Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

Defra: 'Recycle on the Go' is a new drive to put accessible recycling bins in public places and it's already started with The Royal Parks rolling out a recycling bin pilot in Hyde Park over the next three months. A good practice guide and a code of practice will help those responsible for public places to make recycling easy and accessible.  
 
The Voluntary Code of Practice sets out key principles for managers of public places who want to offer facilities for recycling in public areas.  It can apply to locations managed by public & private bodies; and sites that are indoors & outdoors to which the public has access.
 
The Good Practice Guide contains advice on setting up public place recycling schemes, information about setting up schemes that suit particular circumstances, and guidelines on using the Recycle Now iconography on recycle bins in public places.
Press release ~ Recycle on the Go ~ Voluntary Code of Practice ~ Good Practice Guide ~ Closed consultation for Recycle on the Go ~ WRAP
 
Home Office: New guidance to help & support local authorities, schools, community groups and the police to tackle violent extremism and prevent radicalisation in communities has been launched. The new guidance offers advice about how to turn the Government's strategy into practical measures that ‘make a real difference in communities’.  
 
It includes advice about how to work with vulnerable individuals and institutions to counter radicalisation, support mainstream voices and increase the capacity of communities to challenge and resist violent extremists. To support new initiatives, the Home Office is providing an extra £12.5m in 2008/9 to fund projects specifically to support institutions or individuals vulnerable to radicalisation.
Press release ~ Prevent Strategy 2008 ~ Government counter terrorist strategy - CONTEST ~ Home Office Security ~ Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure ~ MI5 ~ Preventing terrorism ~ Staying safe
 
DH: Speaking at an Office for Disability Issues consultation event on delivery of the Independent Living Strategy, Minister for Care Services, Ivan Lewis, pledged £900,000 new funding to help create up to 14 user-led organisations become new Action and Learning Sites.  These organisations are led & controlled by disabled people and aim to help disabled people lead more independent lives.
 
Also being launched was the Personalisation Resource Toolkit, part of the early work on the Personalisation Programme.  The toolkit is the first product of the programme and is an on-line resource to help councils and their partners set up a change programme. It will provide helpful tools, templates and examples based on early learning from the individual budget pilot and the work of in Control.
Press release ~ Putting People First ~ DH: Personalisation ~ Personalisation Toolkit ~ In Control ~ Office of Disability Issues - Independent Living Strategy ~ Action and Learning Sites
 
CO: The Cabinet Office has published guidance to help organisations that use volunteers to be clear about when they do and don't need to carry out Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks on volunteers.  The guidance is intended to help cut unnecessary red tape and responds to concerns voiced by the voluntary sector that potential volunteers can be put off if they are asked to undergo a CRB check without good reason.
 
People volunteering or working with children or vulnerable adults are sometimes legally required to have a CRB check.  The guidance explains how the check works as part of a proper risk management process.  Other safeguards such as interviewing, training & taking references from potential volunteers can also be employed.
Press release ~ Criminal Records Bureau checks Guidance for volunteering ~ Baroness Neuberger's review of volunteering in health and social care ~ Office of the Third Sector ~ V ~ The GoldStar Exemplar Programme ~ Volunteering For All
 
DWP: A public information film designed to challenge employer assumptions about mental health has been launched and will air across national television over the coming months. The film is set in a busy hospital ward and asks the viewer whether they would employ someone who had mental health issues.  It then reveals that Florence Nightingale had a history of mental illness, but despite this made a phenomenal contribution to British medicine.
 
The film complements wider DWP initiatives to prevent discrimination against disabled people in the workplace and ensure greater opportunities for disabled people to get into work.  Employers are already being encouraged to take a more open minded approach to recruitment as part of the Employ ability campaign, which is being widely rolled out, with regional roadshows.
Press release ~ Employ ability ~ Film ~ DWP – Employ ability ~ Workshops ~Employers' Forum on Disability ~ Mental Health, The Last Workplace Taboo ~ Depression Alliance – Depression Awareness Week ~ Advice leaflet – Stress at work ~ Depression in the workplace ~ Stress at work is a risk factor for depression

CLG: A new 'ATLAS' guide to speed up planning partnerships between councils and developers has been published. The new 'step by step guide' sets out a logical process for identifying what should be done, when & by whom to reduce problems and speed up new major developments through the planning system.
 
The voluntary Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs) between a local planning authority and an applicant provide a project management framework for handling large and complex planning applications. All PPAs that meet agreed timetables will be excluded from the standard 13 week decision threshold meaning developers no longer have to worry about target disincentives.
 
The new guidance also includes good practice examples developed during the pilot study to help achieve successful planning applications.
Press release ~ Advisory Team for Large-scale Applications (ATLAS)
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