The Big Lottery Fund has announced the appointment of Dawn Austwick as the organisation's new Chief Executive. Dawn joins the Big Lottery Fund from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. She will be taking over from Peter Wanless who stands down as Chief Executive at the end of May to become Chief Executive of NSPCC. Visit:  www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Lord Young has published a report to the Prime Minister, Growing Your Business. The report highlights the increasing importance that micro businesses - those which have less than 10 employees - have on the success of the economy. It calls for the removal of the age cap - currently set at 30 years old - for the Government's Start-Up loan scheme, so that all entrepreneurs can receive the finance and support. Visit: https://www.gov.uk

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published figures on the progress made on the Troubled Families programme. They showed that by the end of the first year of the 3 year programme more than 35,000 troubled families were being worked with and councils had identified more than 66,000 of the 120,000 families the programme pledged to turn around by 2015. The figure is around 6,000 shy of the 41,835 target for the first year of the three-year programme, which runs until March 2015.

CYPNow has published the results of a survey to inform a National Youth Agency (NYA) commission on how schools can work more closely with youth work. It found that more than 90% cent of the 550 people working in schools, local government and voluntary services that responded back the role of youth work in schools. Visit: www.cypnow.co.uk 

The Department for Communities and Local Government has produced a short questionnaire on "Young people's participation in the community". The questionnaire is confidential and answers will help the Department get a better understanding of whether young people under 25 get involved in activities in their local area. Visit: www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZMP6CKS

Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson has announced details of a package of support for young people leaving care. It included £80,000 to  go to the Care Leavers Foundation and £200,000 to the National Care Advisory Service (Catch 22) over 2 years. It also included details of  new rules to ensure that more 16- and 17-year-olds remain in care unless signed off by a Director of Children's Services. Visit: www.gov.uk

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd has written to all local authorities in England about the current Cabinet Office programmes intended to support local leadership from those who see the opportunity to do things differently. The programmes are designed to encourage those looking to develop better services at a lower cost to the taxpayer through innovation, service redesign and the development of new delivery models. Visit: www.gov.uk

The Disclosure and Barring Service has announced that their new Update Service will launch on 17 June. This is designed to deliver portability of DBS (formerly CRB) checks. Volunteers can subscribe to the Update Service for free (an annual fee of £13 applies for other members of the workforce). On the same date the DBS will make two other changes: there are changes to the "position applied for" field - you now need to say which workforce the post is part of (child; adult; child and adult or other), and,

CYP Now has published a survey on the future of youth provision, which has 110 responses. It found that one in three organisations that provide services to young people felt it was possible they would face closure within the next 12 months. Over half of respondents said their income had fallen in the past year, more than a quarter said it had stayed roughly the same and 16.2 per cent reported an increase. More than two thirds of organisation have reduced spending on new equipment and over half have reduced staff levels, trips and off-site visits.

Prime Minister David Cameron has launched the new, independent Early Intervention Foundation, which has received widespread, cross-party support. The Foundation "aims to give babies, children and young people a great start, and cut the massive costs of dysfunction for taxpayers." The Early Intervention Foundation has now written to every Clinical Commissioning Group, Police and Crime Commissioner and council leader in England, in a call for them to be part of the first wave of activity including being one of the 20 pioneering Early Intervention Places.