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Policy Statements and Initiatives
HO: A raft of new government measures will ensure that resident workers can have every opportunity to fill vacancies before they are offered to workers abroad, the Home Secretary has announced. The Government has accepted the 16 recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last month to tighten up the rules controlling when skilled workers are allowed to take jobs in the UK under the Government's points system.
This will mean that from 2010, all jobs must be advertised to British workers in Jobcentre Plus for 4 weeks, extended from two weeks, before companies can seek to employ individuals from outside Europe. The Government will also extend the qualifying period for all those overseas workers who want to transfer to work at the UK base of their company meaning that they must have worked for their firm for at least a year rather than just six months prior to the move.
The minimum salary that will allow an individual to qualify as a skilled worker and be eligible to work in the UK will also rise from £17,000 to £20,000.
ScotGov: A call for more volunteers to join the Children's Panel and help improve the outlook for young people in their area has gone out across Scotland. Children's Minister Adam Ingram said people could make a huge difference to the lives of children in their local community who have been neglected, abused or are going through troubled times.
The Children's Panel is unique to Scotland and was established in 1971 to address the needs & behaviour of children & young people who face serious problems in their lives. These problems can include, for example, a child being abused, a child failing to attend school, the child's parents having difficulty looking after them or a child committing an offence.
ScotGov is discussing proposals to strengthen & streamline Scotland's Children's Hearings system and improve the support given to vulnerable young people with stakeholders before legislation is introduced to the Scottish Parliament early next year.
WAG: New projects to help protect people in East Wales from the risk of flooding are to receive £13.3m in funding. Flood & coastal risk schemes in Flintshire, Wrexham, Powys, Monmouthshire, Newport, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan will be able to apply for the financial support.
The 5-year programme will help protect 700 homes & businesses and will include the construction of flood defences and raising awareness of the threat of flooding among vulnerable communities. The programme has been made possible with £6m from the European Regional Development Fund, with the remaining funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and others.
Press release ~ WAG - Flood and Coastal Risk Management in Wales ~ WAG - Climate change ~ Welsh European Funding Office
BIS: Creative music master classes for people out of work or education, learning adventures for isolated older people and access to digital technologies in a Tyneside Cinema are all on offer thanks to an investment in ‘learning for pleasure’ announced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The £20m Transformation Fund, launched by Government to offer grants for more than 213 innovative informal adult learning projects in England, are intended to ‘bring to life’ The Learning Revolution, a White Paper presented to Parliament in March 2009.
The projects, many spearheaded by partnerships between public, private & third sector organisations, will hopefully help improve mental health, physical well-being, active citizenship & community cohesion, as well as providing a stepping stone towards further learning, qualifications and employment for many people.
Press release ~ The Learning Revolution ~ Learning Revolution Festival ~ Transformation Fund ~ White Paper: The Learning Revolution ~
DFID: The UK will double its funding for a road-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve access to some of the world's most remote regions. The DRC has one of the least developed roads networks in the world - 95% of the DRC's 152,400 km of roads are effectively just paths, making it difficult to get food, medicine & trade routes open. Only one out of ten of the provincial capitals are easily accessible by road.
This severely hampers development prospects and has been cited as a reason the country is so poor. Of the 60m population, around 45m live on less than 50p a day. One in seven children die before their fifth birthday and every day nearly 100 Congolese mothers die in childbirth.
Studies have shown that in areas where there are no roads, bandits & rebels often commit crimes and then disappear into heavily forested areas to escape justice. Roads allow soldiers & police better access to keep law & order. In addition, better roads mean small-scale farmers can get their produce to market before it rots or spoils and also brings down prices in the area by increasing competition from traders.
CLG: Housing Minister John Healey has given the green light for work to begin building over 2,000 new council homes that will help create over five thousand jobs in the construction industry. 47 councils, covering every region of the country, will receive a share of £127m Government funding to help build these homes.
They will match funding bringing total investment to over £250m and construction will begin on the first sites before the end of 2009. He will alsoannounce a second wave of projects in the autumn. 80% will be built to standards well above that required by building regulations helping to cut CO2 emissions and reduce energy bills for the families that live in them. See also ‘Newswire – AC’ item in ‘In the News’ section above.
Press release ~ CLG - Housing ~ Housing Pledge - Building Britain's Future ~ Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
CLG: Housing Minister John Healey has confirmed a further boost for affordable housing with almost £250m to provide 3,400 affordable homes and create around 5,000 jobs. Every region of the country will receive funding which is shared between 43 housing associations and other bodies operating across 97 local authority areas. This funding comes the day after Mr Healey gave the green light to a programme to build new council homes.
HCA: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has received 132 completed submissions from a range of construction & development companies, to the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire (PQQ) for a panel being set up to develop its sites, which can also be used by Local Authority partners for developing their land.
The Delivery Partner Panel framework will exist for 3 years and be split into 3 regional clusters - Northern, Central and Southern panel - each with 6 to 12 members. Panel members will cover the full range of development activity and will be responsible for securing sales of completed homes either themselves or by working with partner organisations.
There will be up to 20 firms shortlisted for each panel. Of the bids received, 29% expressed an interest in all three regional clusters, 45% expressed an interest in two and 45% had a preference for one regional cluster only.
ScotGov: A national improvement programme to drive up health standards in the NHS has been showcased to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, as Patient Safety Month got underway this month. The Scottish Patient Safety Programme aims to reduce hospital mortality by 15% and adverse incidents by 30%. Ms Sturgeon says it is achieving this through a whole range of projects in Scottish hospitals.
The SPS Programme works by giving front-line staff permission to make changes to the way they work. What is done to change the culture might be as simple as a chart on the wall where staff tick off carrying out each process one by one to make sure they are done each time.
Projects are trialled in individual health boards before being rolled out across Scotland. The programme is currently 20 months into its 5-year lifespan.
Press release ~ Scottish Patient Safety Programme ~ ScotGov – Health and Community Care ~ Institute for Healthcare Improvement
CLG: Communities Secretary John Denham has claimed that councils in North Kent, the West Midlands and the West of England have been given new freedoms & powers to work together to improve employment, skills, housing and transport in their regions.
The issues that affect people's lives (like jobs & housing) do not stop neatly at council boundaries. Councils increasingly need to join forces across their borders to mastermind regional solutions for getting more people back into work, raising skills levels, or developing new transport links. The Government is helping local authorities to work together to do this through new Multi-Area Agreements (MAAs).
Press release ~ CLG - Multi-Area Agreements (MAAs) ~ IDeA - MAAs ~ LGA: Life in MAAs? developing Multi Area Agreements ~ Planning Advisory Service - MAAS ~ LGA Guide on Multi Area Agreements (MAAs) ~ MAA Forum ~ Development of multiple area agreements - Audit Commission
DECC: A competition for up to £7.2m of funding for companies to develop Hydrogen & Fuel Cell technology has opened. The competition is being funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change and is part of measures for stimulating low carbon technologies announced in this year’s budget. Companies will be able to bid to the Technology Strategy Board, who will manage the programme, for a share of the cash.
Hydrogen & Fuel Cells have the potential to help drastically reduce carbon emissions because they only emit water & heat as by products. The energy conversion in fuel cells is more efficient than those of other technologies such as the internal combustion engine.
Press release ~ Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme ~ DECC - Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Carbon Abatement Technologies Demonstration Programme
Defra: The future of sustainable clothing was the focus of Environment Minister Dan Norris’ visit to the Nike facility in Belgium last week. The Environment & Sustainability Minister was there to see how Nike’s ‘Considered Design’ ethos is being integrated across its sportswear product ranges, as part of Defra’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan. Considered Design is intended to measure & minimise the environmental impact of each product – from trainers to jackets – throughout its lifecycle – from design to re-use/recycling.
Considered Design takes into account the materials used and their embedded footprint right through from design, to manufacture, to sale & end of lifespan. This includes minimising the toxicity of materials, cutting out waste, re-using materials & products and maximising the re-use potential of products through recycling.
The Minister also saw first-hand Nike’s pilot shoe recycle initiative in partnership with IOK – a Belgian waste management company. Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe scheme collects worn-out athletic shoes of any brand from a variety of sources, shoes that are returned from retailers due to a material flaw and counterfeit shoes. These are then ground up to make 3 different raw sports materials for use in a variety of applications including sports surfacing.
Press release ~ Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (2.6Mb) ~ Reuse-A-Shoe ~ Sustainable Clothing Roadmap ~ Nike – Considered Design ~ Design Council: Nike - Considered design
DCSF: Schools Secretary Ed Balls has teamed up with Jamie Cullum to set the stage for the first ever National Year of Music. In launching the Year of Music, Ed Balls has called on schools & local authorities to make a concerted effort to get more young people into music, so that by 2011 over 2m primary school pupils will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
The Year of Music will run from September 2009 to September 2010, with events taking place across the country over the coming year. It will bring together opportunities available to children & young people across England, and encourage them – whatever their talent – to get involved in music.
Press release ~ ‘Sing up’ programme ~ In Harmony programme ~ Music Partnerships ~ National Year of Music ~ Music Manifesto
BIS: Speaking at the Universities UK conference David Lammy announced the creation of the Low Carbon Future Leaders placement scheme that will give 1,500 graduates the opportunity to work & gain paid work experience in a sector that will be providing the jobs for the future. The Graduates will initially work on marine energy in the South West and on low carbon vehicles in the North East.
This initiative is part of the Backing Young Britain campaign, which is providing funding of £40m for new internships & work placements for graduates and 10,000 places for non-graduates. This funding will support the development of a new mentoring network to help young people find their feet in a tough jobs market and offer more help from day one of unemployment through job clubs and 1-2-1 support. HEFCE will work with universities and regional partners to determine the most effective way of implementing the initiative.
Press release ~ UUK conference ~ Backing Young Britain campaign ~ HEFCE ~ UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy ~ Delivering the Low Carbon Economy – Business opportunities for UK manufacturers
WAG: Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, has announced arrangements for the opening of the Organic Farming Conversion Scheme, providing an opportunity for farmers to apply to join between 15 September & 30 September 2009. The scheme offers support for organic conversion over a 2 year period, provided for under the Rural Development Programme for Wales 2007 - 2013.
In line with the requirements of Glastir, the new land management scheme for Wales, the minimum eligible area to be entered into the scheme is 3 hectares. Applicants’ must have commenced organic conversion in their field parcels on or after 15 July 2009 and no later than 1 January 2010. It should be noted that converting to organic farming without an offer of support from the Welsh Assembly Government is a business decision; it does not guarantee an offer of financial support.
Press release ~ Rural Development Programme for Wales 2007 – 2013 ~ Glastir ~ Organic Centre Wales ~ Organic farming
ScotGov: Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has announced plans for an increase in critical care capacity of at least 100% across Scotland in readiness for any major surge in the number of cases of H1N1 later this year.
The plans will create the ability to increase, as required, the number of adult ICU beds from 180 to at least 378, and double the number of paediatric beds.
The expansion in capacity will be achieved by a range of measures, including:
* The identification & redeployment of staff, and where appropriate recruitment & upskilling of contingency staff
* The purchase of 40 extra adult ventilators & 15 extra paediatric ventilators
* The upgrading of high dependency beds to ICU level.
* The postponement, as necessary, of inpatient elective & outpatient activity
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