WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
Since January, the Cabinet Office has been running its own in-house service, an approach which is expected to achieve 40% savings (£6.8 million) compared to the outsourced services that have been replaced. This timely white paper explains how Google Apps for Work is about more than just providing low cost email and outsourcing operations, enabling a true cloud environment addressing ten of the key challenges most public sector organisations face today, by being designed from the ground up to run securely in the cloud. Designed for teams and available on any device with a browser, it allows your organisation to become more effective, more cost-efficient and more innovative. Click here to download your free copy of ‘10 Reasons to leap into a collaborative new world with Google Apps for Work’. |
| ‘Throwing the baby out with the bathwater’? Banning unpaid internships is misguided |
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Commenting on the Labour Party’s plans to end unpaid internships that last for more than 4 weeks, Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “Internships frequently offer a chance for young people to improve their career opportunities and expand their horizons. It is simply untrue that all internships are exploitative relationships that only advantage the employer. Banning the practice is an extremely blunt instrument and is likely to significantly reduce the amount of opportunities available. “At the Institute of Economic Affairs, we take on dozens of unpaid interns every year, very often for periods longer than 4 weeks. They benefit from coming to an extensive range of events, a programme of debates & discussions and expert supervision of their research work. To force companies such as ours to pay interns the minimum wage is as absurd as expecting universities to pay their students for writing essays and attending lectures.” |
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IEA: We may have to charge for internships Want to help change society for the better? Are there other & better alternatives than just ‘Bring back Grammar Schools’? |
| Balancing ‘needs’ & ‘wishes’ |
| Junior doctor Katie Smith reflects on her early experiences of caring for patients with dementia. |
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NHS England: Caring for elderly patients with dementia is not just for specialists Hospitals must understand that they have a duty of care for Body AND Mind |
| Evolving the NHS & Social Care will require the involvement of both providers & users |
| NHS England’s Head of Public Voice, Olivia Butterworth, introduces the design of NHS Citizen, which you can see on a new design microsite. You can read about the NHS Citizen design and learn about the project on the NHS Citizen website. |
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| NHS England: Paving the way for citizens to have their say |
| Is ‘BOGOF’ really ‘Rip-off’ |
| The CMA has received a super-complaint from Which? in respect of perceived concerns about misleading & opaque pricing practices in the grocery market. Which? has identified 3 potential areas of concern that it would like the Competition & Markets Authority to investigate. Which? is also concerned about the impact of supermarket ‘price match’ schemes on consumer decision-making. The CMA will publish a response to the super-complaint within 90 days. |
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| BCS Launches 2015 UK IT Industry Awards |
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Digital Professional, IT Apprentice, IT Team, Digital Project and Workplace Transformation are among some of the new categories added to this year’s UK IT Industry Awards, run by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and Computing which have now launched. In total there are 25 categories that focus on the contribution of individuals, projects, organisations & technologies that have excelled in the use, development & deployment of IT in the past 12 months. Entries close on 10 July 2015. |
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| Are you the ‘best of the best’? |
| The latest round of National Clinical Excellence Awards will close at 5pm on Wednesday 17th June 2015. Clinical Excellence Awards recognise & reward NHS consultants & academic GPs who perform ‘over & above’ the standard expected of their role. The onus is on you, as the applicant, to submit your completed online application form to ACCEA by the allotted date & time. |
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| LGA adapts the Jesuit approach and decides to ‘catch them young’ |
| The Local Government Association (LGA) has signed up to Plotr, a Government-supported, employer-led careers website that builds bridges between the world of education and the world of work, in order to help councils recruit the best young people. Plotr's mandate is for 11 to 24-year-olds, with a strong focus on targeting the 14-19 age group, a time when many of a young person's key career milestones happen. |
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LGA signs up to Plotr to help promote local government careers ~ Maxim: "give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man" (Loyola, 1557) |
| Changes to means assessment guidance in England following implementation of Care Act 2014 |
| The LAA are updating their guidance on financial eligibility & means assessments to take account of changes affecting England introduced on 1 April 2015. Separate legislation will come into effect for care issues in Wales in April 2016. |
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LAA: Civil news: changes to care legislation and financial eligibility rules |
| Shocking pictures, but there is no simple solution for millions of people wanting to come & live in Europe |
| In response to the crisis situation in the Mediterranean, a 10-point plan of the immediate actions to be taken, was presented at a recent joint meeting of Foreign & Interior Ministers. |
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Joint Foreign & Home Affairs Council: 10 point action plan on migration UNICEF - Step up action before more tragedies unfold in the Mediterranean |
| Join the Board |
| techUK are inviting nominations for positions on their Main Board which arise from the annual rotation of directors in accordance with their Articles of Association. This year there are 3 vacancies. Elected Directors serve for a period of three years. techUK: Deadline Thursday 7 May 2015. |
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techUK: Elected member vacancies for the techUK Main Board – Deadline Thursday 7 May |
| Social Funding Ecology |
| Independent funders need to collaborate more effectively to support citizens, says a new report from Collaborate CIC in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch. |
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More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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IFS: Full fiscal autonomy delayed? The SNP's plans for further devolution to Scotland |
