London councils are tackling the problem of under represented ethnic minorities in their finance departments. Ethnic minorities account for 25% of London’s economically active population, but this is not reflected in senior finance posts. A recruitment drive encouraging applicants from underrepresented ethnic minorities into local government finance careers has produced 40% of trainees from this background.The trainees have each signed a four-year employment contract with one of the London boroughs included in the scheme and the individual employers will decide salary, funding levels and study leave. The trainees will join together to study the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s Professional Accountancy Qualification three-year day release course at the CIPFA Education and Training Centre in central London. Their first modules will be Financial Accounting and Management Accounting.
The Care Council for Wales will begin the process of registering social care workers in Wales in Autumn 2004, with residential child care managers being the first to be invited to register. Residential child care workers, adult care managers and domicilary care managers will be required to register from April 2005, residential adult care workers from September 2005, and domicilary care workers from September 2006. The timetable takes account of the need to work in partnership with employers and employees.The programme proposed by the Care Council provides a framework to advance objectives for raising standards and protecting vulnerable people. It is also designed to put social care staff on a more professional footing. The Care Council will consult with stakeholders on the registration and conduct rules.
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By Deborah WilsonThis article analyses the impact of a value-added performance indicator (PI) on the rankings of secondary schools in the English league tables. School rankings are seen to be very sensitive to the type of PI employed, and the new value-added PI is likely to result in significant movements up and down the rankings. There is still scope for schools to try and game the system in order to improve their league table position.