The report examines the public value of providing complementary healthcare on the NHS and analyses it in the context of public health. It highlights the postcode lottery (which favours the South over the Midlands & North), in the use of acupuncture, chiropractic & osteopathy in tackling chronic health conditions, such as musculoskeletal disorders, within the NHS which condemns millions of people in lower socio-economic groups to years of misery & economic inactivity, as a result of the government’s failure to act. The report also shows how inequalities are growing because increasingly, people receiving complementary healthcare on the NHS, are having to pay for these services, jeopardising the ability of those most in need to get the treatment that they require to help them get back to work or to be fully productive, creating long-term costs for the economy as a whole. The report calls on the government to honour its commitment made in 2003 to create a national framework for the universal delivery of complementary healthcare as a means of eliminating current inequalities. Press release ~ Public Health, Private Wealth – complementary healthcare and the NHS (VLF) ~ Get Well UK ~ Does it work? - A pilot project investigating the integration of complementary medicine into primary care ~ Regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture : Proposals for statutory regulation ~ Integrated healthcare network ~ Clinical Governance for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Primary Care ~ Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health and the University of Westminster’s Clinical Governance for Alternative and Complementary Medicine programme ~ Lower Back PainToolkits CG Toolkits ~ Regulating complementary medicine- implications for the nursing profession Cabinet Office: Ten Point Plan for Diversity - Sir Gus O’Donnell, Head of the Home Civil Service, has unveiled a 10-Point Plan to raise the pace towards a representative workforce. It is intended to reach further than previous work by embedding diversity as a key measure of performance for Permanent Secretaries. It commits to a programme of significant change in 10 key areas, including maximising use of positive action in recruitment practices, making all Senior Civil Service & feeder grade posts available on a flexible working pattern basis wherever possible and meaningful diversity objectives for all, linked to reward. Press release ~ Delivering a Diverse Civil Service - A 10 Point Plan ~ Civil Service Reform website ~ 2008 Diversity targets ~ The Diversity Champions’ Network ~ Civil Service Fast Stream diversity networks ~ Race equality impact assessment: a CRE step-by-step guide ~ Acas Equality & Diversity website ODPM: Excluded or Included? - A challenge to the traditional view that new technology will widen inequality in the future has come from the Government’s Social Exclusion Unit with the publication of a report that claims to show how technology is already improving life chances & public service delivery and is being embraced by excluded groups. The report Inclusion Through innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies claims that excluded people already use technology extensively and that we need to build on this enthusiasm. The report shows examples of how modern technology can improve public service take-up, reconnect the isolated and provide a lifeline for those groups on the margins The report’s proposals & actions included setting out the action for Government to develop information sharing about excluded groups (while building protocols & safeguarding privacy) and proposing the expansion of access to ICT / Broadband facilities in hostels for the homeless and community centres in deprived areas. Press release ~ Inclusion Through innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies (Scroll down for related docs) ~ ODPM’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit ~ Reducing Youth Offending Generic National Solution (RYOGENS) ~ Knowsley Plus One Challenge ~ Crisis (the homelessness charity) ~ Citizens Online ~ Alliance for Digital Inclusion ~ Business in the community – Tackling the digital divide ~ E-petition on digital inclusion ~ Connecting the UK:the Digital Strategy ~ Digital Divide network ~ Enabling a digitally enabled United Kingdom: A framework for action Patient safety incidents are estimated to cost the NHS some £2 billion a year in extra bed days and a retrospective study of patient records in two English hospitals found that just over 10% of patients experienced an ‘adverse event’. Responses to an NAO survey showed that there is significant under-reporting of deaths and serious incidents and that reporting of near misses is also low, mainly owing to different perceptions of what constitutes a ‘near miss’. The roll-out of the National Patient Safety Agency’s National Reporting and Learning System has taken over two years longer than the December 2002 date originally envisaged and is still not fully complete yet. Press release ~ A Safer Place for Patients: learning to improve patient safety:- Full Report (1.4Mb) ~ Executive Summary ~ Incident Decision Tree ~ 7 Steps to Patients Safety ~ Building a safer NHS for patients ~ An organisation with a memory ~ National Patient Safety Agency ~ National Reporting and Learning System ~ Being open - communicating patient safety incidents with patients and their carers ~ National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS ~ DH patient safety website ~ Healthcare Commission Complaints webpage ~ Health Service Ombudsman MCA: Have You Been Drinking Sir? - Police and Coastguards could be forgiven for thinking that long-term binge drinking had become endemic among residents living in one part of the south coast of Press release ~ Receiver of Wreck ~ Report of Wreck form ~ Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) ~ Plastic Ducks track Ocean currents ~ See alsoNAO: A Safer Place for Patients: learning to improve patient safety - According to a report by the National Audit Office, around 52% of incidents in which NHS hospital patients are unintentionally harmed could have been avoided, if lessons from previous incidents had been learned.
It appears that over two-thirds of frontline staff are still unsure what ’efficiency’ means and two-thirds of frontline managers do not see ICT as being integral to public service reforms.
The survey is published at an interesting time, as the Cabinet Office has just published its new e-Government strategy (Transformational Government - Enabled by Technolog) and the ODPM its Inclusion through innovation report (both featured in the full website version of this newsletter).
The Work Foundation has picked up on several crucial issues (including the requirement for an urgent need for a better debate about implications for data privacy), which have been given only minimal attention in the new strategy.
Full article ~ Public Services & ICT: How can ICT improve quality, choice and efficiency? can be obtained from Dhouston@theworkfoundation.com, but will shortly be published on the mini website, where the 3 previous reports in the series are already available ~ Transformational Government - Enabled by Technology ~ Gershon review ~ Inclusion Through innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies
The December 2004 Innovate America report by the Council on Competitiveness epitomises the fundamental changes in current thinking on how to innovate & develop new products in the most effective way and the Royal Academy of Engineering will discuss this concept, dubbed ‘radical innovation’, at a conference in London, this Wednesday 9 November, on ‘Radical Innovation in Advanced Nanomaterials’.
The idea is to design new technologies into new families of products with a quantum leap of performance and cost-effectiveness to the consumer.
Further details ~ Royal Academy of Engineering ~ Council on Competitiveness ~ Innovate America: Thriving in a World of Challenge and Change. (only interim report appears to be available online) ~ Other National Innovation reports (scroll down) ~ Nanomaterials
DTI: With winter approaching, vulnerable
households will benefit from a new helpline. Funded by
Press release ~ Energy Retail
Association ~ Warm
Front scheme ~ essentia
group ~ Keep Warm Keep Well: Winter guide 2005/06 ~
Help the Aged – Winter Deaths ~ Age Concern
Healthcare Commission: The number of people asking for their
NHS complaint to be independently reviewed because it was not resolved by local
health services has more than doubled from 3,700 to 8,000 in the past
year.
The Healthcare Commission, which handles
complaints that NHS trusts cannot resolve is producing a good practice guide on complaints
management, including what the Commission would expect to
see in a complaints file. The most frequent complaints coming through to the
Healthcare Commission relate to
poor communication & information for patients.
Press release ~ < FONT color=#800080>Healthcare Commission Complaints webpage ~ DH Complaints Policy web page ~ Health Service Ombudsman ~ Making things better? A report on reform of the NHS complaints procedure in England
This, the latest addition to the Women’s Workshop Training Centre, will
house a dedicated team of staff to provide guidance to women who are
considering, or are already, working in these sectors.
Press release ~ UK Resource
Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Construction and
Technology ~ Women’s Workshop Training Centre ~ Useful & related Links ~ JIVE
(Joint Interventions) Partners
ODPM: The
Government has announced that it is introducing a new rule linking building
control by Approved Inspectors on new homes with designated housing warranty
schemes. The Warranty Link Rule (WLR) is intended to
increase competition & choice in building control across the whole range of
regulated building work, whilst providing residential owner-occupiers with
appropriate safeguards.
Three warranty schemes have been approved by the ODPM
for the purpose of the Warranty Link Rule: NHBC’s "Buildmark",
Press release ~ ODPM circular letter dated 31 October
2005 ~ Construction Industry Council Approved Inspectors
Register ~ NHBC’s
"Buildmark"
Home Office: All
adults who want to become a British citizen will now need to demonstrate their
knowledge of life in the
Press release ~ Life in the UK
test website ~ ABNI (Advisory
Board on Naturalisation and Integration) ~ English
for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Skills for
Life
DH:
The
Government is claiming that thousands of men will be more prostate
cancer aware thanks to a new public awareness campaign. Prostate cancer accounts
for around 4% of male deaths annually in England and Wales,
This pilot
campaign, a collaboration between the DH and members of the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action,
aims to educate people about the signs & symptoms of the condition and
encourage men to speak more openly about it.
Press release ~ Prostate Cancer Charter for Action ~ UK Prostate
Link ~ NHS Prostate Cancer Programme ~ Prostate
Cancer Risk Management ~
Cancer UK – Useful Links ~ National
Cancer Research Institute ~ Prostate Cancer Advisory Group
Acas: Acas is helping the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) to reduce work-related stress in a pilot scheme involving 80
organizations from five key sectors health, education, local government,
central government and financial services.
The plan is
for these organisations to implement
the HSE’s stress management standards by developing risk assessments and
putting in place improvement plans
Press release ~ Stress Awareness
Day ~ Acas booklet Stress
at Work ~ Working together to reduce stress at work - A
guide for employees ~ Acas stress website ~ HSE stress
website (scroll down for ‘resources’ section) ~ Management
standards for work-related stress ~ International Stress
Management Association (ISMA)
OFT: Businesses involved in price-fixing, market-sharing,
bid-rigging or other cartels can wipe the slate clean and remove the risk of
severe penalties during Come Clean on
Cartels Month says The Office of
Fair Trading.
Press release ~ OFT cartels
website
Home
Office: Voluntary organisations with a proven track record will be able to apply
for unrestricted grants and have the opportunity to represent the Voluntary and
Community Sector (VCS) at a national level. Voluntary sector and other
organisations have until
The strategic funding round will make more than £10
million available to voluntary sector and other not-for-profit organisations
who demonstrate the ability to use their practical experience to influence the
national debate on volunteering. Successful applicants will work closely with the Home Office
to provide a national voice for the VCS.
Press release ~ Active Communities Unit strategic funding
Cabinet Office: The Government has announcement that it is launching a
‘new
drive’ to deliver major efficiencies for tax payers by merging back office
functions in public services. Comments on its policy to be sent in by
However, analysis of the press release
and keyword searches of the document seems to indicate that there is not much
in the way of fresh detail or policy and there is only minimal reference to
previous initiatives such as the Gershon review, Local Authority National
Projects, etc. and related previous policy documents. Nor is there any mention of the ODPM’s Inclusion through innovation report
also published last week and featured elsewhere in this
newsletter.
Press release ~ Transformational Government - Enabled by Technology ~
Gershon review
~ Successful Delivery Skills programme and Skills
Framework ~ OGC’s Gateway
Process ~ e-Strategy Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and
childrens services ~ Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy ~ Socitm ~ Local e-gov National Projects ~ Inclusion Through innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through
New Technologies ~ Central sponsor for Information assurance ~ Geographical information panel ~ Professional skills
for government
DfES: The
government has announced ‘extra’ eLearning credits for schools to spend on
educational software. The
ring fenced £125m is on top of the £75m announced as part schools overall
capital allocations in November last year and will only be available for
spending on Curriculum Online approved products and
services.
This will bring the DfES closer to realising its Curriculum Online aspiration of the
public & private sectors working in harmony to support the needs of all
learners - at school, at home and in the workplace. The first BBC JAM
content is expected to come on stream in January 2006.
Press release ~ Curriculum
Online ~ eLearning Credits
(eLCs) ~ Digital Curriculum ~ BBC JAM ~ Tessa
Jowell Gives Approval To BBC Digital Curriculum
Defra: Defra has launched a consultation (closes 24
January 2006) on how rare breeds of sheep should be treated under a
genotype based compulsory breeding programme. All EU Member States have to introduce compulsory breeding
programmes for scrapie resistance in flocks of high genetic
merit.
However, because of the
high levels of scrapie susceptible genotypes in some rare breeds and the
Government’s commitment towards the conservation of biodiversity, Defra
considers it appropriate to take advantage of a derogation to allow owners of
some rare breed flocks to keep their most susceptible
rams.
Press release ~
ODPM: The government has published draft
regulations for consultation (closes
At the
moment more than 25% of all sales fall through after an offer has been accepted
- nearly half because of the problems which emerge when surveys or valuations
are carried out. £1m a day is
wasted on failed transactions for which buyers have spent hundreds of pounds on
valuations, legal advice and searches for homes.
Press release ~ Consultation documents - HIP Draft Regulations ~ ODPM
Information packs website ~ National
Home Energy Rating
DfES: Proposals to help schools provide every child with high
quality, safe school trips - including residential experiences – have been
published for consultation (closes 30 Jan 2006) with the publication
of
the framework for the Manifesto for Education Outside the Classroom.
Press release ~ <
FONT color=#800080>Online consultation -
Manifesto for Education Outside the Classroom ~ National Trust’s new Snuff Mill Environmental
Education Centre at Morden Hall Park ~ Ofsted - Outdoor Education, Aspects of Good Practice
~ Institute for Outdoor Learning ~ European
Institute of Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential
Learning ~ Schoolzone - Will my union back me
up? ~ Managing school
trips ~
Pensions
Regulator: A consultation document
(closes
Press release ~
Consultation document
HSE:
The Health and Safety Commission has published a consultative document
(closes
HSC is taking this opportunity to simplify and
rationalise the legislative regime by combining the three sets of current
asbestos regulations - on controls, licensing and prohibitions -
into one. It is also proposing to align the criteria for notifying the
enforcing authority of work with asbestos with the requirement to have an HSE
asbestos licence. The regulations
will adopt a risk-based approach to licensing, reflecting risk criteria in the
directive.
Press release ~ Consultation documents ~ HSE Asbestos
website ~ HSE COSHH website
DTI: The government is consulting (closes
BT currently
handles about 160,000 complaints a month about nuisance calls, while the
Telephone Preference Service (TPS) already has over 10.5 million numbers
registered with them.
Press release ~ Consultation ~ Telephone Preference
Service (TPS) ~ Premium rate services (PRS) ~ Fax Preference
service
DH: New measures to help people with alcohol problems have been
outlined by the government in Programme
of Improvement, which includes publication of an audit of treatment, giving a national
picture of trends of alcohol misuse and the availability of alcohol treatment
services throughout the country.
It is
expected that by identifying the problem as early as possible, it will help
avoid the serious damage that alcohol dependency has on the health of the
individual, as well as its negative effects on their relatives and society as a
whole
Press release ~ DH Alcohol Misuse website (includes
Programme of Improvements guidance
and ANARP) ~ Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy ~ Models of Care for Alcohol Misusers (MoCAM) being developed by
the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) ~ Alcohol
Concern
DTI: The
government has published the consent process for wave and tidal demonstration
projects in
Press release ~ Consent process ~ Marine Renewables Deployment Fund (Scroll down) ~ Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) ~ Wave and Tidal Stream Energy Demonstration
Scheme ~ Marine
Renewable Energy Links
Schools Adjudicator: The Chief Schools Adjudicator has
published the sixth annual report on the work of the schools adjudicators.
There has been a slight decrease
in the number of referrals this year with 140 objections to admission
arrangements, 29 statutory proposals and 58 in-year variations.
ONS: The Office of National Statistics have
launched the second of a continuing series of articles relating to the
productivity of key public services.
This one draws together a number of sources of information, from the
National Accounts and more widely, to provide a range of measurements of the
productivity of government expenditure on Education.
Further
articles on other key public services, such as Social Services and the Criminal
Justice System are planned for release next year.
Press release ~ Atkinson Review ~ ONS response to Atkinson Review ~UK Centre for the
Measurement of Government Activity (UKCeMGA) ~ Productivity of Education Services ~ Productivity of Health Service
HSE: The Health
and Safety Executive has published its final monthly Signals Passed at Danger report (SPAD)
before moving to a quarterly reporting system. Overall SPAD risk has reduced by 70% since the introduction
of improved driver training techniques and the fitment of the train protection
and warning system (TPWS) and TPWS+ at key signals and sites on the network.
Press release ~ SPAD
reports ~ Rail Safety and Standards Board SPAD Reports ~ Signals
Passed at Danger
DWP: The Department for Work and Pensions has published the
findings of an evaluation of the effectiveness of four different ways of
providing pensions information and advice in the workplace. The pilot was
implemented specifically with employers who are offering no contribution, or
one of less than 3% of salary, for staff who join the Stakeholder Pension
scheme set up by the company.
Press release ~ Providing pensions information and advice in the workplace where
there is little or no employer contribution ~ Summary version
DWP: The Department for Work and Pensions has published new research on the effectiveness of the Combined Pension Forecast (CPF) scheme. DWP works with employers and pension providers, on a voluntary basis, to supply forecasts of an individual’s state pension alongside their annual personal/occupational statements to create a Combined Pension Forecast.
To measure
the effectiveness of this initiative, this research investigates levels of CPF
recall amongst recipients and the extent to which it has impacted their
retirement planning activities.
Press release ~ Combined Pension Forecasts – a survey of their impact on
recipients
~ Summary version
DWP: The Department for Work and Pensions has published research
designed to evaluate how pension scheme joining techniques work in an
The study
evaluated the impact of these techniques on pension scheme membership where
there is an employer contribution and the effects for individuals who did, and
did not, become scheme members.
Press release ~ An evaluation of scheme joining techniques in workplace pension
schemes with an employer contribution ~ Summary version
NAO: The National Audit Office has reported that the University for Industry (Ufi) has done
a good job establishing the learndirect service in a relatively short period
and has pushed the boundaries of learning methods.
Press release ~ Full Report (1.4MB) ~
Executive Summary ~ Ufi ~
learndirect
service ~ UK
online centres ~ Review of the DfES’s relationship with UfI
DfES: Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes has
announced further details to the proposed Childcare Bill following a
consultation on the plans. In
particular she announced that the proposed Ofsted Childcare Register will be compulsory for providers for children from the
end of the Foundation Stage to age 8.
The Bill
will introduce a new legal framework for regulating & inspecting early
education and childcare by
2008 and set down new duties for Local
Authorities, which will ‘have implications for changing the terms that children and parents can
expect from today’s welfare state’.
Press release ~ Report on Responses to
Consultation on Legislative Proposals for the Future of Childcare and Early
Years Provision in England ~ Daycare Trust ~ Ofsted
~ ChildcareLink website ~ Childcare
Approval Scheme ~ Working Families ~ NHS Childcare Toolkit ~ DfES Care to Learn ~ JRF - Childcare services at atypical
times
Home
Office: New
offences to deal with drivers who cause death on the roads have been announced
as amendments to the Government’s Road
Safety Bill. They will create
a new offences of causing death by careless driving, with a penalty of up to
five years’ imprisonment and of causing death when driving while unlicensed,
disqualified or uninsured, with a penalty of up to two years’
imprisonment.
Other
measures include defining careless driving in statute and putting beyond doubt
that the courts can find defendants guilty of a statutory bad driving offence
as an alternative to manslaughter.
Press release ~ Road Safety Bill ~ Home Office Bad Driving website ~ Brake road
safety charity
DCA: The new Compensation Bill forms part of a
package of measures intended to tackle practices that can give rise to
unjustified claims which create unnecessary stress for individuals &
burdens for the justice system and affect participation in routine
activities.
The Bill also sets out that courts considering a
negligence claim should be able to take into account the wider social value of
the activity, in the context of which the injury or damage occurred, when
considering what standard of care is reasonable.
Press release ~ Better Routes to Redress ~ Claims Standards
Council (CSC) ~ National Forum for Risk Management in the Public
Sector ~ Gratuitous Care claims
DTI:
The government claims that ‘deregulation’ is at the heart of its new
Company Law Reform Bill, in which company law will be ‘substantially rewritten to make it easier
to understand and more flexible - especially for small businesses’.
Defra: Freshly painted rooms may never smell
the same again as chemical fumes in paints and varnishes are to be restricted
under the Paints Directive, which
will affect paints & varnishes used by professionals, as well as
do-it-yourself decorators. It
includes emulsions for walls and gloss paint for wood.
The new
regulations, which came into force on
Press release ~ Defra Paints Directive website ~ Previous consultation on Directive ~Air quality information ~ <
FONT color=#800080>Regulations for Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ~ VOCs
exposure assessment ~ Pollution
Prevention and Control Regulations
British Red Cross: The first 1,500 winter tents from the British Red
Cross have begun to arrive in Pakistan and flights carrying the desperately
needed tents will continue to leave every two days with the last consignment
arriving on 15th November 2005. At
£121.43 per tent, the British Red Cross has spent more than £720,000 on the
tents.
The tents are designed to withstand the harsh winter
as they are made from a heavier material and contain a chimney and stove.
Immediately after the earthquake the
Press release ~ British Red Cross Asia Earthquake Appeal ~ Family links website
Charity Commission: The Charity Commission has published
research into what makes people trust charity. It shows how few people realise
they have received money, support or help from a charity, when in fact three in
four people actually benefit from their services.
Press release ~ <
FONT color=#800080>Public trust and confidence in charities
survey ~ Commissions website
HMRC: The government claims that a major
change in the way Working Tax Credit (WTC) is paid will reduce the burden on
business. Payment by employers is
being phased out and claimants - currently around 580,000 - will receive their
claims directly from HM Revenue & Customs.
From 7 November, HMRC will pay all new WTC claims directly into
employees bank, building society or Post Office card accounts without
involving their employer, reducing costs for business and improving privacy for
claimants.
Existing
claimants gradually be switched to direct payment between December and February 2006.
Press release ~ Mailshot to employers who pay Working Tax Credit
with wages ~ HMRC WTC website
CMI / CIPD Managers in the
Age discrimination is widespread in
In a survey, 59% reported that they have been
personally disadvantaged at work because of their age and 22% of those surveyed
admitted that age has an impact on their own recruitment decisions.
29% of organisations already have no mandatory
retirement age, which suggests that both individuals & organisations need
to consider a step-change in how they perceive age & careers so that
changes in demographics are met with a more flexible approach to career
planning.
The research also shows
that the majority of employers do not believe that older workers are more
costly – shattering a myth that is often used to defend mandatory retirement
ages.
Approximately 80% of the
workforce for 2020 is already in employment and, as such, organisations will
need to focus on upskilling & reskilling their current workforce. This is
reflected by the finding that the need to retain skills is the key driver of
retirement policy. It also means
that individuals must now plan their careers in a new
light.
Full article ~ Tackling age
discrimination at work: creating a new age for all ~ CMI web site ~ CIPD
website
~ Age Partnership Group (APG) ~ Age Positive - 20 key facts and
Draft legislation ~ Practical Guide to Age
Diversity at Work ~ DTI Coming of Age Consultation ~
Acas – Employing older
workers
For other articles please click HERE
Date: 01 –
02/12/2005
Venue: Hilton Hotel, North Promenade,
Organiser: Association for Public Service Excellence - APSE Performance
Networks Working Seminar 2005
Performance Networks:
Moving on up! aims to set out a clear strategy for developing
Performance Networks and to equip delegates with the skills & techniques to
implement a modern performance management system.
Full Details ~ Association for Public Service Excellence ~ APSE Performance
networks ~ Regional centres of excellence ~ Best Value
indicators
For information other events please
click HERE
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