Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has set out further details on the establishment of local HealthWatch bodies, including a new start date of April 2013 and extra funding. The new local health bodies are set to replace Local Involvement Networks and will be the local consumer champion for patients, service users and the public. From next year, an additional £3.2m will also be made available to local authorities to establish local HealthWatch. Visit: www.dh.gov.uk

The Department for Education is consulting on its intention to repeal the requirement on Ofsted to conduct an annual assessment of local authority children's services. The consultation closes on 18 March 2012. Children England will be submitting a response on behalf of the sector and partners. For more information or to contribute to this response contact Nick Davies, nick@childrenengland.org.uk, by 12 March.

The British Youth Council's has launched its new Youth On Board awards (YOBs) - an exclusively youth-led rolling award scheme that recognises innovative and exciting youth participation, both for individual young people and those organisations who support it. www.byc.org.uk/get-active/youth-on-board-awards.aspx

On Thursday 15th December the Council for Disabled Children Young Ambassador's held a parliamentary launch of their film Young, Disabled and In Control at House of Commons.

Third Sector magazine has reported that the government is considering charging volunteers to use the ‘portable' criminal records checking system that is due to come into force in 2013. It says that "under the system, laid out in the Protection of Freedoms Bill currently before parliament, there would be two types of criminal records check: a one-off check and a portable one based on a continuously updated criminal records database, which would allow an individual to work or volunteer for a number of organisations.

Lancashire County Council's Young People's Service (YPS) has announced a funding framework for commissioning effective youth work and targeted youth support from the voluntary community and faith sector (VCFS) between April 2012 and March 2014. The available funding will be divided across the five YPS localities; Lancaster/Wyre; Preston/Fylde; South Ribble/Chorley/West Lancashire; Hyndburn/Ribble Valley/Rossendale and Burnley/Pendle.

Young Lancashire is committed to the concepts of partnership and collaborative working, particularly supporting smaller organisations to benefit from commissioning opportunities. Young Lancashire, with the Greater Together Consortium, will seek to identify the most appropriate vehicle to submit tenders to the funding framework, recently announced by Lancashire County Council's Young People's Service (YPS).

Positive for Youth: A new approach to cross-government policy for young people aged 13 to 19 was published on 19 December 2011. The statement brings together for the first time all of the Government’s policies for young people aged 13 to 19.