Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
HL: With every council required to tell Government how many people are sleeping rough on their streets by the 16 December 2011, Homeless Link has developed a toolkit to help. Called ‘Evaluating the extent of rough sleeping’, the guidance aims to help local authorities, in partnership with homelessness charities, count or estimate the number of people sleeping rough in their area.
Press release & links
ICO: The Information Commissioner’s Office has published guidance on freedom of information legislation & research information, aimed specifically at public authorities in the higher education sector.
The guidance has been put together following recommendations made in the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on the disclosure of data about climate change involving the
Press release ~ Guidance on freedom of information legislation and research information
LR: Land Registry has published new guidance on searching for property belonging to an individual or company in its Index of Proprietors’ Names (IOPN). Practice Guide 74 – Searches of the Index of Proprietors’ Names explains how to make a search of the index and includes tips on searching against individuals, corporate organisations, local authorities & government departments.
From Monday 26 September 2011, private individuals must lodge evidence of their identity if they wish to search the IOPN in respect of their own name or the name of a third party where the named individual has given permission for the search, using the new IOPN ID form. No ID form is necessary when searching against the name of a company or other organisation. There is a fee of £12 for each name searched.
Press release & links ~ Practice Guide 74 – Searches of the Index of Proprietors’ Names ~
OFT: The OFT has published guidance for businesses when they are considering granting credit to people who might not have the mental capacity to make informed borrowing decisions.
Press release & links
NICE: Women who are expecting twins or triplets should receive specialist care from a team of healthcare professionals, according to latest NICE guidance. The number of multiple births has risen over the last 30 years and now accounts for 3% of all live births, as more women turn to assisted reproduction techniques such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
NICE's first guideline on multiple pregnancy says that women with multiple pregnancy should be referred to a team of doctors, midwives & ultrasonographers once their scan is confirmed. This team should be experienced in caring for women expecting twins or triplets and should support the woman throughout her pregnancy.
A suite of tools has been produced alongside the guideline to help put the recommendations into practice, including a guide table for scheduling antenatal appointments. This provides an easy to use timeline for actions such as maternal blood pressure measurement, urinanalysis and ultrasound scans.
Press release & links
NICE: Local autism teams should be set up across the country to improve the diagnosis & assessment of children & young people with autism, says NICE. It is estimated that around 70% of people who have autism will have a co-existing condition.
Guidance published by NICE recommends that local multidisciplinary autism teams are set up to support healthcare professionals and enable them to work together with schools, social care, the voluntary sector and other key services which can offer useful insight into this condition.
To help put this guidance into practice, NICE has produced a range of support tools, including signs & symptoms tables for children of preschool age, primary school age and secondary school age.
Press release & links
NICE: From October 2011, all new NICE guidance will be published in a range of formats on their website. For the first time NICE Pathways versions of all their guidance will be available at the time of publication.
NICE will no longer be supplying or mailing printed copies of their guidance, as do not have the resource to print & mail guidance any more. In the coming months they are also re-launching their website to make it easier to search and browse guidance.
Press release & links
EHRC: The Commission has launched a new, free training & education resource, Equal Rights, Equal Respect, aimed at Key Stage 3 teachers of all subjects to help teach equality & human rights in schools.
The online toolkit includes 3 videos to use in the classroom exploring the consequences of discriminatory behaviour around race, disability & gender, 12 lesson plans & supporting materials, and interactive student activities. The resources also examine discrimination around age, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and sexual orientation.
Press release & links
CLG: Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has published the final Code of Recommended Practice for council transparency which will help reveal the fine details of authorities' daily business, including senior salaries & contracts. Already every council in
Press release & links
HO: A new 'media literacy' teaching pack to help children understand how the media often alter images and the impact these have on self esteem, has been backed by Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone. The teaching materials (developed by not-for-profit company Media Smart) mark an important contribution to the government's ongoing Body Confidence campaign.
Primary school teachers will be able to download the materials to structure a lesson specifically tailored to the 10-11 age group - an important stage in a young person's development. Pupils will be guided to look carefully at the images they see in order to gain a more realistic perception of what is real and what is not. The lessons will explore how & why idealised images in advertising and the media are used to construct particular messages and make people feel a certain way.
Press release & links ~ Body Image Lesson ~ Body Confidence Campaign
DH: Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has officially launched a set of online tools that can help patients make informed decisions about their healthcare. 8 online Patient Decision Aids (PDAs), commissioned by NHS East of England, give patients information on the pros & cons of different treatment options available to them.
As a key product of the Right Care programme, part of the NHS’s work to improve quality, innovation, productivity & prevention, these aids personalise services for patients to make sure they get the right treatment the first time.
