Policy Statements and Initiatives

DfT: Councils are to be given greater control over the way money is spent on some bus services, providing better value for passengers and taxpayers, Transport Minister Norman Baker has announced. The funding stream will be ringfenced until April 2017.
Press release & links
 
DfE: Michael Gove has announced the final programmes of study for the national curriculum for 5 to 16-year-olds. This follows a consultation period launched in February 2013.  It has ‘been designed to ensure England has the most productive, most creative & best educated young people of any nation.  It aims to create a population with the knowledge & skills not just to get a good job and succeed in life, but also to help us compete and win in the global race’.
Press release & links
 
HMT: The government has published its response to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standard’s (PCBS) report, ‘Changing banking for good’. The government endorses the principal findings and intends to implement the PCBS’s main recommendations to address the failings the Commission identified on individual accountability, corporate governance, competition and long term financial stability.
Press release & links
 
BIS: The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency have identified 1,884 courses that have little or no demand from students and will no longer attract public money to keep them running. Most of these qualifications have been awarded to fewer than 100 learners or no one at all in the past 2 years.
 
A new document will set out a plan to review remaining qualifications annually to ensure that only rigorous & valuable vocational qualifications are funded.  The plan will include a new set of approval rules that all qualifications have to meet to get government funding.  These new rules will include a minimum cohort size, a clear rationale, appropriate content and a clear need from employers for the qualification.
 
Qualifications that are unlikely to attract large numbers of candidates, but do provide high value to companies & individuals in specialised areas will not lose funding.  These specialised areas include qualifications in craft sectors, such as blacksmithing & metalwork and key areas of technology such as transporting radioactive material.
Press release & links
 
CLG: Communities Minister Don Foster has announced £4.3m of new financial support.  This support will enable at least 100 communities to design & deliver local services that focus on local priorities and reduce costs.
Press release & links
 
DWPPeople on sickness benefits will be required to have regular meetings with doctors, occupational health nurses and therapists to help them address their barriers to workor face losing their benefits – in a 2 year pilot scheme announced last week.
 
The proposed pilot scheme will compare the help given by doctors, occupational health nurses & therapists to 2 other pilot schemes which will offer enhanced support from Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers to see which is best at helping people off sickness benefits and into work.
Press release & links
 
BISLocal infrastructure schemes that have hit delays, preventing projects from unlocking local growth, are set to benefit from a new public-private partnership to get projects off the ground.  As part of the new Local Infrastructure Demonstrator Partnership pilots, leading private sector professionals are working for free alongside government partners to identify & overcome problems that have been hindering infrastructure projects that could otherwise be creating new jobs & growth.
Press release & links
 
WAG: Minister for Education & Skills, Huw Lewis, has welcomed an additional £25m of capital funding for school construction projects under the Welsh Government’s 21st Century Schools programme.
Press release & links
 
DfT: The government has made significant progress strengthening its rail franchising programme after delivering on key recommendations outlined by the independent Brown Review into rail franchising, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said last week.
 
Publication of the government’s response provides further certainty to the rail industry by confirming the key principles that shape the Department for Transport’s franchising policy as it works towards delivering the best possible franchises for both passengers and taxpayers.
Press release & links
 
WAG: Housing and Regeneration Minister, Carl Sargeant has outlined how the Welsh Government is tackling anti-social behaviour.
Press release & links
 
WAGMore will be done to encourage victims of hate crime in Wales not to suffer in silence under new plans unveiled by the Welsh Government last week. The hate crime framework outlines the steps Ministers will take to address the issue, including challenging stereotypes and helping victims have the confidence to report crimes against them.
 
Under the law hate crime is an offence which is perceived by the victim to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived disability, race, religion & belief, sexual orientation & sexual identity.
Press release & links
 
CBI: The CBI has responded to the launch of the Government’s Professional & Business Services industrial strategy.
Press release ~ BIS: Professional & Business Services industrial strategy
 
ScotGov: A new Donation & Transplantation Plan for Scotland has been launched recently which aims to increase the number of donors & transplants in order to save more lives.  The new Scottish plan complements the new UK Strategy, Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020, which was also published last week and which seeks to achieve world-class performance by increasing donation and transplant rates over the next 7 years.
Press release & links ~ Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story