Hundreds of people packed out the Atrium in Shoreditch last week for 2016’s Foster Carers’ Awards, organised by Tower Hamlets Council’s fostering service. The awards are held annually to recognise and celebrate the achievements of foster carers. This year’s event focused on celebrating diversity. Tower Hamlets’ foster carers and staff have links to over 30 countries and speak 20 languages ...

Tower Hamlets Council and local community groups played their part to raise awareness and help promote a number of events and activities for Fairtrade Fortnight, which ran from 29 February – 13 March 2016. Fairtrade Fortnight is a chance for organisations and individuals across the globe to focus on issues that affect farmers and local communities within the developing world. ...

Tower Hamlets Council has teamed-up with Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs) to offer council tax payers a chance to win £10,000. Tower Hamlets Council is one of eight London boroughs taking part in the campaign, with those also living in Barnet, Brent, City of Westminster, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Southwark all eligible for entry into the draw. To be ...

George Osborne has unveiled a tax on sugary drinks in a wide ranging Budget dominated by gloomier growth forecasts. The chancellor blamed the slowdown on a “dangerous cocktail” of global risks and said the UK had to “act now so we don’t have to pay later”. He announced an extra £3.5bn in spending cuts – and sparked controversy by warning ...

Jeremy Corbyn has accused George Osborne of delivering a budget with “unfairness at its very core” with corporations benefiting from “mates’ rates” in a series of tax deals. In one of his strongest performances at the dispatch box, the Labour leader saidthe budget marked the culmination of six years of failure as he reeled off a series of targets the ...

UK unemployment fell to 1.68 million between November and January, down 28,000 from the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics says. The rate of unemployment remained at 5.1%, maintaining a decade-low rate. Some 31.42 million are in work, 478,000 up on a year ago. The employment rate is 74.1%, the joint highest since current records began in 1971. Average ...

  16 March 2016 Nearly half of women who quit smoking during pregnancy take it up again soon after they give birth, according to research in the journal Addiction. The analysis of several studies suggests 13% of women who enrol on smoking cessation programmes quit during pregnancy. But 43% of these restart within six months of giving birth. Public Health ...

Parents of children affected by meningitis B have told MPs a vaccine for the disease should be extended to all UK children up to the age of 11. They say the cost of treating survivors left with life-long disabilities more than outweighs the £75 vaccine price. Currently, the meningitis B jab is routinely given only to infants in the UK. ...

New film released to highlight the importance of early diagnosis and cultural issues that can delay Black and South Asian people from seeing their doctor early Early diagnosis of bladder and kidney cancers increases the chance of survival, so being aware of the symptoms is crucial Around 17,450 people in England are diagnosed with either bladder or kidney cancer every ...

Seoul, Republic of Korea – A flurry of anticipation filled the room of over 1,000 internationally-renowned figures including heads of state, legal representatives, and media who convened at the Coex Auditorium on March 14 for the Proclamation Ceremony of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War. Since its official inauguration in September 2015, the HWPL International Law Peace Committee ...