Chief executives from councils across the country are set to benefit from a first-of-its-kind development programme.

The number of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receiving support from councils has reached a record high.

Bristol City Council has introduced a 7-tonne IVECO Daily CNG van as a new library vehicle to distribute books between its 27 libraries across the city.
The van runs on 100 per cent renewable Bio-CNG (compressed natural gas), enabling a significant reduction of harmful emissions.
When run on natural gas such as bio-methane, CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 95 per cent, greatly improving air quality versus an equivalent diesel model.

The Association of Play Industries (API) has released an open letter to the next UK government urging them to invest in public playgrounds.

Staff working in children's social care will see their pay rise to at least £12 an hour.
The scheme is backed by £19 million of Scottish Government funding. More than 6,000 people working in a direct care role in the voluntary, private and independent sector services will receive the pay rise, with all payments backdated to April 2024.
Increasing pay for children’s social care workers was a commitment set out in the 2023 Programme for Government.

Scotland's chief statistician has published the Council Tax Collection Statistics. The Statistics cover Council Tax collection figures for Scottish local authorities, up to and including the financial year 2023-24.
For the whole of Scotland in 2023-24, the total amount of Council Tax billed (after Council Tax Reduction) was £3.015 billion. Of this total, £2.879 billion, or 95.5 per cent, was collected by 31 March 2024.
Between 1999-00 and 2023-24, the overall total amount of Council Tax billed in Scotland was £50.974 billion.

The Scottish Government has opened a fund to trial new ways of combatting child poverty.
The Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) will enable up to £500,000 to be shared by local projects, with grants of up to £80,000.
Grants will be awarded to local projects that test and evaluate new approaches which target at least one of the three drivers of child poverty reduction: improving income from employment, supporting people with the cost of living, and increasing awareness and uptake of social security benefits.

The Scottish Government has published its quarterly Workforce statistics.
The statistics include the numbers of workers, staff sickness rates, and the diversity of staff up to the most recent quarter ending March 2024.
The statistics reveal that at the end of March 2024, there were 8,843 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, this is an increase on last year’s figure of 8,802 (0.5 per cent) at the end of March 2023. 99.4 per cent of directly employed staff were permanent and 0.6 per cent were temporary.

Surrey County Council has installed a pop-up solar car park and electric vehicle charging hub at its Depot Centre in Merrow, Guildford.
The  ‘Papilio3’ car park and electric vehicle (EV) charging hub by 3ti fulfilled the urgent need for EV charging infrastructure for Surrey County Council (SCC), which required an installation suitable for a compact area at the site.
Papilio3 is designed around a recycled shipping container, giving it the ability to be easily transported and lifted into place.