General Reports and Other Publications

CivitasHidden NHS reforms could have a devastating impact on patients with rare diseases, a report published by the independent think tank Civitas warns. Ministers have effectively removed the guaranteed NHS safety net with a decision that has been implemented under the radar with no real democratic process or debate, the paper says. 

This new approach would see victims with treatable but rare conditions left to fend for themselves, in a ‘breach of the founding principles of the NHS’. 
Press release & links
 
UKOC: Throughout March & April of this year UK Online Centres held a series of focus groups in cities up & down the country, to find out what our centres thought of what we do and how we do it.  UKOC has reviewed the feedback and drawn together the key findings into a report
Press release & links
 
NOEssex County Council failed to carry out measures to safeguard the welfare of a vulnerable man, who suffered injuries at a care home it funded to look after him.   The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has issued a report in which it upholds a complaint from the mother of the man concerned that the care home failed to act appropriately following the incident.
 
The report has recommended that the council meet the complainant to reassure her about its safeguarding policies, and pay her £2,500 for the distress in not knowing whether the extent of her son’s injuries could have been discovered earlier.
Press release ~ Report 11 001 206 Essex County Council
 
IPPR: Higher education faces a major funding cut in the upcoming Spending Review and after the next election, according to the final report of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, published by the think tank IPPR next month (10 June).
 
The Commission models 5 long-term reform options for the student finance system, but also outlines a set of short term measures that it argues are necessary to steer higher education through the forthcoming Spending Review and the immediate years ahead.
Press release & links
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story