WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

DfE:  Power to parents for SEN location choice - Ministers are considering how to ensure parents can send their child with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities to their preferred educational setting – whether that is a mainstream school, special school or an academy.

The plans were outlined as Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, called on parents, charities, teachers & LAs to contribute to the Government’s SEN Green Paper, which is to be published in autumn 2010.  It will aim to ‘improve radically the entire SEN system and will cover issues including school choice, early identification and assessment, funding and family support’.

Alongside the launch of the Call for Views (closes on 15 October 2010), the Children’s Minister confirmed the end of the national disabled children’s services parental survey.

Only a limited number of parents could respond to the survey and ministers want all parents to have the opportunity to get involved in how local services are designed & delivered.  The Government welcomes views on how to strengthen the process for ensuring parents’ views affect the services their family receives locally.
Press release ~ Call for Views ~ Related recent Ofsted press release ~ Brian Lamb’s report into parental confidence in the SEN system plus Government’s response ~ Henry Winkler Teaching Award for Special Needs ~ Nominate for The Teaching Awards of 2011 ~ Make Them Go Away ~ Resource pack ~ Teachernet – Tackling school bullying ~ Teachernet: Special educational needs and disability ~ Progression Guidance 2009–10: Improving data to raise attainment and maximise the progress of learners with special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities ~ Directgov - SEN ~ Support for special educational needs: parent partnership services and other organisations ~ Parent Partnership Network ~ Anti-Bullying Alliance ~ Education and Skills Select Committee's report into Special Educational Needs ~ Government’s response ~ DfE: Special schools – SEN webpage under construction ~ Teacher Training Resource Bank SEN Sub Portal ~ National Association for Special educational needs ~ Xtraordinary People ~ British Dyslexic Association ~ Dyslexia Action ~ Dyslexia Parents Resource ~ SEN Code of Practice ~ NICE: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, young people and adults ~ National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health ~ Diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, young people and adults ~ National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service ~ MIND – Understanding ADHD ~ TDA launch new SEN Materials for training teachers - videos, slides, background materials ~ Just Ask campaign ~ Enquire help service ~ STV micro site

CQC: Children are not born 'naughty', but a poor environment doesn't help - The work to turn children away from crime needs to be more focused and to be evaluated better, said independent inspectors, who have recently published a joint report on youth crime prevention.   

Inspectors confirmed that a number of factors in a child’s background can make that individual more likely to offend.  The report emphasises that it is difficult to turn some of these children away from crime, but details many examples of prevention work that were having a positive impact on children’s lives.
Press release ~ A Joint Inspection of Youth Crime Prevention ~ CQC: Youth offending inspections (more related links) ~ www.hmic.gov.uk ~ Youth Justice Board: Risk and Protective Factors ~ Youth rehabilitation order, etc. ~ NAO: Managing offenders on short custodial sentences ~ Reducing Prisoner Re-offending ~ Making Good ~ Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) ~ MoJ: Youth justice ~ Gang and Group Offenders - A Practitioner’s Handbook of Ideas & Interventions ~ London Criminal Justice Board ~ Heron Unit ~ Mayor's youth plan 'Time for Action' ~ Youth Crime Action Plan ~ YCAP One Year On ~ Feltham Young Offenders Institution ~ Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) ~ EDM - Communication Difficulties and Young Offenders ~ BBC NEWS - Communication skills 'cut re-offending' ~ Guidance & toolkits related to creating learning environments for young people in custody or at risk of offending that encourage positive behaviour ~ Developing oral communication and productive thinking skills in HM prisons ~ Locking up or giving up? Why custody thresholds for teenagers aged 12, 13 and 14 ~ Barnardo’s ~ Children in Trouble Campaign ~ Locking up or giving up - is custody for children always the right answer? ~ ScotGov: Community sentencing: Public Perceptions and Attitudes - Summary Research Report ~ YJB: Alternatives to Custody ~ Sacro ~ Restorative Justice Scotland: YouthJustice ~ Re-offending of juvenile statistics ~ Community Sentencing - Reducing Re-offending, Changing Lives ~  NOMS third sector action plan 'Working with the third sector to reduce re-offending' ~ Reducing Re-Offending through Skills and Employment: Next Steps ~ Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) toolkit ~  Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) ~ DeF: Family Intervention Projects - An Evaluation of their Design, Set-up and Early Outcomes ~ HM Inspectorate of Prisons: Report on Young Offenders in Adult Establishments ~ Lets talk about it - A review of healthcare in the community for young people who offend ~ 'Transitions: a Social Exclusion Unit interim report on young adults' ~ Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists ~ Read the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham’s, statement to the House of Lords on the value of speech and language therapy in prisons (scroll down to column 1447) ~ Publicising Individual Sentencing Outcomes to the Community ~ Publicising Criminal Convictions: The Importance of Telling the Public ~ Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime ~ 'Good 4 The Hood' ~ Philip Lawrence Awards ~ Healthy Children, Safer Communities ~ DH – Offender health ~ Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health and learning disabilities in the criminal justice system ~ Government’s response ~ Offender Health research Network ~ Reducing Re-Offending through Skills and Employment: Next Steps ~ Audit Commission: Tired of Hanging Around ~ 'Whatever, yeah? Local councils and youth provision'  

ESRC:  Community cohesion develops best in 'nice' areas - What people think about their neighbourhood is much more strongly influenced by deprivation than by the degree of ethnic mixing in the area, according to new research funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), carried out by researchers from Portsmouth and Southampton Universities.  
 
The study says that while initiatives to promote cohesion are valuable, policy should prioritise on improving disadvantaged areas.

“Previous research has suggested that diverse communities are less cohesive and suffer from problems associated with anti-social behaviour, crime and lack of trust,” Dr Liz Twigg, University of Portsmouth explains:  “Our research suggests that this is not true.  In general, what people think of their neighbourhood as a place to live is not strongly influenced by the level of ethnic mixing.  What is more important are material circumstances - the level of deprivation or prosperity in the area.”

Drawing on multiple sources of data to model the relationship between ethnic diversity and the way people see their neighbourhood.  The researchers found no link between the degree of ethnic mixing and high levels of perceived antisocial behaviour, such as spraying graffiti on local buildings, truancy and hooliganism.  They also found that people who lived in the most ethnically diverse areas were less likely to think that the national crime rate was increasing.
Press release ~ Exploring the goodhart thesis at the local scale ~ Aspiration and attainment amongst young people in deprived communities evidence paper ~ Implementation plan for reducing health inequalities in infant mortality: a good practice guide ~ JRF – Child Poverty ~ End Child Poverty coalition ~ Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland ~ Estimating the Cost of Child Poverty - Approaches and Evidence ~ Taking Forward The Government Economic Strategy: A Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland ~ ‘Ending Child Poverty: Making it Happen’ ~ ‘Child Poverty Solutions Wales’ website ~ NAO: Tackling inequalities in life expectancy in areas with the worst health and deprivation ~ CLG: Indices of deprivation ~ WAG: Child poverty ~ Improved version of the Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit (includes infant mortality tool) ~ Marmot review: Fair Society, Healthy Lives ~ WAG – Community Cohesion ~ HO: Anti-social Behaviour ~ New resources for faith-based charities ~ World Class Places: The Government's Strategy for Improving Quality of Space ~ New Deal for Communities programme ~ Interventions in Housing and the Physical Environment in deprived neighbourhoods: Evidence from the New Deal for Communities Programme (scroll down for related reports) ~ CLG: Deprived neighbourhoods

DCMS:  Most of us are not yet convinced as to its benefits yet - Following the publication of the Government’s Digital Radio Action Plan in July 2010, the Consumer Expert Group (CEG) - who advise the DCMS and BIS on the needs of consumers - have published their recommendations on digital radio switchover.

Its recommendations are designed to make sure that consumers are at the heart of the Government’s roadmap to a digital radio switchover and that the needs of older people and people with disabilities are met to ensure that no consumers are left behind.

Among the prerequisites the CEG have called for are:
* the consumer benefits to be clear & demonstrable before a decision on switchover is made
* a full cost-benefits analysis from the user perspective is undertaken
* new & compelling digital radio content to drive the voluntary take-up of digital radio by consumers
* a digital switchover date to only be announced when no more than 30% of listening remains analogue
* coverage & signal strength issues to be resolved
* no digital switchover date to be set until DAB radios have been standard in cars for a minimum of 2 years and reliable solutions to be offered for retro-fitting cars
* suitable equipment to be available for all listeners, including older & disabled people
Press release ~ Digital Radio Switchover – what is in it for consumers? ~ Listeners lead radio’s digital future ~ Digital Radio Action Plan ~ BBC: DAB Digital Radio ~ Digital One Network ~ Traffic Radio service on DAB digital radio and the internet ~ Digital Radio Working Group ~ Digital Radio Development Bureau ~ Ofcom: The Communications Market: Digital Radio Report ~ Ofcom.

Forthcoming event: Reducing risk from targeted attacks - Tuesday October 5th, London - When the 'Aurora Attacks' hit the headlines earlier this year, it was far from an isolated case. The criminal intent on display was just one example of many more instances that continue to impact enterprises, but go unreported by the media.


Attend this free half-day session to:

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  • Be presented with defence strategies to consider as information security is reviewed
     

Find out more and register for this free event

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