The course is designed to meet the needs of those with little understanding of PR/communications as well as those who require a refresher. The aim of this e-learning module is to help local authorities use public relations campaigns more effectively as a tool for communicating with key stakeholders, both internally and externally. Communication plays a vital role in how councils are perceived. In those councils rated as poor communicators, resident satisfaction was consistently lower than average and good service performance wasn’t matched by satisfaction ratings. Many councils have a better story to tell than they are actually telling. Completed assignments can be e-mailed to a qualified PR professional who will assess it and return it with feedback and an indication of whether it has met the required standard to pass the course. The module has been launched as part of the Connecting with Communities project.The course is available at: http://www.idea.gov.uk/communications/?id=prcampaign
Head teachers have welcomed the general thrust of planned changes to school inspections outlined in a new document from Ofsted and the Department for Education and Skills, but they have highlighted two areas of concern. The report – “A New Relationship With Schools” follows consultations with schools and parents on a range of proposals.Key new features in the report include giving between two and five working days’ notice before an inspection to ensure reports give an unvarnished view of the school. In some cases, inspectors may turn up unannounced. It is also now proposed to use a clear four-point grading scale in reports, and simplifying the approach to schools causing concern. There will be a greater emphasis on schools evaluating their own performance with the focus of a school inspection being driven by the strengths and weaknesses identified by a school in its own evaluation form. Inspection reports will be published within three weeks and there will be inspection of curriculum areas through a rolling programme of subject-focused studies.
There is a warning today that policy makers who have promoted mentoring as the answer to a wide range of problems facing young people need to be more discriminating about its benefits, even though well-run mentoring programmes had succeeded in helping disaffected young people make positive changes in their lives.The crime prevention charity, Crime Concern, has carried out the most extensive evaluation so far of mentoring programmes across Britain. It focuses on ‘Mentoring Plus’ programmes, run in ten English locations and concludes that they helped a significant number of vulnerable and high-risk young people to take up education, training and work opportunities.
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