General Reports and Other Publications

Newswire – TC: The Treasury Committee has published its Report, Spending Review 2010, which provides cross-party commentary on the Government’s Spending Review, which will shape public policy for the coming Parliament.
Press release ~  Spending Review 2010
 
PX: Britain’s faith schools – and other schools – are increasingly vulnerable to extremist influences, a new study from Policy Exchange has discovered.  Current due diligence checks are piecemeal, partial & lack in-depth expertise.  Vital work is contracted out to private companies.
Press release
 
KF: The opportunity provided by the NHS White Paper to encourage more integration of care and improve outcomes for patients should not be wasted, a new report from The King’s Fund says. Clinical & service integration should be at the heart of moves to reform the health service, but the changes must ensure that the new structures, funding & regulatory framework allow integrated services to grow, rather than stand in the way of their evolution.
Press release ~ Clinical and service integration: the route to improved outcomes ~ Torbay Care Trust 
 
NAO: A report by the NAO has highlighted that the Department for Work & Pensions has not reduced the mistakes made by its staff in processing benefits.  In 2009-10, it overpaid its customers by an estimated £1.1bn and made underpayments of £500m.
 
However, the scale of the challenge faced by the Department should not be underestimated.  The benefits system is large, encompassing over 27 different benefits and a total caseload of around 20m people.  Mistakes occur when processing such a large volume of payments. To date there does not appear to any discernible deterioration in performance despite an increasing workload, which may represent progress.
Press release ~ NAO: Minimising the cost of administrative errors in the benefit system ~ CBI comment
 
WWFBlack markets along Myanmar, Thailand and China’s shared borders play a crucial role facilitating the deadly illicit trade in tigers and other endangered species, according to a report published by TRAFFIC and WWF recently.
Press release ~ Big Cat Trade in Myanmar and Thailand report ~ www.traffic.org
 
NA: The National Archives has published online the official papers of one of Britain's most iconic political figures.  The prime ministerial files of Margaret Thatcher's first year in power can now be searched for free.
Press release ~ View the files for free ~ The Margaret Thatcher Foundation
 
MLA: Public libraries really do hold a special place in the nation's heart, according to a new research study published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).  The research provides an up to date picture of what the public wants from library services, and provides a timely pointer to how councils, faced with difficult financial choices, should shape the service for the future.
Press release ~ 'What do the public want from libraries?' report & related reports on the MLA Research website
 
FCO: In the FCO’s latest history podcast, Grant Hibberd, a Research Assistant with the FCO’s Historians team, discusses ‘The Sealand Affair’, an obscure but fascinating footnote in British legal & diplomatic history.  
In 1967, former British army officer Major Roy Bates occupied a derelict fort in the North Sea called Roughs Tower and proclaimed its independence from Britain as the principality of Sealand, with himself as regent.  He gave the would-be state a coat of arms, a national anthem, a currency, its own stamps, a body of laws and issued passports.
Press release ~ www.fco.gov.uk/podcasts ~ FCO on iTunes ~ Transcript of podcast PDF document
 
WAG: The money the Supporting People Programme in Wales saves other services, far outweighs the cost of the scheme, a new independent report has found. The review concludes that the programme saves the taxpayer £ms in other areas such as health, social care & policing.  It also identifies that the programme is particularly strong at working across both geographic and subject boundaries.
 
Supporting People provides housing related support to around 50,000 vulnerable people a year to help them live as independently as possible in the community, whether in their own homes, hostels, sheltered housing or other specialised supported housing.  It offers practical help through support with household management, life skills training and advice on paying bills and filling in forms.
Press release ~ Independent Review of the Supporting People Programme in Wales: Final Report ~ Supporting People Programme in Wales
 
Newswire – WWF: The UK may have world-leading climate legislation, but it is still lagging behind other EU Member States on many of its climate change policies, according to a new tracking tool launched by WWF and Ecofys which ranks countries on a scale from A (excellent) to G (poor).
 
The Climate Policy Tracker for the European Union provides an up-to-date snapshot of greenhouse gas emission controls across the EU and contains stark reading ahead of global climate change talks in Cancun.  It reveals that overall only a third of the necessary action needed to put EU countries on a path towards a low carbon economy by 2050 (reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95%), is currently being undertaken by Member States.
Press release ~ Climate Policy Tracker for the European Union
 
PX: New research from Policy Exchange shows that Britain and the EU are only on course to meet international carbon targets because emissions have been ‘off-shored’ to countries like China. Britain is actually consuming almost a third more CO2 than it was in 1990.  The difference is that much of the carbon consumed in the UK and EU is ‘embedded’ in products imported from countries such as China.
Press release ~ PX: Carbon Omissions 
 
ESRC: A new study shows that the ability of ‘Black Africans’ settling in the UK to integrate with society varies according to their national & ethnic background.
Press release ~ Black Africans in Britain: Integration or segregation?
 
ippr: A new report by PwC and ippr shows there is real appetite from local people to get more involved in designing & delivering public services.  It also shows that as the government begins the task of cutting £81bn from total spending by 2014/15, 90% of people believe that the state should remain primarily responsible for delivering most key public services.
Press release ~ Capable Communities: Towards Citizen-Powered Public Services
 
Newswire – RACF800 more people could be killed or seriously injured each year on Britain’s roads if all the fixed & mobile speed cameras operational before the road safety grant was cut this summer were to be decommissioned, according to a new report by Professor Richard Allsop of University College London for the RAC Foundation.  In light of the findings the RAC Foundation is sending a copy of the report to every highway authority in the country, as they consider how best to spend their reduced road safety budgets.
Press release ~ The Effectiveness of Speed Cameras – A Review of the Evidence
 
Defra: Animal Welfare Minister, Lord Henley, has published the summary of the 4,250 responses to the dangerous dogs consultation and repeated his commitment to tackling dangerous dogs & irresponsible owners.
Press release ~ Consultation: Consultation on dangerous dogs
 
CRC: The Commission for Rural Communities have launched - Commissioning Children’s Centres: a rural perspective -  a short guide focusing on families with young children in rural areas and the implications for Children’s Centre commissioning & delivery. This guide is intended for commissioners, providers & practitioners, to supplement the existing resources.
Press release ~ Commissioning Children’s Centres: a rural perspective
 
PX: A new report from Policy Exchange exposes how community sentences are failing to properly penalise or deter offenders & do not command public trust.  The study describes current community sentences – with their high breach rates & lack of focus on punishment – as ‘the weak link in the sentencing chain’.
Press release ~ Fitting the Crime: Reforming Community Sentences ~ Full pdf of press release
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story