General Reports and Other Publications
TKF: A new book from The King's Fund, Understanding New Labour's market reforms of the English NHS provides the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of New Labour’s introduction of competition to the NHS, offering key warnings for the coalition government’s health reformers.
Press release & links
TDA: A new survey, commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), estimates that at least 16,000 teachers who left the classroom in the past 5 years have tried to return, without success. Over one third are under the age of 40 and of those who are secondary teachers, one-third are qualified to teach core shortage subjects – maths, sciences and modern languages.
The survey highlights the key barriers for those who have been out of the profession for more than a year as being family commitments, a lack of part-time opportunities and not enough suitable vacancies. School experience is currently available to anyone who wants to return to teach maths, physics, chemistry and languages. A new programme has also been launched to give teachers who want to return to teach maths & the sciences up-to-date specialist knowledge.
Press release & links
CQC: The Care Quality Commission has issued a formal warning to James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust saying it must make urgent improvements to standards of care. CQC first identified concerns about how the Trust meets the nutritional needs of those in its care in April 2011.
Press release & links
IfG: Sir John Elvidge, who was 's most senior civil servant until last year, says that
Press release & links
DCMS: New independent research published by RICS has found that the regeneration of the Olympic Park site & associated infrastructure will be a crucial step in providing a lasting legacy in
Press release & links
IPCC: The Independent Police Complaints Commission has published its findings from the investigation report into the death of Raoul Moat. The investigation has concluded that while there may be some learning for Northumbria Police stemming from the investigation, there is no evidence that any police officers have committed misconduct.
Press release & links
ScotGov: In response to a recent report from the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) on changes to Non-Domestic Rate Income (NDRI), the Scottish Government has provided further analysis. This supplements the advice offered to the Parliament's Finance Committee recently on the initial assessment of the Scottish Government's budget.
Press release & links ~ CPPR: Non-Domestic Rates Briefing No. 2
NO: The Local Government Ombudsmen urge councils to ensure that children’s rights to full-time education are met and to avoid some of the common mistakes made when providing education to children not in school. The LGO, which independently investigates complaints about local authorities in
Councils have a statutory duty to make other arrangements to educate a child where there are reasons for them not being in school full time. Looking across recent cases, the Ombudsmen conclude that some local authorities misunderstand their duties or pay them less attention than they should. As a result, some children are missing out on crucial years of education, which could disadvantage them for the rest of their lives.
Press release & links
CH: Strategic communications should become a more prominent component at the highest levels of government, at an early stage in the development of government strategies, during a crisis response or a contingency operation and generally as a critical component of policy-making, says a new
Recent operations in , & have underlined that foreign policy goals cannot be achieved by military power alone. Increasingly important are non-military means and ‘soft’ power in order to connect with populations both at home and abroad. Strategic communications, correctly defined, are an integral part of this approach.
Press release & links
nef: The proposals of the Independent Commission on Banking will not deliver financial stability & economic prosperity because they fail to rigorously analyse or challenge commercial banks’ control over the money supply, according to a new book published by independent think-tank nef (the new economics foundation).
Where Does Money Come From? argues that the process of money creation, and how new money is allocated within the economy, is widely misunderstood by economists & policymakers, and yet needs to be reformed if future financial crises are avoided.
Press release & links
ESRC: People with dementia can still make decisions in their everyday lives and with support from partners can continue to do so as their condition advances. This is one of the preliminary findings of a 2-year research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) into how married couples living with dementia make decisions on a daily basis.
The study is investigating how couples make decisions over issues such as what to eat or wear, as well as how they make more complex decisions on who manages the finances, and whether or not to attend a day centre. The aim of the study is to identify the practical support that can help couples make these decisions.
Press release ~ The Social Process of Everyday Decision-Making by People with Dementia and their Spouses
PC&PE: Government legislation risks ‘diluting the Government's constitutional responsibilities with regard to the NHS’, says the Lords Constitution Committee in its report on the Health and Social Care Bill. The committee also question whether the proposed changes to NHS political and legal accountability are necessary to achieve reform.
Press release & links
ESRC: The use of new technology is helping students to become real ‘science investigators’. Researchers funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have developed a software toolkit that shows how such an approach sparks and sustains students’ interest in science.
The project shows that the nQuire software engages children’s interest more effectively than traditional science lessons where teachers often dispense science facts from a classroom desk. By using mobile computing devices, the software allows students to go out and set up their own projects. They can both find and analyse the data and reach their own conclusions based on hypotheses which they have chosen themselves.
Press release & links ~ nQuire software
PC&PE: The Commons Public Accounts Committee publishes its 48th report of this session, on the basis of evidence from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and a report by the National Audit Office.
Press release & links
Demos: New research finds that 48% per cent of teachers surveyed by the think tank Demos report having argued about conspiracy theories with their pupils. 5% say this happens on a weekly basis. Demos warns that ‘digital natives’ (12-18 year olds) are often confident, but not competent internet users.
One in four young people do not make any checks at all when visiting a new website. Less than 1 in 10 ask who made the site & why. One third of young people believe that information generated by search engines must be true and 15% base their opinions of a website on how it looks and feels to use.
Press release ~ Truth, Lies and the Internet: A report into young people’s digital fluency
IISS: The latest Strategic Comment from the International Institute for Strategic Studies considers ‘Can Yoshihiko Noda - 'Japan's sixth prime minister in five years - survive longer than any of his recent predecessors?’
Press release & links
IISS: The latest IISS Voices, comments that ‘the vote in the Bundestag was an unexpectedly strong endorsement of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s handling of the European debt crisis. Merkel’s promise that ‘the euro will not fail’ now looks more credible
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