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&cat=19&pid=13487&cache=true " alt="Teachers claim funding ‘woeful’" class="alignleft" />
An education reform in Wales may be used to disguise a “woeful shortfall” in funding and as a means of reducing teacher numbers, it is claimed. Delegates attending a NASUWT conference are debating the assembly government’s ‘School Effectiveness Framework.’ Union members fear it will lead to “excessive monitoring” of their work without raising standards. The assembly government said it was not a cost-cutting exercise and the criticism was “disappointing.” When it was first unveiled it was said the reform was aimed at narrowing the gap between the best and worst performing schools. It outlined how schools, local authorities and the assembly government could work together to improve standards. But at their annual conference in Birmingham members of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, delegates warned it “may amount to little more than a masquerade to disguise the funding shortfall.” They said it had the “potential to support the drive to raise standards and tackle teacher workload” but assurances were needed from ministers. Chris Keates, union general secretary, said: “The concerns of our members in Wales are encapsulated in this motion. “Frameworks which are built on excessive monitoring regimes do not raise standards or reduce teacher workload. “Wales needs more teachers and support staff rather than an increase in the army of observers. “The potential for this framework to replicate the work of [education and training inspectorate] Estyn, local authority advisory services and school improvement officers places a serious question mark over the value of this initiative.” An assembly government spokesman said local councils, head teachers and the unions had been fully involved in drawing up the proposals. “This is not a cost-cutting exercise. Neither is it an additional layer of administration or accountability,” he added. “It is a commitment to total system change defining a new way of working in Wales with stronger collaboration for improved services. “It emphasises the critical importance of the classroom teacher while putting improved outcomes in learning and wellbeing for every child, in every learner setting, at the heart of everything that we do. “We have shown our commitment to the front line delivery of education in Wales by commissioning a funding review of education expenditure. “This must be seen alongside the SEF as part of a wider commitment to reducing variation and securing the best outcomes for all of our children and young people.” This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 5, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=12242&cache=true " alt="Ordnance Survey offers free data" class="alignleft" />
Mapping agency Ordnance Survey has launched a new service offering free and unrestricted access to most of its map data. After months of public consultation, OS OpenData is being launched by Communities Secretary John Denham. He said he hoped it would attract “a new wave of entrepreneurs” to reuse the data in innovative ways. Previous data sharing scheme OS OpenSpace was available for free but operated with limitations. In the past people have used it to create safe cycling and rambling routes, as well as maps detailing local post and phone boxes. OS OpenData has been funded by the government and is the result of the “Making Public Data Public” initiative announced by PM Gordon Brown in November 2009. Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, two key figures behind data.gov.uk, a project to open up almost all data acquired for official purposes, welcomed the move. “I’m delighted that the Ordnance Survey is releasing this data for free re-use,” said Sir Tim. Mr Denham set the new scheme placed the UK at the “cutting edge of a digital revolution”. “The changes signal a wider cultural change in Government based on an assumption that information should be in the public domain unless there is a good reason not to – not the other way around,” he added. “Greater openness, accountability and transparency in Government will give people greater choice and make it easier for individuals to get more directly involved in issues that matter to them.” This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 1, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=11928&cache=true " alt="Scrappage scheme comes to an end" class="alignleft" />
Some 330,000 cars have been sold under the UK government’s car scrappage scheme, which has come to an end. Scrappage accounted for a fifth of cars sold after the scheme was introduced a year ago to help the recession-hit motor industry cope with falling sales. The government estimates that 4,000 jobs with manufacturers and suppliers were supported by the scheme. “I am pleased to see scrappage has delivered the results we aimed for,” said Business Secretary Lord Mandelson. ‘Vital stimulus’ The UK scheme, which offered new car buyers a
March 30, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=11618&cache=true " alt="Anti-terror strategy ‘alienates’" class="alignleft" />
The government’s strategy to prevent violent extremism has stigmatised and alienated Muslims it wants to work with, a committee of MPs has warned. The communities and local government committee said the Prevent programme was backfiring and it was difficult to know what good it was doing. Millions has been spent on projects aimed at countering al-Qaeda’s threat. The Department for Communities said it was disappointed the report had not recognised important reforms. The Prevent programme is a key part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. Local authorities hand out funding to local groups they think are best placed to combat al-Qaeda-inspired violent extremism. In their report, the MPs said that Prevent had tainted many local projects that would have been otherwise seen as playing an important role in strengthening communities. Committee chairwoman Dr Phyllis Starkey said: “We agree that a targeted strategy must address the contemporary al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist threat, but we do not believe a government department charged with promoting cohesive communities should take a leading role in this counter-terrorism initiative.” The MPs said the government should shift most of Prevent back to the Home Office, where it started, so that it could be more clearly seen as a crime prevention scheme. In turn, the Department for Communities could properly devote itself to dealing with the underlying causes of all forms of extremism and division in multi-ethnic Britain, they said. ‘Difficult to measure’ Dr Starkey told the BBC that it was very difficult to measure whether any of Prevent’s spending was doing any good at all and that many local authorities needed more help in running its programmes. She said that many Muslims suspected they were being spied upon by Prevent projects and that the government had also sought to engineer a “moderate” Islam by promoting some groups over others. “The misuse of terms such as ‘intelligence gathering’ amongst Prevent partners has clearly discredited the programme and fed distrust. “Information required to manage Prevent has been confused with intelligence gathering undertaken by the police to combat crime and surveillance used by the security services to actively pursue terrorism suspects. “These allegations of spying under Prevent will retain widespread credibility within some communities until the government commissions an independent investigation into the allegations.” Shortly after taking over the department last year, Communities Secretary John Denham said Prevent had suffered from a “lack of clarity”. He began shifting the emphasis of the entire strategy on extremism, saying that he wanted to see more targeting of the far-right. A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it was disappointed that the report had not reflected these changes. “The government has made clear that all forms of violent extremism must be tackled and has increased funding to tackle white, racist extremism,” said the spokesman. “Prevent is a crime prevention programme aimed at making it less likely that young people will be drawn in terrorism. “All Prevent activities are designed to support Muslim communities in resisting those who target their young people. “Promoting community cohesion remains a government priority in its own right but will not be sufficient on its own to tackle those promoting al-Qaeda-influenced violence.” ‘Serious failings’ Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman said the report had confirmed “our longstanding concern that there are serious failings in the way the government has used taxpayers’ money in this important policy area”. She added: “It’s clear that that too much money has been wasted on unfocused and irrelevant projects which have created confusion and increased the risk of alienating the very communities it ought to engage. “We need a complete review of the Prevent strategy, with an emphasis on removing the confusion between counter-terrorism and cohesion work, shifting the emphasis to funding groups which bring communities together and ensuring compatibility with fundamental rights and freedoms.” Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “The Prevent programme alienates and marginalises Muslim communities, and exacerbates racist bias and ignorant views. “This programme has just prevented a practical solution to tackling violent extremism.” This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
March 30, 2010 | Posted in
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A “radical” initiative to build more homes for rent in Scotland is unveiled by the Scottish government.
March 28, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=10239&cache=true " alt="Jarvis to call in administrators" class="alignleft" />
Rail maintenance company Jarvis has announced that it will go into administration after lenders refused to offer the company further credit. The company has seen big reductions in its business since the beginning of the recession in 2008. Jarvis said its creditors were now not prepared to offer it the money it needed to continue as a going concern. The company said it had no option but to enter administration, and had asked for its shares to be suspended. “[The company] has been impacted by economic conditions generally and, in particular, the very considerable reductions in rail and plant work volumes,” Jarvis said in a statement. “Trading conditions have been, and continue to be, difficult,” Jarvis said in a statement. “Following negotiations with the company’s secured lenders, it has today become clear that sufficient support will not be extended to the company to enable it to continue trading as a going concern. “As a consequence, the directors now have no option but to take steps… to place the company, and certain of its subsidiaries, into administration.” Spending cuts The decision means that the jobs of more than 2,000 Jarvis employees are at risk. Jarvis’s businesses involve rail maintenance contracts and rail freight services. Last year, the company’s executive chairman, the former Conservative minister Steven Norris, complained that a reduction in spending by its main client Network Rail was hitting the company hard. “It has been a painful process to absorb the impact of Network Rail’s sudden reduction in workload,” Mr Norris said. Jarvis came close to collapse in 2004 after racking up huge debts on over-ambitious bids for Private Finance Initiative contracts. In February, Jarvis said it expected to make losses of about
March 25, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=7835&cache=true " alt="Ads ‘exaggerated climate change’" class="alignleft" />
Two government press adverts which used nursery rhymes to raise awareness of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). It said the advertisements went beyond mainstream scientific consensus in asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought. A total of 939 people complained to the ASA about the “Act on CO2″ campaign. But three other advertisements, including a TV commercial, were cleared by the advertising watchdog. The ASA ruled that the banned adverts, created on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to promote its carbon reduction initiative, made exaggerated claims about the threat posed to the UK by global warming. Two posters juxtaposed adapted extracts from popular nursery rhymes with text that warned about the dangers of global warning. ” The science tells us that it is more than 90% likely that there will be more extreme weather events if we don’t act ” Ed Miliband Environment secretary One of the banned adverts read: “Rub a dub, three men in a tub, a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change.” And a second said Jack and Jill could not fetch a pail of water because extreme weather due to climate change had caused a drought. The ASA upheld complaints against these two advertisements, saying a claim that “extreme weather events would become more frequent and intense” should have been phrased more tentatively. It noted that predictions about the potential impact of global warming made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “involved uncertainties” that had not been reflected in the adverts. The advertising watchdog said the text accompanying the rhymes should have used more tentative language in both instances. Future campaigns However, the watchdog cleared complaints against a TV commercial, showing a young girl being read a nightmarish bedtime story by her father about a world blighted by climate change. Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said the ASA had “comprehensively vindicated the accuracy of the TV advert” made for the DECC and “rebuffed those who attempted to use the advertising standards process to question the reality of man-made climate change”. And, where the banned adverts were concerned, he said: “The science tells us that it is more than 90% likely that there will be more extreme weather events if we don’t act. “In any future campaign, as requested by the ASA, we will make clear the nature of this prediction.” Mr Miliband said the government would “continue to provide public information about the dangers of climate change”.
March 17, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=6013&cache=true " alt="Leaping off the page – Belgian paper prints 3D edition" class="alignleft" />
A Belgian French-language daily has issued what is thought to be Europe’s first 3D newspaper – complete with cardboard viewing glasses. All the photos and ads in La Derniere Heure’s (DH) special edition were given a three-dimensional effect, but the text remained the same. DH’s editor said there were no further 3D plans due to the costs involved. Reviewers in France saluted the paper’s “bold initiative” but called the overall result “far from perfect”. ’3D challenge’ Editor Hubert Leclercq said it took two months to prepare the special edition, which had a higher than normal print run of 115,000 copies for the newsstands. “We hear about 3D cinema, television and video games, so we took up the challenge,” Mr Leclercq told the AFP news agency. According to PC World’s French edition, readers could obtain the best results by holding the paper 50cm (20in) from the eyes in a well-lit area. “It takes a few minutes to get used to pictures in 3D,” it said, noting the limited quality of the disposable viewing lenses. It said some of the pictures – notably some ads – had a good 3D relief effect, but that other pictures were blurry or difficult to focus on.
March 10, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=115&cache=true " alt="Cosmetic jab clampdown criticised" class="alignleft" />
A joint scheme to boost the safety of cosmetic treatments such as Botox does not go far enough, say surgeons. The initiative from government, medical regulators and cosmetic treatment industry will list clinics with qualified staff and good facilities. But some surgeons said it would not help to stamp out “rogue” providers. Organisers insisted they were now working with councils and insurers to put a stop to treatments in places such as nail bars and beauty salons. ” Unfortunately, the practitioners who are on the ‘fast buck’ fringe do not have to join it, because it is voluntary ” Nigel Mercer, BAAPS Injectable treatments, including botulinum toxin and “dermal fillers”, which reduce the appearance of wrinkles, have been one of the fastest growing cosmetic treatments in recent years. An estimated 200,000 treatments are carried out a year at approximately 5,000 facilities. However, even though they can cause problems if wrongly-applied, and good hygiene is needed to reduce infection risk, they currently fall outside the remit of the Care Quality Commission, which oversees medical treatment in the UK. This means that they can be offered in high street premises such as beauty salons by staff who have no formal medical, dental or nursing qualifications. The new scheme will offer a “Quality Assurance Mark” to clinics which meet its standards for good practice, backed by a timetable of regular inspections. This, they say, will enable patients to be better informed about their choice of clinic. ‘Unscrupulous providers’ Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, chair of the Shared Regulation Group at the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service, which will run the scheme, said it was “excellent news” for consumers and “properly-qualified” practitioners. He said: “With growth of an estimated 25% of treatments carried out last year alone, the industry and the Department of Health recognised the need to safeguard patients.” The government has provided
February 19, 2010 | Posted in
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