General Reports and Other Publications
ACE: Arts Council England have published the first 4 from the ‘Heads Up’ series of 8 films which have been produced as part of the Creative Case for Diversity, an artist-led set of explorations and sharing of best practise that seek to release diversity from a negative or deficit thinking. They feature a number of arts professionals & arts organisations who discuss their involvement with the Creative Case and what it means to them.
The Case invites us all to look at diversity & equality within the arts and take a creative approach to addressing barriers to creativity, participation, learning & involvement around race, disability and gender equality, instead of simply viewing it as a legal requirement.
NO: West Sussex County Council has been criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) for theway in which it assessed a woman on her contributions towards her care costs. The LGO found in its report that the council didn’t follow government guidance, and took 18 months to decide that the woman’s financial interest in a property she owned jointly with her daughter had little value.
NO: An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found that Kent County Council overcharged the public for non-residential care services it provided for over 18 months. The investigation upholds a complaint from one person that the council charged for care services before a financial assessment was made, which contravenes government guidelines.
In the process of the investigation the council has revealed that there will be others affected by its provisional charging policy, which was in place between April 2011 & December 2012.
NO: Kent County Council failed to provide proper support to a boy when he became homeless after his parents had abandoned him, a report by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) finds. The LGO has upheld a complaint from the boy that he was let down by the council, when it failed to deal with his requests for accommodation & welfare support over a 2 year period.
Ofsted: Ofsted has published a report Lessons learned from the Foundation Learning provision (FLp) for the new 16 - 19 Study Programmes to identify the lessons learned from the FLp to help FE & skills providers develop study programmes for young people who need support to further their education or training.
On 1 August 2013, the FLp will move into the new 16 - 19 Study Programmes. The study programmes are for all learners aged 16 - 19 and include all levels up to level 3, including A levels. The FLp is funded by the Education Funding Agency. Its purpose is to provide learners with individualised learning programmes to support their progression to further education, training or employment.
NO: The Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman have published a report of an investigation into a complaint which identified service failures & maladministration by NHS Wakefield District Primary Care Trust and Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.
This report describes service failure by the care home & the nurse and finds maladministration in the way the complaint was investigated by the Council and the Trust. It illustrates the importance of effective communication between staff involved in a person’s care and highlights the need for clear ownership of complaint handling by the organisations commissioning services.
DFID: Eliminating development aid & promoting taxation among African citizens has been identified as a source for better governance in Africa. Research being conducted by the International Centre for Tax & Development (ICTD) suggests that taxation is integral to better governance and a more prosperous citizenry.
According to Mick Moore, CEO of ICTD, in his TEDx lecture ‘Why Tax Africa’ taxation is inherently very supportive of basic democratic principles. Where & how governments get their money is important in determining the behaviour of these bodies in relation to the prosperity of their citizens. Ultimately, “governments that depend on tax need their citizens to prosper” said Moore.
FSA: At last week’s Food Standards Agency open Board meeting, Professor Pat Troop presented the key findings of her review of the Agency’s handling of the adulteration of processed beef products with horse and pig meat and DNA. The final report will be published at the end of this month on the FSA website.
Overall, Professor Troop commended the Agency’s handling and recognised that this incident was very unusual in both its scale & profile. Her report highlighted 4 key points to consider. Proposals for a comprehensive action plan will be presented to the Board at its next open meeting on 16 July 2013.
IfG: Giving ministers the final say over the appointment of permanent secretaries will increase transparency & accountability at the top of Whitehall and would more closely reflect what already happens, concludes the Institute for Government (IfG) in a new report published recently, in its series on ‘accountability in Whitehall’.
Contrary to the position taken by the Civil Service Commission, the IfG concludes that giving ministers the right to make the final decision over the appointment of permanent secretaries – from a shortlist of independently-assessed candidates – would improve the appointments system by codifying what already often happens.
Demos: Workers who have made sufficient National Insurance contributions should be rewarded with a higher £95-a-week rate of Job Seeker's Allowance, according to the think-tank Demos. The proposal is one of a number of ‘fully-costed ideas’ put forward by a new policy paper that aims to restore a contributory attitude to welfare by rewarding work and tackling criticisms about a 'nothing for something' culture in benefits.