WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
Due to the Government purdah on EU-related news items the next newsletters will be published on 27 June.
| What is the cost of not ‘fixing the problem’? |
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A look at the high financial & human cost of inaction when working with someone who sleeps rough – and the case it makes for a Housing First approach. “Murray Barr was a bear of a man, an ex-marine, six feet tall & heavyset, and when he fell down - which he did nearly every day - it could take 2 or 3 grown men to pick him up. He had straight black hair and olive skin. On the street they called him Smokey. He was missing most of his teeth. He had a wonderful smile. People loved Murray.” This is the opener to Malcolm Gladwell’s article, Million Dollar Murray, which tells the story of one of downtown Reno's most prolific homeless people. With all Murray’s years of heavy alcohol use, police contact several times a day, numerous A&E visits, ambulance trips, failed treatment & custodial sentences, the cost of patching Murray up, without changing his situation, was great. “It cost us $1m not to do something about Murray,” said a local police officer who started to total exactly how much he was costing public services. At one of the two hospitals Murray was often admitted to, he had run up a bill of $100,000 in 6 months. That’s one hospital. In just 6 months. There are people across England just like Murray. Whatever your perspective on whether they deserve Housing First – an approach which gives people a home without any other conditions or expectations – the evidence suggests that it works for them. Stability, safety & intensive support not only helps people stay in housing but also reduces their contact with acute & costly public services. |
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HL: “It cost us $1m not to do something about Murray…” Housing First England | Homeless Link Overcoming entrenched or repeat homelessness Good intentions being duplicated? HL: New approach needed to help adults break out of cycle of crime, addiction & homelessness How better’ is often the unasked question when ‘tonight’s homeless’ is the immediate problem The Government has reduced the NEET numbers, can they do the same for the homeless? |
Cloud is not new. Cloud adoption by government is not new. Failure to achieve business benefits promised by Cloud is not new. Not only do these demands increase data management needs, they increase the risk to government IT infrastructure – at a time when the citizen expects improved cyber security. Click here to take our 1-minute Secure Cloud survey now for your chance to win £100 in Amazon vouchers! |
| ‘Direction of travel’ for EU |
| The cure to the EU's ills is more solidarity, more rule of law, more synergies and more integration, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev told MEPs on 8 June (2016). …. "I want that we all start new engines of integration," he said, "The enlargement process, more efficient and coordinated common European foreign, defense and security policy, the European Energy Union, the Single Digital Market, the EU Capital Markets Union and others." |
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Bulgarian President: "EU integration only weapon to achieve peace and security" |
| SME Supplier Locator update... |
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UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. |
| The issue gets more urgent (& costly) every year |
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Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing spokeswoman, welcomes the launch of an inquiry by the CLG Committee into the financial sustainability of local authority social care. "We are in real danger of a crisis in social care, with councils', providers' and carers' ability to support our loved ones and ensure they live the dignified and independent life they deserve undermined by severe funding pressures. "The growing demand of an ageing population, as well as the increasing costs following the introduction of the National Living Wage, are squeezing care home and domiciliary care providers to the point of collapse. "On top of this, councils are starting from an unstable foundation, having had to close a £5 billion funding gap over the past five years”. |
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LGA: Councils respond to launch of adult social care inquiry PC&PE: Interests of users must be paramount in new approaches to care LGA: Councils respond to personal budgets report Invitation to ‘tool-up’ for better care Despite the ‘cheers’, there are real fears All Care should all be at the same (high) standard Without them Social Care and the NHS would collapse If NHS needs +£8bn, what do LA’s need for social care? It’s like running a car; the older we get the more ‘maintenance’ we need Action is needed to address inequalities in end of life care |
| We already know opportunities have been missed! |
| The CQC are looking at how NHS acute, community healthcare & mental health trusts investigate deaths and learn from their investigations. They also want to assess whether opportunities to prevent deaths have been missed. |
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CQC's review of how NHS trusts investigate and learn from deaths Not everyone is capable of asking for checks Why is their (apparently) no ‘cure’ for this perennial NHS problem? A death without sympathy or proper care EHRC comments on rise in number of deaths of mental health patients |
| Do you ‘care’ about retaining talented staff? |
| Just 34% of employers have a formal, written policy or an informal, verbal policy in place to support working carers in their workplace, according to a new survey published recently by the CIPD. With estimates suggesting that 3 in 5 people will end up caring for someone at some point in their lives, employers are being urged to put mechanisms in place to empower & support working carers, before they lose out on key talent. |
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CIPD: Only a third of employers are supporting working carers Many are also still trying to raise a family and pay off a mortgage as well |
| Information for redundant BHS workers |
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BHS entered insolvency on 25 April 2016. Duff & Phelps were appointed as administrators. There are special arrangements for employees who have been dismissed following BHS entering administration. You might be entitled to redundancy and other contractual payments from the National Insurance Fund. These payments are subject to legal limits on the amount paid. Payments are administered by the Redundancy Payments Service in the Insolvency Service and become a debt in the administration. The administrator will provide details of how to make your online claim. They aim to pay 95% of eligible claims within 6 weeks of receiving the necessary information from you. The Redundancy Payment Service can also pay both employee pension contributions & employer contributions, within specified legal limits. Claims are lodged by pension trustees, so you do not need to make an application for this. The cost of these payments is also met from the National Insurance Fund. They cannot make payments to self-employed contractors or agency workers. |
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Insolvency Service: BHS in administration – information for employees |
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