6133posts
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Sanctuary Awards 2021: Celebrating 30 years of achievements in conservation and sustainability
I’m Julia Powell, Head of Policy, Climate Change and Sustainability within the MOD’s new Climate Change and Sustainability Directorate. This year, I also had the challenging but exciting role of being Chair of Judges for what were the 30th annual …
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England’s largest ever seagrass restoration project reaches a new milestone
On Saturday (26th March 2022), Natural England announced that England’s largest ever seagrass restoration project reached a new milestone.
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Reducing flood risk – the maintenance work we do to keep rivers flowing
Exploring part of the vital maintenance that reduces flood risk.
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Monitoring, evaluating and learning in the Future Farming and Countryside Programme
In previous blog posts we’ve written about how we’re adopting a test-and-learn approach across the Future Farming and Countryside Programme. We’re doing this to make sure our schemes, services and policies work for users before we scale them up. To make sure we’re on track to deliver our ambitions, we have a strategy to help us to monitor, evaluate and learn as we go. In this blog post, I’ll share a high-level overview of the strategy and some examples of how we’re putting it into effect.
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Making the GOV.UK feedback component more accessible
Here’s how we improved the feedback component on GOV.UK by making it more accessible and more resilient.
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Minister Pow visits Norfolk to announce Coastal Transition Accelerator Project
In today’s blog we are looking at media coverage of our Coastal Transition Accelerator Project.
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Providing effective school-to-school support in a strong, collaborative MAT
Christabel Shepherd and Helen Jones share how school-to-school support has resulted in improvements to the quality of education across Exceed Academies Trust.
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How we’re raising standards in our schools and colleges – what the Schools White Paper means for you
We’ve launched an ambitious plan to give every child the support they need in education. From targeted support in English and maths to ensuring every child has an excellent teacher.
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What the adoption of EdTech has taught us
Sarah Morgan, DfE Demonstrator Programme Lead at Pheasey Park Farm Primary School, explains how the adoption of new technology has opened doors to better ways of learning.
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NIHR Digital Trial Engagement alpha assessment and reassessment
Read the alpha assessment report for the Digital Trial Engagement service from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This report contains the original alpha assessment report as well as the reassessed service standard points.
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Bringing together regulatory thinking in the digital space
We’re delighted to launch the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum’s new #digital regulation research portal! This public portal brings over 80 pieces of regulatory research from 8 regulatory bodies. Read Gill's blog to find out more.
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A day in the life of an interaction designer at GDS
At our career events, attendees often ask us what a day in the life of a designer looks like. In this blog post, 3 interaction designers in different career stages are telling.
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Dragons' Den Episode 12 Series 19
This week’s episode of Dragons’ Den had me feeling ready for the summer. With entrepreneurs sharing plant-based cocktails and squeezy sauce bottles, I was ready to head to the nearest beach.
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Our new strategy: Digital Delivery
Our team As Chief Product and Delivery Officer in the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate of the Department for International Trade (DIT), I get to build, support and sustain our community of Product Managers and Delivery Managers. We’re the …
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Tree Production Innovation Fund - Third spotlight on successful applicants
The Tree Production Innovation Fund aims to support innovative projects to increase and diversify domestic tree production. In our third blog post on the successful projects recieving funding, find out about three more.
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Licensing ‘diversionary feeding’ of Hen Harriers on and around grouse moors
This is one of a series of blogs intended to share updates on our Hen Harrier recovery work. The last blog was on Hen harrier monitoring, and the actions taken when a tagged bird is lost, while this one covers …
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Animal Health and Welfare Grants: your chance to suggest items
Farmers will be able to apply for grants to buy equipment, technology and infrastructure to improve the health and welfare of their animals. To make sure we are funding the items that farmers need to make a difference, we want to get a better idea of what we should include. Let us know your thoughts by the end of the month.
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Epilepsy Awareness - Purple Day 26 March 2022
On Purple Day, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe come together to start conversations around epilepsy to raise awareness and fundraise to make a difference for people affected by the condition. Clare Shillan, who works for the Cabinet …
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Me and my dyslexia: why I’m celebrating being neurodivergent
Anne Kemp, a Business Support Officer within our Group Infrastructure Operations team, shares her experiences of being dyslexic in Defra.
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Neurodiversity Celebration Week: Autistic adult in the workplace
By Terri Hargreaves, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, Sellafield Since I received my official diagnosis in 2017, I have joined the Sellafield Ltd Nuclear Autism Support Network (NASN), and regularly contributed blogs which have focused on autism, mental health, and other …
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Genomics Beyond (human) Health
Genomic science isn’t just restricted to human genomes - yeasts, bacteria, plants, (other) animals, and viruses also possess genomes. Advances in genomic science will potentially yield solutions to many of the key challenges we are facing today, and those we …
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London’s communities remain vulnerable to COVID-19 without full vaccine protection
After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, all corners of our lives have been impacted by the virus whether it’s our health, work, education, or social lives. But we learned very early on that some communities felt the consequences of COVID-19 harder than others, and although the picture has improved, that’s still as true today as it was two years ago.
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Her Land, Her Power: How geospatial tech secures women’s land rights
Amy Coughenour Betancourt is the Chief Executive Officer of Cadasta, an award-winning non-profit organisation that develops and promotes the use of simple digital tools and technology to help partners share critical land and resource rights information. Amy has a wealth …
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Service landscape maps – a tool for mapping public services
This blog post describes how a service landscape map helps you build a collective understanding of government offerings in a larger service area and how to create one.
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Time to Reflect
With life beginning to return to normal, approximately 6 million people globally have been bereaved since the pandemic, with many left unable to grieve their loss properly. Adam Land uses his final blog in our bereavement series to talk about …
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How we’re doing our bit for World Water Day
Today, we celebrate World Water Day with an update on our Water Resources Licensing Service (WRLS) from Product Owner Mark Harvett and Principal Developer Tim Tamimi.
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Improving knowledge exchange programmes in government, academia, and industry
The Government Science & Engineering Profession (GSEP) is working to identify and improve knowledge-exchange opportunities available to scientists and engineers across government, academia, and industry. We want to learn about current schemes in your departments, hear any success stories, learn …
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DHSC: Genomic Science and Emerging Technologies- HEO
The Genomic Science and Emerging Technologies team within the Department for Health and Social Care are recruiting for a Science Policy Officer (HEO). The team has a broad remit including policy on genomic science, emerging technologies associated with human genetics …
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Exciting next steps for Local Digital and Cyber
The Local Digital and Cyber teams are going to be making some exciting changes over the next few months, backed by multi-year funding to the tune of £85 million.
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Your role in improving charity data
If the past few years at the Commission were dominated, as they were for so many others, by our response to COVID, then the years ahead will be dominated by data. How we collect, how we use it, and how …
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The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway: towards a new welfare state for farm animals
In this guest post, Dr. Julia Wrathall shares her views on the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. Julia is an expert in farm welfare and served as the RSPCA's Chief Scientific Officer. She helped to shape species-specific priorities through co-design.
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Food Hypersensitivity Perspectives and Practice Virtual Symposium 2022 – The role of local authorities and businesses
Rebecca Sudworth, FSA Director of Policy, reflects on the recent Food Hypersensitivity Perspectives and Practice Symposium, and how local authorities and businesses can support the food hypersensitive consumer.
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OIM’s UK Internal Market report: First impressions
The Office for the Internal Market (OIM) been working with economists across the whole of the UK to understand how our internal market works, and why it’s likely to exceed £190 billion a year. Read more about it in Rachel’s blog.
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Government action on cancer
Earlier this year, on World Cancer Day, the Health and Social Care Secretary made clear that tackling cancer is a priority. We committed to making this country’s cancer outcomes the best in Europe over the next 10 years. In …
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Overcoming delivery challenges with Common Platform
Common Platform is the case management system being implemented in our criminal courts. It’s at the heart of our large-scale plans to reform the justice system.
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What is Get help buying for schools?
We talked to Rachel Cammiss and Kevin Draisey about Get help buying for schools, to find out how the new service will help people who buy goods and services for schools.
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Driving Reform and Modernisation - My Northwest role
Working hard on your feedback we would like to introduce our - 'My Northwest Role' event.
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Breaking the Bias as a woman in Defence
Hi. I’m Kate Sharman, Assistant Head of the UK Defence Training Estate. The theme this year for International Women’s Day was Break the Bias and focused on how women experience working in a more male dominated area. My mother was …
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Three free Ofsted webinars for school leaders and staff: register to join
Chris Russell, our National Director for Education, invites you to attend online and hear directly from Ofsted. We have now been back inspecting schools routinely since September 2021. As part of our work, we have been listening carefully to feedback …
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How the NHS is supporting nurses to return to practice
Nurses are the heart and soul of the NHS, and I’m so grateful for everything that you do in the most challenging times. I know we need to do more to help you continue to deliver this world-class care, and …