Policy Statements and Initiatives
ScotGov: Hundreds of crofters will have their interest payments on house loans halved easing the financial burden on them during the current economic climate. The option of moving from a fixed interest rate (as high as 7%), to a new variable rate of 3.5% will ease the financial burden on as many as 1,700 crofters.
The offer of reduced interest rates is extended to all crofters making regular payments under the Crofters Building Grants and Loans Scheme (CBGLS). The small minority of individuals currently in arrears will be able to take advantage of this once their repayments are brought up to date.
The CBGLS was awarded on a part-grant, part-loan basis for building new or improving existing croft houses. It was replaced in January 2005 by the grant-based Croft House Grants Scheme.
The CBGLS was awarded on a part-grant, part-loan basis for building new or improving existing croft houses. It was replaced in January 2005 by the grant-based Croft House Grants Scheme.
Press release ~
WAG: Another 75 Post Offices have been awarded a total of £1.5m from the WAG Post Office Diversification Fund. The funding will lead to the equivalent of 57 full time jobs at post offices throughout Wales. This is the second round of funding which is designed to help sub-postmasters & sub-postmistresses diversify & improve their Post Offices.
DCSF: A coalition of Government, industry & charities has launched an internet safety strategy, to help children & young people stay safe online. ‘Click Clever Click Safe’, was drawn up by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). New research shows that 18% of young people said they had come across harmful or inappropriate content online, while 33% of children said their parents don’t really know what they do on the internet.
The strategy outlines how government, industry & charities are working together to keep children & young people safe online and implement the recommendations from Professor Tanya Byron’s review ’Safer Children in a Digital World’. Tanya Byron will review the Council’s progress, beginning in January 2010.
Press release ~
WAG: The Welsh Assembly Government’s final Budget aimed at helping people, communities & businesses through the global recession - has been agreed by the Assembly in plenary. To complement his Budget speech, the Minister has also issued a policy paper - Better Outcomes for Tougher Times - which sets out how, in the next phase of its public service improvement programme, WAG will be working with public services & social partners to ‘continue transforming public service efficiency and driving innovation’.
DH: Health Secretary Andy Burnham has set out his strategy for the NHS to ‘put patients first and improve the quality of care as it enters an unprecedented era of reform’. The strategy - NHS 2010-2015: from good to great. Preventative, people-centred, productive - explains the need to accelerate the pace of NHS reform to ‘make the system more productive and hasten improvements in quality of care – protecting patients, supporting staff, shifting resources to the frontline and slashing back office waste & bureaucracy’.
In addition, NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson has outlined details of the NHS Operating Framework for 2010/11, due to be published this week, which will set out NHS priorities for the next year. The Operating Framework will help the NHS make the changes necessary to embed quality and for it to drive all that the NHS does.
Press release ~ NHS 2010-2015: from good to great. Preventative, people-centred, productive ~ Current NHS Operating Framework
ScotGov: A new 2020 Delivery Group aims to ensure that all sectors of Scotland's economy & civic society contribute fully to achieving the Climate Change Delivery Plan, which includes the target of a 42% reduction in emissions over the next decade.
Scotland's Climate Change Adaptation Framework, published last week, is intended to drive action to make Scotland more resilient to climate change. In releasing the Framework, ScotGov is ‘taking a coordinated, strategic lead and is challenging all sectors to take action & play their part capitalising on the opportunities & adapting to the negative consequences of climate change’.
DFID: Over 60% of diseases that affect humans are of animal origin, including bird flu, swine flu & ebola, as well as more established diseases like rabies & tuberculosis. Experts are predicting that the next global pandemic will be a disease of this type.
The Department for International Development (DFID) last week brought together vets, virologists, academics and other experts in animal-to-human diseases (known as zoonoses) in order to identify hotspots where the next global pandemic is most likely to come from and how best to prevent it emerging or spreading.
They will make these findings available to decision makers in the international community, NGOs and country governments to help them decide where and how to focus their resources to minimise these risks.
They will make these findings available to decision makers in the international community, NGOs and country governments to help them decide where and how to focus their resources to minimise these risks.
ScotGov: Increased support for Scotland's Eco Schools Programme has been announced, with £425,000 provided to Keep Scotland Beautiful for the period 2010-11. Schools Minister Keith Brown announced the funding on a visit to Portobello High School, which is the first secondary school in Scotland to achieve permanent Green Flag status - the highest award under the international EcoSchool programme.
BIS: The government has set out a new role for regional development agencies & local authorities to back growing industries and support the country’s future economic success. A new national framework – Partnerships for Growth – sets out plans to coordinate the work of RDAs & local authorities to promote the industries that will drive growth & pursue national priorities for skills, innovation, investment and enterprise.
DWP: The next steps for a shake-up of the way disabled people use state funding have been announced following a consultation. The government claims that disabled adults will be able to take money with which to buy their own support services or equipment through the Right to Control. From late 2010, the Right to Control will be tested in around 8 local authorities in England. Local authorities can now apply to become a Right to Control Trailblazer, where the scheme will be tested
Disabled people said that it was important to have more choice over adult Community Care services. As a result, the government changed the Welfare Reform Act to include adult Community Care in the Right to Control.
There will be no obligation on disabled people to buy their own support services or equipment through Right to Control. Individuals could choose to continue receiving the services arranged on their behalf if they prefer, or perhaps have a combination of the two options.
Press release ~ Government’s response to the Right to Control consultation ~ Prospectus for potential Trailblazers
ScotGov: Scotland and the Maldives (one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels) are to sign a joint statement on co-operation at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. The FM will sign the statement on Tuesday with President Mohamed Nasheed, who wants the Maldives to become the world's first carbon neutral country within the next decade.
The Maldives is made up of nearly 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean. None are more than 1.8 metres (6ft) above sea level, making the country vulnerable to a rise in sea levels associated with global warming.
Press release ~ Stop Climate Chaos Scotland ~ President's Office - Republic of Maldives ~ Scotland's Action on Climate Change ~ Maldives – Climate change ~ Video
HO: A new taskforce to look at ways to improve the response of agencies such as the police & local authorities to missing people and their families has been launched. The charity Missing People estimates there are more than 200,000 incidents of people reported missing each year in the UK – around two thirds of them children & young people. Most return safely after a short time but a significant number do not, causing great anxiety to friends & family left behind.
The taskforce will take a fresh look at how councils, police & other bodies work together to handle cases of missing children and consider how this can be improved. It will make recommendations to the PM and Home Secretary in 2010.
WAG: First Minister Carwyn Jones has announced his new Cabinet after being sworn in to his new role.
DCSF: Parents of 4-year olds are set to get greater flexibility over choosing when they start primary school, under changes published by Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls. Local authorities already have a legal duty to make sure all children have a place at a school at the compulsory school starting age of 5. But ministers want to ensure that every parent has the option of starting reception class from the September after they turn four, in the proposed changes to the mandatory School Admissions Code laid before Parliament last week.
It means that all local authorities will now have a legal duty to give parents the same flexibility & choice over school starting dates. Parents who do not want their child to start school will be entitled to free full-time early learning & childcare, in maintained nursery schools & classes or in private, voluntary & independent sector provision. The Government will allocate up to £80m to fund these changes.
The revised School Admissions Code, published last week, following a public consultation, will come into force in February 2010 and apply to admission arrangements from September 2011.
BIS: A new executive agency will be created to take the UK’s space & satellite sector into a new space age. It will replace the British National Space Centre, and bring together the 6 Government departments, 2 research councils, the Technology Strategy Board and the Met Office that currently oversee the organisation of UK space activities to enhance efficiencies.
The UK space & satellite sector has grown in real terms by around 9% a year since 1999/00 – more than 3 times faster than the economy as a whole. It currently contributes £6.5bn a year to the UK economy and supports 68,000 jobs. The UK is also currently second in the world only to the USA in space science.
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