General Reports and Other Publications
CLG: The largest ever survey of urban trees in England has revealed that although national tree health has improved markedly since the last survey in 1992, with trees being maintained much more regularly by councils, although overall planting rates of new trees has fallen. The report found that most trees make a ‘considerable or outstanding’ contribution to the quality of neighbourhoods.
The report, written by ADAS and MyerscoughCollege, suggests 10 ways in which all councils can match the standards of the best. The Trees in Towns II report also reveals disparities between councils. Although some councils are already managing their tree stock well, findings show that many local authorities lack basic information about the nature & extent of the trees and woodlands in their district.
Press release ~ Trees in Towns II ~ CLG: Trees and High Hedges - Planning, building and the environment ~ Myerscough College ~ Environmental specialists, ADAS UK Ltd
DWP: Public knowledge of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) increased significantly between 1996 and 2006, and according to new research, the Act has improved the lives of disabled people across the board - from their access to public transport to shopping at their local grocer.
The research uses data from the Disability Module of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Omnibus Survey between 1996 and 2006 which looked at awareness of the Act, access to goods and services, access to transport (2005, 2006) and renting or buying a home. It shows that over 70% of people are now aware of the Act by name, compared to only 40% in 1996, a year after DDA was first introduced.
Press release ~ Disability Discrimination Act report: ‘Analyses of data from the ONS Omnibus Survey’ ~ Summary version ~ Office for Disability Issues ~ The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) : Directgov
ScotGov: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published its review into rural policy in Scotland, highlighting a number of key areas, which the Scottish Government is already addressing, including:
* Reducing the number of government bodies involved
* Harnessing Scotland's potential as a producer of energy from renewable sources
* Creating opportunities for business & economic diversification through regional delivery of the £1.6bn Scottish Rural Development Programme
Press release ~ OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Scotland, UK: Assessment and Recommendations ~ ScotGov – Rural Development
NAO: The NAO has reported that the Home Office’s inconsistent delivery of funding, poor data sharing between local agencies and limited capacity at a local level to analyse the risks of violent crime are combining to reduce the effectiveness of wider efforts to reduce violent crime. Fewer than 30% of Crime and Disorder Partnerships responding to the NAO’s survey had a written strategy specifically for tackling violent crime.
Although crime is falling, and England’s homicide rate is low in international comparison, the threat of violence remains a significant concern: 17% of adults say they worry about becoming a victim of violent crime.
Press release ~ The Home Office: Reducing the risk of violent crime ~ Executive Summary ~ Developing an Accident & Emergency Based Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Performance Measure ~ Violent crime: Risk models, effective interventions and risk management ~ Census questionnaire for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Community Safety Partnerships ~ A-Z of Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships
HL: Last week, Homeless Link and Resource Information Service (RIS) launched independent research in the field of adult disadvantage and homelessness. This is the first time the sector has had baseline demographic data on the state of the sector, showing the true complexity & vulnerability of the client group it supports.
Key messages are:
*Homelessness agencies are working with some of the most socially excluded individuals in our society.
* The majority of services estimate that most of the people they work with have multiple problems, for example drug & alcohol issues, mental health problems, benefits and debt problems.
* While the government is doing much excellent work with homelessness, these complex & vulnerable individuals are being failed by a number of services.
Press release ~ Homeless Link ~ Survey of Needs and Provision (SNaP) — Homeless Link ~ Ending Homelessness: from Vision to Action — End Homelessness ~ Resource Information Service (RIS) ~ CRASH
HEFCE: The Higher Education Funding Council for England claims to welcome a report on student retention published last week by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons.
Professor David Eastwood, Chief Executive of HEFCE, said: “As the report points out there is a disparity of performance across the sector and there is no cause for complacency. We will be holding a number of workshops with the National Audit Office and higher education representatives in March and April on how we can improve performance and retention, which will inform our response to this report”.
Press release ~ Staying the course: the retention of students on higher education courses' ~
Ofsted: Courses for people wanting to qualify as teachers of ‘community’ or ‘heritage’ languages such as Arabic, Bengali, Japanese, Mandarin, Panjabi, Turkish, and Urdu should be expanded, Ofsted has stated in its new report - Every language matters – which evaluates the supply & uptake of the postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) courses in languages other than French, German, Spanish, Irish and Welsh.
The report found the quality of teaching by those who had a PGCE in community languages was consistently good, which contrasts with the more variable quality of teaching of community languages generally. However, inspectors found that the number of initial teacher training courses leading to a PGCE available in these languages was limited and the way courses were structured sometimes deterred applicants.
Ofsted press release ~ TDA press release ~ Every language matters ~ Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) ~ Nuffield Languages inquiry (1998-2000) ~ Community languages ~ CILT, the National Centre for Languages – Community Languages ~ Research project: Community Languages - Routes Into Languages ~ NALDIC
NAO: The Jobcentre Plus programme rolled out a network of over 800 offices, combining the functions of the former jobcentres and social security offices, and was completed for £314m less than the original £2.2bn budget according to a National Audit Office report.
The project was well managed, particularly the procurement aspect, where between £120m and £140m worth of savings were made. The project has clear lessons for other public sector procurement programmes.
Press release ~ The roll-out of the Jobcentre Plus office network ~ Executive Summary ~ OGC: DWP Job centre Plus Supply Chain Case Study
QCA: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has published a report called Inter-subject comparability studies and a book titled Techniques for monitoring the comparability of examination standards. The intention of the book is to describe the different methods, to highlight their various strengths & weaknesses and to consider the progress made in monitoring comparability over the past half a century.
The Inter-subject comparability study includes four investigations that focussed on the following areas:
Study 1a: comparisons at GCSE, AS and A level using selected specifications across geography and history
Study 1b: comparisons at GCSE, AS and A level using selected specifications across biology, chemistry and physics and additional science (double award) at GCSE
Study 2a: comparisons at A level using selected specifications across biology, psychology and sociology
Study 2b: comparisons at A level using selected specifications across English literature, history and media studies.
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