Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
LLUK: Mental ill-health remains largely misunderstood in FE colleges according to Lifelong Learning UK. The majority of FE staff who have declared a disability (2.7%) prefer not to specify the nature of their impairment, only 0.02% of staff state they have a mental health condition, compared to 0.5% of staff declaring a physical impairment.
With separate research from 'Time to Change' showing that 1 in 4 adults experience mental health problems in any one year, LLUK is concerned that not enough is being done to support staff experiencing mental health difficulties. In a move to de-stigmatise mental ill-health, LLUK is by providing advice (see press release for details) on what FE colleges can do to improve support to staff experiencing mental health issues.
Press release ~ LLUK Disability Equality Implementation Group ~ Commission for Disabled Staff: Lifelong Learning (2008) ~ Niace: Mental Health podcasts ~ Rethink guide: ‘We Can Work it Out’ for line managers on how to make reasonable adjustments for mental ill-health ~ 'Time to Change' campaign to end discrimination
CRC: The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has published a short guide to rural proofing in economic development to make it easier for organisations to assess their approach to rural needs at three levels:
* organisational infrastructure
* strategic priority setting
* individual interventions
EEDA's guide complements the Commission for Rural Communities’ own Rural Proofing toolkit which includes guidance & case studies to help to ensure domestic policies take account of rural circumstances & needs.
Press release ~ East of England Development Agency (EEDA) ~ EEDA Short guide to Rural proofing ~ CRC: Rural proofing
EH: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and English Heritage have launched their first joint 'How to' Guide outlining a new development-led approach to masterplanning, which advocates assessing the historic character of a site right at the earliest stages of redevelopment.
The Guide - Capitalising on the inherited landscape – an introduction to historic characterisation for masterplanning - is the product of an joint pilot project between the 2 agencies. This took the established conservation-led Historic Characterisation approach – encouraging the use of specific techniques to identify the distinctive characteristics of a site in order to explain an inherited sense of place and identity – as a starting point - and tested its value at different stages of the development process.
The Guide also offers a way to contribute to UK implementation of the Council of Europe's 'European Landscape Convention', which aims to shape & enhance future landscape & place in town as well as in country.
Press release ~ Capitalising on the inherited landscape – an introduction to historic characterisation for masterplanning (2.3Mb) ~ English Heritage – Promoting Characterisation ~ European Landscape Convention ~ Homes and Communities Agency
FSA: A Government scheme, supported by the Food Standards Agency, aimed at encouraging & recognising best practice among public sector organisations buying & serving healthier, more sustainable food, is recruiting for its pilot phase.
The voluntary scheme, which has the working title 'Healthier Food Mark', is being set up by the Department of Health, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Food Standards Agency, working as part of a cross-Government group with the food industry, public sector organisations and other stakeholders.
The scheme is being tested as a pre-consultation pilot in 2009-10. A full consultation on the scheme will follow in 2010 with the aim of rolling out the scheme in 2011.
Press release ~ Healthier Food Mark - Promoting healthier, more sustainable food ~ Pre-consultation pilot ~
LSIS: The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) and LSC have jointly published guidance for FE colleges & providers, to help them to self-assess equality and diversity. The guidance is intended to help providers prepare for Ofsted’s new ‘limiting’ equality & diversity inspection grade and the Government’s proposed new equality duties. It also includes sections on funding body requirements and workforce development.
CRC: Roger Turner, head of the Commission for Rural Communities Rural Economies programme, spoke last week at the 'Re-Skilling for Recovery in your Region' Conference about making welfare work for rural England.
He drew on the CRC’s new research 'Delivering national employment and skills programmes to vulnerable groups in rural England: Needs, barriers and solutions', examining the effectiveness of national employment & skills programmes in meeting the needs of vulnerable rural residents in helping them into work, remain in work and progress in work.
The study also reveals that local providers encounter barriers that result in higher delivery costs – which in turn means the provision of employment and skills services in rural areas may be more limited and sometimes of a lower quality than in urban areas.
Press release ~ Delivering national employment and skills programmes to vulnerable groups in rural England: Needs, barriers and solutions ~ 'Re-Skilling for Recovery in your Region' Conference
SGC: The Sentencing Guideline Council’s definitive guideline on fraud offences provides comprehensive advice on a wide range of statutory offences, including new offences introduced by the Fraud Act 2006, which provides for maximum sentences of up to 10 years imprisonment – See ‘Legislation / Legal’ section for more information.
