Policy Statements and Initiatives
WAG: The Welsh Assembly Government is carrying out a major survey of citizens in Wales as part of its commitment to public service improvement.
The survey, to be carried out in every local authority area in Wales between now and February 2010 will enable WAG &other public service bodies to:
* Assess people’s views & experiences of public services
* Monitor trends in the views & needs of people in Wales
* Assist in developing policies, for example on environmental issues & the internet
*Set priorities and target resources to meet needs
ScotGov: Every pupil in Scotland will be taught the key personal finance skills they need to be successful in the future. Research published by the Scottish Government into the range & effectiveness of financial education across the country, found that while many schools have 'excellent practices in place, provision for pupils is variable'.
Ms Hyslop has asked Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) to create a partnership team to address the research report's recommendations and to produce a delivery plan that will drive forward financial education improvements. The Cabinet Secretary said the plan will ensure good quality financial education is delivered to every pupil in every school in Scotland through the new numeracy curriculum.
Press release ~ Evaluation of Financial Education Scottish Primary and Secondary Schools ~ Learning and Teaching Scotland - Financial Education
ScotGov: Getting vaccinated is the best way for vulnerable people to protect themselves from the consequences of seasonal flu. That was the message from Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon as she launched the annual seasonal flu vaccination campaign. 3 groups of people are entitled to free seasonal flu vaccinations:
* Those aged 65 years of age & over
* Those with a medical condition which puts them in an 'at risk' group
* NHS healthcare staff
A separate vaccination campaign will begin in the next few weeks to vaccinate people against the H1N1 pandemic flu virus.
ScotGov: Nurses & midwives returning to work to help in any worsening of the H1N1 outbreak will have their re-registration costs paid for by the Scottish Government. The Nursing & Midwifery Council has written to former members whose registration has lapsed in the previous 4 years to encourage them to re-register. This would make them available to employers in the event of a surge in the pandemic. There are approximately 9,500 nurses & midwives in Scotland who would meet the criteria set out by the NMC.
Press release ~ Nursing & Midwifery Council - FAQs about readmission ~ Information on Influenza A(H1N1)
DFID: Douglas Alexander has said that ‘We need a World Bank in practice as well as in name’, in Istanbul, ahead of the Bank’s annual meetings. He added that ‘now is the opportunity for the most fundamental reform of Bank representation since it was created in 1944’.
The International Development Secretary confirmed the UK will push for at least a 3% shift in voting power in favour of developing countries by April 2010. He also called for Bank shareholders & management to spread and deepen commitment to create a more responsive, client-driven organisation, saying ‘client partners too often had concerns about heavy & inflexible procedures, a lack of decentralised decision making, and slow transfer of money to low-income countries’.
DECC: The final details of the Government's scheme to save organisations money on fuel bills and to reduce carbon emissions have been unveiled by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme is a new regulatory incentive to improve energy efficiency in large public & private sector organisations.
Large energy users in business & the public sector will be required to take part in the scheme from 1 April 2010.
The scheme is mandatory and will save participants around £1bn per year by 2020 through cost effective energy efficiency measures that are not yet being taken up. It will also deliver emissions savings of at least 4.4 Mt CO2 per year. The registration window for CRC will begin in April 2010 and last until the end of September 2010.
Press release ~ Government Response to the consultation on the Draft Order to Implement the CRC ~ Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme
WAG: Education Minister Jane Hutt has outlined her spending priorities for the draft Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills budget which stands at over £2bn in 2010/11. In addition to allocating significant funding to meet the WAG’s One Wales commitments, the Minister has made an additional £20.5m of funding available to help those young people who have been hit hardest by the economic downturn.
Press release ~ Go Wales ~ One Wales agenda ~ WAG: Draft Budget October 2009 ~ WAG: Education and skills
HEFCE: The HEFCE is committed to developing higher education (HE) centres and 6 proposals under the New ‘University Challenge’ initiative have been identified as being of good enough quality to go forward. The Government announced the New 'University Challenge' in March 2008, asking HEFCE to develop a programme to support new HE centres by 2014.
As a result of the Board’s decision, lead HEIs whose proposals have met their criteria are being advised to wait till Spending Review decisions for the period 2011-14 have been made, before doing further work on developing full business cases.
ScotGov: Up to 75,900 students, or 68% of the eligible student population in Scotland, will see their income increase in the next academic year, under new measures announced by the Scottish Government. ScotGov is to use the £30m - set aside as part of the spending review for improved student support - to focus on increasing the income of the poorest students during the recession, including:
* Providing £2m to increase the funds available to students with additional childcare costs
* Creating a grant for independent students, benefiting students who were previously solely reliant on loans
* Increasing grants for the poorest students receiving the Young Students' Bursary
* Increasing the maximum level of the income-assessed student loan
Press release ~ A (closed) consultation on supporting learners in higher education ~ Higher and Further Education Students' Income, Expenditure and Debt in Scotland 2007-08 ~ NUS Scotland: 'Overstretched and Overdrawn' ~ Student Awards Agency for Scotland
DECC: Research published last week from the Department of Energy and Climate Change reveals that over 50% of people questioned don’t believe climate change will affect them and only 18% of respondents think that climate change will take effect during their children’s lifetime.
The results showed that a big motivator for people to take action on climate change is the knowledge that it will impact on the next generation. 74% said they would make changes to their lifestyle now if they knew climate change was going to affect their children. The Government wants to educate people on the dangers of climate change and has launched its first ever direct public information announcement confirming the existence of climate change and its man-made origin.
Press release ~ New Advert (scroll down & click on video) ~ Met Office Hadley Centre ~ Road to Copenhagen: December 2009 ~ ACT on CO2
DH: 20 sites across England have been selected to participate in a study to identify the benefits of Personal Budgets for health and the patient groups who will benefit most from them. Earlier this year the Government pledged its commitment to creating a more personalised & responsive NHS by selecting 70 sites across England to pilot personal health budgets. The budgets give patients the freedom to choose the support services they want for themselves or a family member.
The study will be conducted through a partnership between three existing research teams at three institutions including the University of Kent. The full evaluation will last 3 years, with newsletters, research summaries and interim reports made available online.
Press release ~ ~ Personal health budgets: first steps ~ DH – Personal Health Budgets ~ Professor David Challis’s presentation ~ Professor Caroline Glendinning’s presentation ~ Research briefing 'Impact of personal budgets on third sector providers of social care' ~ Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent
WAG: Almost 600 Corus Strip Products UK (CSP UK) employees in Wales, are to benefit from skills support worth £1.1m in ProAct funding, First Minister Rhodri Morgan has announced. ProAct is the Welsh Assembly Government’s flagship training scheme aimed at helping viable companies who are facing difficulties during the economic downturn by providing funding to upgrade training for employees.
Employers can receive up to £2,000 per individual for training, and, in theory, up to a further £2,000 per employee for a wage subsidy whilst that training is being undertaken.
Press release ~ ProAct – funding to up-skill staff affected by short-term working ~ Support when you need it ~ Leading Wales out of recession
WAG: Public sector organisations in Wales are set to save an average of 16%, or over £2.4m, per year from reduced hire vehicle costs and carbon emissions under a new all-Wales agreement for spot hire of Cars, Commercial and Specialist Vehicles.
Organisations including Local Authorities, the NHS, Education and the Emergency services spend in excess of £15m a year hiring vehicles ranging from cars & mini-buses through to refuse trucks & road-gritters - usually involving a time-consuming & expensive European tendering process, duplicated across Wales.
Value Wales is running a programme of collaborative procurement with various partners. The Welsh public sector sourcing plan ‘Smarter Buying – Sharing Success’ was produced in July 2006 and its implementation has to date saved over £93m across the Welsh public sector.
DCSF: A programme for children who struggle with basic maths could save the taxpayer £ms and break the historic link between deprivation & low-attainment, according to research into pilots of the Every Child Counts scheme.
The results show that 2,621 of the lowest achieving 6 & 7-year-olds, many from poor backgrounds, made almost 14 months progress on average after just 20 hours specialist one-to-one or small-group tuition - four times the normal rate of progress.
The scheme is now expanding this year to 12,000 Year 2 pupils, with an additional 460 teachers trained on top of the 207 existing staff. The scheme will go nationwide in September 2010.
