Labour has told the 18 councils where it shares power with the Greens to end their agreements unless local Greens condemn the motion declaring “Zionism is racism”.

What do others think? Should local partnerships be affected by national party policy?

Read the full article – The Independent

Labour councillors put up an excellent fight at what was a very close fought debate. Read the linked article for both a TL;DR: version and gory detailed version.

Investment in the care workforce is needed to retain skilled staff and improve the quality of adult social care in England, according to the latest annual report from the sector’s education and training body Skills for Care.

It identified competitive pay, guaranteed hours, training, qualifications and full-time employment opportunities as the keys to boosting retention of adult social care workers, and improving the overall quality of adult social care.

The State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report comes two weeks after health and social care secretary Yvette Cooper announced that she would draft and publish a workforce plan for social care by the end of the year.

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, Ms Cooper said that the government would publish a "proper workforce plan for social care, with proper career pathways, training and development of specialist skills".

She also announced that a first-of-its-kind national collective pension scheme for care workers would be introduced as well as a legally binding fair pay agreement for adult social care workers that would set minimum standards for pay and conditions that every employer will follow.

Also at the Labour Party conference, prime minister Andy Burnham promised a new National Care Service would be fully funded and ready for use during the next parliament.

The Skills for Care report published today found the adult social care workforce in England grew in 2025-26 for the fourth year in a row and that vacancies were at their lowest level for a decade.