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July 2004 |
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I am constantly amazed, although I should by now have become inured, that Dawn and I can find yet more sources of information which we think are sufficiently relevant to need regular checking. Yes, I know that emphasis changes and we must change with it. The government's "flavour of the month" may not be what we would choose to be reading about but ... we now bring you items of social significance which we wouldn't have dreamt of doing three years ago. Anyway, the latest information source is very readable – all about information management issues and work in libraries. The sources are mainly American but information these days does not know any boundaries. I've also subscribed to a daily news service for information professionals – also American but has some interesting things in it.
Do you provide advice in a general context? Signposting to other advice agencies where the subject is outside your remit? I suggest that you might wish to consider getting the Citizens Advice publication, Adviser. The May/June issue (number 103) has some useful definitions in connection the employment status of casual workers e.g. "gangmaster". There's also an article about the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (whistleblowing) which would be helpful to anyone dealing with employment issues.
The government (or is it just the Prime Minister?) wants 50% of 18-30 year-olds to "experience higher education". Now the Secretary of State for Education says that he believes planned university expansion could be funded only by "co-payment" between the state and employers.
OK – the argument goes like this:
Can't be an argument – there's no "other side". Well, in the beginning, once upon a time, a lot of people told the government that the expansion of higher education couldn't work without more money.
Information is at www.adset.org.uk or await the invitation landing on your desk.
Every effort has been made to ensure a rounded, interesting programme – and lots of opportunity to network – but there may well be "happenings" between now and then that we want to discuss. Don't be shy – we'll fit it in somehow!
Another event
The ICG's Information Managers' Conference is now to take place on 11-13 October at the Telford Moat House
Belatedly, please welcome Sheila Bisset representing Careers Bradford (I have already grovelled)
Sussex Careers – contact Christa Lindner, Information Manager
National Resource Service (UfI/learndirect) – contact Viv McGrath, Manager
In trying to index the items that go into this publication month after month (OK, so it's a topic list not an index) I've realised that several of the items I've thrown into the box labelled "lifestyle" really ought to be in one called "governmental social engineering". However, discretion being the better part of valour, so I'm told, I think that "lifestyle" is where they will stay.
Work is well under way to integrate national and local Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) services, as outlined in Information, Advice and Guidance for Adults – The National Policy Framework and Action Plan. Since February 1998, the learndirect national learning advice service has provided information on learning and careers to more than six million callers. There have also been more than 23 million successful searches on the learndirect-advice website since April 2002. Local IAG services are embedded within colleges and other learning provision and are presently delivered by local IAG partnerships. Now these two services are to be integrated to provide a seamless service for the user. Due to be launched later this year [now confirmed as 1 August], this integrated service will provide IAG to two main groups:
There will be a strong focus on those who need the most help, and who are least able to pay for it. This group will be identified by a national criterion (those with a Level 2 qualification or below) as well as local needs (based on social or economic priority area, for example).
As well as operating the national telephone and web service, UfI has also been contracted to create a national resource service to support IAG delivery. This service will develop resource materials, databases, diagnostic tools and guides for use by local face-to-face services and the national entry point, to support consistent and high-quality IAG service delivery, for example a Guide for Women Returners. These resources will also be available in hard copy from the helpline or local services or for individuals to download from the website.
Reach Newsletter July-August 2004
New awards for the delivery of high-quality information, advice and guidance have been launched by the DfES. The Matrix Excellence Awards will be presented to organisations that already hold the Matrix Standard. These organisations must show that their service has made an impact in enabling individuals to realise their learning and work potential.
More information: www.matrix-quality-standard.com
Library and Information Update Volume 3(8) July-August 2004
Update comment: I am somewhat concerned at the source of this information. Was there a press release? What does the Guidance Council say, if anything? Any comment in the press? If you know anything, please let us know. Thank you. Hazel.
The new paper from the Guidance Council examines the need for career guidance within the process of career management and estimates the potential savings to the economy as a result of better learning and work decisions.
The paper (PDF 24pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/3qsad
Guidance Council website July 2004
Guidance Council website July 2004
The government's drive to boost apprenticeships is under threat because of "the continuing poor quality of careers advice", claims a survey from manufacturers organisation EEF and SEMTA. The survey found that two-thirds of respondents were advised by their teachers to follow traditional educational paths. They were advised to stay on at school and take A-levels, rather than pursue other vocational paths in alternative institutions. Just one in five was advised to apply for an apprenticeship.
Ngaio Crequer, The TES FE Focus 9 July
Update comment: Yet again we, the people of England, are paying the price for cuts in funding for delivery of guidance as opposed to information.
According to research conducted on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council, poor pre-enrolment advice is a significant factor in the decision to drop out of study. Researchers interviewed more than 100 students who did not complete their university or college courses. They found that the majority felt that they were on courses which were "inappropriate to their interests, abilities or needs". The study concluded that this situation is likely to worsen if the government continues to pursue its "bums-on-seats" approach to participation, which focuses on recruitment rather than selection in post-compulsory education.
Alison Utley, The THES 9 July
Update comment: Sorry to be a damp squib but "I told you so", as did a great many other people. Did you, government of either or any complexion, actually listen? Information, advice and guidance are essential ingredients of the success recipe. They are available in some places but sadly lacking in others.
"A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it."
William Feather
Libraries around the country are responding to the adult basic skills agenda. In an article for Library and Information Update (Volume 3(8) July-August 2004), Genevieve Clarke describes how the Vital Link project is helping in key areas. The Vital Link is a reader development programme which promotes reading for pleasure as a way of motivating and sustaining adult basic skills students and reaching new learners. Its main aims are to:
Information about The Vital Link is at www.vitallink.org.uk
In an article for Library and Information Update (Volume 3(8) July-August 2004), Fiona Tarn reports on the steps taken by Croydon library services to "encourage diffident learners into libraries". Beginning with basic skills awareness training for all staff, Croydon then established a working party to identify priority areas. Stock was revamped, and displays were erected which used the DfES "Get On" logo rather than "basic skills". The campaign proved to be highly successful, and resulted in the production of a community information pack. The pack is a "smog-tested" (simplified measure of gobbledegook) version of an existing community information database.
For information about the community information pack, contact Liz Moss on tel: 020 8760 5400 ext 1109
Alan Barton discusses the government's major initiative to move people from incapacity benefits into jobs. He says that the government's policy of encouraging as many people of working age as possible into paid employment has, in many respects, been successful. However, there has been no reduction in the number of people receiving benefits because they are unfit for work. Pathways to Work, an initiative being tested in seven pilot areas, will run to April 2006.
Adviser Number 103 (May/June 2004)
In an article for The Guardian (27 July), Alan Wells, director of the Basic Skills Agency, dismisses the claim that four out of five adults have problems with literacy and numeracy as "ridiculous". This figure is taken from the proportion of the population that is not qualified to Level 2, rather than the 7 million adults who were originally believed to have difficulties with numeracy and literacy. The expansion of the target group means that, according to the DfES's own skills survey, 82% of adults aged 16-65 are now considered to have "inadequate basic skills". Mr Wells comments: "What really worries me is that I left school without the equivalent of A*-C at GCSE, which means I was part of the target group and might still be. I also employ some people, many of them graduates, who haven't got an A*-C in both English and maths, so I suppose they are also part of the target for Skills for Life. I must say I wish I'd known I had literacy and numeracy difficulties, because I didn't think I had. Clearly I was wrong. But not realising I needed help is my excuse for never joining a course to deal with my difficulties. I'm sure many of the four in five adults must be in a similar state of ignorance."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/66ngt
Carla McLoughlin and Anne Morris
Reported here are the results of a research project that examined the role of the UK public libraries in addressing adult literacy, including approaches and issues. Eight public libraries were selected as case studies and adult literacy provision was investigated using staff interviews. The interviews provided support for the role of public libraries in promoting the pleasure of reading to adults with poor literacy. The re-branding of adult literacy collections was recognised as the ideal starting point for the rejuvenation of adult literacy work. Approaches used to address poor adult literacy included the use of reading groups, talking books, themed activities and events, and student book buying. A role for public libraries in identifying adults with poor literacy was acknowledged as part of multi-agency work. The main issues facing public libraries in the delivery of adult literacy services concerned establishing dedicated staff time and identifying funding opportunities. Recommendations are provided for public libraries involved in establishing or reviewing adult literacy services. The authors' recommendations make interesting reading:
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science Volume 36 Number 1 (March 2004)
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has published the hard evidence of how the arts and culture can help rebuild broken communities, and create lasting new ones. Speaking at the launch of a consultation paper, Culture at the Heart of Regeneration, Ms Jowell said: "Culture matters for its own sake. But the argument doesn't stop there. Everyone now accepts that culture can be a catalyst to turn round whole communities. There are examples up and down the country. Places to live must be living places." Ms Jowell set out a six-point plan for building successful and sustainable communities through culture. She said: "The CHAMPS formula – at the heart of today's consultation paper – suggests that cultural regeneration works best when there is:
The consultation paper, Culture at the Heart of Regeneration (PDF 59pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/58xnc
Also available on the DCMS website is The Contribution Of Culture To Regeneration In The UK: A Review Of Evidence (PDF 77pp) http://tinyurl.com/4s8eq
Responses to the consultation are required by 15 October
DCMS news release 30 June
Good-quality childcare is central to building community life and ending child poverty, according to the British Urban Regeneration Association and Daycare Trust. In a joint policy statement, the two organisations called on the government to integrate its National Childcare Strategy with its Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy to ensure that local agencies are working together to ensure that quality affordable childcare is available in every community.
To read the statement in full, visit: www.bura.org.uk/Press/daycare_policy.htm
Children Now 16-22 July
Local communities are to be given new "people power orders" under plans to tackle antisocial behaviour. The new "community-focused" approach to justice will provide residents with incentives to combat local trouble-makers and nuisance neighbours. Neighbourhood action teams will be set up to take a proactive role in fighting low-level crime in their patch, which could include imposing curfews and issuing antisocial behaviour orders. They will also liaise with the police to set the priorities for local policing.
Matt Weaver, The Guardian 19 July
Stephen Billett, Griffith University, Australia; Terri Seddon, Monash University, Australia
Social partnerships that respond to and address local needs are becoming an increasingly significant feature of public policy, particularly in Europe and, more recently, Australia. The trend is also being actively promoted through the development planning agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, UNESCO and World Bank. The common policy intent is to devolve decision-making to the local level where action consequences are more immediate and more readily realised than in more centralised forms of governance. Working to secure mutuality of interests and reconciliation of conflicting interests among client groups then becomes the hallmark of mature service delivery. This article sets out the conceptual terrain for "new" social partnerships in terms of their prospect of building communities through participation in vocational education and training (VET). It initially identifies some of the qualities and characteristics of "new" social partnerships being enacted in VET, their achievements and contributions to community building. In doing so, it highlights some bases [basis?] for judging the successes and threats to these social partnerships, and to appraise the extent to which they have shifted conceptions of learning beyond traditional institutional spaces occupied by centralised policy formulation and provision of VET through education institutions. A principal concern is to identify strategies for making social partnerships work better in supporting localised decision-making and opportunities for VET to be enacted in ways to support both communities and individuals.
Journal of Vocational Education and Training Volume 56 Number 1 (2004)
Rowland Atkinson and John Flint
Policy discourse and interventions relating to disorder perceive a lack of organisational capacity to deal with these problems in high-crime and deprived areas. This article draws on research looking at the relative propensities to deal with disorder within deprived and affluent neighbourhoods. We find that deprived areas may be characterised as chaotic and disorganised but also that residents in these areas appear more likely to intervene in acts of disorder. Nevertheless, residents in all neighbourhoods did not want to engage directly with local crime problems. This challenges current policy with its aim of empowering communities to deal with crime, and appears to burden rather than empower residents.
Policy and Politics Volume 32 Number 3 (July 2004)
The UK's first Social Enterprise Zone (SEZ), based in Newham, East London, was established in 1998. It built on the Business Enterprise Zone model, where designated areas are freed from a range of statutory regulations obstructing local economic growth, and applied this principle to community services. The SEZ is a test bed for new policies and services tackling regeneration in deprived areas. Users of public services and front-line workers generate all the ideas. In this study, those involved in running the SEZ report on the lessons from its first years. Findings include:
An overview of the research is at www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/734.asp
The full report, Enduring change: The experience of the Community Links Social Enterprise Zone: Lessons learnt and next steps, by Matthew Smerdon and David Robinson, is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press (ISBN: 1-86134-312-4, price £11.95)
JRF mailing list 20 July
The government's flagship Neighbourhood Renewal Fund has been extended for a further three years, but regeneration agencies and local authorities will be set tougher targets to achieve. Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that the scheme would continue at its current level of £525 million a year until 2007/08. The ODPM has been set an objective of securing "measurable improvements" by 2010 in narrowing the gap between the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of England on six fronts: health, education, crime, worklessness, housing and liveability. It is believed that organisations which receive NRF funding will be "more targeted" than in previous years.
Henry Palmer, New Start Hotnews 14 July
A valuable new tool to help voluntary sector organisations get more people involved in shaping their communities was launched by Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart today (19 July). The new website <www.activecitizenship.co.uk> is a one-stop shop for facts, figures, debate and case studies on how people can make a real difference in their community. The Benefits of Community Engagement, a new report commissioned by the Home Office's Civil Renewal Unit, is published on the website today.
Home Office press release GNN ref 98492P 19 July
Parents should be entitled to free childcare for children under three to bring Britain closer to the high levels of state-funded care found in other European countries, according to a new children's services think-tank. Capacity argues that the government must provide much more support for families if it is to justify ambitious claims to regard childcare as a policy priority.
Lucy Ward, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 6 July
Many ordinary working people are on track for a poverty-stricken retirement, warns an Age Concern report. Builders, shop workers, hotel staff and factory workers are some of the many who are working their way towards a retirement below the breadline. 79% of hotel and restaurant workers, 60% of construction workers and 54% of wholesale, retail and repair workers don't even have access to a pension at work. Gordon Lishman, Age Concern's Director General, said: "It's an absolute disgrace that millions of ordinary working people are heading for poverty after a lifetime of work – with many unlikely to be aware of the bleak future that lies ahead."
HRLooK Daily News 20 July
Who is "under-saving" for retirement? A Labour Research Department report for Age Concern (PDF 54pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/6bxzd
"It is precisely because the public sector has invested £6 billion in new technology, modernising our ability to provide back-office and transactional services, that I can announce, with the detailed plans departments are publishing for the years to 2008, a gross reduction in civil service posts of 84,150 to release resources from administration to invest in the front line," said Chancellor Gordon Brown as he unveiled his spending plans.
Gareth Morgan: Computing
via TheITPortal Midweek Roundup 14 July
Update comment: Mr Brown went on to say that the £6 billion investment has also led each and every adult living in the UK to be computer literate, and capable of accessing information from online sources. All websites have been made fully accessible so there will be no problems for disabled people who need to communicate with their local council. Moreover, for those who do not have a PC with an Internet connection at home, their local library will be extending its opening hours so that they can make beautiful transactions with the government via the People's Network. He did say all that, didn't he? … No? … Oh well, at least he explained who would be there to support all the front line staff when all the admin staff have been sold off, didn't he? … No? … Oh dear! Dawn.
Only one of the UK's top five supermarkets has a website that meets even the most basic accessibility needs of disabled consumers, a survey by the charity AbilityNet has found. State of the e-nation: online supermarkets audited websites operated by ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Somerfield and Tesco for usability and accessibility. The sites were ranked on a five-star scale, where one star signifies "very inaccessible" and five stars mean "very accessible". The highest score of four stars went to Tesco's "alternative" site <www.tesco.com/access> which was the only site that could be easily accessed by those with visual impairments, dyslexia or a physical disability. Tesco managed two stars and the remainder scored just one star each.
E-Access Bulletin Issue 55 July 2004
Sarah Agarwal sets out the reasons why you need to be aware of users – and how your product (a website) is being used by these people. Ms Agarwal tells us that users are not simply a "nice to have" item – without them we would perish. Given this, why is it that so many organisations seem to ignore the needs of website users? There are usability guidelines available and much of the advice is free to charitable and not-for-profit organisations. However, these are, argues Ms Agarwal, no substitute for actually talking to users. She then goes on to tell us how to check on users' needs, build prototype sites for testing and then actually test needs.
The document is at www.freepint.com/issues/150704.htm#feature
Research conducted by the Cabinet Office shows that Internet users respond favourably to both the Directgov and UK online. A panel of 100 users who had never seen the sites before were asked to complete a number of specific tasks. On completion, 71% of users said they found the information available on Directgov to be "good", and 88% felt that the Directgov site made it easier for them to access government information and public services. In addition, 80% preferred it to the UK online website, saying that it offered a broader range of content in a more easy to understand and better structured way.
Cabinet Office press release: http://tinyurl.com/4mjd6
Info@UK Issue 39 (June 2004)
A report for the European Institute of Public Administration claims Wales is leading the way in Europe when it comes to e-Government. The report, which looked into how a number of regions use information technology to communicate, puts Wales ahead of areas in various countries, including the regions of Catalonia, Baden-Wurttemberg, Flanders, Lombardy, and Scotland. The report found that Wales demonstrated best practice in the areas of e-Government and e-Democracy.
European Institute of Public Administration 13 June
Info@UK Issue 40 (July 2004)
The £75 million local e-Government partnership programme supports 101 partnerships to deliver a range of e-Government projects delivering joined-up and shared services at regional and sub-regional levels. This leaflet gives information on the programme.
The leaflet (PDF 2pp), published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on 7 July, is at http://tinyurl.com/4d9pt
The Cabinet Office is reported to have scrapped an £83 million contract with IT services company ITNET. The contract, to build two high-security data centres at secret locations to host e-Government projects, was only signed a year ago. However, the contract has been cancelled to "avoid non-delivery". A statement from the Cabinet Office said: "None of the services under the remit of ITNET's data centre hosting contract have either been delivered or accepted and the project is several months behind schedule and was forecast to be considerably over budget if continued." The decision is thought to signal a new "tough approach" from the government to IT projects.
E-Government Bulletin Issue 165 (9 July)
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Hanlon's Razor
Responding to the publication of the draft Bill on regional assemblies, the Director-General of the British Chambers of Commerce, David Frost, said: "We are not opposed to the principle of devolution. … We are concerned, however, that the current proposals fall short of a genuine devolution of power. They threaten to strangle business with red tape and extra taxation, without the benefits of increased productivity, economic activity and skills that a genuinely powerful regional assembly might bring to a region. The draft Bill, whilst showing some limited progression from the proposals set out in the White Paper, still lacks teeth and falls well short of Chambers' expectations of real devolution."
BCC Newsletter 29 July
Mahmoud Ezzamel, Noel S Hyndman, Age Johnsen, Irvine Lapsley and June Pallot discuss the impact of devolution, the NPM and public management culture on accounting for democratic accountability in the first term of the devolved national assemblies and parliaments in the UK. Although there is more openness, transparency, consultation and scrutiny with regard to budgets, accounts and performance as a result of devolution in the UK, there is extensive information overload. Thus, many politicians are highly dependant on the parliamentary division of labour and are reliant on experts and advisers functioning as buffers and filters of accounting information.
Public Money and Management Volume 24 Number 3 (June 2004)
Two senior government procurement officials have called for a wider use of reverse electronic auctions. The intent of reverse electronic auctions is to hold live, on-line bidding auctions, which lead to the successful bidder submitting the lowest price to the owner or owner's representative at the conclusion of the auction. Both John Oughton, Chief Executive of the Office of Government Commerce and Hugh Barrett, Chief Executive of OGCbuying.solutions believe that reverse e-auctions have the potential to play "an important role in providing value for money in public sector procurement".
Government Computing July-August 2004
"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business."
Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company
Bizarre News
The UK economy is in its healthiest state since the 1990s, according to a respected economic forecast group. The Ernst and Young ITEM Club said the economy was in its best shape for over five years and predicted growth of 3.5% this year followed by 3% in 2005. Strength can be seen across the board, from the high street to the factory floor, the report said, with companies hiring staff across all sectors including the UK's beleaguered manufacturing industry. More encouragement for exporting manufacturers came with the news that the world economy driven by the US and China has just experienced its best quarter since 1988, it added.
BCC Newsletter 22 July
According to preliminary figures released by the Office for National Statistics, economic growth in the UK has continued at or above trend for the fifth consecutive quarter. The growth is said to be as a result of "continued buoyancy" in services and a "snap back" in the industrial sector.
Scheherazade Daneshkhu, Economics Correspondent, Financial Times 23 July
Local council leaders and ministers have responded to the report claiming that the north-south divide is widening with "a mixture of caution and scorn". The research, which analysed 2001 census data, suggested that the current economic boom masked stark regional differences. It noted an "unprecedented" migration of skilled workers to the capital, and concluded that the country is being "split in half", with London acting as a hub for "an archipelago of the provinces – city islands that appear to be sinking demographically, socially and economically". Council leaders criticised the findings, claiming that they are out of date and do not take into account the effects of regeneration activities. Bob Kerslake, a leading voice in lobbying group Core Cities, said that the figures show that, while there is still clearly a divide and problem areas remain, the gap is narrowing, not widening. He said: "There is already evidence of a turnaround in the last five years and every prospect of things getting better."
Peter Hetherington, regional affairs editor, The Guardian 1 July
"Late night TV is very educational. It teaches you that you should have gone to bed earlier."
James Dent
The quarterly monitor of employment from the CIPD shows that a majority of employers (60%) plan to hire extra staff this Summer. The CIPD's HR Trends and Indicators survey, involving up to 2,000 employers in all sectors and regions, finds that:
CIPD press release 12 July
HR Trends and Indicators survey will be available at the end of July from www.cipd.co.uk/surveys
John van Reenan, writing in CentrePiece (Volume 9 Issue 2 Summer 2004) finds that British labour productivity still suffers from low investment in capital, basic skills and innovation. I, Hazel, read this article twice before realising that I was fighting a losing battle in trying to bring you a précis. I'm going to write to the editor for permission to reproduce the whole article. In the meantime I bring you some "snippets" which will, I hope, indicate why I think this article is important.
John van Reenan is Director of the CEP and Professor of Economics at the LSE.
Key figures from the latest issue of Working Brief (Number 156 (July 2004)) monthly review of labour market statistics include:
Labour market statistics published this month show an unchanged unemployment rate. While the number of people unemployed is up slightly, there is another fall in claimants of the Jobseekers' Allowance. The number of people in employment is down, but there are more job vacancies than a year ago. Growth in average earnings excluding bonuses is up slightly, but growth in earnings including bonuses is unchanged.
Issued by: National Statistics, 1 Drummond Gate London
SW1V 2QQ
tel: 0845 601 3034
email:
labour.market@ons.gov.uk
URL: www.statistics.gov.uk
Next publication date 11 August 2004.
National Statistics press release GNN ref 98209P 14 July
For detail please access the full press release (7pp in text format) which contains links to other information and explanations of series figures etc.
The ten new members of the European Union have between about 50% and 60% of their jobs in services, compared with 70% in the 15 existing member states, according to an article in the July Labour Market Trends. The accession added 75 million people to the EU15 population of 378 million.
An additional 162,000 public sector jobs were created in the 12 months to June 2003, according to an article first published on the National Statistics website on 26 May 2004.
This article describes the annual analysis by age and duration of the full claimant count. This shows that the monthly results, which exclude the small proportion of claims handled manually, continue to be sufficiently accurate for most purposes.
Labour Market Trends July 2004 (PDF 136pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/6xnor
ONS news release 8 July
The CIPD has backed Work Minister Jane Kennedy's comment that the UK is unlikely to return to the full male employment of the last century. However, it says that there is no reason to assume that the male employment rate cannot be raised above what is currently being achieved if changes are made to employment and welfare policy and employer practice.
HRLook Daily News 30 July
Stefani Scherer, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
This article addresses the question of whether the first job functions as a "stepping stone" or as a "trap". It does so by using individual longitudinal data to estimate the consequences on future occupational attainment of entry into the labour market via (a) "under-qualified" jobs or (b) via temporary contracts. … With regard to "under-qualified" positions, the findings are not consistent with the stepping-stone hypothesis but provide some support for the entrapment hypothesis. Despite the greater mobility chances of over-qualified workers, the initial disadvantage associated with status-inadequate jobs is not fully overcome during their future careers. The article shows, however, that the negative effects are not due to the mismatch as such but rather to the relatively lower level positions. These effects are mediated by the national labour market structure, with the British flexible model providing the best chances of making up for initial disadvantages, and the more tightly regulated and segmented markets in Germany and Italy leading to stronger entrapment in lower status positions. No negative effects of the type of contract are found for later occupational positions in any of the countries.
Work, Employment & Society Volume 18 Number 2 (June 2004)
Data for the first two months since the enlargement of the EU suggests that the number of people from the new East European member countries coming to Britain to work has already peaked. The statistics show that 24,000 people signed up with the government's worker registration scheme since 1 May. Just over 8,000 were new arrivals, and the remainder had arrived in Britain before enlargement, and had "taken the opportunity to regularise their position".
Alan Travis, home affairs editor, The Guardian 8 July
"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."
Harvey Fierstein
Jane Kennedy, Minister for Work, today (14 July) welcomed figures showing the number of people in work on a rising trend, with unemployment falling and vacancies at very high levels. This follows the latest survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which confirms the UK's position at the top of the international employment league.
DWP press release GNN ref 98212P 14 July
Update comment: As always there is a lot of detail in the background which accompanies the press release.
Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport, today (14 July) welcomed the publication of the latest Labour Market Statistics for Wales, which show the unemployment rate below the UK average and the claimant count rate falling to its lowest level since February 1975.
Welsh Assembly press release 14 July
Recruitment demand in SMEs has reached a two-year high, and is nearly 10% higher than demand in large organisations, according to new research from recruitment company Reed. The research found that nine out of ten SMEs plan to recruit staff over the next quarter, compared to 81% of large organisations. At the same time redundancies in SMEs are half the level in large organisations, and have reached a two-year low. Only 5% of SMEs plan to downsize over the next quarter, compared to one in ten large organisations.
HRLook Daily News 26 July
Women across the European Union still earn an average 25% less than men and are at greater risk of income poverty, finds new research published by the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Woman and Equality Unit. Painting a grim picture for European women, the report reveals that EU labour markets remain strongly gender-segregated, with women comprising 70% of workers in jobs requiring lower education levels.
Advancing Women in the Workplace: statistical
analysis and
Advancing Women in the Workplace: case studies are
at
www.eoc.org.uk or free
from the EOC Helpline
tel: 0845 601 5901
Equal Opportunities Review Number 129 (May 2004)
"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."
Theodore Rubin
The government has published its five-year plan for the future of education. In an article for The TES (9 July), Michael Shaw and Jon Slater outline the key elements of the strategy. They tell us that, within the next five years, the government plans to:
According to research from the Audit Commission, there was no school funding crisis last year. The Commission studied a representative sample of 15 councils and found, rather than an overall shortage of money being felt by all schools, that changes to the funding system exacerbated existing inequalities. This led to the "reserves of well-funded schools increasing faster than the overall rise in funding, while the overdrafts of the less fortunate did likewise". The Commission criticised the government's "one size fits all" approach to funding, claiming that this system will fail to ensure that money goes where it is most needed.
Jon Slater, The TES 23 July
According to research from Sainsbury's Bank, more than 70,000 people will move home this year to ensure that their children can go to good schools. The research found that around 4% of people who have moved or are planning to move during the April to September period said they were doing so to ensure that they lived in the right catchment area.
Nicky Burridge, The Independent 19 July
Charles Clarke has indicated that the government may consider shifting funds from primary schools to support expansion in higher education. Speaking to the Education and Skills Select Committee, Mr Clarke said that, if pupils numbers continue to fall in primary schools, the government may reallocate the funding to post-compulsory education, and higher education in particular. He said: "In post-16 and in higher education in particular it is quite possible that we will see resources coming from elsewhere."
Alan Thomson and Anna Fazackerley, The THES 9 July
David Miliband, School Standards Minister, today (13 July) set out details of a school funding settlement designed to ensure continued delivery of stability and certainty for schools in 2005-06 and to help schools to meet the costs of the next phase of implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload.
DfES press release GNN ref 98114P (applies to England) 13 July
A "new academy" state school favoured by the government has admitted that its exclusion rate is 10 times the national average. A spokesperson for the academy said: "We have a very clear procedure on behaviour to which all students and parents sign up." She insisted that taking a hard line has helped to establish a "good ethos" among pupils. The spokesperson added that all the pupils who had been expelled were now being taught at neighbouring schools – but insisted that the academy also accepted excluded pupils from other schools in return.
Polly Curtis, The Guardian 24 July
Update comment: Educational divide? What educational divide?
Four heads of the 12 new city academies, most of which have been running for less than a year, have resigned, prompting fears that the expectations placed on the new academies to deliver dramatic improvements in a short space of time are too great. John Dunford, General Secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, commented: "There is a misplaced expectation that these schools, which may have been in difficulties for many years, can be turned around overnight. Ministers should be more patient."
Michael Shaw, The TES 30 July
Former chief of OfSTED Chris Woodhead has attacked the interim report of the Tomlinson review of 14-19 education, led by his successor Mike Tomlinson. Mr Woodhead argued that the proposal to replace current examinations with a school diploma is "destined to lead to yet another educational disaster". He claimed that the reforms which attempt to remove the status gap between academic and vocational qualifications are "no more than gargantuan, meaningless abstractions" which ministers would be "stupid" to implement. He concluded by declaring that the report is "the worst government publication on education I have read in the past 20 years".
Lucy Ward, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 5 July
The Welsh National Assembly has passed controversial regulations which permit classroom assistants to teach children. The measures were pushed through, despite vehement opposition from other parties and teaching unions. Education Minister Jane Davidson said that this move does not undermine the status of the teaching profession, nor does it mean that the Assembly has introduced "teaching on the cheap".
Martin Shipton, The Western Mail 7 July
This large-scale study explored fathers' levels of involvement with their secondary-school-aged children, the nature of fathering and its impact on children. More than two thousand children and their parents took part in a survey and 26 co-resident parents and their children were interviewed. The study asked children to identify a "father figure" (who might or might not be living with them and who might or might not be their biological father) and the term "fathers" refers to these definitions throughout.
An overview of the research is at www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/724.asp
The full report, "Involved" fathering and child well-being: Fathers' involvement with secondary school age children by Elaine Welsh, Ann Buchanan, Eirini Flouri and Jane Lewis, is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the National Children's Bureau as part of the Parenting in Practice series (ISBN: 1-90478-724-X, price £12.95)
JRF mailing list 19 July
Just one in five fathers is using the paid paternity leave entitlement, according to official figures released by the Department of Trade and Industry. The DTI had forecast that, in the first year of new fathers being eligible for a fortnight's paid leave, 80% of the 400,000 workers affected would take it up. However, figures for the year to April 2004 suggest just 79,000 used their entitlement. Commenting on the figures, Malcolm Bruce, the Liberal Democrats' Trade and Industry Secretary, said: "The low take-up of paid paternity leave indicates that some men are still influenced by our macho culture; 1950s Britain is still alive and well. The cultural revolution of the 1960s, which the Prime Minister recently derided, seems to have passed many by."
Helen Carter, The Guardian 27 July
New guidance which will transform young people's learning is being made available today (9 July). The Learning Pathways 14-19 Guidance is being made available electronically and can be found on the Assembly's website <www.learning.wales.gov.uk>. A loose leaf hard copy of the guidance will be formally launched by the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning in mid-September. The Guidance will be periodically updated as Learning Pathways 14-19 is rolled out over the next few years.
Further details are available from Russell Dobbins
tel: 029 2082 5854 or
Chris Webb tel: 029 2080 1432
email:
14-19@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Welsh Assembly press release 9 July
It was announced by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) that a new programme which will bring the benefits of e-learning to learners and teachers across England will begin in September. The Distributed eLearning Programme will establish links between schools, colleges and universities to encourage progression into higher education, supporting government targets for widening participation. The new programme will also exploit and reinforce the increasingly regional dimension of higher education as government-sponsored activities encourage closer working between schools, colleges, universities and the business sector across the regions of the UK. Regional projects will allow learners to build and access their own learning portfolios, informing and supporting their learning and career decisions, while teachers will benefit from a range of tools to support their use of e-learning systems, including the sharing of teaching materials. Strong funding and political agendas are increasingly requiring that learning and teaching practice should be fully informed by the benefits of e-learning. To support this, the HEFCE Infrastructure Fund in 2004 made available £12 million to fund this programme to support regional and subject communities to exploit the possibilities of technology.
JISC Headlines Issue 14 (July 2004)
In an article for The Guardian (20 July), Peter Kingston tells us that the Adult Learning Inspectorate intends to bid for part of British industry's £20 billion annual training budget. The ALI wants to extend its remit to encompass in-house training, in addition to publicly funded training. The Inspectorate will offer "Commissioned Inspections" to companies that offer and manage in-house training, and it is understood that motor giant BMW has already invited the ALI to scrutinise its training operations.
In a sharp contrast to the fortune of the UKeU, Scotland's Interactive University has exceeded all targets for its first full year of trading and has reported a "modest operational profit". The IU was created to market Scottish degrees online across the world and, after just 18 months, it has enroled more than 60,000 students from south-east Asia, China, India, the Middle East, and South America. David Farquhar, the chief operating officer of IU, said he expects IU to double its sales next year. He believes that the organisation has "only begun to scratch the surface" of a global e-learning market estimated to be worth about £15 billion. Mr Farquhar said: "The Interactive University has proven its business model. We have been able to drive huge efficiencies. … That has come from understanding the business better and understanding the market better."
William Lyons, The Scotsman 13 July
Classroom-based training and books are still the most popular way of acquiring knowledge and skills. However, research from Echelon Learning reveals that web-delivered learning is gaining ground, and is now a very close second.
E-Learning Age May 2004
Chris Pond, Work and Pensions Minister, today (20 July) welcomed a report showing that the European Social Fund (ESF) is helping people improve their skills and their chances of finding work. Research published today looked at the impact of training funded by the ESF Objective 3 programme on the qualifications, skills and employment status of participants. The European Social Fund Leavers' Survey 2002 report found that people receiving ESF training increased their likelihood of being in work from 37% on entry to the programme to 47% on leaving it. This was increased by a further six percentage points, to 53%, when the survey was carried out around six months later.
ESF Leavers' Survey 2002 Objective 3: England by IES is published by the Department for Work and Pensions In-house Report Series (Report No. 146) and is available from the DWP website at www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5
DWP press release GNN ref 98580P 20 July
The funding system for FE colleges has been condemned as divisive, after many inner city institutions failed to gain top marks for performance, and the extra funding that accompanies the award. Heads of city colleges said that institutions in smaller towns had more of a chance of making the grade, as they did not face the acute challenges associated with widening participation.
Joe Clancy, The TES FE Focus 9 July
If the standard of teaching within further education colleges across Wales is to be maintained and improved upon, annual funding boosts of around £4 million are needed, claims a significant report published by the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO). Research conducted by FENTO into workforce development for FE teachers in Wales, Towards a Learning Country: Moving from Vision to Results, states the need for "a substantial cash injection" from the Welsh Assembly Government for FE teaching staff and ultimately colleges and the wider post-16 community.
For more information or to obtain a copy of the report contact gavin.thomas@fforwm.ac.uk
FFORWM e-news Issue 73 (9 July)
Colleges in Wales need an extra £9 million to pull them out of the red because of a shortfall in funding, the sector has warned. Unless more money is pumped into further education the most vulnerable learners in Wales could suffer, said John Graystone, Chief Executive of Fforwm, the voice for FE in the Wales. Responding to the news that the funding body ELWa was to be scrapped and responsibility taken on by the Assembly Government by 2006, Mr Graystone also cautioned staff not to "take their eye off the ball" during the handover in the next 18 months.
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 20 July
Higher Education Minister Alan Johnson has infuriated FE college heads by calling on universities to keep a close eye on the quality of higher education delivered by FE institutions. Mr Johnson argued that, while there have been some improvements in standards and success rates in some colleges, many were still not up to scratch. He said: "If we are to offer all students the best possible higher education experience, this has to be addressed. … We ought not to kid ourselves that everything in the garden is rosy."
Tony Tysome, The THES 9 July
The Learning and Skills Council has called for tuition fees for students studying higher education access and professional courses in further education colleges to rise by as much as 40%. Outlining its proposals in a consultation paper, the LSC said that this move is needed to recoup the loss of about £100 million in fee income every year, a shortfall which is due to colleges failing to collect some or all of the fees they are entitled to charge students.
Tony Tysome, The THES 23 July
The Association of Colleges has criticised government plans to introduce a voluntary register of colleges, arguing that this is likely to have little effect on the bogus institutions the government is trying to crack down on. The AoC believes that a register should be introduced. However, the association would like it to be a compulsory register. It also calls for any institution using the title "college" to be subject to the same level of regulation and protection as those using the title "university". Jo Clough, the AoC's International Director, said: "The main problem is that these institutions go through no audit regime yet they are allowed to trade on the good name of others that do. When these institutions attract media attention because of their activities and the word `college' is used, you have to ask what that makes Joe Public think about bona fide colleges?"
Tony Tysome, The THES 30 July
The Black Leadership Initiative (BLI) has been given a reprieve after "a change of heart" from the government. The BLI was told in May this year that its funding was being withdrawn. The work conducted by the BLI was to be taken over by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership. However, the group has now been told that it will be able to continue its work in promoting black staff into senior management positions in colleges. Instead of being swallowed up by the leadership college, it will continue as a semi-autonomous project reporting to its existing steering committee.
Joe Clancy, The TES FE Focus 23 July
Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, has warned business leaders that they will have to begin sponsoring courses at further and higher education levels as levels of public funding for tertiary education become more squeezed. Mr Clarke said that he believed planned university expansion could be funded only by "co-payment" between the state and employers.
Miranda Green, Financial Times 15 July
Update comment: How about a "learning levy" not unlike the training levy we used to have? Large firms paid more to the central fund - very small firms paid nothing but reaped the benefit of what the large firms had paid for - and it didn't work!
Awarding body Edexcel has been forced to abandon plans to offer foundation degree courses from September. A report in The THES (Foundation degrees lack awarding body, Phil Baty, 21 May) warned that Edexcel's plans would breach academic quality assurance rules. A spokesperson for Edexcel said that it had sent letters to colleges that planned to run the BTec foundation degrees, saying that the plans had been put on hold for a year.
Phil Baty and Tony Tysome, The THES 9 July
Mark Haysom, Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council, has launched a 12-week consultation on the prioritisation of resources in further education to help deliver the vision set out in the government's Skills Strategy, which will raise skills levels in the workforce. The consultation is an important step in turning the vision into practice, and seeks to rebalance the way in which we invest in skills to maintain a workforce capable of matching the best in the world for innovation, flexibility and productivity. The consultation calls for an open debate on a number of areas, including:
Mark Haysom said: "This consultation is a major step towards putting the Skills Strategy into practice. We are looking at how to bring about the changes needed to ensure that public investment is applied where it will secure the greatest benefits, and that employers and individuals contribute in line with the benefits they receive. The changes proposed are potentially of great significance for those in the post-16 learning sector, for individual learners and employers. The consultation is intended to contribute directly to the `historic shift in expectations and practice about who pays for what' called for by Charles Clarke. The proposals set out today do not reduce the overall level of public funding for adult learning – but they do make clear our priorities. Our challenge is to re-focus public funds, particularly to help adults with low or no skills and/or qualifications. This will mean that better-qualified people might need to invest a little more in their learning. … We do not underestimate the significance of these changes, nor the scale of the cultural change that they imply. Therefore we will be working with colleges and providers to help them secure additional income from course fees, so they can continue to improve quality and respond even more effectively to employers' needs."
LSC press release 15 July
The consultation document (PDF 54pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/7yuag
Responses to the spending review from the education sector include:
"Through this settlement the government is making a long-term commitment to developing education from the cradle to the grave. This settlement will support the reforms I announced in my five-year strategy. It will continue the drive to achieve excellence and to narrow the gaps in attainment between schools and between pupils within individual schools. It will deliver higher participation in education beyond age 16, support wider participation in higher education, and will reduce the number of adults with low or no skills."
"I welcome the government's commitment to continue to invest in education. … Whilst this policy has many advantages, it is vital to ensure that funding is used for its intended purpose and does not sit in unproductive reserves. Clearly our main concern is to ensure that schools have sufficient funding to implement fully the workforce reforms."
"The DfES has recently set out an ambitious five-year plan for our schools. The CSR, however generous it has been spun to seem, will be an inhibitory rather than a supportive factor. It will limit the possibilities of creating a balanced and forward-looking agenda. ATL welcomes all attempts to make the DfES more efficient, but the Chancellor seems totally wedded to the concept that more efficient means cheaper. Continuing to develop the social partnership, which has delivered benefits to teachers, to pupils and to the government, will not be helped by squeezing the department until its pips squeak."
"Despite the impressive aggregate funding figures being mentioned in the CSR, there are concerns about whether allocations will address the real funding needs of colleges and universities. … The introduction of increased fees will not resolve universities' funding problems and the government's unwillingness to guarantee that top-up fees income will be truly additional is causing concern."
"Universities UK welcomes increased government funding for science and the associated partnership with the Wellcome Trust which will generate matched funding in this area. … However, we are still awaiting further details from the DfES with higher education's proportion of the spending review settlement for education as a whole."
The Guardian 12 July
In his speech to mark the publication of the government's spending review, Chancellor Gordon Brown said that the review would put "society" at the heart of government policy-making. He said that the government was delivering "the longest growth in a generation with the longest sustained investment for a generation".
The full text of the 2004 spending review is at http://tinyurl.com/5qprd
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent The Guardian, 12 July
Commenting on the Spending Review 2004, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "We welcome the sustained and unprecedented investment in health, education, childcare and other vital spending programmes. Unions will welcome continuing support for services to manufacturing, the boost to science, and the increase in overseas aid. We are however very concerned at the sudden escalation and arbitrary manner of the civil service job cuts. These cuts cannot be made without hitting the quality of public services. They will deal civil service morale a bitter blow just as staff support is needed for change."
TUC press release 12 July
The annual report of the Statistics Commission has reprimanded government departments for not using official data properly. The Commission found that, not only had departments not issued statistics in the prescribed manner, they were also guilty of "spinning the figures to support their policies". The report concluded that the voluntary code of conduct in place for departments was not sufficiently rigorous to ensure that statistics were used in a way which would not show the government in an unreasonably favourable light.
Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph 9 July
The Learning and Skills Council has so far not been able to produce any figures showing how successful its promotion of workplace learning has been with employers. In addition, the LSC has been unable to draw up an accurate list of the firms that take apprentices, which could be used as a tool to measure its performance. The government has called on the LSC to improve its information management processes so that reporting of successes can become easier to achieve.
Richard Tyler, Daily Telegraph 22 July
The Statistics Commission has recently published its annual report. The report says: "Perhaps our single most important act in the year has been the publication of our report on the need for legislation to strengthen public trust in official statistics. The requirement to address this was put in place by the government when the Commission was established some four years ago – but with the proviso that work should not start until Summer 2002. Following public consultations, commissioned research and detailed work with the Treasury Solicitor's department, we published Legislation to Build Trust in Statistics in May 2004. Central to the recommendations was that the existing, essentially voluntary, arrangements that government departments are expected to adopt should be put on a binding, statutory footing and, as part of this, the existing Commission should be replaced by a statutory one. The decision to propose legislation, even though others had also urged it, was not taken lightly. We show with examples in this report how the letter and the spirit of the existing, voluntary Code of Practice seem, on occasion, to have been ignored by various government departments. As a Commission, we have experienced frustration at our requests for information sometimes being ignored or our recommendations simply eliciting broad generalisations by way of response. Whilst we recognise that the government has made real progress in recent years in establishing the concept of statistical independence, we believe that the existing Code of Practice is, in some respects, inadequate – for example in allowing Ministers to decide which statistics are subject to the Code. But our recommendations are not just designed to ensure that departments follow good practice. We believe they would also help to protect Ministers from unfair criticism. In our view, then, the case for legislation is a strong one. The legislation that we are proposing would not only be an effective contribution to enhancing public trust but would also be practicable and avoid unnecessary changes in the machinery of government. It is now for the government to decide how our recommendations should be taken forward. But the Commission will continue for as long as necessary to carry out its existing functions, explain its thinking and press for a statutory framework."
Legislation to Build Trust in Statistics (2004). London, Statistics Commission. 193p.
www.statscom.org.uk/media_html/reports/report_018/report_018-01.asp
via Information Law Newsletter
Issue number 49 (13 July) © Paul Pedley
"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."
Samuel Johnson
A recent report on NewsScan Daily gave a statistic of "three of every four abduction victims are killed within three hours of being taken." A reader takes the original report to task, quoting the accurate statistic: "three of every four abduction victims who are killed are killed within three hours of being taken" which is not the same thing at all.
NewsScan Daily 28 July
Update comment: There's lies, damned lies and then there's statistics. Just goes to show that you do need to know about eight out of ten cats preferring a certain brand of cat food.
Government statisticians were left feeling a little embarrassed after being forced to admit that they had failed to count more than 100,000 people in the 2001 census. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that it had reviewed the results of the census and given upward revisions to a number of locations, including Westminster, Derby, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Newcastle upon Tyne. The corrections follow a decision last year to add 24,500 to the population of Manchester.
John Carvel, Social Affairs Editor, The Guardian 9 July
Academics at Warwick and Oxford universities have warned the government that the expansion of universities is turning degrees into "lottery tickets" that offer graduates no guarantee of a good job. Ken Mayhew and Ewart Keep, Director and Deputy Director of the Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance, argue that the drive to get 50% of young people into higher education poses "potentially devastating" risks for the economy. They predict that many graduates face disillusionment because there will not be enough well-paid jobs to repay the debts they accumulate at university.
Tony Halpin, Education Editor, Times Online 26 July
The interim report of Sir Tony Atkinson's investigation into ways of modernising the effectiveness of the way public spending is measured has been published. Sir Tony's proposal to include some means of measuring any improvements in the quality of public services that resulted from additional funding came in for heavy criticism from the Shadow Chancellor, Oliver Letwin, who accused the government of trying to turn the Office for National Statistics into a "propaganda tool".
Larry Elliott, economics editor, The Guardian 20 July
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/4ysgf
At his 103rd birthday party, my grandfather was asked if he planned to be around for his 104th. "I certainly do," he replied. "Statistics show that very few people die between the ages of 103 and 104."
Clean Laffs 29 July
People with disabilities may be unable to register for the UK's identity card scheme. The British Computer Society (BCS) believes that the current proposals to use fingerprint, face and iris recognition fail to take account of the needs of people with common disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, partial sight or blindness. Brian Layzell, chair of the BCS's disability group, commented: "Many people, especially those with cerebral palsy, have little control of their muscle movement and will find it very difficult to hold their head or finger still long enough for an iris or fingerprint recognition device."
KableNet news website 12 June
Info@UK Issue 40 (July 2004)
The Employers' Forum on Disability has published an updated guide to disability communication at work. The guide offers advice for anyone who works with or serves disabled people on communication, preferred vocabulary and etiquette in meetings and interviews. It also offers detailed information about specific impairments.
The Disability Communication Guide is available
from the Employers' Forum on Disability
telephone 020 7403 3020 to
order
IRS Employment Review N800 (21 May)
Minister for Disabled People Maria Eagle has called on the public sector to deliver a programme of real change to make the rights of disabled people a top priority. As part of the recommendations of the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill, public bodies will be under a new duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people as well as making sure that they do not discriminate when carrying out public functions. Major organisations delivering important public services such as health and education will be required to publish and implement a plan setting out how they will improve the way they deal with disabled people.
Speaking on the day of the publication of Delivering Equality for Disabled People, Ms Eagle said that the public sector had a responsibility to lead the way in rights and attitudes.
Government News Network 23 July
The consultation document Delivering Equality for Disabled People can be obtained from The Stationery Office (Cm6255 ISBN: 0-10162-552-9) and will shortly be available from the DWP website
Two judgments this month, one by the Court of Appeal and one by the House of Lords, have found against employers who failed to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate employees who had become disabled.
Full article at http://tinyurl.com/59dmv
Out-law.com 9 July
New rules laid down by OfCOM mean that seventy broadcasters will have to offer subtitles and audio description for disabled audiences. OfCOM estimated the cost to broadcasters will be £37.35 million next year, of which about £30 million would already have been spent by terrestrial broadcasters maintaining existing commitments.
John Plunkett, The Guardian 27 July
A record number of disabled people in prison means, unfortunately (understatement of the year) a record number of people being punished twice for their wrongdoing. There is very little done within the prison service to ensure that people in their charge with mobility, visual or hearing problems have access to facilities which meet basic needs. Prisons now have disability liaison officers but these people have no ring-fenced time or money to work with disabled prisoners.
Disability Now July 2004
The majority of recommendations made during pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Disability Discrimination Bill will be accepted, Andrew Smith announced today (15 July). The response from the government to the Scrutiny Committee's recommendations marks a further step towards the statute book for the legislation. In addition to the endorsement of all the recommendations, the government has also accepted some significant legislative changes, including:
DWP news release 15 July
Andrew Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has announced that workers who succumb to serious illnesses such as cancer or mental health problems will receive greater protection in law. At the moment people can be dismissed if they are ill with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, but do not display symptoms. Sometimes employees with long-term illnesses are sacked because employers anticipate that their conditions will require hospital treatment or lengthy periods of sick leave.
Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent, The Independent 16 July
The legal fight in which a man won the right not to wear collar and tie to work on the grounds that it was discriminatory led to a 76% jump in sex discrimination cases at employment tribunals last year. The man concerned was granted the right not to wear a collar and tie, but the case has subsequently been referred back to the tribunal and an agreement has not yet been reached. This has not, however, prevented the 7,000 copycat cases that followed in the wake of the original case. If these cases were removed from the overall figure, there would actually have been a fall in the number of cases brought.
Nikki Tait, Financial Times 21 July
A new report from think-tank Demos claims that networking groups are playing an important role in helping women to overcome obstacles in the workplace. The report finds that women still consider the "old boy network" to be among the most significant barriers to career advancement. Based on interviews with professional women in the public and private sector, the report argues that "by facilitating new relationships between women, networks disrupt the patterns of social connectivity that have favoured men for so long".
Girlfriends in high places: how women's networks are changing the workplace (PDF 114pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/4bexj
IRS Employment Review N800 (21 May)
The Prime Minister today (24 July) announced the creation of a Women and Work Commission to examine the problem of the gender pay gap and other issues affecting women's employment. The Women and Work Commission will look at:
The gender pay gap currently stands at 18% for full-time workers and 40% for part-time workers. The Women and Work Commission will be chaired by Baroness Margaret Prosser and will begin its work in Autumn 2004, reporting to the Prime Minister within twelve months. It will make recommendations on what the government can do to reduce the pay gap and give women fair opportunities at work.
Information about the WNC is at www.thewnc.org.uk
DTI press release GNN ref 98957P 24 July
So says Paul McCrea of the construction company Durkan Ltd on its "employing women as trades-people" policy. Women can do the jobs!
Equal Opportunities Review Number 129 (May 2004)
Ethnic minority and female managers are rated higher by their peers and subordinates than by their bosses, finds a study commissioned by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA).
Perceptions and Prospects (executive summaries) are at www.idea.gov.uk
Equal Opportunities Review Number 129 (May 2004)
Libraries exist to meet the information, lifelong learning and leisure needs of all sections of the community, whether heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay or transgendered. CILIP's Ethical principles and code of professional practice for library and information professionals stresses "respect for diversity within society, and the promoting of equal opportunities and human rights". This guideline has been produced in order to facilitate equality of opportunity for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people (LGBTs) using, or working in, all types of library and information services. The information is intended to be helpful to employers and service providers by including examples of good practice relating to both service provision and employment issues.
URL: www.cilip.org.uk/practice/sexual.html
LIS-LINK 7 July
Equal employment practices bring big gains to employers, a business-led taskforce on race equality and diversity has concluded. The taskforce, set up by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), says businesses that open themselves up to a wider pool of ethnic minority workers can "reap huge rewards". In a new report, the group argues that there is a "strong business case" for companies to draw on equal opportunities principles when hiring, retaining and promoting workers. It also recommends that businesses set a three-year schedule to demonstrate a step change in their methods, and if they fail the government should step in to compel companies to promote equality.
British Chamber of Commerce Newsletter 8 July
Race Equality: The benefits for responsible business
- Task Force on Race Equality and Diversity in the Private Sector (ISBN:
1-86030-249-1) is available, price £14.95, from
IPPR, 30-32
Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA
tel: 020 7470 6100
Report summary (PDF 4pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/3zxhq
A research project conducted by BBC Five Live, which involved sending off job applications from fictitious individuals with comparable qualifications and experience, but with names suggesting a variety of ethnic backgrounds, concluded that people with English-sounding names have a better chance of being selected for interview than those who "sound like" they are from ethnic minority groups. The applications were sent to a variety of sectors, including commerce, sales, the media and leisure in a variety of locations across the country. Key findings include:
Hugh Muir, The Guardian 12 July
The Commission for Racial Equality has voted to reject a merger with other anti-discrimination bodies into an equality and human rights commission. The Commission has voted for the "unequivocal rejection" of a merger arguing that such a move would signal that racial discrimination is no longer a high priority political issue. The news is a setback to the government, which proposed the creation of a Commission for Equality and Human Rights, encompassing race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and age.
Colin Blackstock, The Guardian 22 July
Many British homeworkers, such as those who assemble Christmas crackers or sew buttons onto clothes for UK retailers, work in conditions that are more readily associated with overseas sweatshops, claims a new report. Made at Home, published jointly by the TUC, Oxfam and the National Group on Homeworking, reveals that there are currently around one million homeworkers in the UK, 90% of whom are women and 50% from ethnic minorities. The report argues that many of these workers endure poor working conditions including:
The report calls for the government to act to extend all employment rights to homeworkers and other excluded groups as soon as possible. It also demands that the government implement ILO standards for homeworkers' labour rights to ensure that they are entitled to the same rights as other workers.
Made at Home - British homeworkers in global supply chains (PDF 38pp) is at http://tinyurl.com/5kc56
IRS Employment Review N801 (4 June)
A construction company which is involved in a number of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes covering more than 120 schools in England and Wales is in serious danger of bankruptcy. If Jarvis collapses, this could mean that building projects and facilities management could be "thrown into chaos". The DfES insists that there are contingency plans in place should the company cease operations. However, opposition parties and unions are concerned about what will become of building projects already started or planned.
Jon Slater, The TES 9 July
The government's claim that the extra costs of PFI are justified, because risks are transferred from the public to the private sector, are called into question in a damning new report from UNISON, which shows that no attempt has been made to evaluate that risk. As a result UNISON claims that the case for an independent review of all Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects has never been stronger. The report shows that although £36 billion worth of PFI deals have been signed and 451 schemes are up and running, the true cost of these deals to the taxpayer is still unknown and private companies are reaping the benefits of this oversight, at the expense of the public purse. Private finance is an expensive form of public borrowing and a drain on public service budgets, but Ministers claim that by transferring the risk, it's a price worth paying. However, the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees public spending for parliament, has complained twice to the government about the lack of information on the relationship between risk and profits. The failure to evaluate this relationship raises fundamental questions about accountability.
UNISON press release 7 July
Public risk for private gain? by Allyson Pollock and David Price (PDF 46pp) is at www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B1428.pdf
A study by members of the public health policy unit at UCL, commissioned by UNISON, has found that government claims that Private Finance Initiative projects offer value for money have never been systematically tested. The study finds that the theory behind PFI initiatives – that the additional expense incurred by using private finance can be offset by the private sector taking on the risks of a project failure or default – is questionable. It concluded that there has been no attempt to establish whether risk transfer took place and at what price to the taxpayer.
Terry Macalister, The Guardian 7 July
The Gershon review of public sector efficiency argues that it is time that the UK began to see a return on the £6 billion invested in IT under the 2000 and 2002 spending reviews. The review said that IT and e-government were "key" to cutting government spending. It identifies a three-stage process to saving money through improvements in IT: build the systems, persuade people to use them, then reduce expenditure on the former methods of conducting business. The review argued that, while the first stage was all but complete, very little had been done to move on to the second stage. It called on government departments to cooperate more fully with each other to identify areas which overlap and can therefore be streamlined, and for a more concerted effort to persuade the public of the benefits to using e-government systems.
Michael Cross, The Guardian 15 July
Research from the Institute for Public Policy Research has found that the government has come under fire unnecessarily for increasing bureaucracy at the expense of front-line staff in public services. The research found that the overwhelming majority of extra money that the government has invested in the public sector has been used to employ additional front-line staff such as nurses and teachers. An accompanying report stated: "Since 1998 the Labour government has significantly increased public sector employment in education and healthcare, but not in other areas. The growth in public sector employment has not been driven by increased employment of central or local government administrative staff. As a result, a higher proportion of public sector jobs are now providing front-line services in health and education."
Ashley Seager, The Guardian 8 July
Jobseekers' willingness to work for public sector employers may be wrecked by long-standing image problems, new research warns. According to a survey conducted by totaljobs.com, while 90% of jobseekers said they would consider applying for a public sector post, many felt that there were significant drawbacks to working in the public sector:
HRLooK Daily News 8 July
"Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned."
J B Priestley
An open debate on what local government should look like in ten years' time began in earnest today (27 July). Key themes are local leadership, citizen engagement and participation, service delivery and the performance framework, and the relationship between central, regional and local government. The two papers published today are The future of local government: Developing a 10 year vision on the key themes and Local Area Agreements: a prospectus. To inform the debate, the Local and Regional Government Research Unit (LRGRU) at ODPM has published four research reports today:
All these documents are available at www.odpm.gov.uk/localvision
ODPM press release GNN ref 99065P 27 July
The government has finally announced that it intends to honour its pledge to end the two-tier workforce across the public services, following intense negotiation with public service union UNISON. The ground-breaking deal will end the exploitation of low-paid workers by private companies which take over public service contracts. The promise to end the two-tier workforce was made in 2001 and implemented in local government in 2002. However, until the new agreement, this was not extended to other workers in the public sector. Welcoming the news, UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: "This is great news for UNISON and fantastic news for many thousands of low-paid public sector workers – private companies will no longer be able to make profits by cutting their pay and conditions. … We could never have had world class public services based on exploitation and injustice. We will now make sure this is implemented without delay."
UNISON press release 20 July
A multi-application smartcard to provide citizens with secure access to local services is being launched by four local authorities in the Black Country area. The card is being developed and funded by the Black Country Knowledge Society, a government-backed project to encourage regeneration in the area through the use of new technologies. The first phase, to be completed by the end of this year, will see the smartcard being rolled out in community learning centres across the region, enabling adult learners to log on securely to online learning environments.
More information at www.bcks.org.uk
E-Government Bulletin Issue 166 (28 July)
According to research from the Work Foundation, more than two million workers in the UK are suffering from "work lust". The research found evidence of a growing number of "workophiles" who find their jobs so rewarding that they put in an average of 60 hours a week and prefer to spend their time at work than at home. However, the number of people who hate their jobs far outnumber them, with four million people disliking what they do for a living.
Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent, The Independent 29 July
Most office workers blame their colleagues or bosses for hindering their productivity, according to a survey from training firm Priority Management. The survey found that 23% cited interruptions by colleagues as being the worst distraction from their duties. 14% said that they could not say no to their boss, even when they were asked to do something that would detract from their main function. However, 6% admitted that their biggest cause of low productivity was their own procrastination.
IRS Employment Review N802 (18 June)
More than 90% of UK employers would welcome a workplace ban, according to research by employment law firm Peninsula. The survey found that only 32% of employers had in place facilities for smokers, such as a room to accommodate them. The vast majority (93%) said that they would encourage a law that banned smoking in the workplace, and more than four out of five (84%) already have a ban in place.
HRLooK Daily News 14 July
Update comment: And we are able instantly to reco