Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
NE: Natural England has launched a range of new conservation guides which illustrate how careful land management can help create healthy habitats for wildlife. Designed to support land managers with Environmental Stewardship agreements, but of interest to anyone looking to discover how wildlife habitats can best be looked after, these illustrated guides provide a visual showcase of how different conservation techniques can support a wide variety of plants, animals and insects.
A range of habitats & landscapes are looked at – from woodlands to ponds and grasslands – with information on how to encourage plants & insects and the birds that depend upon them. Other guides look at hedgerow restoration and the management techniques to encourage particular species such as the black grouse, with guides for lapwing & snipe due to be published shortly. See press release for links to guides.
BIS: Universities wanting to charge over £6,000 for their courses from 2012 will have to work much harder to recruit students from disadvantaged backgrounds under new guidelines. In a final Guidance Letter sent to the Office of Fair Access last week, Ministers asked its Director to ‘be more challenging & demanding of universities seeking to charge higher fees’.
The Government also announced details of the national scholarship programme that will provide students from disadvantaged backgrounds help with the cost of attending university. Around 50,000 students a year could be awarded a scholarship from 2014. Scholarships will be worth at least £3,000 for individual students in tuition discounts and other benefits.
CLG: New rules to stop taxpayers' money being spent on town hall newspapers or hired lobbyists have been put before Parliament. The new 'publicity code' for English councils tightens up the rules to protect the use of taxpayers' money being spent inappropriately. Following consultation, it sets out specific rules to stop municipal newspapers being published more often than 4 times p.a. and to prevent the hiring of lobbyists.
Newswire – RoSPA: The mothers of 2 teenagers who died from carbon monoxide poisoning have made a film with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in Northern Ireland to raise awareness of the ‘silent killer’ and how future tragedies can be prevented.
Catherine McFerran and Katrina Davidson give their personal accounts of the tragedy that claimed the lives of their sons, Neil & Aaron, during a weekend away last summer. As well as their story, the film shares some of the steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, focusing particularly on the families’ campaign for people to use audible CO alarms.
Press release ~ Carbon Monoxide and You ~ Gis a hug foundation ~
DUK: A new online guide which could make insulin pump treatment more available for people with Type 1 diabetes in the UK was the focus of a parliamentary briefing last week. The step-by-step guide will provide information about insulin pump technology and report on the experiences of the three NTAC hospitals which are now trying this out as a treatment.
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