Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

FSA: The Food Standards Agency has updated its list of product ranges that do not contain the six food colours associated with possible hyperactivity in young children.  A further 5 manufacturers producing product lines free of the colours have been added to the list.
 
The list includes both companies whose product ranges have never contained the 6 colours and product ranges that have been reformulated to remove the colours.  The manufacturers added to the list are: Bernard Matthews Farms, Danone UK Ltd, Freshpack Limited, Moo and The Original Candy Company Ltd.
Press release ~ Caterers and restaurants with product ranges free from the six colours ~ Manufacturers with product ranges free from the six colours ~ Retailers with product ranges free from the six colours ~ Intolerance to additives
 
DH: The Department of Health has published new guidance to help the NHS improve the care provided for premature & sick babies during their first days. Babies who are born prematurely, or have a low birth weight, require very specialised care in their first hours & days.
 
A Neonatal Taskforce was established to identify ways of further improving services to offer the best neonatal care possible.  Experts from baby charity Bliss and specialist NHS staff have helped to develop the Neonatal Toolkit to share its findings & guidance with the NHS.
Press release ~ Bliss - Neonatal Taskforce ~ Neonatal Toolkit
 
CO: A new guide setting out the tax incentives for business to give to charitable causes, has been launched by Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Cabinet Office, on behalf of HM Treasury, the Office of the Third Sector and HM Revenue and Customs‘A Guide to Giving for Business’ sets out in a single guide a comprehensive document listing the tax incentives for businesses to give.  
 
The guide recognises that the private sector can contribute to the aims & objectives of charities in different ways, such as giving money, donating shares or equipment, or working in partnership with a third sector organisation through employee volunteering or secondments.
Press release ~ A Guide to Giving for Business
 
WAGLocal authorities are being encouraged to review their speed limits in new guidance published by the Welsh Assembly Government.  The guidance covers 20 mph zones, speed limits on urban & rural roads, particularly through communities and aims to ensure all limits are appropriate for their locations. Mr Jones recommended that local authorities use the guidance to review all their local speed limits and implement changes by the end of 2014.
 
A large sample of 20mph schemes are currently being analysed with a view to providing additional information on their effectiveness, together with case studies to demonstrate good practice.  The guidelines are being published in advance of a new national road safety strategy.   This will incorporate casualty reduction targets for beyond 2010 and may be accompanied by additional speed management advice.
Press release ~ Speed limit Guidance ~ WAG: Transport ~ WAG: Road Safety ~ Speed: Know your limits
 
Newswire – CABE: The number of design review panels has more than doubled in the last 5 years, so that now almost every local authority has access to high quality independent design advice. Over 80 panels are up & running across England.
 
New guidance has been launched - Design review: principles and practice - to promote the consistently high standards for all panels. The guidance has been developed by CABE, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Landscape Institute. Itlooks at the role of design review and how to get the best out of it and uses 9 case studies of design review in practice.
Press release ~ Design review: principles and practice ~ Design review: How CABE evaluates quality in architecture and urban design ~ Places Matter!
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance for employers on promoting mental wellbeing at work through productive & healthy working conditions.  

The guidance aims to help reduce the estimated 13.7m working days lost each year due to work-related mental health conditions including stress, depression & anxiety which are currently estimated to cost UK employers around £28.3bn per year at current pay levels.
 
The NICE guidance highlights how employers & employees can work in partnership to improve mental wellbeing within the workplace, by taking a positive organisation-wide approach that promotes mental wellbeing through changes in ways of working, such as improved line management and the provision of flexible working where appropriate.
Press release ~ Guidance for employers on promoting mental wellbeing through productive and healthy working conditions
 
NSG: The recent Collaborate to Innovate conference was attended by over 120 senior leaders from across the public service. It set out:
* Latest thinking on collaborative leadership development & its role in achieving more impact with less resources
* The next stage of the Government’s public service reform agenda and the contribution leadership development can make to achieving it
* Opportunities to shape the cross-sector debate on how leadership development initiatives can improve impact, enhance value for money and deliver real benefits to people
* Innovative approaches to public service leadership across localities, sectors & challenging social issues
*How becoming part of a forward thinking community of practice can help shape future collaboration
Press release ~ Public Service Leadership (PSL) ~ Collaborate to Innovate ~ National School of Government ~ Whole Systems Go!: Improving leadership across the whole public service system ~ Change You Can Believe In: The Leadership of Innovation ~ Innovation Nation White Paper ~ National School of Government – Sunningdale Institute ~ Evidence Based Policy-Making report ~ NSG - Professional Skills for Government (PSG)
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