The battle of ideas about the Big Society is driven by a desire to inform public policy, but at the core of this battle are important implicit assumptions about human nature in general and adult competencies in particular. To download a copy of this publication released in January 2012 by the RSA visit: Beyond Big Society

The Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC), the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and Skills -Third Sector have published their latest analysis of the Labour Force Survey. It finds that employment in the voluntary sector has fallen by nearly 9% over the past 12 months. In comparison, public sector employment fell by 4.3% whilst private sector employment rose by 1.5% over the same period. The data also indicates that certain parts of the sector have been disproportionately affected by the fall in employment.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published Serving Deprived Communities in a Recession. The report examines how budget cuts in 25 local authorities will affect the capacity of local government in England to meet the needs of more deprived households and communities. It finds that the most deprived local authorities have been hardest hit by the cuts and said services for children and young people "appear to have taken the biggest hit" from the Emergency Budget of 2010. It notes many authorities are making cuts to youth services and developing a more targeted approach.

Devolving power to frontline staff and placing young people at the centre of decision-making will be central to delivering youth services in the newly announced "youth innovation zones".

A total of four youth innovation zones, in Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Knowsley, and a consortium led by Devon, were announced by the government yesterday as part of the Positive for Youth policy statement.

Co-operatives UK has published the final part of its Community Enterprise Toolkit, 'Simply Start-Up: A guide to the process of starting a Co-operative or Community Enterprise'.

England director Dharmendra Kanani says £20m Building Capabilities programme will focus on front-line organisations.

Thousands of children across England have sent messages to Prime Minister David Cameron, to mark the start of a year of action on children's rights.

The messages were hand delivered to Downing Street by 19 children on Friday (16 December), marking the 20th anniversary of the UK formally agreeing to uphold the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd has announced that Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts will lead a full review of the law relating to charities in England and Wales. Lord Hodgson will report to Parliament by summer 2012. The review will consider a broad range of issues, including the definition of charity, and the role and status of the Charity Commission as the sector's regulator. It will also look at further reducing the burden of regulation whilst preserving safeguards that protect the public interest.

Children England is starting a new piece of work that will explore the variety of pressures currently faced by the voluntary and community sector and the children, young people and families that they work with. Rather than looking at these pressures individually, they want to show their cumulative effect. They hope to do this through a handful of in-depth case studies, looking at organisations, areas and commissioning.