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A new clinical emergency service to stabilise & transfer the most critically-ill & injured patients to hospital by road & air, ensuring they receive the best life-saving care, will be operational in Wales from April 2015.  The Emergency Medical Retrieval & Transfer Service Cymru (EMRTS Cymru) is the first national service of its kind in the UK and has been developed using the latest evidence from military & civilian experience, in partnership with the Wales Air Ambulance charity.

The service is designed to bring teams of doctors to an injured patient, giving them access to life-saving treatment at the scene of their injury or accident.  It is estimated EMRTS Cymru could contribute to at least a 40% improvement in survival rates from major trauma in Wales and could reduce transfer times to specialist hospital care by more than 40%.  It will mean 95% of the population will be able to access doctor-led care within 30 minutes.

• Welsh Government announces a “flying doctors” service for Wales
• The Golden Hour
• Trauma Care in England & Wales
• Emergency and urgent care services
• North Wales Critical Care Network
• CQC:  Time for the NHS to be run to DMS standards? ^{(2nd item)}
• Life-saving emergency eCall system should be mandatory, say MEPs
• Medics practise life-saving skills
• Major trauma network
• Ysbyty Gwynedd benefits from Health Technology and Telemedicine Fund
• Take head injuries seriously and treat quickly, says NICE
• Military medical techniques saving lives at home
• Over 80 hospitals lack specialist footcare teams
• Minister opens Prince Charles Hospital’s emergency care centre
• People with hip fractures should be treated earlier
• Critical care paramedics can save more lives and cut costs
• The life of an Army doctor on the front line
• 'Brain-cooling' treatment can save newborn babies deprived of oxygen from severe disability and death
• New Life Saving Equipment for Frontline Medics

The Public Services Network (PSN) Information Assurance (IA) Conditions compliance is a set of controls that must be met by any Public Sector organisation that is required to access the PSN network. A UK government funded programme, the PSN is one large communications network where public service agencies can efficiently access various types of data from one repository.

PSN IA Conditions Compliance’s purpose is to ensure that information is available to the right people and that the integrity of that information is up-to-date. Organisations that are IA compliant convey confidence to the general public that they are appropriately and safely managing their data.

This latest brief details the pre-requisite IA controls for accessing the Public Service Network and the solutions that enable your organisation to achieve PSN IA Conditions Compliance.

Click here to download your free copy now.

Extra funds should be added to the EU’s 2015 budget for growth & jobs policies, education, including the EU's Erasmus+ student mobility programme, and EU humanitarian & support work in war-stricken zones, said the Budgets Committee in votes recently. It also recommended that the European Parliament as a whole should reverse cuts sought by the Council of Ministers in planned and actual expenses.

• Budgets Committee recommends reversing Council cuts in EU budget for 2015
• Let’s start by capping the CAP & selling off the Strasbourg parliamentary offices ^{(11th item)}
• Forget budget increase demands, EU finds €82bn down back of the sofa ^{(5th item)}
• Budget problems: EU programmes in jeopardy again
• Parliament maintains €3.5 billion in aid for the most deprived from 2014 to 2020
• EU spending restrained as agreement reached on 2014 budget
• EU budget 2014: growth, jobs and humanitarian aid cuts reversed
• Commission announces €13.7 million boost to cross-border digital public services
• Agreement reached on austerity measures and reforms for European civil service
• European Commission spending millions on pro-EU lobby groups
• Commission can do better on economic coordination, say MEPs
• Budget 2014-2020: Don't sacrifice EU's future to the current crisis, say MEPs
• Council adopts new rules to simplify access to EU funds
• EU budget 2013: avoid payments shortfalls and invest in growth and jobs
• Check your own EU funding request before complaining, MEPs advise ministers
• EP: Presidency MFF proposal puts EU policies in jeopardy
• EU budget 2013: national civil servants emasculated growth pact, say MEPs
• 2015 EU draft budget to help Europe's economic growth despite financial constraints
• State aid: EC approves £110m aid for three sports stadiums in Belfast, Northern Ireland

New laws simplifying what happens when someone dies without leaving a will have come into effect.  The changes have been designed to speed up & modernise the process for dividing the money, property & other assets of someone who has died ‘intestate’ (the legal terms for not having a will).

In addition, Families of missing people will have new rights following law changes which have also come into effect.  Families will now be able to apply for a Presumption of Death Certificate for a loved one who has gone missing and is presumed dead. It can be used in the same way as a Death Certificate and will enable grieving families to close bank accounts, stop direct debits, cancel passports & licences and apply for probate.

• New laws simplifying what happens when someone dies without leaving a will now in effect
• Missing people law changes
• Guardianship of the property and affairs of missing persons – (closes 18 November 2014)

A new data set is now available via the TfL Data Store for app developers to use free of charge.  In addition to listing the location of TfL's public toilets on London Overground, London Underground and DLR stations, the new enhanced data feed now includes bus station toilets.   A map showing where public toilets are on the transport network is already available on the TfL website.   Over 2,000 developers are registered to receive these and hundreds of travel information apps have been produced as a result.

• Data on TfL public toilets now available in their travel information products

HEFCE is announcing 3 dedicated calls for bids to the Catalyst Fund, in line with its own & government priorities.  The Fund enables HEFCE to deliver its strategic aims for higher education in research, teaching and knowledge exchange.  Higher education institutions & further education colleges are invited to submit expressions of interest by noon on Thursday 6 November 2014.

These calls for expressions of interest cover 3 specific areas:

• Universities as anchors
• Supporting technical education
• Innovative knowledge exchange in small, specialist institutions

• HEFCE:  Funding for ‘anchor institutions’, technical skills and small & specialist institutions

People can pre-register now and from 12 October 2015 until 5 April 2017 they will be able to make a contribution for a State Pension top up, allowing them to increase the value of their State Pension.  This scheme is open to all those who will have reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 and will be a one-off opportunity.

The top ups can be inherited, with a surviving spouse or civil partner entitled to at least 50% of the Additional State Pension.  The opportunity is being introduced to create a fair option for existing pensioners to increase their pensions ahead of the introduction of the new State Pension in April 2016, which brings together the Basic and Additional State Pensions.  An online calculator is now available to help pensioners weigh up the options.

• State Pension £1,300 a year top up: the countdown begins

Socitm is to deliver nine 1 day workshops across the UK this Autumn to disseminate learning about the information & technology implications of health & social care reforms that will come into effect from April 2015.

The workshops will present learning from England’s 14 Health & Social Care Pioneers and from elsewhere in the UK, ahead of the requirement for all authorities with social care responsibilities to implement reporting requirements (April 2015) and integration of health and social care (April 2016).  Events run from 24 October to 9 December in Birmingham, Blackpool, Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, Guildford, Leeds, London & Loughborough.

• Socitm announces 9 regional workshops to disseminate learning on ICT implications of health & social care reform
• Adding ‘attribute exchange’ to identity assurance will bring major benefits says latest Socitm briefing

Launching November 2015, Be The Change is a unique new network of homelessness professionals across the North East & Cumbria, designed to counter some of the most acute challenges they face.  Created by Homeless Link, funded by Northern Rock, and run by its membership, we will encourage & empower professionals to drive change that is so desperately needed in homelessness services across the area.

If you’re based in the North East or Cumbria and you are a graduate of either the Engage to Change or Leading Places of Change programmes – and if you want to help drive real change in the sector and you are ready to commit to making it happen in your organisation, HL want you to join them.  All they need for now is to know whether or not you are interested in finding out more.

• Homeless Link:  Introducing Be The Change

Government departments, suppliers & recruiters must follow a code of practice when recruiting for jobs requiring security clearances.  Cabinet Office guidance on personnel security controls explains that asking for security clearance before or as part of the job application process is not appropriate.  Usually the recruiter can wait for a candidate to be security-cleared; the only exception is where the placement is genuinely urgent and for a short period of time.

There were concerns that workers were being asked whether they held national security vetting clearance for certain jobs before they could apply.  The Cabinet Office and the Association of Independent Professionals & the Self Employed (IPSE) set up a Security Clearance Forum to help government and related organisations follow the guidance.

• Government departments, suppliers & recruiters must follow a code of practice when recruiting for jobs requiring security clearances

Do you use social media at work? How does it help you do your job? We have a themed week coming up – Monday 13 October will be the start of our social media week. So send any advice on using social media in public services to
tamsin.rutter@theguardian.com,
for an article on how the Twitter-shy and Facebook-fearful can get started.

Five tips for potential whistleblowers
Former Treasury employee who spoke out about malpractice shares what he learned

Universal credit 'undeliverable' says Kerslake
Sir Bob Kerslake bows out with a dig at the culture that failed to recognise flaws in benefit reform

News this week
• New chief: John Manzoni, head of Major Projects Authority, will be the first civil service chief executive.
• Cuts to come: Kerslake said public sector cuts may continue for another five years regardless of which party is in government.
• Digital gov: Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood outlined the progress made by the Government Digital Service.

There's lively debate – and then there's just bullying
Richard Vize: Old-style politics is inhibiting the radical changes austerity-struck councils must make