New policy relevant publications
Theme: Children and Families
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
This guidance and set of materials have been developed by DCSF to help communicate and collaborate with young people through social media and inspiring video content.
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
This document is intended for leaders of early years services in local authorities, Sure Start Children’s Centres, schools and other settings. It aims to outline progress so far, promote the importance of narrowing the achievement gap in the early years and offer some practical examples of what to do next.
Theme: Community Development / Empowerment
Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts (‘Comex’)
Third report on the UK’s implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (‘the Charter’)
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts (Comex) which oversees implementation of the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, conducted a visit to Northern Ireland in September 2009. They met with Minister McCausland and Minister Ruane and received verbal evidence from several Northern Ireland Government departments and a range of stakeholders in Northern Ireland. Comex has produced a draft report on what it perceives to be the position with respect to Irish and Ulster-Scots.
The Comex report is to be published on the Council of Europe’s website around 21/22 April 2010.
For further information contact: languages.branch@dcalni.gov.uk
Theme: The Economy
Department for Work and Pensions
This White Paper sets out how the UK government will combat the effects of the recession and continue on the path to their ambition of 80 per cent employment. It lays out plans to get thousands more young people into jobs and training more quickly, to help older workers, and to deliver a more flexible, personalised service.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
This UK government report acknowledges that British businesses and workers have shown exceptional resilience and adaptability through the toughest part of the downturn. This document sets out plans for sustaining recovery and achieving tomorrow’s prosperity.
The Scottish Government
This update to the Scottish Government’s Economic Recovery Plan is the first to come at a time of rising UK GDP output. The Scottish economy, in common with that of other developed countries, has not been immune to the stresses of a major recession, with falls in output and increased pressures on employment. As the rate of decline in output eases and growth begins to return to areas of the economy, the up-date indicates that it is possible to reflect more accurately on the long-term impacts of recession, and on the outlook for the post-recession economy in Scotland.
Theme: Education
Department for Communities and Local Government
This report forms part of the national evaluation of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. It focuses on interventions and outcomes in the field of education. It details the strategies and interventions developed by four case-study NDC areas to address issues of low educational attainment prevalent in these areas. It examines the sustainability of the NDC approaches, and draws lessons for both central government and local regeneration partnerships.
This report was presented to the Minister for Employment and Learning in March 2010. The aim of the review is to consider the impact of the current arrangements on higher education institutions and current and prospective students. The review will inform future student support policy in Northern Ireland.
For further information contact: angela.mcallister@delni.gov.uk or Telephone: 028 9025 7756
This is the first issue of the VQRP e-newsletter which is designed to provide up-to-date information to all those involved in the implementation of the Vocational Qualifications Reform Programme in NI and the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework or QCF.
The e-newsletter has been published on a new website. It brings together resources for stakeholders involved in implementing the programme and information for end users. Details are provided on upcoming events. The website is an outlet for communications about the programme and a means to feed into its implementation. It is intended to be a one-stop-shop for all things VQRP in Northern Ireland. The website can be accessed at www.nivqrp.org.uk
For further information contact: linda.berg@delni.gov.uk or Telephone 028 9025 7506
Publication dates:
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
This Statistical Factsheet will be produced by the Department for Employment and Learning using data collected from the Awarding Bodies. It will provide details of the number of qualifications achieved in Essential Skills, the number of ‘Learners’ who achieved an Essential Skills qualification and the number of individuals who achieved an Essential Skills qualification, by subject, issued by Awarding Bodies within Northern Ireland.
For further information contact: ian.stanley@delni.gov.uk
April 2010
This Statistical Factsheet will be produced by the Department for Employment and Learning. It will provide details of the number of enrolments in Essential Skills, along with further demographic analysis, within Northern Ireland.
For further information contact: stephen.mcgonagle@delni.gov.uk
Theme: Environment and Climate Change
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee
This report warns that the UK's efforts to tackle climate change could be 'rendered meaningless' if world leaders fail to reverse the growth in global emissions by 2020.
The committee calls on the government to redouble its efforts to cut emissions quickly at home to help build the international political will necessary to secure a binding climate deal in the aftermath of Copenhagen.
Pre-consultation publication of draft Marine Policy Statement
Expected to be published: March 2010
This UK-wide Marine Policy Statement (MPS) will set out the policies that will contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the UK marine area. It will provide the framework for preparing marine plans and taking decisions that affect the marine environment.
This pre-consultation paper invites views on proposals for the MPS. It will form the basis for informal discussions with interested parties on the development of the draft MPS over the next 8 weeks, prior to formal consultation in summer 2010.
For further information contact: marineteam@doeni.gov.uk
or check the website: www.doeni.gov.uk/marine_planning
Theme: Equality
This report examines the structure, content and impact of the Moving On Programme (2004-2009) funded through the Children’s Trust by Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
Author: Nick Mack
Editor: Elizabeth McArdle
Published by: Youth Action Northern Ireland
Equality Statistics for the Northern Ireland Civil Service
29 April 2010
The report will be available on the NISRA website
This report published by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency, will provide an analysis of the equality and diversity composition of the Service, inflows (recruitment) and outflows, and changes over the last ten years. The equality categories reported on are gender, community background, age-group, ethnicity, and disability.
Theme: Gender
Government Equalities Office
This report sets out how the UK government will build on the progress made since 1997 in improving the position of women in the labour market.It sets out an action plan to ensure the labour market offers women genuine choices, equal opportunities & career structures. This includes commitments to challenge gender stererotyping in education, to investigate the barriers to sustainability in the childcare sector and to stimulate the supply of quality part-time work.
Government Equalities Office
This study looks at how the gender pay gap has changed and whether new methodological developments shed light on the indirect and direct drivers of the pay gap.
Women’s Experience of Violence: mapping the Experiences and Responses
Author: Anne McMurray
The purpose of this study was to map the individual experiences and responses of women who have experienced violence with the aim of highlighting issues for policy and strategy.
Women’s Centres Regional Partnership
For further information contact: info@wcrp.org.uk or Telephone 028 9023 0212
Theme: Health
Department for Communities and Local Government
This report forms part of the National Evaluation of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. It examines interventions designed to improve health outcomes for NDC residents, and explores their subsequent impact. It draws on in-depth case study research in four NDC areas, as well as programme and national level outcome data.
Department of Health
This report is an in-depth study of how Health Impact Assessments are carried out across government departments.
This research is intended to inform future development work on health impact assessment (HIA) for both DH and other government departments, and identify the tools, support and help required by very diverse policy makers and analysts, with varying levels of expertise and understanding of health and wellbeing issues, so that they can carry out HIA effectively.
UK Parliamentary Health Committee
This report produced by the UK Parliamentary Health Committee calls for the fundamental reform of the social care system in England.
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
This Strategy identifies palliative and end of life care as a continuum of care that can evolve as a person’s condition progresses. This is an integral part of the care delivered by all health and social care professionals, and by families and carers, to those living with, and dying from any advanced, progressive and incurable conditions.
Theme: Housing
National Audit Office
A National Audit Office report to Parliament finds that the government’s programme to improve the condition of homes for social housing tenants and vulnerable households in private sector accommodation has made appreciable progress and that, as of April 2009, 86% of homes in the social sector are now classed as decent.
The document provides the formal Government response to the public consultation exercise on the proposals for reform of the planning system in Northern Ireland, including a summary of the reform measures to be adopted as agreed by the Executive.
The wide ranging reforms aim to contribute to and support the Executive’s key aim of growing the economy by delivering a more streamlined planning system which will enable more timely decision-making and deliver better quality development decisions. The reforms also address the measures needed to transfer the majority of planning functions to the new District Councils in May 2011 under the Review of Public Administration.
Scottish Government
‘Designing Streets’ is the first policy statement in Scotland for street design and marks a change in the emphasis of guidance on street design towards place-making and away from a system focused upon the dominance of motor vehicles.
Theme: Human Rights
A scoping study carried out by the Institute for Conflict Research into human trafficking in Northern Ireland was published by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in February 2010. The study is based on interviews with law enforcement agencies, social services, trade unions, advice and support organisations, and legal practitioners. The study concludes with a series of recommendations relating to services provision, identification of victims of trafficking and forced labour, training for law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice sector, and the collection of relevant data.
Authors: Agnieszka Martynowicz, Sarah Toucas, and Anne Caughey
For a hard copy of this publication contact: nadia.downing@nihrc.org
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has produced its tenth Annual Report and Accounts, 2008-09. The Report details the progress made on activities in four strategic areas: building a human rights culture in NI, challenging and preventing human rights abuse, building support for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, and ensuring a strong and effective Commission.
For more information contact: information@nihrc.org
Rights and Righteousness: Perspectives on Religious Pluralism and Human Rights
Expected publication date: 1 April 2010
A forthcoming publication by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Irish School of Ecumenics will present a collection of papers written by experts in the fields of human rights and faith. Many of the papers originate from a conference held by the two organisations in November 2007.
For more information contact: information@nihrc.org
Theme: Older People
National Audit Office
This report looks at the Department of Health’s role in tackling dementia. It finds that action has so far not matched rhetoric in terms of urgency. It suggests that at the moment the Department’s strategy lacks the mechanisms needed to bring about large scale improvements. Without these mechanisms it is unlikely that the intended and much needed transformation of services will be delivered within the strategy’s five year timeframe.
A Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland – Consultation Response Report
Expected publication date: Spring 2010
The public consultation on the proposals to establish a Commissioner for Older People ran for 14 weeks from the 1 October 2009 to 7 January 2010. There was significant interest with over 80 written responses received and over 400 people attending the public consultation events in November 2009.
The analysis and Consultation Response Report will reflect the extensive and wide ranging engagement with stakeholders and the public. The consultation report, alongside all of the written responses and the findings from the public events will be published on the OFMDFM website in the spring. Key stakeholders and all consultees will be notified in advance of publication.
Further information about the consultation exercise is available on the OFMDFM website
Theme: Public Services
Institute for Government
This report’s recommendations broadly outline an approach to reforming the centre of government. It suggests this approach has the potential to improve implementation, reduce bureaucratic duplication and provide clear strategic objectives across the public sector.
Executive Committee of the Better Government Initiative
The report examines the processes of policy formation and explores how they can be strengthened to increase the likelihood of successful outcomes. It also describes how a rebalancing of the relationship between the centre and government departments can permit more effective use of available expertise and resources.
A strategic vision for the future development of Museums in Northern Ireland
Expected publication date: Spring/Summer 2010
This document is being developed in response to the Assembly’s Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee’s Inquiry into the development of a Museums Policy for Northern Ireland.
The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is engaging with other Northern Ireland Departments and key stakeholders in the museum sector to help museums reach their full potential in terms of education, tourism and the shared future agenda.
For further information contact: brian.smart@dcalni.gov.uk or mark.crockard@dcalni.gov.uk
Or Telephone: 028 9051 5008
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
This bulletin reports findings from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Omnibus Survey on Public Awareness of and Confidence in Official Statistics.
Theme: Transport & Infrastructure
Department for Regional Development
This study, commissioned by the Department for Regional Development following representations by the Northern Corridor Railways Group, considers the possible long term social, physical and economic developments which could be achieved by enhancing the railway line between Ballymena and Derry.
Department for Regional Development
The latest action plan on implementing the Accessible Transport Strategy has been published. It contains measures to reduce or eliminate the barriers faced by people with disabilities or older people to transport. These include physical, attitudinal or psychological barriers, the type of travel information and services required and their affordability.
Setting Local Speed Limits in Northern Ireland
Expected publication date: April 2010
This is new policy guidance for the setting of different speed limits, whenever it is considered that the national default speed limit is not appropriate on a particular stretch of rural, or urban, road. It contains an undertaking by the Department for Regional Development Roads Service to review the speed limits of all major rural roads within five years. Also contained within the policy is guidance for the introduction of part-time speed limits at schools.
The guidance will be published on the website: www.roadsni.gov.uk
Information on the consultation which took place on this topic is available on the DRD website
