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New to Nature will offer new, full-time, temporary work placements in nature and landscape organisations across the UK, aiming to increase diversity and enrich the environmental sector. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, the programme will run until May 2024 and will provide paid work placements for at least 70 people, targeting young people from diverse backgrounds to undertake a range of environmental roles.

Those who use Smartbox Grid AAC technology in order to communicate now have the option to choose from a wider range of accents, following years of research and 1500 donations of voices to help create new accents for those who cannot naturally speak.

Great British Bake Off finalist Sandro Farmhouse has become a Celebrity Ambassador for the National Autistic Society, the UK’s leading charity for people on the autism spectrum and their families. TV star and baker Sandro Farmhouse, who makes autism-friendly recipes, will help to amplify the charity’s work to transform lives, change attitudes and create a society that works for autistic people.

Services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England are to be “transformed”, with the introduction of new national standards and thousands more specialist school places, ministers have announced. The long-awaited changes are being introduced to end the postcode lottery that families currently face and ensure that children and young people with Send get “high-quality, early support” wherever they live, the government says.

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has described her family’s battle to get the right support for her nephew, who has Down’s syndrome, as the government prepares to publish its improvement plan for special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England.