The Department for Communities and Local Government has outlined actions to give local authorities more control over how public money is spent in their area. With a new Local Services Support Grant a single grant is paid to councils which can then decide how to spend it to support and protect local services. Further actions include a new business rate retention scheme, community budgets that should allow greater co-ordination of work, resources and flexibilities to support investment in capital assets and localised council tax support schemes. For more information on each of these changes, please see the department’s website.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has updated its guide on the Regional Growth Fund which includes details on the bid process, currently approved programmes and other sources of funding. Find the guide, ‘Understanding the Regional Growth Fund’, on the department’s website. 

Atos Healthcare has announced it will be working in partnership with local NHS services and health professionals to deliver the assessments for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), to be introduced in April. Atos Healthcare will deliver advice and consultation services for the new disability benefit in North East England, North West England and from June in London, Southern England and Scotland.

Atos has announced the supply chain partners to be:

Title: Intern
Reports to: Director
Duration: 5 days a week (for three months)
Salary: £15106 pro rata
Start date: March 2013
Location: PublicCo, Inclusion, 3rd Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TP
Deadline: Thursday 7th March

The Recovery Festival 2013 is the first exhibition of its kind which seeks to educate and promote understanding of recovery for HR and CSR processes. The festival will showcase;

Campbell Page UK has announced the appointment of Stuart Knowles as Head of Business Development with immediate effect. Stuart is joining the organisation following a temporary role supporting the initial development of the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP), which was launched last year. Stuart will continue to work for the IEP in a part time capacity until the end of March.

Dean Godson is Policy Exchange’s new Director. He takes over with immediate effect from Neil O’Brien who has joined the Treasury as a Special Adviser to George Osborne MP.

Vulnerable claimants will get personalised help with their Universal Credit claim, ministers have announced as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released proposals outlining how people will be protected and supported as they move onto the new benefit.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has released a policy paper on the costs of troubled families. The paper ‘explains how public money is being spent on troubled families’, concluding that an estimated £9 billion will be spent by the government to try and turn these troubled lives around. Download the report, ‘The fiscal case for working with troubled families: analysis and evidence on the costs of troubled families to government’, on the department’s website. 

New regulations concerning the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP’s) employment schemes will be created by the department after the Court of Appeal ruled that these did not describe the schemes to which they apply. The ruling is a result of Cait Reilly’s claim (amongst others) that her mandatory work at Poundland, as a requirement for her receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance, was ‘unlawful due to a lack of basic information given to the unemployed’, the Guardian has explained.

Helen Barnard, Programme Manager on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF's) Poverty and Ethnicity Programme, has written a thought provoking blog on increasing ethnic minority employment, inspired by a conference on the subject held on 4 February. This conference, jointly held by Inclusion and the Black Training and Enterprise Group, examined the scale of the challenge, employers’ roles, the potential of apprenticeships and much more, in seeking to answer the question of how to increase ethnic minority employment. The blog considers three themes: ‘Where’s the power’, ‘Follow the evidence’ and ‘Rhetoric and reality’. Read Helen’s blog on the JRF website. 

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has released a short paper on traineeships. It has concluded that the government’s proposed traineeship programme ‘is a welcome and long overdue development’ but that various issues must be addressed for it to be a success. Download the paper on the AELP website. 

The Coastal Communities Fund has made £16 million available to boost jobs and business opportunities to coastal communities. Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has announced has announced the winners of the second round. Next year will see a further increase of £4 million to the fund. Various projects, from skills training and advice to helping businesses embrace digital technology, will receive grants of up to £2.6 million to deliver jobs, start-ups, apprenticeships and volunteering opportunities. For a full list of projects, please see the Department for Communities and Local Government website.

The Department for Work and Pensions has released an evaluation report which has looked at the provider led pathways to work. It is the final report in its series. The report’s aim ‘was to assess whether provider led pathways helped more incapacity benefits customers move into work or leave benefit than would have done otherwise’.

The Public Accounts Committee has published a report on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) contract management of medical services. The report has criticised the department for ‘poor decision-making’ and has asserted that ‘most of the problems lie firmly within the DWP’, Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts has said.