Annual Reports
PC&PE: In a report published last week, the Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) calls for a ‘wiki’ approach to policy-making, where public opinion, ideas & contributions are sought & welcome at any & all stages of the policy cycle. PASC says that Government should be able to demonstrate that it has adopted this approach alongside ministerial leadership and responsibility for policy & its outcomes.
Press release & links ~ PASC report is right to state that civil servants should remain 'the guardians of the policy process', says FDA
PC&PE: The Public Accounts Committee has published the 8th Report of 2013-14 on regulating consumer credit.
Monitor: Foundation trusts must ensure they are investing adequately in health services in order to protect patients interests, says health sector regulator Monitor. Monitor is concerned following another sharp increase in the number of foundation trusts (FTs) failing to meet the national 4-hour A&E waiting times target in the last quarter.
Ofsted: Teams of Ofsted inspectors have undertaken a week of co-ordinated inspections in Bristol to find out why the city has a disproportionate number of under-performing schools – and whether the picture is improving. Around 15 focused school inspections took place in the city as a result of Ofsted’s findings that the proportion of children attending a good or better school is currently well below the national average.
The latest official data show 32% of schools in Bristol are less than good, which is more than the average for England (26%), the South West Region (22%) and 5 of its local authority demographic equivalents.
WAG: The second Annual Report from the Welsh Government allows the public to scrutinise how the WAG is delivering on the commitments made in the Programme for Government, setting out 340 indicators of performance and updating on 547 actions.
DCMS: ‘Women should not just try to fit into the economy, they should be shaping it’ is one of the key aims of the Women’s Business Council (WBC) report which was unveiled last week. The report sets out a series of recommendations on how we can make the most of women’s contribution to economic growth through all stages of their careers.
The report also highlights the need to get more women into enterprise. If women were setting up & running new businesses at the same rate as men, there could be 1m more women entrepreneurs.
ONS: The last 170 years have seen the proportion of workers who are in agriculture & fishing in England & Wales fall to 1%, down from 22% in Great Britain in 1841, according to a new report from ONS looking at long-term industrial change & some of the factors driving it. Over the same period the service sector rose from providing 33% of employment to 81%.
NO: The majority of leaders of NHS Hospital Trusts believe that they are failing to use information from complaints as well as they should because the data boards receive lacks the right quality & detail, according to new research published recently by the Health Service Ombudsman for England.
Of 165 respondents from 94 NHS trusts from across England who were surveyed:
* Only 20% review learning from complaints & take resulting action to improve services
* Less than 50% measure patient satisfaction with the way complaints are handled
* Less than 66% use a consistent approach to reviewing complaints data
EHRC: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published its corporate plan for 2013/14.
CIPD: The CIPD has responded to National Careers Council report into careers provision for young people.
NAO: HMRC’s renewed strategy for tackling tobacco smuggling is logical and includes a wide range of complementary measures, but the Department does not yet have an integrated approach to deterring & disrupting the distribution of illicit tobacco within the UK, according to the latest National Audit Office report.
NAO: The National Audit Office has reported the results of its review of a statement by the Department of Health of costs & benefits of the programmes previously managed under the National Programme for IT in the NHS. The Department forecasts that benefits will slightly exceed costs over the whole life of the systems, £10.7bn compared with £9.8bn.
There is, however, very considerable uncertainty around whether the forecast benefits will be realised. In particular, for some programmes, future benefits rely on the successful deployment of a set number of systems at a set time. Experience over the last 10 years suggests this will be challenging to achieve, particularly in the case of the local care records systems.
TWF: A new report published by the Big Innovation Centre warns that innovative small firms – those most crucial to jobs & growth – ‘are finding it significantly more difficult than their peers to secure the funding they need to grow.
Over 1 in 3 innovative small firms that sought finance between 2010/12 did not obtain any of the funding they needed – nearly triple the rate of 2007/8.
Over 1 in 3 innovative small firms that sought finance between 2010/12 did not obtain any of the funding they needed – nearly triple the rate of 2007/8.
ScotGov: Over 75% of Scottish beekeepers lost at least 1 colony last winter, according to the first Scottish bee health survey. The survey, commissioned by ScotGov, was designed to assess the health status of honey bees in Scotland and gain a better understanding of how factors such as husbandry & disease affect them.
EHRC: Police forces have reduced their unfair use of stop & search powers, while continuing to see a reduction in crime rates, after intervention by the Equality & Human Rights Commission. The details of this work are in Stop and Think Again, a new report published by the EHRC recently.
