Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
PADA: The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority has published information to explain how the personal accounts scheme will fit into the pension landscape from 2012, when the Government's workplace pension reforms come into force.
Aimed at dispelling common misunderstandings & confusion around the role of the scheme, PADA has published updated versions of its Myth Buster and Key Facts documents on its website.
FSA: Shutki Raja Chutney Powder has been produced on unregistered, or possibly unapproved, premises and the Food Standards Agency has issued a Food Alert for Action asking local authority food law enforcement officers to make sure the chutney is withdrawn from sale & destroyed.
A business must register its premises with the environmental health service at its local authority at least 28 days before opening. In addition, if the business works with certain types of food that might pose a significant risk to consumers, the business must be approved by its local authority.
Despite enquiries by local authorities in London, it has not been possible to obtain full distribution details or product traceability records for the product because the company no longer trades. However, distribution is believed to be restricted to the London area. This product appears to be distributed, through direct van sales, to businesses that mainly sell ethnic food products.
Press release ~ FSA Food Alert - Shutki Raja Chutney Powder produced on unregistered (or unapproved) premises ~ Industry sector rules ~ Register your food business
DH: Experts have recommended that all hospitals with an A&E department should provide acute oncology services to ensure the correct treatment of emergency cancer patients and those who suffer severe side effects from chemotherapy. The recommendation forms part of new best practice to improve the quality & safety of chemotherapy published by the National Chemotherapy Advisory Group (NCAG).
The report – Chemotherapy Services in England: Ensuring quality and safety - sets out recommendations that all hospitals with emergency departments should establish an acute oncology service that can quickly identify the symptoms and then treat appropriately patients who develop severe side effects from chemotherapy or undiagnosed cancer patients who present as emergencies.
Press release ~ Chemotherapy Services in England: Ensuring quality and safety ~ Chemotherapy services in England: ensuring quality and safety
Newswire – IDeA: The Healthy Communities Community of Practice (CoP) has been established to provide a forum for anyone dedicated to promoting good health & reducing health inequalities. A community of practice is a network of individuals with common challenges or interests. A CoP provides a valuable tool for councils and their partners to share good practice, spread information and aid improvement throughout the public sector.
Using the CoP, members will share ideas, information, knowledge and good practice to help find solutions while expanding knowledge, thus promoting healthy communities for all. To join, go to Communities of Practice website – and click on ‘Register’ - Enter your details as requested & select ‘confirm and complete’. You will receive a confirmation email. Click the link to activate your account and search for ‘healthy communities’ to locate the CoP.
CO: The Cabinet Office has published guidance for emergency planners on Logistic Operations for Emergency Supplies. The objective of the guidance is to provide a common understanding of options available to emergency planners for the coordination, prioritisation & acquisition of emergency supplies.
Press release ~
LLUK: Lifelong Learning UK is proud to be a part of talentmap, which is:
* a simple framework to help employers understand & engage with the education employment & skills systems in the UK
* an interactive web tool which lets you SEARCH for practical support & funding, PLAN your activity in a joined up way and SHARE what you know with colleagues, suppliers and others in the talentmap community
FSA: The Food Standards Agency has warned consumers not to drink certain brands of clay-based products, following test results that show unsafe levels of arsenic & lead. Exposure to arsenic can be associated with an increased risk of lung, skin and bladder cancer. Additionally, exposure to lead by pregnant women, infants & children poses a risk to the development of the brain which can affect intellectual performance.
Press release ~ Agency warns against Fangocur mineral drink ~ Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT)
DCSF: A new free leaflet called ‘Fit for the Future’ has been produced by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and the British Dietetic Association (BDA). It sets out simple advice & ideas to get children active and eating healthily.
Press release ~ Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) – Fit for the Future ~ British Dietetic Association (BDA)
DfT: An additional 25 motorcycle helmets have been rated by SHARP - the Department for Transport's Safety Helmet Assessment and Ratings Programme - taking the number of ratings published to 150.
LLUK: Lifelong Learning UK has launched a new guide to help people who are interested in starting a new career as a teacher or assessor in the further education sector. The Guide to Working in Further Education explains the sector and the sorts of training & learning it provides.
It gives information on different roles, what they involve, typical pay & conditions, entry routes and qualifications. It also offers lots of practical advice on completing application forms and how to do well in interviews and presentations - all tailored to recruitment practices in the sector.
The guide has been produced as part of our Pass on Your Skills programme, which aims to encourage more people with job-related skills and experience into further education in England. Over 5,000 people have already applied to take part, from areas including construction, health & social care, hair & beauty, engineering and manufacturing.
OS: With more & more people holidaying in Britain the country’s Mountain rescue teams are experiencing one of their busiest years with a rise in emergency calls from inexperienced walkers. With some teams of volunteers being called out up to 3 times a week by ramblers who have forgotten a map, Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency, is adding its voice to those calling for walkers to be well prepared.
Julian Carradice, who leads the Mountain Rescue team in Wasdale, told the BBC that people needed to be better educated about the basics of fell walking: "A lot of the call-outs I'm getting are from people who could, to be honest, be much better prepared and could take a bit of responsibility for their own safety. They could be finding their own way off without needing us, who are actually an emergency service."
There are a range of resources available for inexperienced walkers to help understand the basics of map reading as well as the general walking advice available from the Mountain Rescue Service. Map reading podcasts are available online as are downloadable guides.
Press release ~ Ordnance Survey's free map reading guide ~ Video podcast - Your practical guide to easy map reading
CLG: Local authorities will receive a £7.5m funding boost to tackle Al-Qaeda influenced extremism, Communities Secretary John Denham has announced. The new funding will give them greater flexibility to support a broader range of activities to improve the effectiveness of the Prevent programme.
The extra funding backs new recently published cross-Government guidance, which reflects feedback from local authorities and from Muslim communities. The new guidance acknowledges that the effectiveness of the Prevent programme can be reduced if the labelling of local activities or their restriction solely to Muslim communities discourages some groups from becoming involved.
Press release ~ Delivering the Prevent Strategy: An updated guide for Local Partners ~ CLG - Preventing Violent Extremism ~ IDeA - PP
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance on the use of bevacizumab, sorafenib, and temsirolimus for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and the use of sorafenib and sunitinib for second-line treatment options for people with renal cell carcinoma.
Bevacizumab, sorafenib and temsirolimus are not recommended as first-line treatment options for advanced and/or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In addition, the two drugs also licensed for second-line treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma, sorafenib and sunitinib, are not recommended for this indication.
The appeal against the Final Appraisal Determination from Roche, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer and a joint appeal from Rarers Cancer Forum and Macmillan Cancer Support, have not been upheld.
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued final guidance on the use of cetuximab for the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published final guidance recommending the use of alitretinoin as a treatment option for adults with severe chronic hand eczema that has not responded to potent topical corticosteroids. In these cases, alitretinoin is recommended, within its licensed indication, if the person is assessed as having severe disease.
WAG: Installing micro-generation equipment such as solar panels in Welsh homes has become easier as new planning rules have come into force. The aim of the changes is to remove certain types of micro-generation equipment from requiring planning permission, making it easier for individuals and local communities install equipment that will contribute to tackling climate change and lower energy bills.
There will be no requirement to pay planning fees, also reducing the financial burden. Equipment that comes under the new rules includes:
* small scale solar panels
* ground source heat pumps
* biomass flues
Press release ~ Domestic micro-generation permitted development: A guide for Householders ~ WAG - Planning
HEFCE: The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) HEFCE has published details of a new policy that sets out its approach to institutions experiencing chronic &continuing problems in the quality of learning & teaching. The policy sets out steps that will be taken where a HE institution or FE college has failed to address issues of unsatisfactory quality under the existing processes.
Such failures might include an institution that has received two successive 'no confidence' judgements in audits for quality & standards carried out by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA); or where an institution does not agree to, or satisfactorily progress, an action plan following a 'no confidence' judgement.
Press release ~ Policy for addressing unsatisfactory quality in institutions) ~ Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)
MoJ: People behind with payments on their homes now have a new way of finding the best solution to their arrears problems, with the publication of information & advice by the Ministry of Justice. New animated videos, interview clips & articles, to be featured on Directgov, go from the point where there may be a problem, to communicating with landlords or mortgage lenders, how to prepare for court and what happens during & after a court hearing.
HMRC: With schools across the country getting ready for the new school year, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is urging teachers to log onto its new, free online resource for teachers – Tax Matters. Specifically designed for Personal, Social, Health & Economic education (PSHE), Business Studies & Citizenship teachers of pupils aged 11-19, the resource contains 3 new teaching modules, to help secondary school pupils gain an understanding of how tax is raised, what the main taxes are and what they ultimately pay for.
The 3 modules – which cover Income Tax, National Insurance and Tax & Society – use fun, interactive features such as videos, quizzes & games, as well as key facts & figures, to help teachers bring the subject to life in the classroom. There are also accompanying, ready-made lesson plans for each module available online, for both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils.
