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Response to Guardian on support for rough sleepers
On the 26th May the Guardian reported on an interview with the Mayor of London, who suggested funding to support rough sleepers to self-isolate was going to run out by mid-June which could lead to a surge in rough sleepers …
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Hatfield Moors Fire
Paul Duncan, Area Manager, Natural England tells us about how his team have been at Hatfield Moors near Doncaster, supporting South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service as they tackle a wildfire on site.
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Innovative Children's Education Business, Twinkl, Celebrate Second Queen's Award!
Twinkl was founded in 2010 by Jonathan and Susie Seaton with the mission to help those who teach. The idea for Twinkl came when Susie was working as an Early Years teacher and couldn’t find the materials she needed for …
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Blood Bike Riders – Helping the NHS
By day Garry Crooks works as a DSPM for BPDTS; by night, he volunteers as a Blood Biker for Blood Bikes Lancs & Lakes. The free, professional, voluntary service operates out of normal working hours, delivering blood, platelets, samples, donor breast milk, patient notes, and theatre equipment for the NHS.
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IKEA: Taking steps to make sure stores can safely reopen
Peter Jelkeby, IKEA’s Country Retail Manager for the UK and Ireland, explains the steps IKEA will be taking to make staff and customers safe.
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EU Settlement Scheme: Impact of Coronavirus
More than 3.5 million applications to the EU Settlement Scheme already and EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens, and their family members, still have over a year left before the deadline of 30 June 2021 to apply.
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Factsheet: New public health measures at the UK border to help fight coronavirus
On Sunday (10 May), the Prime Minister announced new measures at the UK border to guard against a second wave of coronavirus infections. Throughout the outbreak, we have brought in the right measures at the right time based on scientific …
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SAGE evidence papers
This evening's Education in the Media blog focusses on the publication of evidence papers by The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) about the plans for a phased return to school from 1 June at the earliest , and a …
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Duncan Selbie's Friday Message - 22 May 2020
This week, our Chief Executive's message focuses on the recruitment of 24,000 contact tracers, expanding PHE's local health protection teams, the new African Union COVID-19 Response Fund, and Mental Health Awareness Week.
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Hidden Harms Summit Factsheet
The Prime Minister hosted a hidden harms summit from Downing Street on May 21, focussing on how to tackle crimes, such as domestic abuse, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse and modern slavery, which may have been impacted by the coronavirus …
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Restarting high hazard reduction work at Sellafield – our employees’ perspective
As we restart risk and hazard reduction work at Sellafield, I spoke to some of our employees about the projects coming on line and what it has been like working on site during the pandemic.
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Places of worship will remain closed for Eid ul-Fitr
Whilst places of worship remain closed and social distancing measures are in place, the celebration of Eid will need to be adapted this year. Staying at home for Eid will help to protect friends and family from coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Mental health social work's time is now
Another Mental Health Awareness Week is almost over – its importance given added resonance by the way the coronavirus pandemic has affected the physical and mental wellbeing of each and every one of us.
Of course, supporting people to maintain good mental health is a continuous and collaborative effort. Our colleague Mark Trewin, the Mental Health Social Work lead in the Chief Social Workers for Adults’ office has been proving the truth of this statement.
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Social workers to work with teachers in schools
Today’s blog looks at our announcement of £6.5 million to place social workers in schools to support children most at risk during Covid-19. Social workers to work in schools to support vulnerable children On Thursday 21 May as part of …
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Making a B-Line for Biodiversity
Today is the International Day of Biological Diversity, a great reminder for us all to think about what we can do to encourage biodiversity. Why is that important? Well, so many species have been lost or had their numbers severely …
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The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on exams around the world
This year, exams and assessments in England have been cancelled to help stop the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Instead, for GCSEs, AS and A levels, and many similar vocational and technical qualifications taken for progression purposes, schools and colleges are …
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Policy innovation - what, why and how?
It’s coming up to a year since I joined the Policy Lab team, after five years in policy and strategy roles across the Civil Service. I wanted to share some reflections on policy innovation - what I’ve learned, why it matters, and how policymakers can start to get to grips with it
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New £40 million clean growth fund launched to support green start-ups across the UK
The announcement of the Government's effort to support green start-up companies across the UK is covered today in national and trade media. The Government is joint-funding a £40 million venture capital fund to supercharge the development of next generation clean, …
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Redeployment to critical services
Meet some of the team who have been re-deployed to help process the unprecedented amount of new Universal Credit claims. Find out how they are getting on as they work from home in our new virtual service centre.
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Reflections on faith and keeping safe
Worshiping in a time of pandemic poses unique challenges, but our faith communities are finding ways to adapt and maintain connections. Likewise, our social workers of faith are taking the time to reflect on how their practice can dovetail with community traditions to maintain love, friendship and fellowship with those they serve and hold dear.
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HR profession leading the way in Success Profiles guidance
Government Chief People Officer Rupert McNeil describes how the HR profession is breaking new ground in the implementation of Success Profiles for recruitment and selection in the Civil Service.
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A portal to time saved
The HM Land Registry portal has played a crucial role in ensuring we continue to process as many applications as possible during the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been working on a few enhancements to this vital service to make it even simpler to use.
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Hen harrier brood management trial licence renewed
Dave Slater, Natural England’s Director for wildlife licensing cases, writes about the renewal licence for hen harrier brood management which has been issued.
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"Amazingly Impressive"
The Civil Service has pulled together in a joint working initiative to promote “A Brilliant Civil Service” with teams demonstrating a willingness to learn new skills and a genuine desire to support our citizens within the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Passport Office.
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Kindness, caring and coronavirus
Connecting has never meant so much Mental health Awareness Week has taken on a whole new meaning for me during this current pandemic. The theme for this week has been 'kindness matters' which is so important to our mental wellbeing. …
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The cyber security pre-discovery: what we’ve learned and what happens now
The Local Digital Collaboration Unit have published their findings from a 40-day pre-discovery into cyber security in local authorities. The team set out to form a picture of the current cyber security threats, challenges and capabilities that exist at a …
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Recruit 121 Group: Cardiff-based recruitment service used the Job Retention Scheme to protect its employees’ jobs
CEO Che Hookings discusses how the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has allowed him to protect his employees’ jobs.
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It's Online Learning at Work Week!
At this time of the year we celebrate Learning at Work Week, but with the Covid-19 situation, it has been moved to October and instead, this week we’re celebrating Online Learning at Work Week. We all know why learning and …
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Life as a DVLA Senior Software Engineer - one year in
DVLA Senior Software Engineer James Alfei tells us a bit about his role and what he has been up to during his first year at DVLA.
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UCU student survey
Today's blog looks at reporting of a UCU survey on students looking to defer their university place if teaching is to take place online.
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Doing community management for @GOVUK Twitter during COVID-19
Recently we've been blogging a lot about how coronavirus has changed operations within government. Here we share how we changed our community management techniques to cope with the huge increase of user queries and what our top tips to other organisations are.
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Managing GDS’s internal infrastructure during lockdown
GDS’s internal IT infrastructure was built to support flexible working, so here’s how we were able to adapt to a completely remote workforce.
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No health without mental health: why this matters now more than ever
PHE are leading the work to support the population’s mental health through COVID-19. This blog sets out PHE’s local and national approach to dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing
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Supporting food charities in their response to coronavirus
We look at media coverage of the food charity network FareShare, which reports it is delivering more than double the usual amount of food to charities supporting vulnerable people.
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Billions provided to self-employed through income support scheme
Jo Rowland, Director of HMRC COVID-19 Response Unit, gives an update on the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) as well as the other support options available.
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Surveying the landscape: COVID-19 repository
One of the core building blocks of the CDEI’s COVID-19 response is our repository - a database for novel use-cases of artificial intelligence and data specifically being used to counter and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 around the world. The …
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Rocking their way to the top; EdTech company Maths Circle tell us why they are thrilled to have won a Queen’s Awards for Enterprise for Innovation
Who are Maths Circle? Maths Circle creates maths learning programmes that directly tackle the issue of children failing to acquire basic numeracy and arithmetic skills needed to progress further in maths. Times Tables Rock Stars is an award-winning, carefully sequenced …
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Extraordinary times demand new energy in supporting businesses
The new and emerging challenges faced by society and industry in the midst of COVID-19 demand ambitious and innovative solutions. The need to stay at home and to social distance or self-isolate presents new threats to a wide range of …
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How workplace adjustments changed my life
As part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Kerry Twort shares her experience of using assistive technology and the difference it makes.
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Content is for everyone: how we’re making Defra’s GOV.UK webpages accessible to all
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. When it comes to the web, accessibility means making online content usable by all. It’s a subject close to the Defra content team’s heart.