Annual Reports

BIS: Sustained progress has been made by the Government in implementing a 10-year vision for science & innovation, a new report has revealed.  The 5th annual Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 report for 2009, published by the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS, ) sets out the department’s progress to date against the framework’s six aspirations contained within the framework and the proposals set out in the framework ‘Next Steps’ document published at Budget 2006.
Press release ~ 5th annual Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 report for 2009
 
DH: The NHS has been challenged to improve cancer services by publishing local data on survival & mortality rates, Health Secretary Andy Burnham has announced. The figures are published as part of the 2nd annual report for the Cancer Reform Strategy - the vision document published in December 2007 setting out all the improvements that should be implemented over the next 5 years.
 
Last year the Cancer Reform Strategy Advisory Board accepted that falling mortality rates indicated good progress had been made at a national level, but recommended that this year’s annual report focus primarily on local progress.  As a result this year’s report will include local information, so the NHS can identify priorities for action.
Press release ~ Cancer Reform Strategy’s second annual report ~ DH: Cancer ~ Macmillan Cancer Support
 
DCSF: Schools Minister, Diana Johnson, has published the final Key Stage 2 results for 11-year-olds in England in 2009. The Government’s next steps on primary improvement and its plans to implement key features of the 21st Century Schools White Paper – like 1 - 1 tuition, pupil & parent guarantees & partnership working - will be published shortly.
Press release ~ DCSF: National Curriculum Assessments at Key Stage 2 in England 2008/09 (Revised) ~ DCSF: 2009 Primary School (Key Stage 2) Achievement and Attainment Tables ~ Making Good Progress pilot ~ Every Child Counts ~ Every Child a Reader ~ DCSF: Every Child a Writer (ECaW) / Reader (ECaR)
 
Ofsted: A year on from the first national annual survey of children’s views of being in care or living in residential education, the picture is a mixed one.  92% feel safe in the home they live in and 90% thought their care was good.  However, 76% have been separated from brothers & sisters who live in different care placements and 20% continue to be bullied for being in care.
 
The report, Children’s care monitor 2009, produced by the Children’s Rights Director for England, Dr Roger Morgan, is the second annual survey of its kind, taking first-hand account of 1,195 children’s experiences in care or otherwise living away from home and provides an up-to-date position of what children & young people are saying.
Press release ~ Children’s Care Monitor 2009 ~ Office of the Children’s Rights Director ~ Children’s messages to the Minister report ~ Care and prejudice ~  Future rules ~ Parents on Council Care ~ Ofsted – Other related reports ~ Ofsted: Looked after children: good practice in schools ~ Children on the edge of care: Human rights and the Children Act ~ Reuniting looked after children with their families ~ Resilience and young people leaving care ~ Mentoring for young people leaving care
 
CQC: The Care Quality Commission has praised improvements in adult social care, but called for a renewed effort to eliminate poor quality services in its first major statement on the quality of adult social care, drawing on 4 documents.
Press release ~ An assessment of 148 councils' social care services for adults, including performance against seven outcomes set by the government ~ An analysis of whether councils are commissioning the best possible care, whether this is from the private, voluntary or public sector ~ An update on the performance of 24,000 care homes, home care agencies, nursing agencies and shared lives schemes looking at whether quality is improving ~ CQC's formal response to the government's Green Paper on social care, called ‘Shaping the future of care together’ ~ Find individual council annual performance assessment summary reports
 
BIS: The Employment Relations Minister, Lord Young, has welcomed the publication of the latest Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) Annual Report which shows the regulator has continued to provide a valuable service for vulnerable agency workers.  This year has also seen EAS working more closely with other enforcement bodies, including the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).  
Press release ~ EAS annual report ~ BIS: Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) ~ Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) ~ Business Link – Employment Agencies
 
BIS: New reports into the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), Food & Environment Research Agency (FERA) and the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) published last week by the Better Regulation Executive found that they have made, or are taking, positive steps to put better regulation principles into practice. The reports examined how they matched up to the principles of effective regulation set out by Philip Hampton in 2005. 
Press release ~ Hampton Implementation Review Reports ~ Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) ~ Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) ~ Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) ~ Better Regulation Executive
 
ScotGov: The Scottish Court Service has published the latest quarterly fines collection figures. In July 2009 the SCS announced new measures to improve the efficiency of fines collection - reinforcing the message that fines must be paid. SCS will use all enforcement sanctions to ensure that fines are paid, include seizing wages, arresting bank accounts or deducting payments from benefits.
Press release ~ SCS Quarterly Fines Report No 2 ~ Case Studies ~ Scottish Court Service
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