The Bureaucracy Review Group was established to champion lighter touch regulation and challenge Ministers and key partners to reduce bureaucracy in the further education and training sector. The Group is independent and reports to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.The Report paints a picture of an educational sector with a substantial bureaucratic burden. There are pressing needs to further reduce the inspection burden and dramatically improve the management information system. The examination modernisation process that is being developed and championed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) for academic qualifications in schools and colleges is also urgently needed in the wider further education and training sector. The adoption of a strategic approach to regulation (audit/inspection/management review), which means a proportional, integrated and differentiated regime. This should lead to a restriction of scrutiny by 25% and a consequential reduction in staff involved. The Management Information System must be simplified and substantially reduced.
The Government has heralded what it sees as a cultural shift in attitude towards more than two million adults who have limited capacity to make decisions for themselves. For the first time there will be a statutory framework to assist them in making decisions about health and welfare issues.The Mental Capacity Bill, published by Constitutional Affairs Minister Lord Filkin, will for the first time, ensure that people who lack capacity either through disability, mental illness, brain injury or illnesses such as dementia are placed at the heart of decision making. The aim is that vulnerable people will be empowered to make as many decisions for themselves as possible.
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People living in the South East of England would prefer sensible debate on future house building to NIMBYism, according to a report today which shows existing residents in high-demand housing areas are not as implacably opposed to new building as has been assumed.The research report, prepared for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, finds that a minority of so-called ‘NIMBYs’ would instinctively reject proposals for more homes but there is no evidence of a blanket objection to land being used for development. The report is based on a survey of more than 1,400 residents in Aylesbury, Maidenhead, Chatham and Gillingham. It argues that a clearer understanding of local people’s preferences can be used to plan new developments that are more acceptable to the public, as well as meeting Government policies to deal with the shortage of affordable homes.The report has been produced by Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd and will be launched in London today at a conference where the speakers include Kate Barker of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, whose report for the Treasury on future housing demand was published to coincide with this year’s Budget.