This good practice guidance, produced by the Department of Health, is aimed at commissioners and procurement experts and is designed to achieve better procurement outcomes for the NHS by aligning equality and efficiency goals. It is based on the experience and knowledge of specialist procurement and equality staff in 10 NHS Mosaic pilot sites, this guide shares information and encourages innovation.

Tags: Finance, Social Issues, Systems

This review sets out proposals for short, medium and long-term improvements to protect children from sex offenders. They range from bringing in new laws and strengthening guidance, to providing more information about convicted child sex offenders to the public.

Tags: Children's Services, Social Issues, Child Protection

This regulatory impact assessment estimates the costs and benefits of various proposals and options that may form part of a Single Equality Bill, as set out in the consultation document, A Framework for Fairness.

Tags: Social Issues, Discrimination

This Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) addresses the proposals emerging from the Discrimination Law Review which are contained in the consultation document, A Framework for Fairness. The aim of this EIA is to ensure that the implications for equality in all the protected grounds are assessed.

Tags: Social Issues, Discrimination

The purpose of this summary document is to set out briefly the main issues covered in A Framework for Fairness so that readers can decide before reading the full consultation document where their interest lies and whether they want to respond.

Tags: Social Issues, Discrimination

A £500,000 fund is today being awarded to innovative schemes to tackle youth homelessness, ranging from crash pads for teenagers to supported lodgings and a text message service offering housing options. Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced that 27 local authorities and partnerships would receive the investment for their plans to reduce youth homelessness.

National Statistics released today show that new cases of homelessness reported by local authorities have fallen by 17 per cent in comparison to the same period last year to 17,230 - the lowest level since the early 1980s. However, more than a third of new cases of homelessness last year were young people aged under 25. The funding builds on a package of measures announced last year in the Government's National Youth Homelessness Scheme, including a new target to end the use of bed and breakfast accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds by 2010.

Projects being funded include mediation schemes to resolve family relationship breakdowns, which is one of the biggest causes of homelessness, and supported lodging schemes which provide short-term respite support to young people, giving them a place to stay whilst they work through problems and increase the chances they can return to the family home.

Tags: Children's Services, Social Issues

This letter informs Local Authorities and PCTs of arrangements, operated via a bidding process, for the allocation of up to £7 million  to support the development up to six Multisystemic Therapy (MST) pilots.

Tags: Social Issues, Children's Services

Evidence gathered in the Disability Rights Commission’s (DRC) investigation into health inequalities experienced by people with mental health and learning disabilities will be a key starting point for the independent inquiry into healthcare for people with learning disabilities to be chaired by Sir Jonathan Michael, the Commission said today. Read More...

Tags: Culture, Social Issues

The Disability Briefing is a compendium of official statistics on disability, produced by the DRC. The Briefing is divided into three sections:
Section One includes core data on disabled people's participation in the labour market using April-June 2006 Labour Force Survey (LFS) data. This section also includes time series analysis using LFS quarterly data back to 1999, to highlight changes and trends over time. Please note revised LFS data for 1998 and 2001 is currently unavailable from the ONS, so this data is not included in the time-series (see background note for further details). Section Two presents the latest estimates on the disabled population in Britain from the Family Resources Survey (FRS).
Section Three presents a short progress report on research projects undertaken and completed at the DRC over the past year.

Click here to access briefing.

Tags: Social Issues, Culture

The Supporting People programme offers vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing a stable environment which enables greater independence. It will deliver high quality and strategically planned housing-related services which are cost effective and reliable, and complement existing care services. The planning and development of services will be needs led. Supporting People is a working partnership of local government, service users and support agencies.

Click here for the Directory of Supporting People Services available in England.

Tags: Directories, Social Issues

This paper analyses whether Free School Meal (FSM) status is a valid proxy for socio-economic status when conducting schools related research. The authors compare data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) with FSM data. Significant differences are found between the two sets of data, but this cannot be seen as definitive reasoning for questioning FSM as a measure. ALSPAC is not a nationally representative sample and suffers from a lack of ethnic diversity.

Tags: Schools, Social Issues

This information has been put together by the Communities and Local Government team on Supporting People and local area agreements. It covers the latest developments on local area agreements and what they mean for the Supporting People programme. Information has been added on the implementation of local area agreements and the development of local strategic partnerships. There are also detailed examples of enabling measures requested for Supporting People from the pilot, second and third rounds.

Tags: Social Issues, Community Engagement, Local Area Agreement

This conference will be held in London on 28 June 2007 and will focus on the personalisation of care, how social care services are being shaped by the people who use them, and what needs to be done to further improve this work. It will be an opportunity to showcase the innovative work that is already happening in social care and how far social care has come in meeting the challenges of the white paper 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say'. Read More...

Tags: Social Issues

This one-day seminar is for current and potential commissioners of housing improvement agency (HIA) services from Supporting People, health and housing services, and senior management from HIA service providers. It will be held in Birmingham on 26 June 2007 and in London on 18 September 2007. It will look at how good commissioning practice will lead to effective service delivery and value for money outcomes. Read More...

Tags: Social Housing, Social Issues, NHS