General News
CRUK: A new treatment increases survival to almost 70% for children whose acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) returns. The results of the trial were so promising that now all children with relapsed ALL are being offered the trial drug Mitoxantrone.
The news comes a month after Cancer Research UK launched their annual Little Stars Awards, which recognise the courage of children who have encountered cancer and are backed by a host of celebrities, including singer Leona Lewis and footballer Ryan Giggs.
Newswire – WWF: Trials already underway in several EU Member States allowing fishermen to land more of their catch as a result of the EU-Norway fisheries agreement reached last week. WWF welcomes the agreement which aims to halt the wasteful practice of discarding, particularly for cod & whiting. Currently up to 50% of all fish caught in the North Sea is thrown back (discarded).
Press release ~ ScotGov - Fisheries ~
NA: The National Archives' web continuity service was named as one of the runners-up in this year's Digital Preservation Awards at a ceremony at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Redirection software enables users who click on a link that is no longer live to be automatically taken to the page held in The National Archives' UK Government Web Archive.
The archive, which contains more than 1bn pages of archived web pages going back to 1997, regularly captures & preserves thousands of government websites which would otherwise be lost.
Press release ~ Digital Preservation Awards ~ Memento Project ~ Institute for Conservation ~ web continuity service
The archive, which contains more than 1bn pages of archived web pages going back to 1997, regularly captures & preserves thousands of government websites which would otherwise be lost.
Press release ~ Digital Preservation Awards ~ Memento Project ~ Institute for Conservation ~ web continuity service
Newswire – CWDC: The Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is calling for recruiters in all organisations that work with children & young people to complete FREE Safer Recruitment Online Training to help safeguard children. The package covers what constitutes abuse, recruitment processes that should be followed, the current arrangements for vetting & checking and how to manage allegations.
CWDC has also launched face-to-face Safer Recruitment Training, available nationally across England through a consortium led by Action for Children. There are a limited number of free places for small organisations.
FSA: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is contacting thousands of people to warn them they could become victims of share fraud, after it recovered its biggest ever ‘master list’ used by boiler room fraudsters. The list contains the names, addresses & telephone numbers of 49,387 people and includes potential victims who the FSA believes may have been contacted out of the blue and offered worthless shares.
WAG: Due to the severe weather conditions currently being experienced across Wales the, the Welsh Assembly Government has announced that the Young Entrants Support Scheme (YESS) application window for the second year of the scheme has been extended and will now close on the 14 January 2011.
CRC: The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Network will continue to operate through to 2013, as required under the European Rural Development Regulation. It has now been confirmed that the overall responsibilities for hosting the Network will transfer to the new Rural Communities Policy Unit in Defra from the 1 December 2010 onwards.
Newswire – CWDC: The second intake of graduates are now being recruited to CWDC’s pioneering New Leaders in Early Years programme. Apply now to start the programme in February 2011. The course, run in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, aims to develop a new generation of early years graduate leaders. Students must have at least a 2.1 honours degree and a high level of early years knowledge & skills.
LDA: 'Making Space in Dalston' - the London Development Agency (LDA) £1m initiative to improve Dalston's open spaces - has been recognised by a series of awards. The initiative - a series of 76 micro-projects - has been lauded by the Landscape Institute Awards, the Hackney Design Awards and Capital Growth. It is part of the Mayor of London's £220m 'Great Outdoors' public realm improvement programme.
CEOP: The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) Conference held last week highlighted that international law enforcement agencies need to work with global industry partners, including non-government organisations, to keep children across the world safe from online child sexual exploitation. The VGT approach into the future will not only involve law enforcement, but industry, key international non-government organisations, academia and continue working with today’s youth.
NA: The National Archives' award-winning PRONOM service, an online registry of file formats which is crucial to digital preservation, has been able to expand its database by almost a quarter thanks to a successful partnership with Georgia Tech Research Institute and The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the United States.
Along with the DROID file format identification tool, which uses the database, PRONOM enables digital archivists, records managers and anyone using the tool to find out what files they have, in which formats and how best to ensure their long-term preservation.
Press release ~ The National Archives Centre for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST) ~ NA Labs website
DfE: Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has confirmed up to £2m to fund tighter security measures in Jewish faith schools. Community Security Trust (CST), a charity working to ensure the safety & security of the Jewish community in the UK, will receive revenue funding for the extra measure of security guards at 39 Jewish voluntary-aided faith schools across England.
MLA: From Brighton to Edinburgh, museums across Britain are preparing to welcome more than 2.5m visitors to Stories of the World projects, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Hosted in 60 museums across 35 towns & cities, a series of 300 innovative exhibitions & events are being designed & created with the largest number of young people ever to have worked behind the scenes at museums.
WAG: The Social Justice & Local Government Minister, Carl Sargeant, has launched ‘Raising the Profile: Meeting the Challenges’, a 3-year action plan to support credit unions in Wales. Objectives include strengthening the governance of credit unions, increasing the number of credit union members and raising the profile of credit unions in Wales.
OFT: The OFT has announced a study into commissioning & competition in the provision of public services, designed to help government buyers promote competition in markets in order to realise better value for money.
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