Policy Statements and Initiatives
ScotGov: Hospitals across Scotland are set to track patients through digital wards under plans to shake up emergency care. The new digital patient trackers display a virtual map of the hospital ward on a large touch-screen. Patient details can be accessed by touching each patient ‘icon’ and free beds can be marked & allocated right away.
This means staff can act quickly to treat or transfer a patient and allows whole system working, easing pressure on A&E departments. The innovation is being piloted as part of a 3-year action plan to transform emergency care services for patients across Scotland.
ScotGov: A scheme to help vulnerable 16 to 19 year olds into employment, training or education is delivering for more than 1,800 young people. Activity Agreements aim to prepare individuals for more formal courses and form part of range of actions being taken across Scotland to support more young people into employment.
DWP: People with multiple low-paid jobs who earn below the National Insurance (NI) threshold will now qualify – along with their partners – for credits towards the new State Pension, thanks to the government’s Universal Credit and State Pension reforms, benefiting 800,000 households.
Those with a job earning less than the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) of £5,668, and who may have other similarly low-paid jobs, are currently excluded from the basic State Pension. They are not liable to pay NI contributions and unless they qualify for NI credits for another reason or make them themselves, miss out on their State Pension.
ScotGov: Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has launched the updated Organic Action Plan, which includes new initiatives to help meet growing consumer demand for organic produce.
WAG: A new £750,000 fund designed to enable & encourage Welsh speakers to use Welsh language digital media & technology and was launched recently. The fund has an annual budget of £250,000 over 3 years which will be dedicated to a grants scheme and a procurement programme.
Initiatives eligible for the grant include projects to develop Welsh-language apps, initiatives to increase the amount of digital content available online, and projects to provide a Welsh language software infrastructure, such as text-to-speech & voice recognition software.
DfE: Age ratings will be given to a range of video content that is currently exempt - such as some music & sports DVDs - so that those unsuitable for younger children will have to carry a British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) age rating in future.
The government is also announcing plans for public WiFi providers to filter websites in public places to give parents the peace of mind that children will be protected from inappropriate websites when away from home.
The announcements come alongside the publication of the government’s Bailey Review, assessing the impact of measures to tackle the pressures on children to grow up too quickly.
DH: The Department of Health has announced £4m to improve the way diseases are diagnosed, benefiting patient care. Every year over 16m diagnostic tests are carried out across the NHS. This money will fund research that looks at the way a number of different diseases are diagnosed, so patients can access the best available treatments more quickly.
WAG: Cancer patients in Wales will be given the chance to tell the NHS & the Welsh Government what they think about the services they have received. When it was published in November 2012, Together For Health – A Cancer Delivery Plan for Wales made the commitment to carry out a national cancer patient experience survey so as to understand patient experience & use the information to drive service improvement.
The Cancer Experience Survey will be issued to a sample of people with a diagnosis of cancer, who had a hospital stay between June last year & March 2013. The Welsh Government recognises that this can be a very distressing time for patients & their families, but if patients take the time to give feedback on the service they have experienced, valuable information can be gathered to deliver real improvement.
DECC: The Green Deal went live last week, ‘giving people the opportunity to transform their homes by paying for energy efficient home improvements with the savings on their energy bills’. There are 45 different types of improvements currently available under the Green Deal, helping people warm up their homes and pay for some or all of the improvements over time through their electricity bill.
DfE: The government has announced a £2m apprenticeship bursary scheme for the early years profession. Those aspiring to a career in early education will be able to apply for a bursary worth up to £1,500, with a further £300 available for more training, from September 2013. There will be up to 1,000 bursary places available.
The scheme will be administered by the National College for Teaching & Leadership and details will be published on its website shortly. More information can be obtained by emailing the NCTL apprenticeships team. Applicants will need to be undertaking the level 3 advanced apprenticeship in children & young people’s workforce to be eligible.
ScotGov: Over 700,000 people in Scotland with chronic pain are set to benefit from improved local services, including a dedicated residential service. Cabinet Secretary, Alex Neil has outlined plans to establish a specialist intensive pain management residential service and increase access to therapies for people.
In a drive to help more people to manage their pain, health boards have been tasked with creating action plans to improve the services available locally, such as pain-management.
A public consultation will be held to seek patients’ views on how the residential service should be delivered. These will include a national centre, a service that will move around Scotland or retaining the current service with Bath Chronic Pain Centre. The consultation is planned for launch in early July and will run until September, with a final decision announced later in the Autumn.
A public consultation will be held to seek patients’ views on how the residential service should be delivered. These will include a national centre, a service that will move around Scotland or retaining the current service with Bath Chronic Pain Centre. The consultation is planned for launch in early July and will run until September, with a final decision announced later in the Autumn.
MoJ: Significant reforms are being made to toughen up the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme in male adult prisons throughout England & Wales. Prisoners will actively have to work towards their own rehabilitation and help others if they are to earn privileges - they will not receive them through good behaviour alone.
10DS: An international panel, co-chaired by David Cameron, has told the United Nations that the world can – and must – end extreme poverty by 2030.
In its report, titled ‘A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty & Transform Economies through Sustainable Development’, the panel proposes 12 measurable goals and 54 targets for the international community to rally around to take action.
In its report, titled ‘A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty & Transform Economies through Sustainable Development’, the panel proposes 12 measurable goals and 54 targets for the international community to rally around to take action.
Press release & links ~ VSO 'Hugely encouraged' by High Level Panel proposal to put women's empowerment at the heart of future efforts to fight poverty
DfT: Congested roads across England are to be tackled with £165m of funding, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced last week. The announcement is the second tranche of funding from the £190m Local Pinch Point Fund, first announced in December 2012.
A further 62 schemes have now won department funding, bringing the total number of schemes financed by the fund to 72. Combined with local contributions, the total investment rises to more than £300m.
A further 62 schemes have now won department funding, bringing the total number of schemes financed by the fund to 72. Combined with local contributions, the total investment rises to more than £300m.
HMT: Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne officially has launched the ‘Make Things Do Stuff’ campaign, to inspire a generation of kids to create, not just use, digital technologies. By offering digital training to 100,000 youngsters in the coming months alone, this campaign is ‘backing the entrepreneurs of the future and helping ensure that Britain is equipped to succeed in the global race’.
A new website & series of UK-wide events will provide young people with access to digital tutorials covering Apps, animation, games, remixes, physical computing & websites. A core feature of the campaign is the belief that one of the best ways to learn is by making something, whether that’s an App, game, website or digital fashion.
ScotGov: Tenants & landlords are set to benefit from new plans to modernise Scotland’s private rented sector. The Private Rented Sector strategy outlines the Scottish Government’s plans to work in partnership with letting agents on the introduction of new regulations for the industry. The strategy also lays out plans to attract investment to support the construction sector to build new homes.
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