Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
CLG: A new advice leaflet for market traders offers stall owners free business ‘health checks’ to help them beat economic challenges & increased competition.
The leaflet: ‘Growing Markets: Championing the Market Stall’, will be distributed widely across the country to 35,000 market traders & managers to throw a spotlight on all the free Government support available to make sure local markets succeed in the face of 21st century challenges.
The leaflet: ‘Growing Markets: Championing the Market Stall’, will be distributed widely across the country to 35,000 market traders & managers to throw a spotlight on all the free Government support available to make sure local markets succeed in the face of 21st century challenges.
Press release ~ ‘Growing Markets: Championing the Market Stall’ ~ Government response to the Select Committee report 'Market failure? - can the traditional markets survive' ~
Defra: Ministers have issued a new code for the welfare of birds produced as quarry for shooting enthusiasts. The new code sets out how keepers can best meet the welfare needs of gamebirds, including recommendations on providing food & water and the use of certain types of equipment, as well as space allowances for housing breeding pheasants & partridges to ensure the birds are not kept in overcrowded conditions.
Sport shooters will be encouraged to use only birds supplied & raised by game farms & shoots observing the code. The Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes is due to come into effect on 1 October 2010. Evidence of failure to follow the Code could be used in court to support a case of poor welfare.
Press release ~ Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes ~ Defra: Related documents
DCSF: The new Code of practice for local authorities on delivery of free Early Years provision for 3- & 4-year-olds is statutory guidance & general principles for local authorities (LAs) to help them manage & administer the new extended offer. This document replaces all previous guidance about the free entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Press release ~ Code of practice for local authorities on delivery of Free Early Years provision for 3- and 4-year-olds ~ Impact assessment of the increase of the free entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds to 15 hours per week with increased flexibility ~ Government response to the consultation on the new Code of practice for local authorities on delivery of free Early Years provision for 3- and 4-year-olds (February 2010)
Newswire – AC: The Audit Commission has launched new value for money (VfM) profiles for PCTs, fire & rescue authorities, police authorities and councils. These are designed to be ‘more user-friendly, have a clearer focus on VfM, track levels of spend to assess the impact of improvements, and compare spend and performance to other bodies’.
The tools are a ‘can opener’ for highlighting areas where costs & or performance look out of line and can help local services identify where there may be potential for savings. They also contain useful background & context information to help you to understand VfM issues for each service area.
HO: New Home Office guidance published last week sets out advice for key partners such as local authorities, police & businesses on how they can better protect the public. Working Together to Protect Crowded Places follows a public consultation last year and details how partners can work together.
Alongside this, two other documents have also been published, which offer practical advice for planners & designers in incorporating counter terrorism measures to reduce vulnerability in crowded places.
Considering counter-terrorism at the concept & design stages will enable counter-terrorism protective security measures to be incorporated into the overall design, which is easier & cheaper than retro-fitting.
Considering counter-terrorism at the concept & design stages will enable counter-terrorism protective security measures to be incorporated into the overall design, which is easier & cheaper than retro-fitting.
Press release ~ Working Together to Protect Crowded Places ~ London First ~ World Class Places ~ Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure (CPNI) ~ National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) ~ Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) ~ Project Argus ~ Crowded Places - Hotels and Restaurants ~ Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) ~
DCSF: Children's Secretary Ed Balls has confirmed that Local Safeguarding Children Boards will in future be required to produce clear & comprehensive executive summaries of Serious Case Reviews andset out in their annual reports what actions have been taken following SCRs
These requirements, made explicit in a template setting out a recommended format for SCR executive summaries, will build on the action which Government has already taken to further strengthen SCRs. The revised Working Together guidance also builds on responses from experts in child protection such as the NSPCC and Barnardo’s – See ‘In the News’ section for more information.
Press release ~ Local Safeguarding Children Boards ~ Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children ~ Local Safeguarding Children Boards: Practice guidance for consultation (closes on 9 June 2010)
HO: Full guidance to assist employers & voluntary groups in implementing the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) has been published by the Home Office. The new scheme, which is delivered by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), aims to prevent unsuitable people who could pose a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults from being able to work or volunteer with these groups.
The publication comes ahead of the implementation of key changes which mean that, from July 2010, employees starting work in an organisation or role affected by the new rules and volunteers working with vulnerable groups, can apply to become ISA registered.
The guidance document contains detailed information about what actions employers & employees will be required to take under the scheme. It also outlines what they should do in preparation for 25 July 2010, when registration to the scheme begins.
FSA: School children all over Scotland will soon have a fun way of working out in the classroom what makes up a balanced diet, following the launch of the Food Standards Agency eatwell plate floor mats.
The Food Standards Agency in Scotland has begun sending out the first of the new floor mats to schools and, by the end of March 2010, each of the country’s 2,752 schools should have received one.
The Food Standards Agency in Scotland has begun sending out the first of the new floor mats to schools and, by the end of March 2010, each of the country’s 2,752 schools should have received one.
The FSA eatwell plate floor mats provide a fun & active way for children to learn about the Agency’s messages on diet & nutrition. They also support the new Scottish Curriculum for Excellence and can be used to aid teachers in their classroom activities. Guidance for teachers on how to get the most out of their mats is also being issued to each primary, secondary & special educational needs establishment.
