Seventy-five projects designed to promote greater opportunities for the most disadvantaged people from ethnic minority communities are to share more than 15 million pounds of government funding. They are the winners of the second round of the Connecting Communities race equality grants programme, announced today and they will share the 15.16 million pounds over the next three years.The selected projects will encourage communities to work on joint initiatives with other faiths and other groups and work with public service providers and employers to build community trust and to make appropriate contributions to employment policies and the way services are delivered. The schemes are also being rewarded for celebrating the achievements of people from ethnic minorities to counteract negative racist stereotyping and to help build relationships between communities of different ethnic origins.
The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, will today take part in a webcast available to all of England’s 25,000 schools. It will herald e-consultation, as it has been dubbed, organised by the National College for School Leadership to mark the beginning of the new school year.The ten minute webcast begins at midday today as the curtain raiser to the secretary of state’s week-long presence in the NCSL website’s hotseat when the 26,000 registered members of the college’s online communities will have the chance to debate educational issues directly with Mr. Clarke.He will use today’s opportunity to welcome school staff back from their summer break and to outline his plans for the coming school year. He is expected to raise key issues on reform, including the teaching profession driving change and school remodelling. A recording of the webcast will be available via the website for anyone who misses the live event.Mr. Clarke says the webcast and the online consultation are a good example of the value that information and communications technology can bring to education. He wants every school to make use of these opportunities. Heather Du Quesnay, the NCSL chief executive, says the events are part of the college’s ongoing development of innovative ways to help school leaders work more collaboratively.Details of how schools can access the webcast and the online hotseat are available at the NCSL website – http://www.ncsl.org.uk%3Chttp://www.ncsl.org.uk/
By Moira FischbacherP. B. BeaumontThe prominence of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy and practice is growing as a mechanism for improving resources available to, and value for money throughout, UK public services. The authors draw on the experience of a National Health Service PFI project to examine key aspects of the PFI process, in particular, structural characteristics affecting design and implementation of PFI projects, financial and other organizational costs, and the nature of stakeholder involvement and the wider employment dimension. The article concludes by reflecting on implications for PFI/PPP policy, management and research.
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