9956posts
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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.
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Funding available for robotics and automation in farming
From 9 January 2023, farmers, growers and agritech businesses in England will be able to apply for funding to develop innovative ideas in the areas of robotics and automation. In this post, I’ll give an overview of the competition, dates for your diary and links for you to find out more.
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GAD engages at GIRO
GAD actuary Tejas Dholakia shares his experiences of participating in GIRO - a major actuarial conference on general insurance.
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The Paludiculture Exploration Fund invites you to explore the future of wet farming on peat soils
By Jim Milner - PEF Project Manager, Natural England and Jordan Champ - Senior Policy Advisor, Lowland Peat, Defra In our first blog post in September, we introduced paludiculture, a system of farming on rewetted peat soils. Paludiculture offers an …
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UK NSC public engagement on genome sequencing wins prestigious award
A public dialogue on the implications of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for newborn screening, commissioned by the UK NSC, has won the 2022 Market Research Society (MRS) award for public policy/social research.
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Using collective intelligence in government: a view from the Policy Profession Unit
We recently wrote about how Collective Intelligence tools can be applied to complex policy areas. This blog is the first in a series of guest posts from policy teams sharing their experiences of working with our Collective Intelligence Lab. We …
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Companies House reform: identity verification
At Companies House, we will be implementing a new identity verification process to help deter those wishing to start companies for illegal purposes. Find out how anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK will need to verify their identity to prove that they are who they claim to be.
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Designing services for the family court
Senior service designer, Leanne, explains what it’s like designing services within the family jurisdiction. This is the third in a series of blog posts from our User Experience and Insight team on how we make sure we design and deliver our digital services with the user at the forefront.
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Our apprenticeship journey so far
Apprenticeships are a great way to nurture talent and shape careers. We sat down with some of our latest recruits to find out more.
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Data Challenge 2023: the semi-finals
The latest CDDO blog covers the infamous Civil Service Data Challenge, which is open to all Civil Servants regardless of department, role or grade, seeking ideas on how government can better improve its use of data, with a prize of 50,000 and development support for the winning submission on offer.
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Disability History Month - Question and Answer with artist Christopher Samuel
Christopher Samuel is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing facets of his own lived experience. Christopher’s works can be found in the Government Art Collection. The team from the Collection sat down …
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Flood risk management plans published
(Photo credit: Cumbria - Johnny Kidd, West Cumbria Rivers Trust) Over the last 3 years we have worked in partnership with lead local flood authorities and other partners to develop Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs). Today we have published …
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Creating new wetland habitats on the River Thame, Buckinghamshire
As we mark Biodiversity COP15, Hilary Phillips, Senior Project Officer for the River Thame Conservation Trust, explains how partnership working has transformed 32 hectares of floodplain grassland across two sites in Buckinghamshire into complex wetland habitats. At Eythrope on the …
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Making the GOV.UK Frontend typography scale more accessible
The GOV.UK Design System team plans to update the typography scale in the Design System making it better for users and service teams.
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Guardian coverage of the Natural Flood Management Programme report
Today we are looking at coverage in the Guardian of the new Environment Agency report which evaluates the impact of our national Natural Flood Management Programme.
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New career: how you can boost your skills and pay
Whether you are looking for a better job or wanting to advance in your current profession, a Skills Bootcamp can be a great way to boost your prospects. Skills Bootcamps are free and designed in partnership with local employers to …
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How we’re levelling up the accessibility of our digital services
Raising the standard of accessibility across digital services is a difficult job for public bodies. Read on to find out what we're doing about it.
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Hundreds of prison leavers to be offered new technologies as part of the Prison Leavers Innovation Challenge
Through the Prison Leavers Innovation Challenge, we invited small businesses to develop digital technologies that could help offenders steer clear of crime after leaving prison. Here's a glimpse at two of the pilots that launched last month.
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Some changes to the public sector digital accessibility regulations
The public sector digital accessibility regulations have changed. Find out more about what’s next for digital accessibility.
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Resetting our rivers – how taking them back to ‘stage zero’ could help nurture nature
Matt Parr works in Lincolnshire’s Fisheries, Biodiversity and Geomorphology team and has been with the Environment Agency for 10 years. Here, he explains how he’s working to restore the glory of local rivers by resetting them to their natural state, …
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Helping unpaid carers get vaccinated helps us all
With the winter upon us, it’s more important than ever to protect ourselves and those we care for against COVID-19 and flu and get vaccinated. But how do we increase take-up among unpaid carers, a critical and highly valued group of people? Emily Holzhausen OBE, Carers UK, considers what more we can all do.
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Veterans get say in first official UK survey
The very first UK-wide official survey for veterans and their families is now under way. For another six weeks, veterans across the country can have their say and help to shape the future of veteran services. Funded and commissioned by …
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Summer Interns - Communications, it’s not all digital
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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Watch: Sustainable farming in the Lake District
In this film, local farm facilitator Danny Teasdale explains how environmental improvements go hand in hand with food production in the Lake District.
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Coverage of the Chief Medical Officer’s air pollution annual report
Today we are looking at media coverage of the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report on air pollution.
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Better information about qualifications – what would help you?
You can share your views to help shape the future of qualifications information on Ofqual's Register.
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An update on the first round of Landscape Recovery projects
In summer, we announced the 22 projects chosen for the first round of Landscape Recovery. We initially said we would recruit up to 15 projects, but we were so impressed with the quality of applications that we ended up extending this to 22. In this post, I’ll share more about the projects, including how they …
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Positive dementia care: a win for staff and residents
Looking for a meaningful career where you’ll be able to make a real difference to people’s lives every single day? Whether you’re new to care or you’ve got years of experience, this blog from a care home manager of homes specialising in dementia care is an inspiration.
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#DIGITAL ASBESTOS
How surveillance sensitive are you? When it comes to public space surveillance it’s an important question if you happen to live in what is one of the world’s most watched democracies. And it’s even more important now that the government …
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Sharing user-centred design lessons learnt at the Home Office
We’ve learnt a lot of lessons on how to build a successful user-centred design community. We want to share those with you.