Policy Statements and Initiatives
ScotGov: A campaign encouraging women to ‘Drop a Glass Size’ in 2013 has been launched. As part of the campaign, which also includes a national roadshow, a new ‘drinking mirror’ smart phone app has been developed to show people the shocking affects of regularly drinking too much. The app is free until the end of March 2013 and will show users that cutting down a glass size can have a significant affect on the ageing process.
CLG: Housing Minister Mark Prisk has launched a new training programme designed to ‘put power firmly in the hands of social tenants’. He launched the £1.2m Tenant Training & Support Programme to give residents the skills they need to hold their landlord to account, whether on their own, by setting up a tenant panel, or by taking over the management and maintenance of their homes and neighbourhoods themselves.
10 DS: Patient & staff satisfaction tests should be used across all NHS services to expose unacceptable standards of care, PM David Cameron urged recently. A new ‘friends & family’ test – where patients & staff are asked whether they would recommend the service to a loved one – will be introduced into every hospital in England from April 2013 and the PM wants that to go further, with GP surgeries, district nursing & community hospitals all adopting the measure.
The PM said that ‘compassionate care must be everyone’s business’ and announced a new package of support for nurses, health care assistants & wider NHS staff. The announcement builds on the recently published ‘Compassion in Practice’ vision for nursing, midwives and care staff, which sets a blueprint for respectful and dignified care across the NHS.
BIS: Struggling pub landlords were promised help last week with Business Secretary Vince Cable announcing plans for an independent Adjudicator to address unfair practices in the Pub industry, including rents & the prices publicans pay for beer.
As well as the new Adjudicator, Dr Cable also wants to establish a new statutory Code to look at the relationship between large pub companies & publicans, which will be enforced by the Adjudicator. The formal consultation on these proposed measures will be launched in spring 2013.
MoJ: The Government is to start feasibility work on what would be Britain’s biggest prison as part of a major programme of updating Britain’s prison estate. The new prison could hold more than 2,000 prisoners (25% more than the largest current facility). The new facility is likely to be in London, the North West or North Wales.
4 new mini-prisons – known as ‘Houseblocks’ - will also be built. The current intention is that these new places will be built at HMPs Parc in South Wales, Peterboroughin Cambridgeshire, The Mount in Hertfordshire and Thameside in London.
In total they will be able to hold up to 1,260 prisoners and they will replace older, more expensive prison capacity. The cost of holding a prisoner in an older prison is often more than twice as expensive as keeping them in a new one.
In total they will be able to hold up to 1,260 prisoners and they will replace older, more expensive prison capacity. The cost of holding a prisoner in an older prison is often more than twice as expensive as keeping them in a new one.
DfT: The independent review of the government’s rail franchising strategy, following the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast competition, has backed the overall policy while delivering advice for improvements. The review has recommended that by February the government should publish its plans for the Essex Thameside; Great Western; and the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise competitions which were put on hold last October.
The government considers that, until those plans had been agreed, it would be inappropriate to publish the specific recommendations about these 3 competitions. The government is planning to set out a programme for future franchise competitions in the spring alongside a further statement of franchising policy in light of the Brown Review and the Transport Select Committee’s Rail 2020 report.
Press release & links ~ Brown Review into railways a missed opportunity, says the TUC ~ CBI calls on government to act urgently on rail franchising ~ Transport Committee publishes Rail 2020 report
CLG: Neighbourhoods that take a proactive approach by drawing up a neighbourhood development plan, and securing the consent of local people in a referendum, will receive 25% of the revenues from the Community Infrastructure Levy arising from the development that they choose to accept.
