WIREDGOV

IPCC:  If it is a crime to obstruct the police, why not the IPCC? - The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) made 16 recommendations for change to the police service as a result of the Stockwell investigation.  These recommendations were addressed to HMIC, Home Office, ACPO and the MPS.  In drawing up these recommendations the IPCC has worked closely with Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC). 

The concerns & recommendations included the following extracts:

* The strategy set by the Gold Commander was not implemented.  The strategy made it clear that all persons leaving Scotia Road would be stopped either as suspects or as potential intelligence sources.  Six persons left the flats before Mr De Menezes. Due to insufficient resources being in place, none were stopped.

* The completion of the supplementary surveillance log has been proved to involve alterations which changed the meaning of the entry.

* The incident was not referred until 15:21hrs on Monday 25 July and until that time the IPCC was prevented from starting an investigation on the instruction of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.  The rationale given by the Commissioner for this decision relating to the IPCC's powers & duties was not correct.

* The difference in the treatment of police and civilian witnesses to this incident are not acceptable or justifiable.  Members of the public were expected to be interviewed and make statements soon after witnessing a most traumatic incident without being able confer with other witnesses and provide a joint account. 

The police officers involved were allowed to return to their own base, refresh themselves and confer. This was & is accepted practice.

* Officers involved in the incident wrote up their notes together.  This is current practice but makes those accounts less credible. Such practices were agreed in the protocol between the police service and the IPCC in July 2004.

Press release ~ 'Stockwell One Investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station on 22 July 2005.' (Scroll down) ~ MPA

DCSF:  You can take a horse to water, but! - Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls has set out the building blocks that will underpin Government plans to raise the education participation age to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015.  Raising the participation age means a new culture of aspiration for all young people, with new rights for young people to high quality education and training opportunities, balanced by new responsibilities for young people, parents, employers and the education and training sector. 

He set out details of four building blocks that the Government will ensure are in place to successfully raise the participation age:

* curriculum & qualifications

* advice & guidance

* financial support

* employer engagement

Ed Balls also set out details of a £100m NEET Strategy 'safety net' to tackle the problem of the estimated 10% of young people categorised at any one time as NEET.

Press release ~ Ed Ball's speech ~ Closed consultation: Raising expectations: staying in education and training post-16' ~ Education Maintenance Allowance ~ Entry to Employment programmes ~ Care to Learn scheme ~ New Deal programme ~ National Diplomas ~ September Guarantee ~ Activity Agreements ~ White paper - Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances ~ Statements of Content ~ DfES 14 – 19 Gateway ~ Get set for life website ~ Lord Leitch's report on skills ~ Learning and Skills Council  

BERR:  Just how flexible can employers be? - The Prime Minister has announced further measures to help working parents achieve a better work life balance, as new figures reveal that flexible working is changing the landscape of British workplaces to benefit business as well as employees.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has asked Sainsbury's Human Resources Director Imelda Walsh to lead an independent review to determine how the current right to request flexible working can be extended to parents of older children.

Fourteen million employees work flexibly, or have done so within the last 12 months, with arrangements including working from home so they can care for their family, working part-time, compressed hours, flexi-time or other arrangements agreed with their employer.

 

A formal consultation will be held after the results of the review are published, to gauge the views of business, employers, unions and other stakeholders.

The 2007 Work-Life Balance Employer Survey found the availability of flexible working arrangements has increased since 2003:

* Part-time working has become near universal, available in 92% of workplaces (compared to 81% in 2003).

* There have been large increases in the availability of reduced hours working for a limited period (74%, up from 40%) and compressed hours working (41%, up from 19%).

* Job sharing & flexitime have also increased (59%, up from 39%; and 55%, up from 38%, respectively)

Press release ~ Flexible Working and Work-Life Balance - BERR ~ 2007 Work-Life Balance Employer Survey ~ Maternity and Paternity Rights and Benefits: Survey of employees 2005 ~ Flexible working and work-life balance: an introduction : Directgov ~ Benefits of flexible working - Business Link ~ CIPD - Flexible working ~ Acas - Flexible working ~ Employees working from home - Business Link ~ Planning Portal - Working from home ~ TUC - Work-Life Balance ~ Working Families ~ Work and Families Act 2006 ~ TUC Changing Times website

DfT:  Government sows seeds for greener transport - Cleaner, greener van fleets could be a reality on our roads, thanks to a new Department for Transport fund programme, which will be worth an initial £20m.  The bulk of the funding will be used to procure lower carbon vans in the first instance, with smaller demonstrations of lower carbon minibuses, all-electric vans and, potentially, plug-in hybrid cars.  Should initial trials be successful, an additional £30m has been earmarked to be used to develop the programme further.

Initial public sector participants are expected to include the Metropolitan police, Environment Agency, Transport for London, the Royal Mail, HM Revenue and Customs and the Government Car and Despatch Agency, as all these organisations have significant vehicle fleets, suitable for fleet demonstration.

The aim is for initial procurements of lower carbon vehicles under the programme to lead to subsequent orders in future, helping to stimulate full market introduction of lower carbon options.

The DfT will shortly issue a competitive tender to appoint a partner organisation with specialist technical & commercial expertise on low carbon vehicles to deliver the programme.  The appointment is expected to be made in early 2008.

Press release ~ 'Towards a Sustainable Transport System: Supporting economic growth in a low carbon world' ~ Low Carbon Transport Innovation Strategy ~ DfT - Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement programme - discussion paper ~ Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership ~ Government Car & Despatch Agency ~  Eddington Transport Study  ~ Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change ~ BERR – Clean low carbon transport ~ King Review of low-carbon cars ~ OGC: Getting better value for your fleet ~ Sustainable operations on the Government estate: targets ~ Defra: Act on CO2 ~ Foresight Vehicle future transportation automotive technology research

WO:  Somethimes it all comes right - Wales Office Minister Huw Irranca-Davies celebrated the fourth year anniversary of Pathways to Work in Bridgend by meeting a successful businessman whose life was changed with the help of Jobcentre Plus.

Three years ago a serious accident meant Phil Diamond had to give up his career as a fitter in heavy industry, but thanks to the Jobcentre Plus Pathways to Work team, Phil had help setting up a successful business as a locksmith in Bridgend market.

The scheme gave Phil financial help towards the start-up of his business, including help towards the cost of tools.  Also Shaw Trust (a charity which provides advice & support for people with disabilities), paid for a locksmiths´ course and Prime Cymru, which gives advice about self-employment to people age 50 and over, also helped.

Press release ~ DWP - Pathways to Work ~ Welfare Reform ~ Shaw Trust ~ Prime Cymru ~ New Deal for Disabled People

ScotGov:  A new dedicated database of information - the Climate Change Tools Database - to help Councils co-ordinate their efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change is now available as part of the affirmation of the Scottish Government's commitment to Scotland's Climate Change Declaration - which pledges action by local Government with support from the Scottish Government.


In addition to the database there are:

* Plans for a pilot of Local Climate Impacts Profiles

* Plans for a Scottish adaptation strategy

* Publication of: A Programme of Support for Scottish Local Government

The Database was funded by the Scottish Government and collated by the Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership, co-ordinated by the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER).  The Scottish Government also part funds the Local Footprints project on carbon footprinting for local authorities just published - the Right Climate for Change.


The planned pilot of Local Climate Impacts Profiles is funded by Scottish Environment Protection Agency and is being delivered by SNIFFER under the Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SCCIP).

Press release ~ Right Climate for Change ~ Climate Change Tools Database ~ A Programme of Support for Scottish Local Government ~ UK Climate Impacts Partnership (UKCIP) Tools ~ Best Value & Sustainable Development Toolkit ~ Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER) ~ Scottish Environment Protection Agency ~ Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SCCIP) ~ Scotland's Climate Change Declaration ~ Scottish Government: Climate Change ~ Changing Our Ways: Scotland's Climate Change Programme ~ Choosing our Future: Scotland's Sustainable Development Strategy ~ A Survey of Local Authority Activity on Climate Change ~ Sustainable Scotland Network – Local Footprints project ~ Sustainable Development and Education Liaison Group (SDELG) ~ Sustainable Development Education website ~ Scottish Climate Change Bill ~ EU Green Paper, Adapting to climate change in Europe - options for EU action ~ UK Adaptation Policy Framework

Forthcoming Event: The 20th century saw computing evolve from ‘hidden away monoliths’ served by maths graduates, to a world of ‘one on every desk’ and ‘couldn’t manage without one’ used by all & sundry, from CE to delivery driver.  However the challenge of the 21st century is to harness all that ‘power’ to not just collect information, but also to deliver it to the right person, at the appropriate time and in a way that it can be quickly & effectively used for the benefit of an organisation and its clients.

We have all seen what the cost can be when information is stored so that it cannot be retrieved easily but, on the flip-side, the benefits of a well-designed system can be immense. Indeed the government is betting our taxes on transforming & changing the delivery of its services to e-channels.

Present challenges include completing the implementation of the multi-billion pound NHS Connecting for Health information programme, but the stark fact remains that information systems have become an essential part of both corporate and personal life, while their design & implementation becomes evermore complex, often for the unforeseen reasons.

That’s why you should visit to the Online Information & Information Management Solutions 2007 at Olympia, London on 4-6 December 2007.

Online Information is the annual event for professionals looking to find, create, manage and share information for business and competitive advantage.  The event features a 3 day exhibition with over 200 exhibitors and a wide range of free-to-attend seminars.  There is also a conference which runs alongside the event. The conference theme is “Applying Web 2.0: Innovation, Impact and Implementation” and Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia is giving the keynote address.

Over 200 exhibitors, including OECD, British Library and the European Union, will be presenting the latest information content resources & information management solutions from around the world, whilst independent industry specialists, practitioners and leading suppliers will run over 100 free seminars and masterclasses.

Taking place ahead of the conference on Monday 3 December are the Online Information workshops, which bring together some of the information world’s industry experts, who will present visitors with in-depth knowledge of key areas within the information industry.

Full details ~ NHS Connecting for Health ~ E-Government Unit ~ GovTalk ~ e-Government Register ~ Local e-Government Standards Body ~ Web guidelines ~ Chief Information Officer Council ~ JISC : supporting education and research ~ Information Commissioner's Office - ICO ~ Data sharing and protection - Ministry of Justice ~ Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 ~ The Usability Professionals’ Association ~ EU e-Inclusion and e-Accessibility website ~ EU i2010 initiative ~ European Disability Forum ~ The Business Case for Web Accessibility ~ Essential Components of Web Accessibility 

For information on other forthcoming public sector events please click HERE to visit the WGPlus Events Calendar.  

For Industry News please click HERE