7368posts
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Cyber Insiders: Being App Aware
There’s an ‘app’ for everything these days and whether it’s social media, online banking, or gaming, digital applications are a part of daily life for the majority of us. Downloadable from both official and third-party app stores, as well as …
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Local Digital: 2022 in review
Local Digital is on a mission to bring together everyone required to make excellent local public services through the Local Digital movement. The community was drawn together around the Local Digital Declaration, a shared ambition for the future of local …
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Lessons in Leadership with Luis Von Ahn
When the co-founder of the Civil Service Languages Network (CSLN), Matt Brown, met CEO of Duolingo, Luis Von Ahn, he received a masterclass in leadership and in the importance of having a strong mission to deliver results. Duolingo has become …
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Landmark deal for nature reached at COP15
Today we are looking at media coverage on the COP15 Global Biodiversity framework agreement to protect nature.
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Continuous Data Assurance Helps to Make Better Services
In September 2020, the Energy Performance of Buildings Register Find an energy certificate service went live on GOV.UK. This was DLUHC’s first public-facing digital service and replaced a mature but out-dated service that had been run by an external supplier …
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Government Digital Service: updates on our 2021-2024 strategy
18 months on from when we first outlined the GDS strategy for the next 3 years, our CEO Tom Read reflects on what has gone well, where we have adjusted our approach, and where we are now focusing our work.
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The next steps for the SFI annual health and welfare review
The SFI annual health and welfare review is a fully funded vet visit which farmers can receive each year. With the help of volunteer farmers and vets, we started testing the review in September. In this post, I’d like to give you an update on what we’ve learned through testing. I’ll also share our plans for 2023.
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Biodiversity and solar farms: An insightful experience during our placement year
Jess and Jade, aspiring environmental professionals and university students on placement at the Planning Inspectorate, shine a light on the effects of solar farms on biodiversity.
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A message for the festive season from Lyn Romeo
As I prepare to make arrangements to travel to the north of England to spend Christmas with friends, I am reminded I was making the same plans this time last year, but ended up home alone for 10 days isolating with Covid!
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Opportunities for Stewardship agreement holders from 2023
We wanted to help farmers understand the latest updates regarding their Stewardship agreements, so we are writing to all existing agreement holders to explain what the changes mean for them, and to outline some opportunities for 2023 and beyond. As …
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Seasonal workers visas for 2023
Defra has announced 45,000 visas for seasonal workers will be available to horticulture businesses next year - an uplift of 15,000 compared to what was available at the start of 2022.
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In deep water? Understanding the future climate risks to Pitcairn’s coral reefs
The UK overseas territory of the Pitcairn Islands is one of the most remote in the world. Spanning the four small islands of Pitcairn, Oeno, Henderson, and Ducie, they form part of a remote volcanic outcrop in the Southern …
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Music Is Magic: the charity Christmas single connecting people with learning disabilities and military musicians
The Music Man Project, an award-winning music education and performance service specifically for children and adults with learning disabilities, has teamed up with the Royal Marines Band Service to release a charity Christmas single. The single, Music Is Magic, aims …
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Introducing The Anti-racist Listening Project podcast
I am delighted to once again host adult social workers Nimal Jude and Liz Howard as guest bloggers, this time introducing their latest exciting venture, the Anti-racist Listening Project podcast. Making sure social work practice always challenges discrimination and oppression is imperative if we are to truly promote a human rights and social justice based approach.
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Getting vaccinated saves lives (and helps the health and care system too)
"If I hadn’t had the vaccine, I would have died." It's great to have Think Local Act Personal's Clenton Farquharson back to explain why everyone, including vaccine hesitant care colleagues, should have their COVID-19 booster and flu jabs now.
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Designing in a colour blind world
In everyday life, being colour blind brings about challenges which normal sighted people probably aren’t aware of, like if a banana is ripe or unripe.
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Summer Interns - How GDS coped with our Autism
Introduction Every summer we welcome a number of students from diverse backgrounds into our Summer Diversity Internship Programme (SDIP) and this year, unlike for the last two years, we were able to meet them in person in our offices. This …
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UK NSC receives record number of annual call screening proposals
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) received a record number of 29 proposals during its 2022 annual call for topics. This is by far the most submissions it has received in a single year since the annual call process started in 2016.
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Sheffield Council celebrating 10 years of Supporting Families
To celebrate 10 years of the Supporting Families programme, Sheffield City Council have produced an infographic, https://delta.communities.gov.uk/document-repository/public/download?uri=/document-repository/SF-Infographic-10-years-Nov-22.pdf showcasing the journey of the programme in Sheffield including the successes and sustained changes that families have achieved. Since the initiation of the …
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Apprenticeship external quality assurance update
A huge amount of progress has been made through 2022 with the reforms to how quality assurance works for apprenticeship end point assessment (EPA). Now as we approach Christmas and the new year, I wanted to take this opportunity to …
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How to hold on to a world record
The Civil Service generates millions of pieces of information every year. But keeping records is nothing new – in fact, it stretches back millennia. Records have played an important part in human history for thousands of years. They can represent …
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Accessibility starts with an organisation’s culture
By Craig Abbott, head of accessibility, DWP Digital Accessibility has traditionally been seen as a technical problem to fix. It was usually just a skillset attached to other roles, such as Frontend Developer or Test Engineer. But things have changed. …
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Using legal software to submit digital applications
HM Land Registry’s work to become digital by default is not just about our services on the portal. Here we cover how legal software can help you submit digital applications.
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Watch: Farming in protected landscapes in the Lake District
In the second of our series of films from the Lake District, local farm facilitator Danny Teasdale took us to meet Jasmine Holliday. Jasmine is a Farming Officer in the Lake District National Park and she works on the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme. In this video, Jasmine talks about the ambitions of the programme, which type of projects can get funding, and what works best in the Lake District National Park.
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The “battery-powered” partnerships of Nature recovery
Blog by Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England I’m writing this blog from COP 15 in Montreal where nations of the world have come together to discuss one of the most urgent issues of our age: how do we …
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Why Sir Patrick Vallance considers APHA an important asset to the UK
Hear from Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, as he recently joined APHA’s Chief Executive Officer, the UK’s Chief Veterinary Officer and Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser at APHA’s headquarters at Weybridge to learn more about the importance of APHA’s scientific expertise and redevelopment, as the UK government’s primary capability for animal health science.
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Living with a Food Hypersensitivity in the UK - the costs and the impact on a person’s quality of life
Nicholas Daniel discusses findings from two research reports commissioned by the FSA which help understand the economic and societal costs of living with a Food Hypersensitivity.
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Hinkley Point C (HPC) Site Visit
Samina Khan, Deputy Director for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Department for International Trade (DIT) and Project Delivery Advisor, Kate Hall for the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), share their …
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Developing talent through apprenticeships
My name is Ian Tidmarsh and I'm Lead Business Analyst for Justice Digital - HMPPS. Business Analysts work in multi-disciplinary teams, alongside other digital professionals. We solve problems. We identify, analyse and look to understand different aspects of an organisation: …
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Restoring sealife in the Solent – a $5 million 5-year project
To mark COP15, Louise MacCallum, Solent Project Manager at Blue Marine Foundation, explains how the exciting multi-million-dollar ‘Solent Seascape Project’ will be the first of its kind in the UK to restore a seascape scale marine habitat (credit: Louise MacCallum). …
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Trout, tiles and tariffs: trade remedies matter to consumers too
As economic uncertainty rises, UK households grapple with a rising cost of living, whilst the consumer confidence index has fallen to record lows (Organisation for Economics Cooperation and Development, 2022). We’ve previously looked at the link between the UK’s economic …
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Hoping for a Montreal Moment at COP15
By Dr. Peter Brotherton, Director of Science, Natural England There can sometimes seem to be a lot of COPs. Periodic ‘Conferences of the Parties’ (COPs) are held for all the United Nation environmental conventions. In the UK, greatest prominence is …
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Elective recovery - media fact sheet
This fact sheet sets out the actions the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England are taking to bring down waiting lists for non-urgent care including planned operations. Q: What is being done to tackle the Covid …
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The Commission for Countering Extremism hosts conference focused on tackling extremism in our communities
Last week, the Commission for Countering Extremism hosted its second conference of the year, convening experts from across academia, government and law enforcement. The subject under discussion was how best to tackle extremism in our communities. Speeches for the event …
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How we used co-design to create vet visits
Farmers, vets, industry representatives, and colleagues in government are shaping the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway together. The first step of the pathway is the Annual Health and Welfare Review. In this post, we share how we used co-design to create the yearly vet visits.
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Overcoming different ways of working to improve a public service
People who apply for teaching training have found that getting 2 references before submitting an application, can be a real barrier. Here, Frankie Roberto and Myles Jarvis go into more detail about how data, research and working more closely with policy colleagues has brought about a significant change.
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Secondment opportunities for competition and consumer lawyers
We are launching a new round of secondment opportunities for lawyers, to start on 20 March 2023.
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How to renew your driving licence online
DVLA’s Senior Customer Product & Service Manager, Lee Manchipp outlines the benefits and explains how easy it is to renew your driving licence online.
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A bold idea and a blank sheet of paper- Reflections of the Digital Innovation Campaign
The bold idea had been set out by Gina Gill, the MoJ’s Chief Digital and Information Officer - a Digital Innovation day… which became a week…which became a month, created for all staff across the MoJ to get involved in. …
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The Subsidy Advice Unit – ready for business
The Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) is preparing for launch in the New Year! Read Rachel’s blog to find out more about the SAU team and the unit’s role in the new UK subsidy control regime.