A Sheffield-based local training provider has been praised after being awarded a Grade One ‘outstanding’ rating by the Adult Learning Inspectorate after being branded as ‘very weak’ only fifteen months ago. STL became one of only a handful of providers to gain the top grade when it was re-inspected. Until shortly before the original inspection in February 2002, the care training provision was provided by an external organisation. Since then a new care training programme manager and two new assessors have been appointed. They have helped to ensure that STL is the first training provider to jump from very weak to outstanding in such a short time. It is now rated as one of the best quality training centres in the country.It employs 117 staff and has training centres in Doncaster, Rotherham, Chesterfield and Derby. It has 110 care learners, of which 36 require extra support. It runs foundation and advanced modern apprenticeships and NVQs in retailing and customer services, business administration, hospitality, health and social care. Learners on the health and social care courses work in a wide range of residential and nursing homes and residential units for young people with learning difficulties or disabilities.

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A high-tech system for testing the condition of trunk roads and motorways is to be adapted for use on smaller roads to help local councils ensure that potholes are filled in more efficiently. The Department of Transport is making more than three and half million pounds available to adapt the TRACS vehicle.The system allows road surface conditions to be measured from a vehicle moving at the prevailing traffic speed, which means data can be collected safely and without disruption to drivers. Local roads, though, are usually built to different standards from those employed on trunk roads and which TRACS is designed to measure. The way the roads wear out differs so that, for example, the system does not measure edge deterioration which is rare on trunk roads but which is a big factor in smaller roads.

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The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published a specification for the support required for a programme it has launched jointly with the Local Government Association. The ODPM intends to let a framework agreement to help deliver this programme of work. The framework will consist of a range of suppliers, either individually or in consortia, with interest and ability to deliver some or all of the work within the programme. A search is in progress to identify main contractors for the framework contract. Once in the framework agreement, suppliers will be eligible to respond to call off contracts for the development and delivery of activities to be commissioned under the programme, based around seven themes: Peer Support; Support for Improvement; Leadership and Change Management; Recruitment and Retention; Middle Managers’ Development Programme; Support for Specific Skills and; Supporting District Councils. There will be member development programmes to address induction, development and leadership of elected members. The middle manager development programmes will encourage middle managers to think outside their service area to adopt a more strategic emphasis to performance management.Full details are available at: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_localgov/documents/page/odp
m_locgov_023839.doc

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