Councils are set to receive nearly £2 million in government funding to crack down on illegal developments on the nation’s Green Belt.

When fleeing domestic abuse, many women are left to face a stark choice between homelessness or returning to their abuser.

More than £750,000 has been awarded to councils looking to improve services using digital technology.

The Auditor General for Wales has claimed that information, advice and assistance on adult social care is not consistently effective across Wales.
It is estimated that the number of people aged 65 and over who are unable to manage at least one domestic task on their own will rise by 46 per cent by 2035, with the proportion of the population predicted to have a limiting long-term illness also set to rise by nearly 20 per cent.

A committee of MPs have urged the government to change its focus from just plastic to reducing all single use packaging.

Hundreds of students will be able to pursue careers as youth workers thanks to a new £500,000 bursary fund from the Office for Civil Society.
Minister for Civil Society Baroness Barran said that the Youth Worker Bursary Fund will provide financial assistance to 400 people who otherwise could not afford to access the approved level 2 and level 3 qualifications in youth work, with an overall aim to increase the number of people taking up the qualifications and ensure the sector attracts new youth workers from a variety of backgrounds.

The new National Leadership Centre has welcomed its first cohort of public sector leaders, to increase the quality of vital public services.
Invited participants, including chief constables, fire chiefs and CEOs of hospital trusts, will begin a coaching and collaboration programme with support from world leading institutions such as the University of Oxford and MIT. The network of leaders has been created to drive collaboration across the public sector.

New research has revealed that more than five shops closed per week on Scotland's high streets in the first six months of the year.

The use of bailiffs to collect debts owed to local authorities has risen by seven per cent in two years, driven largely by a surge in parking debts.

Almost two-thirds of public sector workers say they have cut the amount of water they use at home but fewer than half are doing the same at work.
Flowing in the Right Direction: Water Use in the Public Sector, the report published by Water Plus, surveyed 500 people working across the public sector on their attitudes towards water use and the action they see their employers taking to encourage them to cut water consumption.