Cabinet Office: Simpler said than done? - The Government has launched its progress report on 'Transformational Government: enabled by technology' with the news that at least 551 government websites are to be cut to make access to information easier for citizens and businesses.
In a move that they claim will ‘benefit’ tens of millions of users, only 26 of the websites examined so far are certain to be retained by Government, while information of continuing relevance from ‘to be closed’ sites will evidently transfer to either www.direct.gov.uk or www.businesslink.gov.uk.
The government justifies its plans by claiming that people prefer to use 'supersites', such as the Directgov and www.bbc.co.uk websites (not forgetting our own WiredGov), rather than individual ones.
According to the government:
· ‘the use of Government IT has now reached a critical mass and ordinary citizens are at the heart of this new way of working’, and
· ‘Hundreds of millions are being saved by successful IT projects that receive little public attention
Press release ~ Transformational Government Annual Report 2006 ~ Related transformational government documents ~ Government IT Profession ~ NAO: Delivering Successful IT-enabled Business Change ~ Inclusion Through innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies (Scroll down for related docs) ~ Citizens Online ~ Alliance for Digital Inclusion ~ Shared Services
DCLG: Delegating real power or just washing their hands of the problem? - Resident groups on council estates in
The Local Authorities (contracting out of Anti-Social Behaviour Order Functions) (England) Order 2006 will if approved enable local authorities to ask those bodies managing their housing (under section 27 of the Housing Act 1985) to also carry out some or all of their functions relating to Anti-social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) -
ASBOs - a court order prohibiting a person from specific anti-social acts or from certain areas - can be used to clamp down on anything from noisy neighbours to nuisance, harassment and race hate crime, with a maximum of five years in prison if breached. All Tenant Management Organisations will have to undergo a ‘rigorous’ procedure before taking on ASB responsibilities.
Over 200 Tenant Management Organisations currently exist, but at the moment it can take up to three years to get these organisations up & running - putting many people off. New regulations are planned for 1 October2007, which will streamline the current Right to Manage Regulations.
Press release ~ DCLG - Anti-social behaviour and Housing ~ DCLG – Making homes decent ~ DCLG – Tenant participation ~ Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) guidance ~ The National Federation of Tenant ~ Management Organisations (NFTMO) ~ Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) ~ Tenants managing: evaluation of Tenant Management Organisations in England ~ JRF: Twenty-five years on twenty estates: Turning the tide ~ Respect
DfES: Will new admissions code stop middle-classes dominating the ‘best’ schools? - The government claims that a new mandatory School Admissions Code will put an end to ‘covert selection’ in schools, by outlawing a range of unfair admission practices in all maintained schools, including selective & comprehensive schools, Academies, faith schools and state boarding schools.
The Code is also meant to ‘make the admission system more straightforward, transparent and easier to understand for parents, by giving clear guidance on parents' new powers to object to a school's
oversubscription criteria if they believe it does not comply with the new Code’.
The new Code, which comes into force in February for admissions from the 2008 school year, gives every local authority, admission authority and governing body in England a statutory responsibility for ensuring that admissions polices and practices do not disadvantage any children, but they can continue to use oversubscription criteria which are widely considered to be good practice, including:
· those which give priority to children who live nearest to a school or within a particular catchment area
· those with siblings attending the same school, and
· banding arrangements which are designed to ensure that a school's intake represents the full range of ability of applicants
Press release ~ Schools Admissions Code ~ Office of the Schools Adjudicator - Admission arrangements ~ CRE - Admissions ~ White Paper Higher Standards, Better Schools for All: More Choice for Parents and Pupils ~ Parents centre
DCMS: A straight line to learning human emotions through play – The Autism Research Centre (ARC) at
The series of 15 five-minute episodes (narrated by Stephen Fry) features the adventures of eight lovable toys with human faces, each focusing on a different human emotion.
Children with autism tend to avoid looking at human faces and find it hard to understand why facial features move in the way that they do. This inability to read emotions on the human face impairs their ability to communicate with other people.
Research at the ARC found that, following a four-week period of watching the DVD for 15 minutes a day, children with high-functioning autism caught up with typically developing children of the same age in their performance on emotion recognition tasks.
The DVD is being distributed FREE to families of children with autism between the ages of two and eight. Copies can be requested from www.transporters.tv and episode one (‘Happy’) can be watched HERE.
Press release ~ Autism Research Centre (ARC) ~ Culture Online ~ Catalyst Pictures Ltd ~ The National Autistic Society (NAS)
NAO: “Dispensing treatment rather than care” - The National Audit Office says that almost all primary care trusts (PCTS) have clinical governance structures & processes in place that should assure quality and safety of patient care, but progress in their implementation varies within & between trusts and more needs to be done to provide assurance about GP performance and protect patient safety.
The key principles of clinical governance include a coherent approach to quality improvement, clear lines of accountability for clinical quality and effective systems for identifying & managing risk and addressing poor performance.
All PCTs have a statutory ‘duty of quality’ which the DH expects them to discharge largely through implementing its clinical governance initiative.
The report also found patient & public involvement as one of the least well developed components of clinical governance, despite the DH’s NHS Reform agenda confirming it as one of the most important, given the drive towards a patient-led NHS.
Among the NAO’s recommendations are that the DH should explicitly address quality as a requirement in developing its guidance for PCT commissioning.
Press release ~ Improving Quality and Safety - Progress in Implementing Clinical Governance in Primary Care: Lessons for the New Primary Care Trusts ~ Executive Summary ~ Community Pharmacy Clinical Governance Questionnaire Results ~ DH – Clinical Governance ~ NHS Clinical Governance Support Team (CGST) ~ RCN Resource guide ~ Information Centre for health and social care – Clinical Governance
BNSC: Next stop the moon? - A public consultation (closes on 2 April 2007) on the UK's new civil space strategy has been launched by the government and responses will help inform the development of space policy for 2007-10 on issues including:
· maximising wealth creation from space
· promoting excellent science and
· developing space-related education activities for young people
The consultation will be of particular interest to members of the UK space industry, UK space academia, other Government Departments which are current or potential users of space applications and the general public with an interest in UK space policy.
Press release ~ Consultation document ~ British National Space Centre (BNSC) ~ BBC: Science & Nature - Space ~ Free space flight simulator ~ Space Newsfeed ~ Galileo website ~ ESA - Galileo ~ Astrium UK ~ Surrey Satellites Technology Ltd ~ Plan for go-it-alone moon missions - Guardian Unlimited ~ Tate in Space
Industry News: Cost effective purchasing is the essential foundation of housing maintenance – The trend over recent years has been towards social housing being managed by smaller & leaner Housing Associations rather than large local council departments, but that in turn has sometimes created the problem of reduced ‘buying power’, as they were often smaller organisations than those they replaced.
In response to the issue, Procurement for Housing (PfH) was created as an essential business tool to generate substantial savings by harnessing the collective purchasing power of housing organisations.
From the Housing Associations’ point of view, the PfH Responsive Materials service is designed to meet its their day-to-day materials needs for repairs reports by residents with a contract that offers an extensive choice of products, a wide selection of supply outlets plus highly competitive prices and consolidated invoicing through PfH’s unique account card system.
For Suppliers it offers an opportunity to enter a £300m+ marketplace and provides a system that generates valuable purchasing information & reduced transaction costs, which enables them to track seasonal peaks and popular items, providing the data required for their own ordering & stock control systems.
It means the difference between being ‘proactive’ rather than ‘reactive’ to customer demand, thus helping to ensure that they are neither ‘caught short’ (which irritates their customers) nor left with ‘out of season stock’ (which ties up their capital).
In addition administration costs are kept to a minimum by the account card system and monthly billing which facilitates the prompt & regular payment for goods, rather than the endless (and expensive) paper chase that goes with a more traditional paper invoice system.
Full article ~ Procurement for Housing ~ PfH Account Card ~ Co-operation not Competition ~ Business Support from Jewson ~ Directgov – Housing Associations ~ National Housing Federation ~ Scottish Federation of Housing Associations ~ Welsh Federation of Housing Associations ~ Registered Social Landlords ~ Right First Time: how housing associations are improving their repairs and maintenance services ~ Housing Association Repairs ~ Improving efficiency in procurement of capital works - Social Housing Efficiency Factsheet 5 ~ Systematic Approach to Service Improvement - Evaluating Systems Thinking in Housing ~ Housing Maintenance Contractors Forum
For other Industry News please click HERE
For information on forthcoming public sector events please click HERE to visit the WGPlus Events Calendar
RA Eng.: Could your engineering innovation
change the world? The Royal Academy of
Engineering is looking for contenders for the MacRobert Award 2007, worth £50,000
tax-free to the winner, plus the solid gold MacRobert Award Medal. The closing date for entries is
Open to individuals or teams of up to five
people from any size of company who have exploited a major engineering
breakthrough, entries are welcomed from any field of engineering and technology
as long as they are innovative, commercially successful and benefit
society.
A team of engineers from Dunfermline-based Optos Plc (won the 2006 MacRobert Award for
developing the first ultra-wide retinal imager, which is now helping opticians
across the world to diagnose eye problems much more
efficiently.
Press release ~
MacRobert Award ~ The Royal
Academy of Engineering
DfT: The government claims that a new
licensing scheme for boatmen on the river
The new BML is modular and it will take a
minimum of two years to obtain the 'generic' licence. Candidates will have a study &
testing programme on boat-handling, seamanship skills and safety management and
training. A further six months
local knowledge training must be completed where local circumstances require
it, including for the
Boatmen who want to qualify for more
specialised operations, including a sea endorsement, will need to undertake
further training - up to five and a half years for the full range of
skills.
Press release ~
Boatmasters License
(BML) ~ Regulatory Impact
Assessment
HM Treasury:
The government have launched a discussion paper entitled Policy Review of Children and Young
People, which sets out evidence gathered during the first stage of the
review.
The paper recognises that teenage years are a
time of change & increased personal responsibility and shows that regular
participation in positive activities helps young people cope with change,
develop confidence and build new skills.
It presents evidence on four main areas of
challenge, to be revisited in the final report:
·
FONT>
a more
preventative system doing more to build children's resilience and
intervening as soon as possible when problems do
arise
·
FONT>
a ten year youth
strategy
·
FONT>
how services can
provide greater support to families with disabled children,
and
·
FONT>
how services for
families and children at risk of becoming locked in a cycle of low achievement
can be reformed to deliver better outcomes
Press release ~
Policy Review of Children and Young
People ~ 2007 Comprehensive Spending
Review ~ Stowe Youth Centre ~ <
FONT color=#0000ff>Support for parents: the best start for
children ~ See also DfES consultation ‘positive activities’
below
DfES: From 8 January 2007 (under Section 6 of
the Education and Inspections Act 2006) all local authorities will be expected
to secure access for young people to 'positive activities', including
youth clubs, sports facilities and art projects and the government has launched
a consultation (closes 30 March 2007) of
draft statutory guidance.
Local authorities will also be expected to
take account of young people's views on activities & facilities
currently available to them, as well as any new ones they would like to see in
the area. The local authority will
then be required to publicise these to young people and to keep the information
up-to-date.
'Positive activities' might include
sports clubs, cultural events, volunteering schemes or art projects but the
scope is broad and activities can be educational or recreational - so long as
they contribute to young people's well-being.
Press release ~
<
FONT color=#0000ff size=2>Draft statutory guidance for Local
Authorities ~ Green Paper 'Youth Matters' ~ Things to do, places to go - Every Child
Matters ~ Parent Checklist for Youth Activities ~ Respect - Youth activities ~
Nacro - Services – Youth activities ~ National Council for Voluntary Youth
Services ~ Physically Active Youth programme
~ National Association of Youth
Theatres
DfES: Education and Skills Secretary Alan
Johnson has published a consultation document (closes
The
pilots will include:
·
FONT>
one-to-one tuition
in English and/or mathematics, with some children receiving up to 20 hours of
tutoring
·
FONT>
changes to
assessment, allowing children to take national tests as soon as they are
ready
·
FONT>
new progress
targets to measure the school's success in moving pupils
forward
Press release ~
<
FONT color=#0000ff>Making Good Progress: How can we help every pupil to make
good progress at school? ~ GTC comment ~ BBC News item
OFT: The OFT is consulting (closes
The new powers can be used if there is a
reasonable suspicion that a business is or has been breaching European consumer
protection law, and to investigate whether a business is or has been failing to
comply with an enforcement order.
These powers, which can be used by a number
of public bodies including the OFT and Local Authority Trading Standards
Service, can be applied without advance warning provided a warrant has been
obtained from a Magistrates court. If an inspection is conducted without a warrant, then the
business must be given at least two days' notice.
Press release ~
Consultation document ~ Regulation on Consumer Protection
Cooperation ~
OFT appointed UK liaison office for consumer protection
co-operation regulation
DTI: The Government's proposals to
increase workers' holiday entitlement from 20 days per year to 28 have been
announced along with the claim that up to six million workers would benefit
from an extra eight days holiday, as some employers currently include the eight
bank holidays as part of workers' leave
entitlement.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is
launching a second public consultation
(closes
Workers in
Press release ~
Consultation documents for: Increasing the holiday entitlement - a
further consultation ~ Response to initial consultation ~ Directgov - Holiday entitlements ~
Business Link -
Statutory holiday entitlement ~ Acas factsheet ~ Holiday Pay calculator
CEL: Following publication of the Leitch
Review’s final report, Prosperity for
all in the global economy – world class skills in December 2006, the Centre for Excellence in Leadership
(CEL) has initiated a consultation (responses preferred by end of
February) with sector leaders and partner
organisations to develop a robust analysis of the implications for leadership
and leadership development for the learning and skills
sector.
To begin the process, CEL’s review
of the report looks at key implications
for the FE system, summarises the proposals, assesses changes in the roles and
responsibilities of employers, Sector Skills Councils and the Learning and
Skills Council, and analyses the implications for leaders and leadership
development.
Press release ~
<
FONT color=#800080>Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class
skills ~ CEL’s review of the report
~ Post comments ~ Centre
for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) ~ Sector Skills Councils ~ Learning and Skills
Council
DH: The government claims that NHS
clinicians will be better equipped to identify patients with long term
conditions who are most at risk of unplanned and unnecessary hospital
admissions, thanks to a new model recently launched to the NHS.
The Combined Predictive Model
is a newly developed method that the NHS can use to identify the right people
to case manage. It uses accident
& emergency, inpatient, outpatient and GP data sources to identify future
frequent users of hospital services beforehand, allowing for earlier
intervention.
The Combined Model is intended to assist community matrons and other case
managers, who are responsible for planning and co-ordinating patient care and
ensuring a joined up approach from integrated health and social care
teams.
Press release ~
Combined Predictive Model ~
DfES: The government is urging families to ‘read more and read together’ with the
launch of a toolkit to encourage reading for pleasure in the home. The Family Engagement Toolkit, funded by the Department for Education
& Skills, gives advice to schools on how they can engage parents and
encourage them to read with their children.
It was developed by the National
Reading Campaign for the schools strand of their Family Reading Campaign. A study by the
Press release ~
Reading Connects ~ Family Engagement Toolkit ~
National Reading Campaign ~
Family Reading Campaign ~
Every Child a Reader ~ Reading Recovery Network ~
Rose Review on the teaching of phonics
FSA: The Financial Services Authority (FSA)
has called on firms giving mortgage advice to improve their processes after new
findings showed that only one third of the firms it sampled had robust
processes in place to provide customers with suitable advice and that scope for
improvement was found in all aspects of the advice process.
Some of the poorer areas identified were the
assessment of customer needs, including affordability; training and competence;
overall systems and controls; and record keeping. Whilst larger firms generally have robust processes in
place, they could not always demonstrate that they are using them.
The FSA has produced good & poor practice
guides as well as providing key actions to the firms that were visited. However, the failings were significant
in a number of firms and it has referred several to enforcement.
Press release ~
Banks and building societies and Large mortgage networks and
advisers ~
Small mortgage networks and
advisers ~
TDA: An online Skills for Life planner to help school
leaders plan & implement training in language, literacy and numeracy skills
for the half a million support staff who now work in a range of support roles
in schools, has been launched by the Training and Development Agency for Schools
(TDA).
It’s four sections are designed to help Get buy-in, Identify learning needs, Plan
learning and Evaluate contents
and each section contains advice, guidance and support, with downloadable
checklists, links to key organisations and case
studies.
Press release ~ Skills for Life planner ~ Training and Development Agency for Schools - Support Staff ~
CC: See Charity Commission item regarding
SIRs in ‘Charity and Voluntary Sector’ below.
Scottish Executive: Ministers have welcomed recognition by
education inspectors that
In a report published on the implementation
of A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century inspectors also
highlight improvements in teacher recruitment and said that new career
structures have given teachers more opportunities to work together and improve
the quality of learning.
Press release ~
Teaching Scotland’s Children: A report on progress in
implementing ‘A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century’
FONT> ~ A Teaching Profession for the 21st
Century ~ Audit Scotland’s report on the
implementation ~
McCrone report into pay and conditions Part One
~ McCrone Part Two ~
Scottish schools website
~ Scottish Learning
Festival
DH: The Department of Health has published
a review of retail pharmaceutical services in England showing the impact of a
package of reforms to the system known as 'control of entry' on this
sector. Nationally, the report
also found that 99% of people could get to a pharmacy by car, walking or public
transport within 20 minutes, including those in deprived
areas.
The reforms to the NHS regulatory system were
introduced in April 2005 following the Government's response to an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report in
2003, which had recommended total deregulation of this
area.
However, whilst this report shows that the
approach taken was the right way to proceed, the question of whether the system
remains a suitable vehicle to enable Primary Care Trusts to meet their new
roles and responsibilities for commissioning a patient-led NHS is open to
further debate.
The government is therefore inviting representatives from patient and
consumer groups, the NHS, professional, representative and trade associations
to put forward their opinions to a review of these contractual
arrangements.
A report will be completed by March
2007 and the Department will then
consider formal consultation on proposals for necessary
changes.
Press release ~
Review report ~ Office of
Fair Trading (OFT) report
2003 ~ DH: NHS Pharmaceutical
Regulations 2005 ~ Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee ~ National Pharmacy
Association
HC: More must be done to improve the
management of service users medicines in NHS mental health trusts according to
a new Healthcare Commission
report. The findings are from
a national report on medicines management in mental health trusts. A national report on medicines
management in all 173 acute trusts has also been
released.
The review of mental health
trusts has found that a person in the care of a mental health trust is more
likely to have problems with their medicines than a patient in the care of an
acute trust and that the level of medicines management support available within
mental health trusts tends to be less than that found in an acute
trust
The key findings of the reviews included the
topics of:
·
FONT>
Identifying problems with Inpatient
medicines
·
FONT>
Ensuring inpatients receive safe and effective
medicines
·
FONT>
Appropriate use of medicine by people being cared
for by community teams
·
FONT>
Working with GPs
·
FONT>
Automation
Press release ~
Two reports and related documents
~ Audit Commission - Medicines Management (2002) ~
Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health
(POMH-UK) ~ Pharmacy Briefing ~ Working in a Hospital Pharmacy ~ Pharmacy in practice
Gambling Commission: A new regime for
There are three categories of licence -
operating, personal and premises - and businesses may need all
three. The Commission will issue operating and personal licences,
while local authorities will be responsible for issuing premises
licences.
To ensure that operators can continue working
beyond
Press release ~
Gambling Commission ~
Planning Portal: The Treasury has published the Planning Gain Supplement (Preparations)
Bill, which will allow for initial expenditure estimated at more than £50m
for ICT and administrative systems.
The spend will involve Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ,
the Planning Portal (via Communities and Local Government) and the Department
of Personnel and Finance in Northern Ireland.
At this juncture the Treasury anticipates
some £40m will be needed so the HMRC can set-up new IT systems and ready the
Valuation Office Agency to administer the PGS. In addition, the Planning Portal, as the government's
internet gateway to planning information throughout the
Implementing PGS will require primary
legislation and Ministers are still considering the final detail of the new
measure and will be consulting later this year on key aspects.
Press release ~
Communities and Local Government
Committee's Report on the Planning-gain Supplement
~ Government response ~
Planning-gain Supplement
(Preparations) Bill 2006-07 ~ Explanatory notes ~ Planning Portal
News
CC: The
Charity Commission has published its review of the first year of Summary Information Returns (SIR),
which charities with income over £1 million are required to submit. With public
interest at an all-time high and donors seeking to make more informed choices
about the charities they support, SIRs can provide more meaningful information
on the work of individual charities.
In
their own words is an analysis report of
the SIRs received so far, with examples of the different approaches charities
have taken to describe their charitable outcomes, impact and finances. The income of the 5,000 charities
expected to respond by the end of 2006 represent 80% of the total annual income
of the sector.
Press release ~
In their own words ~ Summary Information Returns (SIR)
~ Private Action, Public
Benefit
DTI: Employers who refuse to pay the minimum
wage could face a £200 fine for every worker they had underpaid, Trade and
Industry Secretary Alistair Darling has announced.
Where a complaint is made to the appropriate
enforcement body and arrears are subsequently identified & remain unpaid,
an enforcement notice may be served on an employer specifying the amount owed
to workers and the time the employer has to pay or appeal the enforcement
notice.
Those employers who do not pay within seven
days risk a fine. Employers who
fail to pay the minimum wage can also face prosecution, risking a criminal
record and a £5,000 fine.
HMRC enforce NMW legislation on the
government's behalf, except for agriculture in
Press release ~
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