7643posts
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Moving from the private to the public sector as a designer
Many designers in government either began, or have had extensive careers, in the private sector before joining the Civil Service. In this blog post, they share some of the differences they observed.
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Tree Production Innovation Fund - Spotlight on successful applicants
The Tree Production Innovation Fund aims to support innovative projects to increase and diversify domestic tree production. Find out about three of the successful projects recieving funding.
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Podcast: How to start a career in tech
Three developers from the Government Digital Service discuss common misconceptions about tech careers, and how to get started.
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Time all voices were heard
"I believe social care exists to support people to live healthy, meaningful lives. This requires government commitment for the long term and sustained investment in the future we are wanting to build.", explains Think Local Act Personal's Clenton Farquharson MBE in his latest blog on social care reform.
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Overseas Bases in focus: 8 things you probably didn't know about Gibraltar
Travel around 1000 miles south of London and you’ll be on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. A small-town bordering Spain, with a population of wild monkeys, which uses the Great British Pound Sterling as its currency. Here are 8 things you may not have known about the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.
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Addressing barriers to responsible innovation
We have today published a new edition of our AI Barometer, an analysis of the most pressing opportunities and risks associated with AI and data use in the UK, and of the barriers that prevent us from realising the full …
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5 ways Institutes of Technology are revolutionising technical education
Institutes of Technology (IoTs) are new employer-focused providers specialising in delivering higher technical education across England.
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Hopes for a safe and happy festive season
As this year’s festivities begin, I wanted to take the opportunity to say an enormous thank you to the people who keep things going, social workers, occupational therapists, social care staff in local authorities and everyone working in provider services...
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Civil Service announce their top 10 blogs of 2021
Forget who won Bakeoff or I’m a Celeb. The real burning issue is: who topped the Civil Service’s most-read blog posts this year? Time to reveal all! As we reach the end of 2021, we want to take this opportunity …
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Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi writes to school and college leaders to thank them for their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of the Omicron variant
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has written to school and college leaders to thank them and their staff for everything they are doing to respond to the challenges of the pandemic and the Omicron variant. In it he sets out the …
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Marker in the sand for nationally significant infrastructure programme
The first GDF conference was a day of packed presentations and panels, all focused on a project of huge national significance, explains RWM's Head of Stakeholder Engagement Dr Rachel Roffe.
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How the Holiday Activity and Food Programme is helping our communities
Next week marks the start of the 2021 winter Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) for children and young people across the country. We speak to Jamie Noble, Head of Community at Rotherham United Community Sports Trust, on the provision …
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Factsheet: Provisional Police Funding Settlement 2022/23
The Home Office has published the provisional police funding settlement for 2022/23.
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Tools for climate policy: 1) co-design in parallel to COP26
We are sharing a short blog series on different methodologies that Policy Lab has experimented with in the context of action to address climate change. This, the first blog, describes a policy co-design process we ran last month at the Design Council’s Design for Planet conference coinciding with COP26.
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The Met Office’s Weather Forecasting Expertise Saves Christmas
Every year the Met Office provides a Santa Tracker to help people know where Santa is and help Santa get all his deliveries done on time. This is an innovative use of Met Office weather data that helps with Santa’s …
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APHA at the heart of the biggest ever outbreak of bird flu in GB
The bird ‘flu risk to the UK has resulted in APHA confirming a record high number of cases this winter season. We have a major emergency impacting all corners of the UK: learn how we have ramped up to meet the demand and support swift control plus what you can do to help slow the spread of this disease.
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Meet one of our Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot applicants
Farmers like Charlie are joining the pilot to help us make sure the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme works in practice.
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A heartfelt thank you
"The words ‘thank you’ do not seem enough to express my gratitude for the incredible work you have all done to keep residents, colleagues and communities safe, both as individuals and teams, throughout 2021. They are, however, deeply heartfelt" says Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy in this Christmas message to the care workforce.
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AS and A level results in the autumn 2021 series
Today (16 December 2021) is results day for the autumn 2021 series for AS and A levels in England (GCSE results days are in January and February). We recognise the ongoing disruption that students continue to face, and pay tribute …
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What you need to know about daily testing for COVID-19 contacts
We have said that being in school and early years settings is vital for protecting young people’s education. We have set out the ways we are protecting education and regular testing is a key mitigation to ensure children do not …
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First new and improved maintenance contract comes into force
Today is a day many people in DIO have been working towards for several years. It is the start of a new contract to provide what are called ‘hard’ facilities management services to some of the MOD Built Estate. These …
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The Farming Investment Fund: more notice, more information and a new opportunity ahead
Last month, we launched the Farming Investment Fund. It included the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and the Water Management theme of the Farming Transformation Fund. Since the launch, we’ve had regular conversations to hear your views our approach. We want to make improvements as we go. In this post, I’ll share what we heard and what we’re doing to make things better as a result.
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Future Farming Podcast: the Farming Investment Fund
In the latest episode of the Future Farming podcast, Programme Director Janet Hughes talks to the policy lead for the Farming Investment Fund, Sarah Evered. Listen to find out how the team designed the fund, what we've learned and what's coming next.
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Join the user research panel for GDS products and services
We’re launching a new way for civil and public servants to help us iterate the Government Digital Service’s digital products and services.
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Hen harrier monitoring, tagging and satellite tracking – latest data published
For many years Natural England has been involved with monitoring, tagging and satellite tracking hen harriers. To date, more than 60 individual birds have been tagged by Natural England, helping to determine their fortunes and inform our wider hen harrier …
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‘Business as usual’ for mandating Sustainable ICT
Chris Howes reflects on the work of Defra’s Digital, Data and Technology Services (DDTS) team, and the wider cross-government community, to make ICT/Digital sustainability part of business-as-usual activities.
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How we’re supporting students with their mental health
Going to university is a fun and exciting time for most students – but it comes with unique challenges and stresses and can be extremely difficult for many who choose to go.
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Five ways we’re protecting education
Being in school and early years settings is vital for protecting young people’s education and preventing pupils from falling behind. It’s also really important that children are able to be among their peers and teachers for both their mental health …
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How getting a booster will help protect education
The new Omicron COVID-19 variant is spreading fast. Anyone who is unvaccinated or who hasn’t had their booster is at even greater risk from COVID-19 and more serious illness.
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Fisheries catch limits agreed and licencing discussions conclude
UK secures £190m worth of fishing opportunities for fishing industry
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Improving the governance of taxonomies for UK government data
The Office for National Statistics’ Classifications Team in partnership with the Data Standards Authority (DSA) have created a Taxonomy Oversight Group (TOG), which is made up of a community of cross-government and public sector experts to address the lack of …
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A Christmas message from FSA Chair Susan Jebb and CEO Emily Miles
Warm greetings to you from us, the FSA Board, and all our colleagues at the FSA.
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The new round of Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund opens today
We’re pleased to announce that the latest round of the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund has opened today for applications. The fund helps groups of farmers and landowners in England work together to deliver environmental benefits for their local area. By …
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How a passion for sustainability put me on the world stage
In the run up to COP26 GAD actuary Sara Ronayne was seconded to support HM Treasury's Private Finance Hub. In this blog she shares her experiences and reflections.
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Updating the GOV.UK homepage
We’ve made design changes to the GOV.UK homepage to improve its accessibility and make it a better user experience for the millions of people that visit it every week.
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Not so equal: Is excluding au pairs from the minimum wage still the right thing to do?
This year, the Low Pay Commission was asked to investigate the use of the ‘domestic worker exemption’. Our full response to this is included in our 2021 report, published last week. This exemption, which we have now recommended removing, was …
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Our plan to green up the government estate
What will your future office look like? Although we can’t promise virtual reality meeting rooms and holographic colleagues just yet, we’re making great strides in our quest for a Net Zero government estate. Like every major employer, with offices and …
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2021: A year in NHSX service assessments
In 2021, the NHSX assurance team ran 31 assessment activities. Read more about our assessments and improvements to our service assessment process.
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Podcast – Think digital, act human: the Get help with technology service
How did the critical Get help with technology service come about? Rachel Hope, Deputy director for Teacher services, and Shaf Gunton, Programme delivery manager, talk to Adaobi Ifeachor about the complexities and obstacles they faced and what's next for this essential service.
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What social care reform could and should mean for people with dementia
Social care is vital for people with dementia. Alzheimer’s Society has been calling for social care reform for a long time and welcomed the opportunity to participate in two South West roundtable events, arranged by the Department of Health and Social Care, to discuss what they and other care sector organisations want to see from this process.