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WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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| Part of the solution to the issue above? |
| Applications are now open for computing scholarships. For the 5th year running, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT is managing the scholarship scheme to attract trainee computing teachers. The scheme aims to help meet the growing need for computing teachers. Scholarships - each worth £25,000 - will be available this year to find the very best potential trainee computing teachers. |
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BCS computing teacher training scholarships - now open for applications |
| Compare these figures to those of southern countries in EU |
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Unemployment has dropped to its lowest rate since 2005 while the employment rate has stayed at a record high of 74.2%. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show the unemployment rate now stands at 5.0% and there are nearly 31.6m people in work. There are nearly half-a-million more people in work compared to a year ago, with wages before bonuses up by 2.3% in the same period. The growth in employment is being driven by full-time work. At 5.6%, the proportion of 16 to 24 year olds who have left full-time education and are unemployed has never been lower |
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DWP: Unemployment down as more people in work than ever before Wales Office: Unemployment down as Welsh jobs market out performs the UK ScotGov: Decrease in unemployment Telegraph: Mapped; Europe divided - how the jobless disease is splitting the continent apart |
| Should we ever again believe HM Treasury’s projections? |
| Professor David Blake has conducted an independent review of the Treasury’s two reports on the economic consequences of a vote to leave the European Union in the Referendum on 23rd June. |
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CUL: Independent Review of HM Treasury’s two EU referendum models finds grossly exaggerated impact |
| SME Supplier Locator update... |
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UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. |
| Montreal Convention not fit for purpose? |
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British air carriers should cover the full cost of damage they cause to wheelchairs & mobility devices, according to Chris Holmes, Disability Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. One of Britain’s most successful Paralympic athletes and former Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012 has criticised British Airways and London City airport for its treatment of disabled customers. Lord Holmes spoke out after the electric wheelchair of Athena Stevens, a playwright & actor with cerebral palsy, was irreparably damaged on a flight from London to Glasgow last October. Although the wheelchair was worth over £25,000, no appropriate offer of compensation has been made and, before Stevens began legal action, she had received only £500 from London City Airport to cover taxi costs. As British Airways prepares to take Team GB to the Rio Paralympic Games in September, questions have also been raised as to whether the airline would also refuse to replace the equipment of Paralympic athletes competing in Rio, in the event that something was damaged. |
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EHRC: Pay for damaged wheelchairs, leading Paralympian tells airlines |
| YPO latest stakeholder channel to go live on WiredGov! |
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For over 40 years YPO (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation) has supplied the public sector across the UK with products & services to help drive efficiency savings. They use their bulk buying power to achieve the best prices for our customers on supplies and for access to contract services (known as frameworks) in everything from pens, paper and food to energy, insurance, ICT and HR services. YPO is the largest formally constituted public sector buying organisation in the UK, with a total of 54 member authorities, meaning all profits go back into the public purse. They provide around 30,000 products and 100 framework contracts to their customers in education, emergency services, charities, third sector and local authorities. |
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Launch Announcement - YPO Goes live on WiredGov Can first class travel be more cost effective? Creating a compelling Employer Value Proposition |
| Business growth comes in all sizes |
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The North’s small & medium cities (SMCs) contribute £82bn a YEAR to UK economy, IPPR North report finds – more than Wales & Northern Ireland combined and their growth rates match those of their big city neighbours, making them essential for boosting growth in the Northern Powerhouse. The research finds that the North’s smaller cities represent one third of the Northern economy and play a key role supporting the growth of their bigger neighbours. The report ‘City systems: the role of smaller towns and cities in growing the Northern Powerhouse’ highlights the vital role such places play in the wider economy – in sectors like advanced manufacturing, energy and logistics, key strands of the government’s Northern Powerhouse strategy. It calls for greater recognition of the complementary roles played by SMCs as part of broader ‘city systems’ to avoid the housing & congestion problems faced by London. This would be more like the kind of successful regions seen in Germany, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. The analysis finds that many SMCs do face significant challenges from not being better connected to bigger cities. But they can overcome these problems with a clear focus on their own economic strengths; tackling local skills problems; and collaborating with big-city neighbours. |
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IPPR: Small cities key to Northern Powerhouse success Life & work can be ‘great’ outside London Could your Town/City exhibit the ‘Power of the North’? |
| Start as you mean to go on! |
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The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) has launched new content for the Project Initiation Routemap (PIR) for improving the delivery of major projects. The PIR is a strategic tool that allows sponsors & clients to address the problems that commonly emerge at the beginning of major projects, setting themselves up to succeed. It forms part of the government’s National Infrastructure Delivery Plan, which sets out how the government will deliver key projects & programmes over the next 5 years. Over 20 major projects, and programmes including Crossrail and Anglian Water’s Alliance Strategy, have undergone routemap assessments, helping to drive their successful delivery. The launch includes 2 new modules on risk management and asset management, to complement the 5 existing modules. The risk management module will help project leaders identify and mitigate the factors that can prevent a project from meetings its objectives. The asset management module will help projects secure the best value for taxpayers and investors by ensuring they focus on managing assets across their whole lives. |
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HM Treasury: Improving major project delivery - Project Initiation Routemap New National Infrastructure Delivery Plan gets Britain building Improving Infrastructure Delivery: Project Initiation Routemap Handbook Improving infrastructure delivery: project case studies Projects will always be over-budget if managed retrospectively Project management is not an ‘optional extra’ for successful delivery |
| Is this lack of ‘parental control’ child-abuse? |
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The number of children developing Type 2 diabetes, normally only seen in adults, as a result of being overweight or obese should be a "wake up call" to the nation ahead of the Government's forthcoming childhood obesity strategy, warn councils. Latest figures show that there are 533 children & young people, including 11 aged nine or under, in England & Wales with Type 2 diabetes. Unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 is largely preventable and is closely linked to lifestyle, such as unhealthy eating or lack of exercise. To coincide with Diabetes Week, the Local Government Association, which represents more than 370 councils with responsibility for public health, says the number will continue to rise unless bold action is taken in the Government's childhood obesity strategy. A survey of children under 17 in the UK found that 95% of those diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes were overweight and 83 % obese. The first cases of Type 2 diabetes in children were diagnosed in overweight girls of Asian ethnic origin in 2000 and first reported in white adolescents in 2002. |
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LGA: Obesity crisis: 500 children suffering Type 2 diabetes is 'wake-up call' for the nation Evidently it’s not just little girls that are made of ‘sugar & spice and all things nice’ |
| Recognising most ICT managers are not computer security experts |
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Help shape the NCSC website for anyone with responsibility for their company's IT estate, not just for cyber specialists. They need volunteers, from small enterprises of 1 - 250 people, who are responsible for managing or implementing the IT or online digital services for their company. They need them to help them test various aspects of the initial National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) website. The NCSC will be serving a broad community of users. It is therefore important that for this particular round of testing the volunteers aren't cyber security specialists, and that the SME's they represent are not in the IT or cyber security business. Testing will be conducted in London on 8 July and will take about an hour to complete. Volunteers will be asked to complete a series of tasks during which time they will be encouraged to think out loud & give their opinions on their experience of using the site. Facilitators will be there to observe, listen & take notes and are likely to ask our testers further questions. The goal of the test is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative & quantitative data and determine our volunteer's satisfaction with the usability of the initial NCSC website. |
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CESG: NCSC website usability testing underway and we need volunteers |
| Editor’s observations Post -Referendum: |
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Many of us who actually participated in the 1975 referendum voted for joining the then European Economic Community (EEC), which was ‘sold’ to us by politicians of all parties, as a free trade agreement (i.e. nothing like what the EU is now). 40 years on, it’s hardly surprising that the majority of those old enough to remember voted ‘Leave’. Junker & Merkel ‘gave’ Cameron absolutely nothing to mitigate the impact of a potentially unlimited number of EU citizens moving to the UK. If they had done, rather than Junker confirming last Wednesday that there was ‘no chance of an improved offer if we voted to stay in’, then the vote might have gone the other way – Their arrogance & inflexibility ‘lost it’! : While many EU citizens have taken jobs in the UK that have boosted our economy & public services, many are ‘employed’, but are not ‘critical’ to the UK’s well-being & economy and only increase demand on our public services, housing, schools, etc. Many voters asked what the EU has done for our industries, when entire fishing communities around the UK have been decimated by the EEC/EU forcing us to give away most of our fishing rights and the UK government appears unable to support strategic industries (such as steel) in times of crisis because of EU rulings; Nobody really believed that the UK would be anywhere near the ‘centre of things’ in 2030 as, by then, the EU will either be disintegrating or be well on the path to a United States of Europe. By the way, has anyone else remembered that the UK is due to hold the Presidency of the EU for the second half of 2017? If we are not allowed to take it up, should we demand an additional rebate on our contribution, as we are supposed to maintain all our rights & duties for the 2 years of the Article 50 negotiations! Also if they restrict UK passporting of financial operations within the EU before the 2 years are up could we start excluding EU boats from a revived 200 mile fishing limit? Another complication is that the French Presidential elections will be held in April / May 2017 and German elections between August & October 2017. Finally, with regards to the e-petition for a re-run of the referendum, it turns out to be a ‘you couldn’t make it up’ story. According to the Independent, a Leave campaigner (who was worried Remain would win) set up the petition in May. It asks for the EU referendum to be re-run, if the ‘Remain or Leave’ vote was less than 60%, based a turnout of less than 75%. It has subsequently been ‘hijacked’ by Remain, but one assumes that they themselves will abide by the ‘terms of the vote’ and only expect a debate in Parliament if they get 75% of 46,499,537 eligible voters (34,874,652) turning out to sign it (or if one was generous) 60% of that number (20,924,791). |
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BBC: Second EU referendum petition investigated for fraud Independent: Brexit campaigner admits he set up second EU referendum petition Electoral Commission: Provisional electorate figures published ahead of the EU referendum |
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News, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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10DS: EU referendum outcome: PM statement, 24 June 2016 NHS Confederation response to Brexit RUSI Brexit Decision: The UK Needs to Become the EU's New Best Friend IEA reaction to Leave vote in EU referendum JRF response to the EU referendum – We cannot afford to return to business as usual CBI comments on UK vote to leave the EU LGA statement on 'leave' vote in EU referendum CIPD responds to EU Referendum ‘leave’ decision and what it may mean for the world of work TUC: Working people must not pay the price of leaving the EU BCS reaction to the EU referendum result Editor’s Note: We suggest readers monitor the ‘News’ sections of the 2 campaign sites for the 2 differing views. The WGPlus newsletter will mainly limit itself to highlighting ‘normal’ EU-related news, plus Think Tank items, PC&PE reports, etc. |
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More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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