General News
DH: The first ever award which recognises people who treat patients with dignity & respect and who provide outstanding care has been launched by Sir Michael Parkinson and Care Services Minister Phil Hope. The People's Award for Dignity in Care is open to everyone. Anyone can nominate individuals or teams who have gone above & beyond the call of duty to improve patient dignity in care.
Nominations for the 2009 Dignity Awards open soon and close 6 March 2009.
Press release ~ Register interest for 2009 awards ~ CSIP Networks - Dignity in Care ~ DH – Dignity in Care ~ SCIE Practice guide 09: Dignity in care ~ Age Concern ~ Change Agent Team – Dignity in care~ Beacon Scheme - DiC ~ Dignity in Care Champions Network
Defra: UK and Chinese governments have signed a 3-year commitment to strengthen their growing partnership on sustainable agriculture. The Ministers also launched the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) which will help address the link between agriculture and climate change. This new network will hopefully provide a clear plan for the development & implementation of China-UK collaboration on environmentally sustainable agriculture.
Press release ~ Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) ~ UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue (SDD) ~ SDD Factsheet
NA: The National Archives´ season of podcasts to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, continues (until 21 November) with extracts from Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig´s War Diary. As well as giving insights into the diplomatic proceedings leading up to the 11 November 1918, the four extracts offer personal observations by Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British armies in France and Flanders, on the state of the German army and what he believed should be the terms of the Armistice.
NA: The National Archives has released unique audio-visual records from the 1997 investigation into the tragic sinking of the Motor Vessel Derbyshire, following its most significant digital preservation project to date.
The Derbyshire sank in 1980 during a typhoon in the South China Sea with the loss of its entire crew. Following an inconclusive initial formal inquiry, the Derbyshire Family Association campaigned for a more detailed investigation into the tragedy. The subsequent lessons learned have led to widespread safety improvements that have contributed to a dramatic reduction in loss of life at sea.
The release of the extensive records is a major step towards the future of archives, as official records move from paper-based to digital. These records have been loaded into The National Archives´ Digital Object Store for permanent preservation and some key material has been made freely available online.
Press release ~ Derbyshire Family Association ~
PCS: 500 age discrimination claims over pay have been lodged by the PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union) in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Courts Service it has been announced. The move is part of the union’s campaign for fair pay in civil & public services and against the government’s policy of capping public sector pay, which is leading to pay cuts and pay freezes.
The MoJ imposed a pay system last year which the union maintains discriminates against younger members of the workforce as it can take over 10 years for staff members to reach the top of their pay scale. The union believes this amount of time breaches age discrimination law and drives down wages & morale, especially as, unlike other parts of the public sector, ‘progression’, or moving from the bottom to the top of a pay scale is included in the government’s pay cap along with cost of living increases.
Elsewhere in the civil service this double disadvantage has led to 40,000 long serving staff working in Jobcentres, benefits and pension receiving no pay rise whatsoever because they are at the top of their pay scale, the same is happening to a third of staff working for the Identity and Passport Service.
LR: Two new triggers will help Land Registry to achieve its strategic objective to create a comprehensive land register when they come into force next year. The new triggers are:
* the appointment of a new trustee of unregistered land held in trust where the land vests in the new trustee by deed or by a vesting order under section 44 of the Trustee Act 1925
* the partitioning of unregistered land held in trust amongst the beneficiaries of the trust
The Land Registration Act 2002 (Amendment) Order 2008, which adds these events to the number of triggers for compulsory first registration of title, was laid in Parliament last week and comes into force on 6 April 2009.
NSG: Government Departments must invest in their Private Office staff if they are to give Ministers the support they need according to Darryl Howe of the National School of Government, which has launched Private Office Community – designed to help officials meet exacting requirements and make the most of this great career opportunity.
Part of the National School’s Centre for Working with Ministers and Parliament (CWMP), which recently celebrated its first anniversary, Private Office Community caters for staff in all roles and at all levels. It helps to provide officials with an understanding of the ministerial & parliamentary environment, trains officials in briefing & drafting and helps officials prepare for Select Committee appearances.
Part of the National School’s Centre for Working with Ministers and Parliament (CWMP), which recently celebrated its first anniversary, Private Office Community caters for staff in all roles and at all levels. It helps to provide officials with an understanding of the ministerial & parliamentary environment, trains officials in briefing & drafting and helps officials prepare for Select Committee appearances.
Press release ~ Private Office Community ~ Centre for Working with Ministers and Parliament (CWMP) ~ Working with Ministers ~ Understanding the Civil Service
Aquarius: Any book giving personal experiences & information regarding substance misuse is of interest to workers in that field, but a newly published book has an added dimension, as it exposes the unexplored problem of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders using alcohol as a coping mechanism to deal with everyday life.
Matt's story is interspersed with factual information on the link between alcohol and autism, taking it from childhood to the problems adults can experience in friendships, marriage and the workplace. It also looks at the types of help available and what life can be like following treatment.
NA: As Britain marks the 90th anniversary of the First World War Armistice, The National Archives brings to life a fascinating, unofficial account of the negotiations that ended the Great War. From the bottle of port & biscuits produced upon the signing of the armistice agreement, to the shouts of "La Victoire! La Victoire!" on the streets of Paris, this first-hand account gives a detailed insight behind the scenes of one of the most important meetings in history.
Commander Bagot was a qualified German interpreter who accompanied the British negotiating team to France in November 1918. While he may not have been a key player at the talks, Commander Bagot´s first hand account of events puts the listener right in the middle of the action.
ScotGov: The first university degree for nursery and childcare workers (BA Childhood Practice) based on new professional standards is being offered in universities this year. The Standard for Childhood Practice aims to support early years & childcare workers to follow a skilled career path within the sector and help workers to be recognised as professionals. Longer term, all early years & child care managers will be required to gain new awards of 360 credits and SCQF level 9 for registration with the SSSC.
Press release ~ BA Childhood Practice qualification ~ Standard for Childhood Practice ~ Standard for Childhood Practice Statement ~ Questions and answers: Investing in Children’s futures and the implementation of the new childhood practice awards ~ ScotGov – Early education and Childcare
OFT: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) took part in a Europe-wide day of action last week to warn holidaymakers about Spanish bogus holiday clubs that cost tourists £ms every year. The OFT Scambusters Team, trading standards officers from across the UK and advisers from Consumer Direct handed out information & fake holiday club scratchcards at UK airports.
Scratchcards given out by touts for bogus holiday clubs are all 'winners', but the prize turns out to be 'a trip to a lengthy sales presentation and a chance to pay thousands of pounds for membership to a bogus holiday club' - according to the OFT warning.
In most cases, consumers find they have bought little more than access to an internet booking site offering the same service they could get at a travel agent for free. OFT research shows that 78% of bogus holiday club victims are aged between 35 and 64. The average loss per victim is £3,030.
Press release ~ European Consumer Centre in Spain ~ OFT: Bogus holiday clubs ~
UK IPO: School children who designed a machine to make stacking chairs easier have been hailed as the UK's brightest young inventors. The device, called 'Charlie the Chair Stacker', was designed by nine and ten-year-old pupils at Great Arley School in Lancashire and has been named as the National winner of the 2008 Cracking Ideas competition.
LDA: Children from the Olympic boroughs have been helping to develop legacy plans for the 2012 site during half term activities organised by the London Development Agency (LDA). The 4 – 12 year-olds learned about how their area would will be transformed after the 2012 Games and were asked to share ideas about what they would like to see created.
The children also had a chance to meet LDA master planners EDAW, Allies and Morisson and KCAP who are leading work on the Legacy Masterplan Framework (LMF) – a spatial plan for homes, parkland, schools, workspace, health & sporting facilities to be developed on the Olympic site after the 2012 Games.
STFC: An infrared camera aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered a unique aurora lighting up Saturn’s polar cap. The mysterious new aurora is unlike any other known in our solar system.
The new infrared aurora appears in a region hidden from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which has provided views of Saturn’s ultraviolet aurora. Cassini observed it when the spacecraft flew near Saturn’s polar region. In infrared light, the aurora sometimes fills the region from around 82 degrees north all the way over the pole. This new aurora is also constantly changing, even disappearing within a 45 minute-period.
Press release ~ NASA Cassini Images ~ JPL Cassini images ~ Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ~ Research Councils UK (RCUK)
OS: London-based architects, Amenity Space, have received international praise for their unique recycled building blocks made entirely out of disused maps. The Map Compression Block – which stacks Ordnance Survey maps on top of each other to create a heat efficient & strong building brick – was honoured recently at the San Francisco Urban Re:Vision Awards.
The award recognised the project’s innovative approach to producing an eco-friendly and sustainable building material. The project works by drilling holes through the centre of each map, which is then placed over a series of steel rods fixed to a timber rail. The sides are then clad with a fire & waterproof layer and the maps compressed until they make up a solid panel.
