Policy Statements and Initiatives

DWP: With summer approaching, Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, is sending a warning to people who commit benefit fraud abroad.  He is also urging law-abiding Brits to use the dedicated Spanish fraud hotline to report benefit thieves.
 
People who are pretending to live in the UK to claim benefits, but are actually living overseas cost the taxpayer an estimated £43m last year.  More allegations of people living in Spain, whilst continuing to receive UK benefits, are received than for any other foreign country.
Press release & links
 
ScotGov: The Scottish Government last week outlined the positive case for independence, highlighting Scotland’s economic strengths. Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, highlighted 7 key strengths of Scotland’s economy.
Press release & links
 
No.10: The Prime Minister has set out the next steps of his campaign to work with nurses to improve standards of care for all NHS patients.  He has asked the first meeting of the Nursing Care Quality Forum in Downing Street to ‘scour the country, find out what works best and share it across the NHS.’
 
The NHS Patient Feedback Challenge, backed by a £1m fund and run by the NHS Institute for Innovation & Improvement, will select the most ambitious ideas and seek to implement them from July 2012.
Press release & links
 
DfE: Charlie Taylor, the Government’s Expert Adviser on Behaviour, has called for a crackdown on primary school absence to make sure it is not a problem later on in life. Latest figures show that almost 400,000 pupils miss 15% of schooling a year – the equivalent of having a month off school.
Press release & links
 
DCMS: The UK & China have launched a new cultural dialogue to develop closer ties in key sectors such as culture, the creative industries, science and education.
Press release & links
 
DCMS: Speaking at the government’s first Disability Sport Summit last week, Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said that the sport sector needs to attract more disabled people into playing sport

The School Games, which will hold its inaugural competition at the Olympic Park next month, will feature a range of disability sports in a bid to encourage sports participation among younger people of all abilities. 
 
Sport England will also invest £8m from the Place People Play programme to help overcome some of the barriers that make it harder for disabled people to do sport.
Press release & links
 
DfEHundreds of school support staff are to get degree-level & specialist training in helping children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), under a new £500,000 programme set out last week by Children's Minister, Sarah Teather.
 
The annual SEN support scholarship programme will provide up to £2,000 each to boost the skills of talented teaching assistants & school staff who work with children with SEND.  The scholarship cash will fund staff through rigorous, specialist courses and qualifications.
Press release & links
 
CO: The UK will use its 18-month co-chairmanship of the international Open Government Partnership (OGP) to ‘help establish the partnership as a sustained force for global change’.  The OGP brings developed & developing countries together to promote transparency, increase accountability and harness new technologies.  Open government can help fight corruption, engage citizens, spread prosperity and save lives.
Press release & links
 
ScotGov: The Justice Secretary has hailed the success of a pilot project to tackle youth offending, which has seen a major reduction in crimes committed by young people. The system, which is being extended to local authorities across Scotland, aims to hold young people to account for their behaviour and stop them following the wrong path into a life of crime.
 
Police, courts, education and social services work together to address minor offending behaviour before it becomes a major problem. The final report into the pilot of Whole System Approach in Aberdeen shows a marked improvement in youth offending. Kenny MacAskill said the approach may now be rolled out and used to also help reverse the rise in female offending
Press release & links
 
ScotGov: The UK Government will abolish the existing Council Tax Benefit in April 2013 and cut the successor budget by 10%.  The Scottish Government and COSLA have now agreed to cover the £40m cost of the cuts in 2013-14. 558,000 people receive Council Tax Benefit (CTB) in Scotland, which is worth £387m to Scotland.
Press release & links
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