General Reports and Other Publications
NO: A Bailiffs’ practice of threatening to take low value items and charging fees for doing so is criticised in a report issued last week by Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin.
A bailiff’s threat to remove a door mat and charge £230 fees was described as unreasonable. The report concerns a complaint against Slough Borough Council's bailiffs and the Ombudsman has issued it as a matter of public interest, to send a clear message to other councils, which may need to review their practices.
A bailiff’s threat to remove a door mat and charge £230 fees was described as unreasonable. The report concerns a complaint against Slough Borough Council's bailiffs and the Ombudsman has issued it as a matter of public interest, to send a clear message to other councils, which may need to review their practices.
Deloitte: Private sector investment in infrastructure has grown substantially in 2011, with infrastructure funds playing a pivotal role. However challenges from direct investors may lead to consolidation in the sector, according to a survey by Deloitte, the business advisory firm, into the investment plans of infrastructure fund managers.
Press release & links ~ The fork in the road ahead - an in-depth analysis of the current infrastructure funds market
Newswire – NHSConfed: David Stout, director of the PCT Network, has commented on a report by the National Bariatric Surgery Registry which recommends that obese patients have greater access to surgery to help aid weight loss.
Ofsted: Ofsted has published; ’The voice of the child: learning lessons from serious case reviews’. This is Ofsted’s fifth report evaluating serious case reviews (SCRs) and considers 67 carried out between 1 April & 30 September 2010. The cases involved 93 children, 39 of whom died.
The report has a single theme: the importance of hearing the voice of the child. It provides an in-depth exploration of this key issue. It draws out practical implications & lessons for practitioners and Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
PC&PE: The Commons Committee of Public Accounts has published a report which (on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence) examines the past decisions taken on Typhoon and looks at improvements that the Department can make to its delivery model.
Speaking about the release of the report, the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: "The history of the Typhoon fighter aircraft represents yet another example of over-optimism, bad planning and an unacceptably high bill for the taxpayer. The MOD is now buying 30% fewer Typhoon fighter aircraft than originally planned, the cost of the project is now expected to be £3.5bn more than was originally approved and if we take all expenditure into account, the cost of each aircraft has increased by 75%.
The Department was unable to give us a coherent explanation of its 2004 decision to equip the early Typhoons with ground-attack capability, or of its subsequent decision not to use it. The Department could also not adequately explain why it cancelled the third phase of the contract in 2004 on the grounds it did not need the capability, simply to reinstate the third phase in 2009 at a cost of £2.7bn”.
The Department has appointed a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) to be the person accountable for delivering each major procurement project. However the SRO on Typhoon ‘has limited decision making powers and merely co-ordinates activity’. That is not good enough.
Newswire – WWF: A YouGov poll, commissioned by WWF, has found that 79% of people in the UK want the fish that is on sale come from sustainable, not overfished, sources, but that 21% think there is adequate information on whether fish products come from well managed sustainable stocks.
Importantly, the poll also found support from 66% of people, for reform of the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in order to ensure the recovery of fish stocks and also allow future generations to make a living from the sea.
Importantly, the poll also found support from 66% of people, for reform of the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in order to ensure the recovery of fish stocks and also allow future generations to make a living from the sea.
Newswire – AC: The NHS could save up to £500m a year by carrying out fewer ineffective or inefficient treatments. In its briefing, 'Reducing expenditure on low clinical value treatments', the Commission looked at some PCTs' efforts to decommission treatments of low clinical value.
The potential for reducing spending varies from PCT to PCT, but, based on one of the more widely-used lists, some could save more than £12m each year by reducing their use of these, or other, treatments.
The potential for reducing spending varies from PCT to PCT, but, based on one of the more widely-used lists, some could save more than £12m each year by reducing their use of these, or other, treatments.
NIESR: Last week the NIESR published research, supported by the Low Pay Commission and the ESRC, that sheds new (& surprising) light on the impact of the minimum wage on youth employment. As low-skilled young people become entitled to the higher adult rate of the minimum wage, their employment rate actually goes up.
TKF: A new report from The King’s Fund has found ‘persistent & widespread variations across England in patients’ chances of undergoing surgery for common medical conditions’. This suggests that many patients are not being given surgery they need and that some may be undergoing operations they do not benefit from.
The researchers suggest that local providers of care & commissioners should be required to publicly justify key indicators of variation in care – both between individual practitioners in their area and as compared to their neighbouring PCTs.
Newswire – CBI: The employment tribunal system is failing businesses & individuals, the CBI has claimed. It is meant to offer claimants & companies informal, quick & cost-effective judgements, but instead the system is slow, legalistic and antagonistic.
In its submission to the Government’s Resolving Workplace Disputes consultation, the CBI called for a package of measures (based on 3 key steps) to speed up the tribunal system, reduce costs for both sides and make the system fairer.
Press release & links ~ BIS: Resolving Workplace Disputes consultation (closes 20 April 2011)
Newswire – WWF: WWF recently reiterated a call for a moratorium on any shale gas activity in the UK following the publication of a report on methane & the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations by academics at CornellUniversity.
There are already widespread concerns about the local environmental impact of shale gas and now there is evidence suggesting that not only does shale gas pose a contamination risk, it also has a carbon footprint which is significantly worse than conventional gas and which is as bad or worse than coal.
NICE: Just 15% of NHS trusts have a policy or plan to help tackle staff obesity, a report by the Royal College of Physicians and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine has revealed.
The audit was recommended by the 2009 Boorman Review, which called for staff health & wellbeing to be embedded in the core business of NHS organisations. The Department of Health estimated in 2009 that of the 1.2 million staff in the NHS, approximately 300,000 would be classified as obese and a further 400,000 as overweight.
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