Policy Statements and Initiatives
DfE: The PM recently announced plans to reduce radically the time it takes for a baby to move in with their permanent family. The Government will take action to put children’s interests first and legislate to make fostering by potential adopters standard practice in many cases, so that those in care are placed with carers who have the potential to become their adoptive parents, rather than in temporary homes.
The Government will introduce a new legal duty on local authorities to consider placing children with approved adopters who will foster the child first, and help provide a stable home much earlier in their life. This will remove groundless doubts about whether ‘Fostering for Adoption’ is legal & good practice.
DH: A new recognition scheme for all NHS staff has been launched as ministers mark the 64th anniversary of the NHS. Both patients & staff are being asked to nominate their NHS hero by filling in a simple online form. Up until mid-September, anyone working for the NHS who is nominated by members of the public, patients or colleagues as going the extra mile in their work will receive a recognition certificate.
HO: A £2.6m fund designed to help disabled people overcome barriers to becoming councillors, police & crime commissioners or MPs has been launched by the Government. The money will help meet the additional costs a disabled candidate may face in standing for election, such as extra transport or sign-language interpreters.
CLG: Plans for the nation's first ever dedicated large-scale self building community were given the green light recently by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, who announced a wide package for aspiring self-builders, offering exclusive access to £30m funding and Government-owned land to help them turn their housebuilding dreams into a reality.
DfE: Children from poorer backgrounds who are behind in reading & writing at the end of primary school will have the chance to get extra catch-up lessons. Results from last year’s Key Stage 2 tests show that around 100,000 pupils in England failed to reach the expected standard in English.
CLG: Fire & Rescue Minister Bob Neill has published the new Fire & Rescue National Framework for England. The Framework enables F&R authorities to efficiently deliver their services against a backdrop of change and the need to cut the national deficit.
WAG: A formal partnership agreement between the Welsh Government and the Crown Estate has been described by Environment Minister, John Griffiths as key to moving Wales towards a low carbon future.
Ofsted: Radical proposals for a new approach to the inspection of child protection services were published last week. Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and where necessary Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate will work together from 2013 to carry out no-notice inspections of multi-agency arrangements for the protection of children.
BIS: A new £50m fund to ‘support mature students with learning difficulties or disabilities, parents who need help with childcare and ex-military personnel’ has been announced. The bursary scheme will support mature students to get the skills & qualifications they need in further education, by helping to meet costs such as childcare, travel, books & equipment. The fund is one element of a package of support for people who take out 24+ Advanced Learning Loans from 2013.
CO: As part of the drive to ensure Whitehall operates in a more business-like fashion, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, has recently announced that Bill Crothers will be appointed as the Government’s Chief Procurement Officer with a broadened remit covering a range of commercial as well as procurement responsibilities.
ScotGov: A £10m loan fund designed to kick-start stalled housing projects has awarded funding to 3 projects. The Housebuilding Infrastructure Loans Fund offers help to housing builders, unable to attract private-sector finance, to invest in the infrastructure needed for projects to go ahead.
HMT: The Bank of England and HM Treasury have announced the launch of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), which is designed to boost lending to the real economy. Banks & building societies that increase lending to UK households & businesses will be able to borrow more in the FLS, and do so at lower cost than those that scale back lending.
WAG: The First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones has set out his vision of a ‘new’ United Kingdom when he addressed an audience in Westminster recently. He rejected independence for Wales by setting out his vision of a UK which is politically diverse, looser, and combines several centres of democratic accountability.
He also said the relationship between the devolved nations and the UK Government needs to be reset and called for the creation of a Constitutional Convention to agree a new constitutional settlement.
He also said the relationship between the devolved nations and the UK Government needs to be reset and called for the creation of a Constitutional Convention to agree a new constitutional settlement.
Defra: More than 2,000 miles of historic canals & rivers across England & Wales have been handed over to the Canal & River Trust recently in a move to get communities more involved in their local waterways.
The new trust takes over from British Waterways and The Waterways Trust in England & Wales and represents a completely new approach to caring for the country’s waterways. The move, part of the Public Bodies Reform programme, is the largest single transfer of a public body into the charitable sector.
The new trust takes over from British Waterways and The Waterways Trust in England & Wales and represents a completely new approach to caring for the country’s waterways. The move, part of the Public Bodies Reform programme, is the largest single transfer of a public body into the charitable sector.
To mark its launch, the Trust has unveiled its first appeal, 50 projects across the nation that will breathe new life into towpaths & riverbanks. By pledging money or time people can get involved in projects such as creating new habitat for rare water voles, planting linear orchards for people and wildlife and restoring neglected towpaths.
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