WIREDGOV

Plans to improve out of hospital care for the elderly & vulnerable will reduce emergency admissions, the DH and DCLG announced last week.  Following a review of the first set of local plans for the Better Care Fund, a renewed agreement has strengthened a commitment to bring health & care service providers closer together to make joint decisions, ensuring more people receive joined-up, personalised care closer to home. The fund and the benefits it is creating will be an enduring feature of health and care provision beyond 2016.

Building on existing practices whereby local government already purchases care services from a range of suppliers, the fund, with a shared budget of at least £3.8bn, will bring (from April 2015):

• more dignity & independence for the frail & elderly by providing the care they need at or closer to home
• 7-day health & care services — to ensure that people can access the care they need when they need it
• a named professional— who can join up services around individuals, and prevent them from falling through the gaps
• better data sharing — so that people don’t need to endlessly repeat their story to every professional who cares for them
• joint assessments — so that services can work together to assess and meet people’s needs all in one go

• Better care plans to provide dignity, independence and reduce A&E admissions for the elderly & vulnerable
• Fundamental standards: improving quality & transparency in care
• NHS could be losing out on at least £25bn of funding a year by the end of the decade, warn unions
• England faces great adult social care squeeze
• NAO:  Out-of-hours GP services in England
• TKF: The Integration Transformation Fund - the foundation of a genuinely integrated system or just another brick in the wall?
• Better Care Fund, better read the small print
• Ethos: Primary care: the future?
• NHS England:  Better Care Fund Planning
• Being ill when older can be frightening & confusing
• A more decentralised NHS (3rd item)
• The way to an affordable & efficient NHS (4th item)
• £50m care fund to support older people and help reduce pressure on the NHS in Wales
• LGA:  Failure to fund could jeopardise social care reforms
• LGA:  Integrated Care – Better Care Fund
• Government funding to help 10,000 older people stay independent
• Emergency admissions to hospital: managing the demand
• Wales needs to end its dependency on hospitals & embrace the shift to care in the community
• 2.3m fewer overnight hospital stays needed if all areas perform as well as top 25%
• Patients Association responds to figures which show that 28% of patients receiving hospital treatment in Scotland die within a year
• Report on urgent & emergency services
• Overhaul of End of Life Care system
• NHS Confed: There is a need for change in the NHS (4th item)
• How good is the care in your area (5th item)

On 2 April 2014, the Government Security Classification (GSC) policy was introduced which will replace the previous GPMS after a period of parallel running. 

The GSC policy replaces the previous six Impact Levels (ILs) with just three classifications; OFFICIAL, SECRET and TOP-SECRET.

As there is no mapping between the previous Impact Levels and the new categories, public sector organisations are encouraged to make their own decision as to whether suppliers are applying the necessary controls to ensure appropriate protection of their data and systems.

This white paper provides public sector organisations with advice and guidance to help them make appropriate use of cloud services without compromising the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the information which makes up their digital and shared services.

Not all cloud services are created equal, so how public sector organisations can safely select appropriate cloud services is explained.

Click here to download your copy of 'Cloud Services & the Government Security Classifications Policy'.

Proposals for additional assistance for property owners in rural areas close to the route of HS2 between London and the West Midlands have been published for consultation by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.  The consultation sets out further information on 2 schemes - an alternative cash offer and a homeowner payment scheme - (closes on 30 September 2014).

• Help for property owners affected by HS2
• Government refused to raise ambition of HS2's environmental protections
• First new college in 20 years to support development of High Speed 2 (HS2)
• Shortlist announced for National College for High Speed Rail
• Baroness Kramer visits Derby and Nottingham to see how HS2 could benefit the region
• New help for property owners affected by HS2
• Better safeguards needed to minimise harm to countryside from HS2
• HS2 will drive urban regeneration
• NEF - We’re still not asking the right questions about HS2
• Higgins report
• CBI comments on Higgins Report on HS2
• Supreme Court dismisses all appeals against HS2
• TUC welcomes HS2 investment in skills
• HS2 Growth Taskforce comes to Liverpool to secure maximum boost for region's economy
• Core Cities call on government to maximise the potential of high speed rail
• Next phase of work for High Speed 2 and Scotland
• FM announces study into north-to-south HSR link
• HS2 crucial to meet UK transport needs

Councils have been praised for turning around the lives of almost 53,000 troubled families in little over 2 years.  This means that:

• children are back in school for 3 consecutive terms where they were previously truant or excluded
• high levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour have been significantly reduced
• and/or adults that were on benefits have been in work for at least 3 months

• Councils have been praised for turning around the lives of almost 53,000 troubled families in little over 2 years
• Mental health schemes to catch pupils ‘before they fall’
• Joined-up working can be made to work (4th item)

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is raising awareness of Forced Marriage amongst victims & professionals through Forced Marriage Awareness week.  School summer holidays are a peak time for young people to be taken overseas and forced into marriage against their will.  The FMU used social media to highlight this issue from 7-11 July.

Last year 40% of cases in which the FMU gave advice or support involved victims aged 17 or under. In some cases victims are taken on what they have been told is a holiday to visit family abroad, but in fact a marriage has been planned.  Once abroad, victims are often even more isolated than they might have been in the UK and getting help is more difficult.

• Forced Marriage Awareness Week
• Greening: End child marriage in a generation
• Maintaining the values that attract people to the UK
• Attempts to limit forced marriage must not adversely affect the right to family reunification
• Child molesting by another name (3rd item)

A UK carbon storage project that would support up to 2,000 jobs and provide clean electricity to more than 630,000 homes has received a funding boost of €300m from the European Commission.  The White Rose project, based at Britain’s largest coal-fired power station, the Drax plant in Yorkshire, is one of Europe’s first carbon capture & storage (CCS) projects.  When built, the plant would capture around 90% of its carbon dioxide emissions, and would safely store 2m tonnes of carbon dioxide p.a. under the North Sea seabed.

NER300 is a European Commission programme that funds innovative renewable energy technology and CCS projects, and White Rose is the only CCS project in Europe to be allocated funds under the programme.  The White Rose project, along with another CCS project based in Peterhead, are benefiting from around £100m from the UK Government to support design and engineering work. Both projects are eligible for the remaining £1bn of support under the CCS Commercialisation Programme.

• €300m in Euro funding for UK carbon capture project
• Time to act to help maintain UK power supplies
• White Rose project
• UK CCS Research Centre
• NER300
• CCS Commercialisation Programme

Many European travellers do not even know how & where they can get the right information about basic passenger rights.  A smartphone app explains everything in detail, in 25 languages, and wherever, whenever the traveller needs it.  It is designed to help when passengers are stranded at airports or stations because of delays, cancellations, denied boarding, or because they're luggage is missing.  It will also help passengers with reduced mobility needing assistance and provide information in case of accidents & damage to luggage.

• Passenger rights: smartphone app upgraded for summer holidays

The UK government have announced they are stepping up some of their aviation security measures including hand luggage restrictions when flying to and from the UK.

• Aviation security update

The Skills Funding Agency has launched their 4th annual survey to colleges, training organisations & employers and they are keen to receive your feedback & views on how they have been performing.  Over the last 12 months they have worked very closely with the further education (FE) sector to improve the way they fund FE & skills training in England.  The survey is open until Friday, 25 July 2014.

• Skills Funding Agency launches 4th annual survey to colleges, training organisations & employers

Monitor, in partnership with NHS England, is holding a number of webinars & workshops during July & August to inform, engage & seek your views on the development of the National Tariff 2015/16.  The proposed tariff documents will be published soon.  There are no charges for watching a webinar or attending a workshop.

• NHS pricing & incentives engagement programme July/August 2014

Eric Pickles asked the newspaper industry & councils to work together on new pilots when speaking to council leaders at the LGA annual conference, calling for new technology & innovation to bring municipal statutory notices into the modern 21st century era.

This could include paid digital advertising; using location-specific mobile technology; and pooling statutory notices – so rather than being at the back of a newspaper in 9 point text, they would be up front in the hard copy newspaper, with links for residents to find out more.  Mr Pickles said council-run newspapers were not a viable alternative.  Newspapers should not face unfair taxpayer-funded competition.

• Innovation to bring statutory notices into the 21st century

The law that governs how public bodies share data must be ‘modernised, simplified & clarified’, according to the Law Commission. Law reform will help to create a principled & clear legal structure for protecting individual privacy and for the data sharing required by today’s public bodies and the people they serve.  The review has identified a widespread lack of knowledge & understanding among public bodies of the circumstances in which information may be disclosed, to whom and for what purposes.

• Data sharing rules must be reformed according to the Law Commission

Everyone in the UK is invited to take part in #LightsOut by turning off their lights from 10pm to 11pm on Monday 4 August, leaving on a single light or candle for a shared moment of reflection on the 100 year anniversary of the First World War.

• Take part in LightsOut

• Scottish pensions complex, uncosted and uncertain after separation
• Latest estimates of the UK’s oil & gas reserves and resources published
• Scottish Government welcomes Oil & Gas Expert Commission Report
• The Telegraph:  North Sea oil revenues will decline more sharply, says OBR
• Letter from Robert Chote to the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee July 2014 re forecasts & projections for oil & gas receipts
• HOC Scottish Affairs Cttee.: What do ‘Defence Unions’ think of work prospects in independent Scotland
• FCO:  Being part of the UK gives Scots access to exceptional support abroad if something goes wrong
• Government must tackle the ‘English Question’ and devolve financial powers in England
• Report commissioned by ScotGov highlights that independence will give Scotland powers to tackle fuel poverty, high energy costs & prices
• Scotland Analysis Paper: Energy
• Scottish Think Tank Warns of Energy Crisis
• The Scotsman:  Storm clouds gather over energy

In March 2011, Her Majesty’s Government announced that 25% of all direct and indirect central government spend should be with SMEs by 2015, a truly ambitious target, given that annual government and public sector expenditure on goods and services is currently £230Billion (or £1 of every £7 spent in the UK).

Many of WiredGov’s stakeholder departments within Central Government (including HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Home Office, BIS and DCLG) have been working hard to deliver this aspiration with direct spend to SMEs increasing from 6.5% in 2009/10 to 10.5% in 2012/13 but there is obviously a great deal more work to be done.

Is your company an SME that’s currently supplying to the UK public sector?

If so, click here to find out more and receive further information about how to register with these 2 exciting new services.