Nearly five years after cancer sufferer and fundraiser Jane Tomlinson set out on her epic bike ride from John O'Groats to Land's End, her husband and daughter are set to follow in her tracks.

Acevo is to explore the possibility of setting up a sector pension scheme after this was one of the recommendations to emerge from a report it commissioned into relationships between charities and trade unions.

Stephen Bubb, chair of the Adventure Capital Fund which assumed responsibility for Futurebuilders at the beginning of April, has admitted that the 14-strong board Futurebuilders announced last week is "perhaps too large".

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced the launch of a third sector taskforce with the aim of exploring a wider role for the sector in welfare-to-work reform.