The vetting scheme for nine million people working with children and vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been halted. Home Secretary Theresa May announced on 15 June that registration, due to begin on 26 July, is to be put on hold. Visit: www.bbc.co.uk for the news story, download a copy of the announcement and visit: CRB information on VBS regarding the CRB's position on this news.

The think-tank Centre for Policy Studies has published Cutting the Children's Plan: A £5 billion experiment gone astray. The paper argues that the Plan, published by the DCSF in December 2007, is unlikely to achieve its high ambitions, and that most of its programmes are flawed both in concept and in practice.

The think-tank Demos has published Civic Streets: The big society in action. The report examines what the new government's concept of the 'Big Society' meant for struggling communities in need of regeneration. It drew on the experiences of two estates that had engaged in a renewal programme involving residents, the third sector, and business.

Shine is a national campaign celebrating every talent young people have to offer in Britain today, culminating in a week long festival of events from July 12th - 16th 2010. Young Lancashire urges you to register your support at www.shineweek.co.uk.

Capacitybuilders and v (vinvolved), strategic partners of the former Office of the Third Sector (OTS), are under review. Nick Hurd MP said, “With v we want to be clear what we are funding and what we are getting back,” said Hurd. “v has received a lot of government money over time and it is under no illusion that in the future the funding environment is going to be different.”

Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, has confirmed that future revenue from the £200m Futurebuilders programme will be used to provide grants to stimulate the creation and development of neighbourhood groups, the stated goal of the government's Big Society concept. "Futurebuilders is effectively closed for business now," he said. Hurd said that Capacitybuilders and v, a strategic partner of the former Office of the Third Sector, were under review.

Tim Loughton MP, Minister for Children and Families, who has responsibility for children's social care and young people's services, has given an interview to CYPNow about his priorities. He spoke about Ofsted, Childrens' Trusts and serious case reviews, as well as vetting and barring and youth policies. He stated, "I want to see a far greater role for third sector organisations so I'm working with colleagues in the Cabinet Office because this is key to the Big Society agenda".

The Department for Communities and Local Government has set out details of the £1.166bn Local Government contribution to the £6.2bn cross government savings in 2010/11. No individual local authority will face a reduction in their revenue grant of more than 2 per cent. Ring-fences have been removed from a number of local government funding streams, including the £40.8m allocated to the Youth Opportunity Fund and the remaining £75m of capital funding for play.

The Department for Education has given further information about how it plans to save £670m this year. In a letter to former Children's Secretary Ed Balls, Education Secretary Michael Gove stated that £359m in savings will come from "cutting waste, and stopping and scaling back lower-priority spending". A further £311m will come from reducing area-based grants to local authorities.

George Osborne MP, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, have announced details of how the next Spending Review (SR) will be conducted. The SR, due to conclude in the autumn, will set spending limits for every Government department for the period 2011-12 to 2014-15.  The SR framework document said that reducing the public finance deficit would mean approaching the Spending Review in a completely new way.