Policy Statements and Initiatives
ScotGov: An innovative scheme which aims to help children combat their fear of being in hospital is to be rolled out in children’s hospitals across Scotland. The Hospital Passport scheme was developed by psychologists at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow (Yorkhill) and has been piloted in a number of wards in the hospital.
Children can use the passport around the hospital collecting a variety of stickers & stamps as they go through various treatments, or ‘travel’ to different departments. It aims to make children feel more at ease and more involved in their treatment and care.
FCO: UK Foreign & Defence Secretaries have welcomed France’s Defence White Paper, which sets out its vision for French Armed Forces.
Press release & links ~ CH: France's White Paper on National Security and Defence ~ UK & French army medics rise to challenge
ScotGov: All babies in Scotland born on or after 1 May 2013 will be offered vaccination against rotavirus. Rotavirus causes severe diarrhoea & vomiting in babies & young children, and can lead to dehydration that requires hospital treatment.
The introduction of the rotavirus vaccine follows a recommendation of the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation. The vaccine will be part of the routine childhood immunisation programme and mainly given in GP surgeries.
DCMS: In a speech to the tourism sector Culture Secretary Maria Miller recently outlined plans for Britain’s aim to welcome 40m overseas visitors per year, spending £31.5bn, by 2020.
The strategy, produced by national tourism agency Visit Britain, will unite government and the travel industry with key public & private sector bodies in a long-term ambition for growth by supporting an extra 200,000 jobs across the country.
HMT: Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has strongly welcomed news that all British Overseas Territories with significant financial centres have signed up to the government’s strategy on global tax transparency, marking a turning point in the fight against tax evasion & illicit finance.
WAG: A £400m funding boost to increase the supply of housing in Wales will help realise the Welsh Government’s ambitious plans to deliver 7,500 new affordable homes by 2016, Finance Minister Jane Hutt announced recently.
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