of individual pupils and much more. But each local council sets its own formula for how to distribute that funding between schools in its area. It means similar schools can get different levels of funding – just because they happen to be in different parts of the country.

Proposals on the future of adult social care, including a timetable for reform, should be brought forward by Sajid Javid in the next two weeks.