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WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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| Channel their enthusiasm at a young age |
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Thousands of teenagers are to be given intensive cyber security training & mentoring in extracurricular clubs as part of plans to address the risk of a future skills shortage, as the need for cyber security experts is set to skyrocket. The Cyber Schools Programme aims to support & encourage schoolchildren to develop some of the key skills they would need to work in the growing cyber security sector and help defend the nation’s businesses against online threats. Up to £20m is available to deliver an extracurricular school programme which will see an army of expert external instructors teaching, testing & training teenagers selected for the programme, with a comprehensive cyber curriculum expected to mix classroom & online teaching with real-world challenges and hands-on work experience. |
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DCMS: Extracurricular cyber clubs to inspire and identify tomorrow’s cyber security professionals |
| A ‘Connected World’ only if you have good reception |
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NIC Chair, Lord Adonis, writes about the commission's latest report and the UK's connected future: “One call after another they came. Complaints from all over the UK about mobile phone reception so poor that even basic conversation is impossible. Yesterday, (Wednesday 14 December) I spent my morning on regional radio besieged by news of digital deserts from across the country”. |
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National Infrastructure Commission: Our Connected (5G) Future |
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| Pressure mounts on Chancellor |
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A new report from Age UK has concluded that we are living on borrowed time to save the social care system for older people.
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Age UK: 'Borrowed time' to save social care system from collapse LGA responds to Age UK report on health and care of older people NHS Confederation calls for more money for local authorities |
| Keeping international politics out of Local Government |
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Communities Secretary Sajid Javid revealed further steps which seek to prevent councils from boycotting companies and countries if it is against the government’s position. The move aims to stop councils from introducing restrictions on the companies & countries they use – particularly by introducing boycotts on goods from Israel. These latest plans would require local authorities by law to treat suppliers fairly and in line with the British government’s policies. It would mean no council could boycott any country or industry unless restrictions have already been put in place by the government. This follows rules set by the World Trade Organisation requiring all member countries to treat suppliers equally and without prejudice. Rules were introduced earlier last year which prevented councils from using local government pension policies to introduce boycotts. New Cabinet Office guidance was also introduced in February 2016, which govern the procurement of goods & services by public bodies. |
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CLG: Putting a stop to town hall boycotts |
| Don’t forget to use up your ‘car parking fee’ coins in the car! |
| Less than 6 weeks until the historic new 12-sided pound enters circulation. The new 12-sided £1 coin will be the most secure coin in the world. It boasts several new security features, including a hologram, to prevent counterfeits, which cost taxpayers & businesses millions every year. If you have a round £1 coin sitting at home or in your wallet, you need to spend it or return it to your bank before 15 October 2017. |
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HMT: 6 weeks until the pound stops being round Crackdown on criminals who distribute counterfeit euro notes & coins Chancellor launches one year countdown to new £1 coin |
| Two opportunities to equip the NHS of the future |
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NHS England has published IT requirements for personalised care recently, inviting suppliers to set out how they meet a number of requirements to improve personalisation in healthcare through IT. Suppliers are invited to respond by Friday 7 April 2017. University College Hospital, London is part of a consortia of 5 European institutions who have secured funding from the EU to run a pre-commercialisation procurement project. The ‘Nightingale’ project will help design & deliver the next generation of monitors for patients at risk of getting sicker whether they are in hospital or at home. The consortia are looking for highly innovative monitoring solutions and are reaching out to the UK tech sector for help. |
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techUK: NHS England Seeks Tech Companies to Support Personalisation of Care techUK: Nightingale Project Seeks Innovative Monitoring Solutions |
| Boost for apprenticeships |
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The Department for Education and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) are encouraging large employers to sign up & register for the apprenticeship service, in readiness for the launch of the apprenticeship levy on 6 April 2017. The apprenticeship service is an online digital system (similar to online banking) that has been set up to support the apprenticeship levy. The levy will require employers, with a wage bill of over £3m a year, to pay 0.5% of their wage bill into the apprenticeship service, to encourage them to invest into apprentices. The online service then allows those employers to financially manage their apprenticeship programme and help them to estimate their financial spend and recruit apprentices through their training providers. |
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DfE: Registration open for online apprenticeship service NCFE: Public sector targets for apprenticeships |
| This has nothing to do with Brexit! |
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Digital UK have announced that, on 1 March 2017, the first Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) clearance trials will take place at the Selkirk transmitter which provides DTT services to 18,000 homes and will offer an opportunity to test proposed approaches ahead of the main programme getting underway in the north of Scotland this summer. The full 2017 summer retune programme in Scotland is expected to cover up to 800,000 homes. We can expect that some viewers who have narrow band aerials will require an aerial change or re-point to continue to receive DTT. |
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| Do the ‘Remainers’ really believe they could have stopped this ‘Juggernaut’? |
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‘If the EU is to boost its capacity to act, restore citizens’ trust and make the euro zone economy more resilient to outside shocks, it needs to make full use of the Lisbon Treaty. But to go further, it needs to reform itself more fundamentally’. This was the key message of 3 resolutions exploring the future development of the EU approved by Parliament on recently. The first resolution proposes, inter alia, that:
The second resolution suggests various reforms of the Lisbon Treaty, in the areas of economic governance, foreign policy, fundamental rights and transparency. In it, MEPs:
The third resolution proposes bringing the euro area economies closer together and making them more resilient to outside shocks. They outline a convergence strategy funded by a specific euro area budget, financed by its member states and available under clear conditions. Key proposals include:
All these proposals are part of a package that aims to clarify Parliament’s position on the future of the EU, in time for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. |
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| EU News: Parliament sets out its vision for the future of Europe |
| No wonder UK taxpayers think it is often a waste of their money |
| The International Development Committee has concluded an investigation of allegations of improper behaviour by Adam Smith International relating to the submission of written evidence to an inquiry into the allocation of resources for UK Aid. |
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PC&PE: Leading UK aid contractor acted improperly Investigation into the DIFD’s approach to tackling fraud Anti-Corruption Commission unveils ‘Pay No Bribe’ citizens' reporting platform Will it prevent aid being spent ‘un-wisely’ Unfortunately, isolationism will not provide a ‘safe & secure future for the UK DFID: ‘Sticky Fingers’, the perennial problem with foreign aid (3rd item) |
| Editorial Commentary Which would you choose; ‘Your Granny’ on a hospital trolley in A&E / unable to get social care, or a crying unaccompanied refugee child already in a ‘civilised’ EU country? |
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Emotional ‘blackmail’ is a useful tool for politicians and NGOs in order to get the government to take some action or provide extra funding and we have seen some good examples of this recently with the media crescendo regarding the latest winter crisis for the NHS and the apparent ‘halting’ of the Dubs amendment regarding taking in more unaccompanied children from the EU. Cllr David Simmonds, Chairman of the LGA's Asylum, Refugee and Migration Task Group, has responded to the Government's announcement on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking & refugee children resettled under the Dubs amendment – (The number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children living in England increased by more than 50% to over 4,000 in the last year!). LGA responds to Government's statement on Dubs amendment resettlement figures ~ Unicef: End to Dubs scheme leaves refugee and migrant children facing uncertainty ~ ScotGov: Inhumane action by the UK Government ~ BBC: 62% Rise in lone children seeking asylum in England What one must bear in mind though is that the kind-hearted people who offer to take one of these children into their homes is probably NOT offering to pay for all the public services they will need up to the age of 25. As the LGA has previously highlighted ; "When an unaccompanied child arrives in the UK, it is the council area where they arrive that is responsible for all costs associated with that child up until the age of 25. This includes schooling, foster care or children's homes, through to university fees and housing costs, whether they stay within the area or are moved elsewhere in the country”. Editorial Comment: Helping refugees is not the only important issue to consider when dividing the ‘economic cake ~ £50k p.a. each up to the age of 25! Both these causes are emotionally heart-breaking, BUT the government does not have any money! We still have a £60bn+ deficit each year and additional funds can only seemingly come from the tax-payer – or can they! We currently have a Foreign Aid budget of over £12bn a year which has risen from £8.63bn in 2011. How is the £12bn foreign aid budget spent? | The Week UK People / politicians / the Media are increasingly calling for a bi-party approach to health & social care policy and a re-examination of the 0.7% of GDP set aside for Foreign Aid (FA), especially money given to third parties, where we have no control over how it is spent. In March 2015 (as we have highlighted before), MPs found that £6.3bn of Britain's aid budget had been handed to major agencies to help hit the target of spending 0.7% of nation's income on foreign aid (including the EU, which then ‘claimed it as their own ‘aid’ one presumes). Editorial comment; Points to ponder on the Syrian migration crisis Why can’t we set up a trust (held by Unicef in Switzerland perhaps) into which the complete average long-term cost (which would vary each year according to their age) of every unaccompanied child migrant (including, physical & mental health, housing, education, translation services, etc. needs) could be paid from the FA budget each year? The appropriate amount could then be paid direct to the Local Authority (LA) which is responsible/liable for each child and it would be liable for funding / re-funding the different service providers (including the NHS). One accepts that the concept is probably too simplistic as it stands, but it would maintain the concept of FA budget, while removing the conflict between either funding your ‘Granny on a trolley’ or caring for the ‘Dubs Amendment Children’. If such a scheme could be set up it would: *Ensure we knew how the FA was spent and that it was ‘value for money’ *Ensure the unaccompanied children got the proper care & support they needed until they reached the aid of 25 *Ensure it was spent on a ‘foreigner’ as they are currently ‘abroad’ *Relieve some of the financial pressure on LAs, NHS, etc. *Mean that the Government did not have to find additional funds to the detriment of other (domestic) services, thus removing a source of ’conflict’ |
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