Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
ScotGov: Health boards are to be given £1m by the Scottish Government to help them improve their IT security, following last week's publication of the NHS QIS investigation into the discovery of patient information at the disused StrathmartineHospital in Tayside. The investment comes from the ScotGov’s eHealth budget.
The money will be used to help NHS boards meet a new data standard which requires that mobile devices - such as laptops & memory sticks - that are used to store patient-identifiable data must be encrypted to a new common standard and used only after specific authorisation.
Although primarily intended to ensure the security of laptops and USB memory sticks, the new standard applies equally to other mobile devices such as PDAs, CDs, BlackBerries or DVDs.
Press release ~ Mobile Data Protection Standard ~ eHealth ~ QIS: Strathmartine Hospital Improvement Review Report
DCMS: Aftercare advice offering support & information for families, friends and survivors about how to cope in the aftermath of a major disaster or critical incident have been developed & published (on Directgov) by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS’s) Humanitarian Assistance Unit (HAU).
The advice, contacts and information have been gathered with the help of a number of bereaved families and survivors of previous major incidents. The Directgov pages will:
* act as a gateway to provide practical information on a range of issues such as emotional & financial support
* link to relevant sites and provide clear information about where to seek further help
Press release ~ Directgov - Support and information after a major incident ~ DCMS’s Humanitarian Assistance Unit (HAU) ~ Review of the experiences of United Kingdom nationals affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami ~ Government Response to the NAO Review ~ Joint findings on lessons to be learned from the handling of the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami ~ UK Resilience – case study
IfL: Following the success of its June seminars, the Institute for Learning (IfL) is running another series of workshops in support of teachers & trainers throughout the FE and Skills sector, who are required to undertake at least 30 hours' continuing professional development (CPD) a year, prorated for part-time staff.
Each workshop comprises two practical sessions, after which participants should be able to support peers and colleagues in their use of REfLECT (IfL's online tool & personal learning). All the October events are now fully booked, but IfL will be organising a further series of workshopsfor the first quarter of 2009. In the meantime, teachers are being advised to use the CPD guidelines on the IfL website, to identify key areas in their subject specialism, industrial expertise & teaching and approaches that might need updating.
Newswire-AC: The Audit Commission has published guidance that sets out the approach it expects its appointed auditors to take when reviewing the arrangements that local authorities put in place to make individual and direct payments for adult care packages.
It makes it clear that audit work in this area should reflect the basic principle that it is audited bodies that are accountable for the public money they grant and not the individuals who receive and go on to spend it.
