In a further bid to raise standards, schools and Local Education Authorities are being given the means to assess performance. Inspections by the Office For Standards in Education are carried out at intervals of several years and the new initiative is designed to allow the questions posed in inspections to be raised on an annual basis.Schools will shortly receive ‘School Evaluation Matters’ which sets out criteria and indicators from the OFSTED Framework For Inspection. This will essentially provide the questions that need to be asked about performance. This document will be complemented by a Performance and Assessment report (PANDA) giving test, examination and teacher assessment data for the school. Other data will set the school in its socio-economic environment. There will also be comparative data relating to schools with similar characteristics. This is the first time comparisons with similar schools have been possible. The 24,000 PANDAs will be updated annually.
The Select Committee report on the work of the Public Appointments Commission is highly critical of past achievements and future plans. The Commissioner, Sir Len Peach, is responsible for scrutinising appointments to NHS bodies and the larger national quangos. About 5,000 people are appointed to NHS Boards and some 38,000 to the national quangos. Each year a quarter of the posts come up for renewal and this means that about 40 ministerial decisions on appointments are required each working day.The Select Committee is critical of the impact of the Code of Conduct which has been in operation for almost 2 years. There is particular concern that Board members should be more truly representative of the people they serve. In rebutting the charge that the Code is not achieving this end , Sir Len said it was a premature judgement, because his 1997/98 report will show considerable improvement.
The Department for Social Security has awarded three contracts for the Benefits Agency Medical Service to the Sema Group. The contracts, which are valued at £305m, will run for 5 years with a 2 year extension clause.The BAMS provides medical advice to the Agency and arranges examinations of claimants for incapacity and disability benefits. The current Civil Service complement includes some 220 doctors and 1,200 administrative staff. The majority of medical examinations are carried out by a pool of over 3,000 non-Civil Service doctors who are contracted to supply their services on a sessional basis. The work of the non Civil service doctors is outside the scope of the contract.
Two new crime prevention blueprints will help police forces cut crime. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary report ‘Beating Crime’ concludes that although most forces are committed to crime prevention, few are implementing the practical well thought-out solutions needed. The second report from the Police Research Group identifies some of the successes and failures in crime prevention in forces across the country and points the way to what might be done to reduce crime.The HMIC report calls for improvements to the national framework, particularly on co-ordination and training, and further development of the Key Objectives for policing to reflect crime prevention priorities. ‘Beating Crime’ concludes that where successful partnerships exist they have reduced crime significantly, in some forces up to 15% in the last year and 40% over five years, but much police crime prevention activity is ineffective and wasteful.
Board meetings of NHS Trusts must now be open to the public. The Government have placed Trusts on the same footing as other public bodies which are subject to the Admission Act of 1960. The effect of this is that three days’ notice of time and place must be given, and agendas and papers provided. In addition newspapers can report on the meetings.The intention to make the decision process more open was signalled last year and the move is in line with the impending freedom of information legislation.
Some 70 PFI projects have been given support either in the form of funding or expert help. Those receiving revenue support include nine schools projects; two waste management schemes and the first two libraries to be financed under the PFI.Expert help for projects comes in the form of an input from the Treasury Task Force. They assist in the project development, but their crucial role is in quality assurance, which is the area where earlier projects were weak. Private sector consortia have invested in the early development stage of projects, only to find that they were not commercially viable. This experience has deterred potential bidders and had the effect of slowing down the initiative.
The debate by MP’s on child support arrangements revealed that the agency is unlikely to survive the current review of its operations. The options are to radically reform the current organisation or to create a new body, completely untainted by its predecessor.The review, which is being conducted by Baroness Hollis, is examining not only the internal workings, but also external factors including the attitudes of parents involved. Many of the contributions to the debate included comments on the unsatisfactory state of affairs at the CSA. Ronnie Campbell MP quoted his experience on the Select Committee for the Parliamentary Ombudsman, where the Committee had produced three reports on the Agency. Since the Committee was set up, no other organisation had ever had three reports about its activities.
The twin aims of the Government’s new health strategy are described as: “Extending years of fit and healthy life for us all and tackling inequalities in health.” Proposals for action to reduce preventable death in four major areas are set out in a Green Paper A New Contract for Health which envisages a close partnership between Government local services and individuals. The proposals harmonise closely with the strategy for welfare reform, which tackles social exclusion, seeks to rebuild communities, and raise standards of education.The 90-page Green Paper identifies key settings for action: healthy schools, focusing on children; healthy workplaces, focusing on adults; and healthy neighbourhoods, focusing on older people. Schools, for example, will be able to access a website, Wired for Health, giving teachers and children the opportunity to get facts on health and so provide a resource for project work.
Read more on Route to better health signposted by Green Paper…
It may be the beginning of the end for those bulging files, tied carefully with tape and stored in repositories with loving care. Memos, report, requisitions could, theoretically, all be produced in electronic form before we arrive at 2002. The threat to cherished files has come from the successful conclusion of a pilot scheme to connect government offices to the Government Secure Intranet (GSI). The six pilot sites go live this month. A further 30 centrally funded organisations, including government departments, agencies and non departmental bodies, will be connected to the GSI in the next few months. The timetable then envisages a total of 60 sites connected by the end of 1998 and all sites connected by 2001.The advent of the GSI brings both opportunities and threats. The parallel development of other networks in local authorities, schools and the NHS will open the possibility linking the networks into an extranet. Add to this the fact that most medium to large companies have e-mail facilities and many smaller organisations are getting connected, and electronic communication quickly becomes a reality.
The most significant milestone of the of the new self assessment tax system passed peacefully on 31 January 1998. This was the deadline for submission of tax returns. The new system does not present any real problems for the accountants, but it is a daunting prospect for those businesses who prepare their own tax returns. When the 10 page tax return accompanied by an 11 page calculation guide and a 46 page guide on how to complete the return form arrived on the desks of small businesses earlier in 1997 there were predictions that the deadline for submission of forms would not be met by as many as 40 – 50% of taxpayers. These predictions were proved groundless and 10% actually missed the deadline.The advantages of self assessment to the Inland Revenue are considerable. It will be possible to set parameters for the likely tax bill for groups of taxpayers or in some cases for individuals and run the amounts declared through the computer system. Only the returns falling outside the expected parameter will be examined manually. With refinement over the years and fine tuning of the parameters, manual checking will be reduced progressively.