WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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Hidden danger |
A report on Hepatitis C in NW England shows estimated 16,000 people remain undiagnosed. Many people have no symptoms but they could be at risk of liver damage as well as passing on the infection to others. |
Reminder to self! |
Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s Transport spokesman, responds to guidance published by NICE, calling for councils to encourage people to be more active. |
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LGA responds to NICE guidance encouraging people to be more active We need to keep active in the community all our lives Off the sofa and onto the pitch Trouble is many of us stopped living healthily in middle-age! ‘Frailty’ may be inevitable with age, but its ‘management’ can still allow an ‘active’ lifestyle |
Especially if you are pregnant! |
Travellers advised to ensure they are up to date with measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine before travelling to Europe this Easter. DHSC: Measles outbreaks in Europe: Easter travel advice Measles - Complications - NHS.UK DHSC: Resistant gonorrhoea case reminds importance of safe sex |
SME Supplier Locator update... | ||
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. Recent arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service include:
Click here to find out more. |
Innovative care |
Budding entrepreneurs still have time to apply for a ground-breaking programme that is helping to bring clinical innovations into the NHS to improve patient care. The latest round of NHS England’s Clinical Entrepreneur programme is still open for applications and has now expanded to welcome applications from every type of clinician in the NHS including nurses, allied health professionals & pharmacists for the first time. |
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NHS England: Final call for NHS entrepreneurs to apply for innovation support programme NHS Digital: Electronic outpatient system set to save NHS at least £50m NHS Digital funding awarded to projects that help ease delayed transfers of care |
We can’t all live & work in London! |
Vodafone recently published a report entitled “Brain Gain: How to attract, retain and reconnect digital talent”, that examines how regions across the UK can attract & retain digital talent and jobs. At the heart of the report is an attempt to understand why over 100,000 people have left the regions they lived & studied in within 6 months of graduating in order to start work elsewhere, with London as the main beneficiary – and identify ways in which regions could reverse this trend. To illustrate the extent of the skills challenge; 32% of graduates who came from London, but went to university elsewhere in the country, returned to London to work after finishing their course. By way of contrast, only 15% of graduates who came from the North East and went to university outside of the region went back to work in the North East region after finishing their course. The report highlights how regions & places need to be far better at attracting & retaining talent by attracting what is calls ‘brain gain’ policies. |
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techUK: Smart Policy = Smart Place = Smart Economy Life & work can be ‘great’ outside London IPPR: Small cities key to Northern Powerhouse success Devolving power in England as alternative to Federal UK? Forget HS2; HS3 would be better value and it would help restore the North/South balance Business growth comes in all sizes |
Pathway to a good career |
Applications SQA's Modern Apprenticeship Pathway scheme are now open. The programme incorporates valuable on-the-job training in a number of roles, with the opportunity to complete a Business & IT SVQ. Uniquely, Modern Apprentices at working at SQA also work towards a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Business Administration as part of their training. SQA Modern Apprentices are equipped with practical, demonstrable knowledge, and skills that give them the confidence to move on to the next stage in their development. |
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Scottish Qualifications Authority Modern Apprenticeship Pathway scheme |
Discrimination can be an ‘IED’ for Landlords |
The DWP and The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) are the latest speakers to be announced to address RLA’s Future Renting North conference in Manchester in April. Last month, the RLA supported the JCWI in calling for a judicial review into Right to Rent, on the basis that the policy discriminates against foreign nationals. The talk by the JCWI will include the reasons behind the legal challenge, as well as advice to landlords & letting agents on how to avoid discrimination when letting out properties. |
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Residential Landlords Association (RLA): New speakers announced for Future Renting North conference |
Essential knowledge |
Computing At School (CAS) continues to attract interest from around the world - with Hungary being the latest country to find out how teachers are teaching other teachers to deliver computing in England’s classroom. |
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BCS: CAS Visit to Hungary - UK regarded as pioneer in teaching computing The UK’s future prosperity is ‘under threat’ ‘Sir’ needs to get more involved UK's first Cyber Schools Hubs announced BCS Welcomes Royal Society Report New drive to connect Welsh pupils with coding – Kirsty Williams Schoolgirls beat 8,000 rivals to qualify for grand final of national CyberFirst girls' challenge Computing At School launches new resources to develop computing subject knowledge BCS computing teacher training scholarships - now open for applications |
An on-going crisis |
PM Theresa May last week gave an oral statement to Parliament on National Security and Russia. |
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10DS: PM Commons statement on National Security and Russia: 26 March 2018 Statement by President Donald Tusk regarding Salisbury FCO: Salisbury chemical attack and the Russian threat: article by Michael Davenport RUSI: Rolling Up Russia’s Red Money Carpet in the UK |
What were they doing? |
Sajid Javid responds to Inspector’s report into Northamptonshire County Council. Minded to send Commissioners in to Northamptonshire County Council. |
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MHCLG: Sajid Javid responds to Inspector’s report into Northamptonshire County Council Financial sustainability of local authorities 2018 NO: Social workers should have done more to ensure man received appropriate care |
Don’t we know better? |
The UK is set to throwaway a third more takeaway drinks cups by 2030, as the overall amount of plastic waste the country produces surges by 20%, according to new research published by WWF on the day of Earth Hour. |
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WWF: UK to throwaway a third more coffee cups by 2030 |
Be Alert |
This Action Fraud alert provides information & advice to charity trustees, employees & volunteers to help prevent CEO fraud, which involves the impersonation of a manager with subsequent requests for transfers of funds. Charity Commission: Alert for charities – watch out for CEO fraud |
‘Out of this world risk’ |
The Government is seeking evidence to form/shape the future policy on the liabilities, insurance & charging arrangements for commercial spaceflight, following Royal Assent of the Space Industry Act. BEIS: Evidence wanted on liabilities, insurance and charging for UK commercial spaceflight |
Editorial Commentary; Further look at the report by European Committee of the Regions (CoR) detailing the consequences of Brexit on trade & the economy in the EU27 regions & cities. |
While ‘Remoaner’ supporters keep highlighting just how much the UK still needs to do in order to be ready for Brexit – especially in a ‘No Deal’ scenario, only now is the EU apparently considering what the implications are for them at a local / regional level. The following are just some of the ‘points of interest’ from the report; For regions such as Brittany or Galicia, as well as for the whole of Ireland, a potential closure of access to the exclusive Economic Zone of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also that of British dependencies, such as the Falkland Islands, would present considerable risks. As fisheries are the drivers of many local economies, the impact could be multiplied throughout the secondary (food industries) & tertiary (tourism, trade) sectors. (Page 14) At present, Breton vessels conduct 50% of their activities in the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Irish realize 30% of their catch in British waters. (Page 14) One of the most exposed is the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, which does 45% of its trade with the UK. The automotive sector is of particular interest to Flanders, representing the third largest industry in the region and being at the heart of the logistics hub of the Port of Zeebrugge (the world’s largest hub for new cars, handling 2.7m units in 2016). The UK is the first Flemish market, accounting for 24.16% of the total Flemish export of vehicles for land transport…. (So it is not just the port of Dover facing problems!!!!). (Page 18) The creation of a new external border on the Belgian coast would also entail the need to find logistical and political solutions to manage migration flows: Flemish ports would have to build border crossing points and cooperate with the UK authorities to prevent access to the port by illegal migrants trying to enter the UK22. (Page 18) On a smaller scale, La Línea de la Concepción (a municipality of the area Campo de Gibraltar, situated in the south of the province of Cadiz and next to the Gibraltar) is an area which would most likely be negatively affected by a disorderly withdrawal of the UK. It is noted that in 2016 the unemployment rate in La Línea de la Concepcion, where labour supply largely exceeds local demand, was 35.2% compared with 1% in Gibraltar. For this reason, many Spanish citizens of La Línea work in Gibraltar. ……. However, this is not the only effect of Brexit on Spanish workers in the area. In fact, considering a EU27-UK trade relationship under the WTO scenario, many Spanish workers there could lose their jobs. Taking into account that almost one in five citizens of La Línea is employed in Gibraltar, the impact on families would be dramatic, causing a significant migration toward areas with more favourable employment conditions. ….. Considering that Spanish & non-Spanish commuters in Campo de Gibraltar spend about £118m p.a., the consequences in lost revenue due to Brexit would be especially detrimental for the municipality of La Línea.(Page 18) A majority of local and regional authorities are worried about budgetary constraints resulting from the UK's withdrawal from the EU. Almost 60% believe financial losses would be possible because of a reduction in the EU's budget. However, there is also another important dimension which has to be taken into account when looking at the potential impact of cuts to EU budget/funds. This pertains to the potential impact of the UK's withdrawal on the eligibility of regions under Cohesion Policy rules since the UK's departure will lower EU GDP per head and, thus, trigger changes in terms of eligibility/status for some EU27 regions by virtue of the statistical effect (changing their status from less developed regions into transition regions or more developed regions. (Page 26) The extracts shown above may go some way to explain just why an ‘implementation / transition’ phase was quite speedily agreed, as it is not just the UK which needs to prepare for Brexit and also why the EU are trying so hard to include access to UK Fishing grounds. As for the RoI – NI border issue, a quick read of the ‘How to fix the Irish border problem - CapX’ article will quickly provide an ‘understanding’ of why it need not be a major issue if a FTA agreement is agreed. In fact you might even begin to wonder why it has been such a dominant ‘theme’ in the negotiations! |
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EU News: Brexit report - Social & economic impact on cities, regions and businesses Are the EU 27 fully prepared for Brexit? Briefings for Brexit: After the Transition Agreement. Deal or No deal. By Robert Lee Open Europe: The outline of a future UK-EU economic relationship is emerging |
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Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
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Brexit microsite (Information about the Article 50 process and our negotiations for a new partnership with the EU) 10DS: PM Commons statement on European Council: 26 March 2018 10DS: PM vows to deliver a Brexit that unites the UK EU News: Guidelines on the framework for the future EU-UK relationship, 23 March 2018 European Council meetings on 22 and 23 March 2018 PC&PE: Report urges Government for clarity on EU reciprocal healthcare ScotGov: European negotiations ScotGov: Protecting What Matters WAG: We are no clearer on what kind of Brexit the UK government wants – FM Open Europe: The outline of a future UK-EU economic relationship is emerging EEA workers in the UK labour market: interim update |
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More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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IPPR: Ed Cox urges MPs to support a new constitutional settlement for nations and regions |
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