Sue Robb of 4Children talks to Julie Laughton and Alison Britton from the Department for Education about the role of childminders in delivering the 30 hours free entitlement.
Positives for local gov
There hasn’t been much over the last year, but there has been some positive news to local government this week.
The local government finance settlement has been confirmed, with much-needed access to an extra £1bn for social care to help support vulnerable adults and children. On top of this, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced NHS reforms, with ministers seeking to advance the way in which councils and NHS services set up bodies that can make decisions about how to join up services. Although this has been happening for a number of years now already, having government backing can only be a good thing.
Although incredibly overdue, there is now central government funding available for the removal of unsafe cladding for all leaseholders in high-rise buildings, backed by an investment of £3.5bn, whilst the Cabinet Office has said that the government pledge to raise billions of pounds by selling off surplus land and buildings which were no longer needed by the public sector has been exceeded.
But, perhaps most importantly of all, as many as nine in 10 local authorities in England have now signed up to the community coronavirus testing programme to offer regular targeted testing for people without symptoms.
Whilst hospital data still provides stark warning against complacency, there is no denying that involving local authorities in testing and tracing in their communities has boosted the reach of the government’s programme, and with vaccine targets likely to be met the ongoing need for local assistance will only grow. Their unrivalled knowledge and connections must be properly utilised moving forward.
Michael Lyons, editor
Sue Robb of 4Children talks to Julie Laughton and Alison Britton from the Department for Education about the role of childminders in delivering the 30 hours free entitlement.
Lochinvar has unveiled a new range of high temperature R290, air-to-water heat pumps capable of producing hot water up to 70degC while still achieving high energy efficiencies and reduced environmental impact.
The new Amicus Altus is available in three potential configurations: Two-pipe heating only, two-pipe heating or cooling, and four-pipe simultaneous cooling with heating and heat recovery making it suitable for most types of commercial project.
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) is the professional body that exists to advance and promote the art, science, and practice of building services engineering, to invest in education and research, and to support our community of built environment professionals in the pursuit of excellence.
Beehive is an award-winning customer experience and insight agency that helps executive decision
Michael Kolatchev, principal consultant/Rossnova Solutions (Belgium) and Lina Kolesnikova, consultant/Rossnova Solutions (Belgium) discuss the security threats facing the growing number of “smart cities”
Cardiff has recently installed 47 air-quality monitoring stations across the city to measure pollution in the air