7592posts
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Simpler, faster and better services: MoJ Digital Strategy 2025
When I first took up the post of CDIO (Chief Digital and Information Officer) I spoke to colleagues across the organisation to hear their views and was very grateful to receive a lot of very honest feedback and insights. Some …
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A year on from the launch of the Ofsted review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges
In response to the murder of Sarah Everard, and the release of thousands of testimonies of incidents of sexual harassment via the Everyone’s Invited website, we rapidly put funding in place for the NSPCC to create a bespoke helpline to …
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Dragons' Den Episode 14 Series 19
It’s the last Dragons’ Den episode for Series 19 - what a series! Tonight, once again, we see the entrepreneurs undergoing trial by fire...and the Dragons are as fierce as ever!
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Yorkshire Water and the National Trust; How planting trees on our land can benefit nature, climate and people.
Find out about the partnership work between the National Trust and Yorkshire Water to tackle flood risk by planting trees.
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RPC gives evidence to the House of Lords’ Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
A summary of some of the key issues that Stephen Gibson and Andrew Williams Fry discussed at their session with the SLSC on Tuesday 5 April.
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Grazing, agri-environment schemes and environmental outcomes in the uplands
Grazing is an important part of our farming industry and, for many, management of livestock is more than an occupation: it is a way of life. In this guest post, Rob Cooke, Director of the Greener Farming and Fisheries Programme in Natural England explains the relationship between grazing and environmental outcomes.
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Tools for climate policy (3): six effects of art in policy
This is the third in a series of blogs about methods which Policy Lab has used in the context of climate-related policy issues. It describes using art in policy, with reference to Glass House, an installation/experience which I created as …
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Online choice architecture - how do we end up making decisions we don’t want to make?
How often do you see ‘limited stock’ or ‘last few available’ when you shop online? These claims can pressure us into purchases that we may not want or need. Read Vedran and Ollie's blog for more info.
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One Year Later… The Commissioner reflects on his time in post so far at the National NPCC CCTV Conference
Officially one year into my term as the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, I gave the keynote speech at the NPCC’s National CCTV Conference in Bristol recently. I took this opportunity to reflect on several trends emerging of the last …
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Making the move: Project professional Neal on why Sellafield was the right choice for his career
For Neal Patel, working at Sellafield Ltd didn’t just give him the opportunity to work on some of the most complex and exciting major projects in the UK, it offered him a whole new way of life in Cumbria.
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Talented apprentice shines through in the transport sector
Leora Wilson, is a level 3 transport planning technician at Mott MacDonald. Leora, who has autism, knew she was an extremely hands-on individual who wanted real-life work experience and the correct support, so she chose to go down the apprenticeship …
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Why we no longer use the term ‘BAME’ in government
How we write about race and ethnicity matters. As civil servants, we need to be as precise as we can in the language we use when describing different ethnic groups, and also in how we develop solutions to address the …
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Meet the engineer: Edwin
In the next instalment of our Meet the engineer series, we catch up with Edwin, one of our lead test engineers. He shares more about his role and what he enjoys about working at DWP Digital.
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Schools and Academies Show – April 2022
Catherine Kelsall, Stakeholder and Engagement Manager for the Schools Commercial Team at the Department for Education (DfE) tells us more about the upcoming Schools and Academies Show on 27 and 28 April.
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The Institute talks...about apprenticeships in construction and the built environment
You can listen and subscribe to The Institute talks podcast on Amazon Music, Apple podcast, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms. You can read transcripts for this podcast episode on Podbean. In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about the exciting …
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Landscape Recovery: your questions answered
In February, we launched the first round of the Landscape Recovery pilot. Landscape Recovery is 1 of our 3 environmental land management schemes. To support potential bidders, we hosted a webinar to share information on the application process and answer questions from those thinking of applying. As you can imagine, we received a lot of questions on the day. In this post, we summarise some of the most-asked questions and our replies.
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Effective Enforcement: New outreach programme to help planners
A new outreach initiative aims to share the Inspectorate’s expertise with local planning authority officers and planning agents who deal with enforcement action.
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What you need to know about the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme / Що ви маєте знати про Програму канікулярних заходів та харчування (HAF)
The Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) has been supporting children and families in the school holidays since 2018. Here is everything you need to know about the programme and how it could help you and your child during school holidays. What is the Holiday Activity …
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Government response to EFRA Committee report on labour shortages
On Wednesday 6 April, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published a report on Labour shortages in the food and farming sector. This has received national press coverage in the Financial Times, The Independent, BBC News Online, BBC Farming …
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Kickstart your career in Forestry
Find out more about an exciting new career pathway into forestry with The Development Woodland Officer Programme.
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Growing up in an alien country wasn't easy
Twenty-three years after fleeing Afghanistan’s warzone aged just five years old, Rabia Nasimi tells how she adjusted to a new life and language in London. Now a civil servant, Rabia works in the Afghan Resettlement Team, using her experience to …
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How do you spell “you”? Discovering dyslexia and the power of having mentor
How do you spell “you”? Discovering dyslexia and the power of having mentor Nigel Barraclough, Government Science & Engineering (GSE) member and civil servant for over 20 years, writes about his experience managing dyslexia and how having a mentor made …
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Who will be your GSE winners? Cast your vote now!
Who will be your GSE winners? Cast your vote now! The Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Profession Conference will be happening on 9 May at the London Science Museum. It will bring together decision-makers, scientists, and engineers from across government …
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The night sky in April
With the planets lining up in our early morning skies, the return of the core of our Milky Way Galaxy, and the Lyrids meteor shower towards the end of the month, April can be a great time to enjoy the …
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Help us gather better data on charities
Can you help us test new ways of classifying charities? Data is a central theme of our work in the months and years ahead. Now I’m asking for your help with an early, important set of changes, which will impact each of the 170,000 charities on the register in England and Wales.
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Training the next generation in construction
The publication of the construction route review this week sees the culmination of a years’ worth of discussion, research and testing. I remember discussing the concept of the construction route summit with the Institute in December 2021, with the summit …
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Land Deployed Applications – A Strategic Discovery
“I was personally impressed by the motivation and dedication of the team for this discovery work, and the commitment by all to the articulation of user needs. I have spent some time reading through your documentation online, and I have …
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The next step on our journey to transform accommodation services for Armed Forces families
Our Armed Forces and their families have no real choice where they serve, or when and how frequently they move. More than 39,000 families live in military homes across the UK. Therefore, it’s vital we ensure homes of the right …
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Environment Agency scoops not one, but two wins at annual Edie sustainability awards!
Deputy Director for Sustainable Business Van Griffiths and Net Zero Manager Simon Dawes attended the event and share the details
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Watch episode 3: Land management plans and the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot
Through tests and trials, we want to understand the role that land management plans could play in our future schemes. In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. Each template was developed through tests and trials. One of these templates was developed by the Growing the Goods test and trial group. Watch the final video to see farmers and growers who took part in the Growing the Goods Test & Trial. They share their experience of developing a land management plan.
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Family Hubs: how we are supporting families across the country
Family Hubs offer help and support to families, from early years support to parenting classes, all of which can make a difference – particularly to those families who are going through a tough time. We have announced funding to create …
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How we run service design training as an agile service
The ‘Introduction to service design’ has run as an agile service since 2018 – 35 times so far. The training evolves every time. We share how it works and why this matters.
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Never been to CSL? Here's why you should really go!
An event of learning and discovery, Civil Service Live 2022 is back with a six-date tour spanning five cities, bringing together civil servants for inspiring speaker sessions rich with opportunities. Civil Service Live is one of Europe’s biggest corporate training …
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Ramadan: what it means to me
As Ramadan begins for Muslims around the world, Afshan Khan, a Resource Manager in our Architecture Data Information and Innovation team, shares her thoughts and reflections on what this important time in the Islamic calendar means to her.
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We have a lot of work to do!
Recently, my leadership team and I made a commitment to spend more time understanding our users and their context. To that end I spent time this week with colleagues at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to better understand what their …
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Reflections on my time as the Head of Local Digital
May-N presenting at an event for local government This week brings to a close my two and a half years as Head of the Local Digital Collaboration Unit (LDCU). In this blog post, I want to reflect back on the …
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Strategy to Execution Series - Delivering the Data Foundation Pan-Defence
Welcome to the first in our series of blogs exploring delivery of the Data Strategy for Defence in our Pan-Defence environment. Since the Data Strategy for Defence was published last September there has been a clear shift change in how …
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What to do if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection including COVID-19, or a positive COVID-19 test
Learning to live with COVID relies on us all taking sensible actions to help stop the spread of the virus and other respiratory infections, which in turn will help to protect those who are most vulnerable.
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Podcast: Accelerating digital services using a cloud-native common platform
Hear all about our award-winning approach to developing and adopting a cloud-native common platform and the impact it's had on our digital services.
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Life as a Senior Coordinator in the Official Receiver Services
Rukhi joined the civil service 25 years ago, in this blog Rukhi describes her career to date, life as a Senior Coordinator, how the Insolvency Service is a great place to work, and how she will be celebrating Ramadan.