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Nick Clegg visited Oldham Training Centre along with Elwyn Watkins in the run up to the Oldham East and Saddleworth By-election.
Mr Clegg met with young trainees at the OTC and was given a guided tour around the building by management, he spoke with young people at the centre and and showed a genuine interest in what was being achieved there.
The centre is used by over 200 companies and has a wide range of courses available from electronics to mechanical engineering, it also offers training in health and safety and first aid at work.
Speaking to GPSJ editor Stuart Littleford, Mr Clegg said he thought there was hope for young people even in the current economic climate and the public sector under the coalition government will still employ more people than labour ever did.
He also said that labour had no real answers whatsoever.
He was accompanied by Elwyn Watkins the Liberal Democrat candidate for the upcoming By-election who’s recent legal battle saw Phil Woolas removed from office for lying in the election campaign.
Nick Clegg says he is disappointed that Mr Woolas has still not apologised.
Listen to the full interview below.
Siemens IT Solutions and Services has appointed a Head of Government Affairs to champion and develop relationships with central and local Government partners and trade associations. Steven Barker will take this ambassadorial role and lead engagements with public sector working groups concerned with standards in procurement, emergent and changing ICT strategies, plus the identification of innovative products, services and solutions.
Steven Barker has been with Siemens IT Solutions and Services working on environmental sustainability portfolio development and in a strategic planning role since 2008. Before this he was at the Home Office within the IT Shared Services group. He previously held roles at IND (now UKBA) and also with HMSO. Steve has also worked in the private sector in procurement and product management roles.
Clark MacFarlane, Managing Director at Siemens IT Solutions and Services UK, said, “Siemens is a long-standing partner to the UK public sector and the appointment of Steven Barker to Head of Government Affairs will ensure continued proactive discussion and delivery of new ideas and innovations to support central and local Government. ICT innovations and Business Process Outsourcing offer the potential to improve service delivery, save costs and support the drive for more open engagement with citizens.â€
The announcement of the Head of Government Affairs role follows the recent signing of Siemens IT Solutions and Services’ Memorandum of Understanding with the Cabinet Office to deliver significant savings to HM Government as part of the Efficiency Reform Group’s (ERG) deficit reduction programme.
Siemens IT Solutions and Services is a long-term provider of IT and business process outsourcing services to the public sector. Clients include National Savings and Investments (NS&I), Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (VOSA), the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Welsh Assembly Government.
Commenting following an announcement that Wiltshire Police Authority (WPA) will receive a 6 percent cut in grant funding in 2011-2012, Christopher Hoare, Chair of WPA said:
-Cuts to the police budget for 2011-2012 bring very real challenges to ensuring the continuation of an effective policing service that local people rightly expect.
Wiltshire Police Authority is sharply focused on working with Wiltshire Police to ensure that wherever possible this cut will not impact on our local communities and that we continue to provide the services they need.
-Looking ahead, reduced funding of 20 percent over the next four years will present further significant challenges for Wiltshire Police. WPA is committed to doing everything possible to protect services to the public, most notably at the frontline, but we must not underestimate the difficulties ahead.
-We are concerned that the ability to protect the service the public receives will however be seriously impacted by the phasing of the cuts to policing. Over the next 4 years the worst of the cuts are planned over years one (6 percent) and two (eight percent). While we acknowledge the imperative to reduce expenditure, police authorities have called on the government to take a more realistic approach to the phasing of these cuts in order to avoid long term damage to the police service.
-At this time of budget cuts and public concern, we do not believe that the government should continue with proposals to introduce a new form of local accountability for policing, by scrapping police authorities and introducing local elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). We believe this is the wrong response to people’s priorities. The public understand the need to tackle the deficit. They also want to be kept safe. But there is no evidence that PCCs would improve the service the public receive, and every reason to reject this costly and untested proposal.”
A man who collapsed whilst walking home from work in the snow has thanked the people who saved his life today .
Mike Ashton from Kingsdown near Sittingbourne had been walking in sub-zero temperatures early last Saturday morning (4 December) when his body temperature dipped so low he collapsed in an orchard at Chilton Manor Farm, off Highsted Lane, Rodmersham.
Today at Sittingbourne police station he met the people who brought him back to life.
The 59-year-old lorry driver was seen lying on the ground by 30-year-old Nicola Morris who was out walking her dog at 9.30am. She immediately called police and the first officers on the scene were two members of the Sittingbourne Neighbourhood Team, PC Nicki Hunt and PCSO Matthew Link.
PC Hunt said: -When we arrived I couldn’t find a pulse because he was so cold. But when I put my ear to his mouth I heard a very faint breath so I knew he was still alive.
PC Hunt started rubbing Mr Ashton’s arms and legs to get his circulation going while PCSO Link ran to a nearby house to ask for blankets. The officers took off his wet coat and wrapped him in the blankets and a foil space blanket from their patrol car.
We lifted him up to try and get his circulation going, sat him on dry sheeting and he slowly started to come round. said PC Hunt.
She dealt with a potential exposure victim in the snow at the beginning of the year and had been given advice on what to do by paramedics at the time.
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust paramedic Fred Hughes said: “PC Hunt and PCSO Link should be very proud of the first aid they performed before my arrival. It’s thanks to their good work that we were able to end up with a positive outcome.
Their actions were absolutely spot on. They were quick to realise the patient was potentially suffering from exposure. They removed his wet jacket, wrapped a space blanket around him, placed a warm dry blanket over that and then protected him from the wind with his jacket. They deserve a good pat on the back. The incident clearly indicates the importance of people spending just a small amount of time to learn first aid and basic life support.
Mr Ashton met all the people involved in the incident today at Sittingbourne Police station: -I think I owe my life to them. If it had not been for Nicola who was walking her dog I would probably still be there now. And when the two officers arrived they knew exactly what to do to save my life. How can I ever thank them enough?, he said.
He had set off from Chatham at just after 6am that morning, knowing that his partner Angie Ward was snowed in at home and wouldn’t be able to pick him up.
-It just shows how vulnerable you can be in certain situations and how quickly the cold can take hold. The snow was semi slushy so it was three times harder to walk than normal and I was hungry and dehydrated. I remember becoming very slow and methodical and then I started becoming delirious. The next thing I knew the police officers were rubbing me and keeping me warm. If it wasn’t for them I would have died.” he said.
Mr Ashton was treated in hospital for exposure, exhaustion and dehydration but is now back at home, looking forward to Christmas.
PC Hunt said: “We are just pleased that Mr Ashton is OK and that we were in the right place at the right time, thanks to the call from the lady walking her dog who first saw him lying in the orchard.
PCSO Link added: “Being able to help was really rewarding. When we first found Mr Ashton he could barely talk but by the time he left in the ambulance to be checked over at Medway Maritime Hospital he was laughing and joking with us.”
Both officers have been nominated for an area commanders award for their efforts.
Mr Ashton can be heard on this recording.
GMB in the North East today criticised NPower over it threat to cut the pay of it workers unable to get to work in the bad weather conditions affecting the region.
NPower, a major electricity and gas provider across the UK and which has around 9,500 employees has told staff that they must either make lost time back, take it unpaid or use annual leave if they are unable to get to work or are late due to the current adverse weather conditions. GMB denounced the company’s approach saying that it was a draconian response to staff who are working as hard as anyone can to keep vital energy supplies going to customers across the Northern Region at an extremely difficult time.
Joan Anderson, GMB Union Senior Organiser said, -GMB represents thousands of members in Npower and they are up in arms about what the Company are doing.
Let’s be absolutely clear, Npower make massive profits in a sector which is effectively a cartel as a result of past energy privatisation. The result of this cartel during this, the worst December since 1981, is that Npower’s profits will go through the roof as energy demand drastically increases as households and businesses respond to these appalling cold weather conditions accordingly.
Npower is making these profits on the backs of workers who are struggling to get to work. When these workers, most of whom are GMB members, find it just too difficult to get in due to the roads or pavements or public transport being too much of a risk or are not operating properly, are being penalised.
This is the twenty first century, not the nineteenth, and Npower should really show some corporate social responsibility to its customers and workforce and stop this ridiculous policy.
A 69-year-old ex-serviceman was assaulted for wearing a Royal Air Force jacket.
The victim, who was also wearing a poppy, was walking along Sherwood Street, Fallowfield, Manchester on 1 November 2010 at 6pm when he noticed two men standing near to the entrance of the Fallowfield Loop, near to the junction of Wellington Road.
One man shouted an offensive remark about soldiers and when the victim replied, he was approached from behind and punched in the head.
He was then headbutted in the face, leaving him with two black eyes and a swollen nose.
The two men escaped on pedal bikes.
The attackers are described as being aged between 17 and 20 years old, and Asian or mixed race. One man was of stocky build, 5ft 6ins tall, had thin braided hair and was wearing dark clothing.
The second man was of chubby build, 5ft 4ins tall, had short shaved black hair and was wearing dark clothing.
Police Constable Michael Seddon from Greater Manchester Police’s Metropolitan Division said: “This was a mindless and brutal attack on a vulnerable member of the community.
“The victim was left extremely shaken and he is still recovering from his injuries.”
Anyone with any information should call police on 0161 856 4420 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
What’s the real cost of rationalising quangos? Forget efficiency savings argues Marc Cetkowski, Head of Government and Public Sector at global project management consultancy PIPC
It is hoped, of course, mainly by the coalition marketing machine, that the potential devastation caused over the next 6-12 months will be quickly superseded in five years time when the coalition parties stand on the re-election platform and announce -we made the savings…we bought the deficit back into control. But what of the localities and a plethora of half dismantled organisations left in the wake of needing to make cuts at break-neck speed?
Whilst the current model of service delivery could certainly work better, the Government’s rally for reform would be more empowering if there was sight of a master design, a public showcasing of how the new arrangements will deliver improved and more efficient services to people. In education, for example, we currently have significantly sized NDPBs, such as QCA, CWDC, TDA, and NCSL that form a major part of central government’s delivery chain and support network down into front line service staff. While not all of these agencies named are set to be obliterated (some are still under review), they will all be impacted by government’s austerity plans. This may lead to a better delivery model, but the worry must be that without a blueprint for the ‘end state’ design or how we’re going to get there, it’s a bit like setting sail for the New World but scoffing the notion that maps or a navigator might be useful for the journey.
The merging of existing quangos and the return of key functions back into central government departments requires careful assessment and planning – particularly during a period where civil servants with all the experience and historic knowledge may be receiving redundancy packages. How can the government ensure continuity of services to the people of England? ‘Localism’, the coalition will argue, will be the answer. In other words, central government bought us back from the brink in terms of the deficit but under ‘Big Society’ it was always going to be up to localities to decide what to do in response – to make it all work. Without this blueprint of what we are moving to, many predict we will soon arrive at a prolonged period of disjointed activity at most levels of government. This will be marked by inaction and navel gazing as some organisations and localities try to make sense of it all. This will result in inactivity and stagnation, but even this may be preferable to others’ knee jerk reactions causing medium and longer term damage to the service delivery chains across the main government service areas; leading to inconsistent and, in some cases, opposing models of providing services.
So, that’s part of the puzzle – creating and articulating a plan – but even when defined, what of the costs of getting us to the new model? The reality is that change in itself costs money; closing or merging quangos, downsizing organisations and departments, could well be more costly than the savings. The closure of the nine regional development agencies could cost as much as £1.5billion in pension payments; getting rid of the Audit Commission will cost something in the order of £490million in payouts and liabilities; and the Crown Prosecution Service has indicated that its merger with another body will cost around £40million. If the savings are there, then great; but let’s make sure that we know what they are and what the costs of reaching this utopia will be; there should be no excuse for a lack of detailed analysis or planning, a public scrutiny of costs versus benefits, cost savings versus the costs of transformation itself.
Even in the private sector we have seen this time and time again. We often hear of cost savings through consolidation and reorganisation – yet all too often the finance it takes to implement this scale of change is under-estimated. In the private sector, where accountability is king – over 50 per cent of integrations still fail to achieve the benefits promised. Without a plan or integration expertise, what does the Government expect the results to be in the public sector? Mergers and integrations are complex – the private sector would rarely undertake such initiatives without external support, yet the Government is about to embark on one of the largest change programmes in its history at a time when it’s cutting away the expertise to deliver such a change successfully; by which one could define as driving out the maximum benefits at the lowest cost to the tax payer.
One thing’s for certain, we are yet to see any plans or associated costs that, in a transparent and accountable way, provide the future service models that will support the Big Society challenge. Efficiency savings…….unlikely!
The news that Wikileaks supporters had brought down the Mastercard, Paypal, the Swedish Prosecutors office and Swiss PostFinance Bank has highlighted the issue of “cyber demonstrations” by activists. Potentially these will cost businesses millions, and bring down government services.
Where traditionally protestors have stormed buildings and mailed threats, they now use the internet to sabotage websites; the customer channel for most major corporations today. The term coined is – “cyber-retaliation”.
Activists download ‘attack codes’ which create a ‘botnet’. A botnet is malicious software spammed by criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in the security of the recipient’s web site.
The objective of the coordinated attacks is to flood the website with so much traffic it website crashes. The result for the activist is recognition and / or financial gain.
Standard network security tools cannot differentiate between these attackers and real users. The more tech savvy the activist groups get, the greater the incidence of cyber-demonstrations will be.
The Wikileaks attack has done nothing to slow the growth of cyber-activism. It has highlighted botnets as being an extremely effective way of bringing down multiple organisations in return for mass publicity.
Ron Meyran, Director Security Products, Radware is available for information or interview. He can cover any subject relating to network and internet security and the impact this can have on business, governments and society.
About Ron Meyran
Mr. Meyran is an industry security specialist. His views have been published in the press globally. He is also a frequent speaker on the conference circuit and has been invited to lecture as an expert commentator. Mr. Meyran holds a B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Ben-Gurion University and MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Kodak (NYSE:EK) has announced that Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Emergency Department has installed a File Stream electronic document management solution (EDMS), with Kodak i1320 scanner and tethered A3 flatbed accessory, to manage the emergency records of 70,000 patients seen every year. The hardware and software was supplied by Staffordshire-based, Ascot Business Solutions, in a deal worth around £15,000.
Serving a rural and urban population of around 225,000 people, Barnsley Hospital’s Emergency Department has a clinical staff of seven consultants, 18 doctors and around 50 nurses who provide emergency medical care 24/7, seeing on average 200 people per day.
A huge volume of paper is generated as a result which was causing the department issues in terms of storage, management, and then subsequent access to information. Records were kept in department for 6 months, then moved to a basement area for a year and ultimately transferred to a remote and inaccessible area of the hospital â€- nicknamed ‘The Bunker’ for long-term 5 year storage.
Dr Dyfrig Hughes, project leader, explains, -The longer records are in storage, the harder they are to find as each movement increases the chances of files getting mislaid. Something only needs to be slightly misfiled for it to become a really time consuming effort to later source. Secretaries were traipsing to-and-fro to get emergency cards which clearly isn’t productive or efficient.
Each time a person visits, an emergency department record is produced a document containing 5 or 6 sheets of A4 which lists the patient’s name and address, demographic information, a summary of the treatment provided, along with a letter to the GP which summarises the problem and care given. With the high volume of people treated annually, the department was sinking under paper, while also consuming a lot of precious space which could be better utilised for clinical care.
Dr Hughes adds, -Accessing records is important especially when treating children’s illness as the past medical history is important, and we often need records for legal purposes when we have to support the Police with their inquires. With the old paper-based system, we just weren’t able to access information quickly or easily.
The emergency department first considered scanning emergency records some years ago, but it was a small flood in 2008 in the storage area which tipped the balance and the Trust recognised it needed to implement an alternative computer-based solution.
Reseller, Ascot Business Solutions, supplied File Stream’s EDMS solution and a Kodak i1320 departmental scanner, with tethered A3 flatbed accessory, for use in the reception area. Mark Ingram, Ascot’s managing director, says, -Barnsley Hospital took a package from us. A Kodak scanner solution was recommended because of the reputation for reliability, and ability to integrate and working faultlessly with File Stream.
Compact but high performance and ergonomically designed, the duplex Kodak i1320 scanner can process 40 pages a minute in colour [1] both sides and documents up to 34 inches long, making it an excellent desktop workhorse for the department.
Featuring 600 dpi optical resolution, the i1320 scanner comes with Kodak’s Perfect Page imaging technology which ensures that the best possible scanned images are produced first time, every time irrespective of paper type which is ideal for a hospital environment.
Gary Jones, File Stream’s UK marketing manager, said, -It’s a busy little scanner. When you arrive in the emergency department, the receptionist extracts information from the PAS [2] about who you are, prints a top sheet, adds blank pages for medical staff to then fill in and puts the whole lot in a folder. This then follows the patient around, making a loop around the department, with the whole file then scanned in at the end, and the paper destroyed.
The File Stream EDMS has also improved the integrity and security of the emergency record. Urine tests, blood results and heart tracings are all produced using different pieces of coloured paper which the Kodak scanner easily copes with. Everything is now scanned and incorporated in the electronic file thus avoiding any possibility that paper could go astray.
Accessible to authorised medical staff, searching for information is now a breeze and can be done on date of birth, date of attendance, GP, gender, emergency department number and so on. The new system allows doctors to email documents to each other if required and offers instant access to information on patients. Dr Hughes explains, -If I am on a ward, I can call up the notes on a patient who came in the previous day without the need to find the physical records or ring down to secretaries to ask them to find or copy them.
In addition, a lot of time and effort managing emergency cards is saved, with the storage space in the department freed to make room for an expanded children’s area.
Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager for document imaging, says, For a relatively modest investment, Barnsley Hospital has installed a simple-to-use yet robust departmental solution which does away with paper and means staff can focus on helping critically ill patients get better rather than wasting time managing an unmanageable paper process.
Thousands of educators came to experience the first ever BETT Middle East at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, proving the show to be an outstanding success.
Held on Sunday 21 and Monday 22 November 2010, BETT Middle East provided the opportunity for teachers and education ministers from in and around the Middle East to touch, test and discover the very latest technology in education solutions. Co-located with Building Future Education (BFE) MENA, the event highlighted the phenomenal impact that technology can have on teaching and learning.
On the first day, H.E. Humaid Al Qatami, UAE Minister of Education attended the opening ceremony along with a number of other prominent dignitaries. This was then followed by a keynote address from Prof. Ralph Tabberer, chief of schools, and COO MENASA, GEMS Education, on the achievement of ‘world class’ learning in the Middle East. He was supported by a number of exceptionally experienced panellists including Haif Bannayan, CEO, Jordan Education Initiative and Dr. Hala Taweel, President, University of the Middle East Project (UME) to name just two.
On the second day of this two day event, show organisers, Emap Connect, were honoured to welcome H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Vice President of Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).
Throughout the show, the popular World Class Learning central feature attracted hundreds of visitors, wanting to see children demonstrating to teachers their use of ICT solutions in a real learning environment. Led by Professor Stephen Heppell, the feature demonstrated how technology can help to break down barriers and enhance communication. Richard Noble OBE invited students to take part in a competition to design a BLOODHOUND vehicle to raise awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in education. During the afternoon of the first day, the BLOODHOUND SSC challenge sponsored by Promethean awarded certificates to the student winner and runner up in each age group category.
Debbie French, event director for BETT Middle East commented: -With technology increasingly recognised as a successful tool for transforming teaching and learning, BETT Middle East really did provide a phenomenal opportunity for educators within the middle east to see this for themselves. We are thrilled by the region’s response to the first BETT Middle East, and are grateful to all the exhibitors who offered inspiring demonstrations. We look forward to an even bigger and better show next year.”
Endorsed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, BETT Middle East, its feature areas and exhibitors inspired a wide range of educators over the two days. Nearly 100 percent of exhibitors have already confirmed their booking for BETT Middle East 2011. For more information please visit www.bettmiddleeast.com.
There are those who argue that the age of Cloud computing is merely in the minds of the more far-sighted IT visionaries. I have even met those whose businesses are indifferent to the Cloud. This indifference may cost them dearly – and soon. The UK’s new Coalition Government is implementing the – ‘G-Cloud’ strategy (actually the strategy of the last Government) and there are some who claim that it will save the government £3.2bn from its annual £16bn IT budget of £16bn. That’s not just a big saving for the Government – it’s an obvious opportunity for suppliers who can ensure it is secure.
The proposal is to replace the present ad-hoc network of department – hosted systems with a dozen dedicated government secure data centres, costing £250m each. The G-Cloud plans could support everything from pooled government data centres to a communal email solution and collaboration. By 2015 the plan is that 80% of government departments could be using this system. But will it be secure enough?
Safeguarding the IT infrastructure from unmonitored access, malware and intruder attacks grows more challenging as the operation evolves for cloud service providers. And as a cloud infrastructure grows, so too does the presence of unsecured privileged identities – those so-called super-user accounts that hold elevated permission to access sensitive data, run programs, and change configuration settings on virtually every component of IT. Privileged identities exist on all physical and virtual operating systems, on network devices such as routers, switches, and firewalls, and in programs and services including databases, line-of-business applications, Web services, middleware, VM hypervisors and more.
Left unsecured, privileged accounts leave an organisation vulnerable to IT staff members who have unmonitored access to sensitive customer data and can change configuration settings on critical components of your infrastructure through anonymous, unaudited access. It can also lead to financial loss from failed regulatory audits such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Health Insurance, Portability and Accountability Action (HIPAA) of 1996, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 standards that require privileged identity controls.
One of the largest challenges for cloud service customers inside and outside of government is attaining transparency into how public cloud providers are securing their infrastructure. How are your identities being managed and secured? Many cloud providers won’t give their customers much more of an official answer than a SAS 70 certification. How can we trust in the cloud if the vendors of cloud-based infrastructure neglect to implement both the process and technology to assure that segregation of duties are enforced, and customer and vendor identities are secured?
The Cloud Vendor’s Challenge: Accountability
Cloud computing has the potential to transform business technology, but it brings a spectrum of security issues that IT organisations should consider before trusting their sensitive data to the cloud. These issues cause security experts and auditors to rethink many fundamental assumptions about Privileged Identity Management in terms of who is responsible for managing these powerful accounts, how they manage them, and who exactly is in control.
Historically, IT data centres have always been in secured physical locations. Now with cloud computing those locations are no longer maintained directly by the IT organisation. So the question comes down to this: how do you get accountability for management of physical assets that are no longer under your physical control, and exactly what control mechanisms are in place? Can you trust your cloud vendor to secure your most sensitive data? Moreover, if there’s a security breach in the cloud, who is to blame? Is it the cloud vendor that disclaims all legal liability in its contract, or an enterprise that relinquishes control of its sensitive data in the first place?
From the vendor’s standpoint, cloud computing promises to reduce customer headcount, make IT more efficient and deliver more consistent service levels. However, there’s a paradox that when it comes to security (and control over privileged identities in particular) cloud services are often among the least efficient. Many cloud service providers’ processes – based on ad-hoc techniques like scripting of password changes – are slow, expensive and unreliable. And that’s dangerous.
Fortunately the industry is starting to move beyond paralyzing discussions about the security and compliance problems that arise from cloud computing to address them head on. One example of this is the Trusted Cloud Initiative, which was launched at RSA Security Conference 2010. The goal of the initiative is -to help cloud providers develop industry-recommended, secure and interoperable identity, access and compliance management configurations, and practices. However, only time will tell if it will help standardise cloud computing or turn out to be a technology certification of little use.
In addition, several major cloud vendors and ISPs have begun the difficult task of integrating security solutions that are capable of managing the large number of privileged identities that make up their infrastructure (hardware, VM hosts, VM Image OS, application stacks). This has really broken the fundamental model of IT being in control of security and has started to blur the lines between vendor and customer when it comes to the management of security.
The End User’s Challenge: Transparency
In my opinion, the cloud is a really good, compelling idea. It can reduce the cost of IT dramatically. Given that cloud computing is available, the idea of building new data centres these days seems like a last-century way of doing things. On the other hand, for enterprises, the ability to see and touch your own systems in your secured data center does give confidence that you have some measure control of your destiny. But most large corporations don’t have enough IT people or security talent to manage the IT resources they have, and so are turning to outsourcing. Cloud computing is essentially the next generation of outsourcing, so that we’re not only reducing man power, but we’re getting rid of our hard assets entirely by moving them over to data centres anywhere on the planet that are going to manage this more cheaply than we ever could. And the idea of outsourcing security and liability is extraordinary compelling.
Enterprises should ask the right questions of their cloud providers before taking the leap into cloud and blindly assuming that their data is safe there. Every point of compliance that you’re asked to meet an IT organisation and every question you’ve been asked by an auditor should apply to your cloud vendor – and needs to be asked of them. And because today’s cloud vendors offer literally no transparency and little information, don’t be surprised if you don’t like the answers you get. Most cloud vendors would say that for security purposes, it’s on a -need to know- basis, and you don’t need to know. Others state that they’re SAS 70 compliant, but that’s really just a self-certification.
Here are some questions you must consider asking
What kind of security does the cloud service provider have in place to protect your privileged accounts and most sensitive data?
Do they have a Privileged Identity Management technology in place?
How do they control privileged accounts used in cloud infrastructure to manage sensitive systems and data?
How do they manage cloud stacks at the physical layer and application stack layers?
What is your access to audit records?
Whatever regulatory standards your organisation must meet, so too must your cloud vendor. So if you think that by venturing into the cloud you’re saving yourself regulatory headaches, think again.
Conclusion
Security is the greatest barrier towards adoption of the cloud, and it’s no great surprise that cloud security – managing, verifying and trusting it – was a major theme at this year’s RSA Conference. Unfortunately, improvements in cloud security won’t be seen as a priority until a major breach has a significant enough impact on one or more cloud service vendors and customers. That needs to change. When it comes to cloud security, it is the end-user’s duty to understand what processes and methodologies the cloud vendor is using to protect the customer’s most sensitive assets. We don’t want the Government’s ‘G Cloud’ to be compromised- that would be a public humiliation that would have Cloud doubters in their own little Heaven.
Manchester mum Karen Harris, 31, and her stepson Alex Harris, 16, are both embarking on the same BTEC course to become police officers.
Both mum and son are studying at Hopwood Hall in Rochdale. Mature student Karen decided to go back to the books last year to enrol on the Uniformed Public Services BTEC National Diploma and now Alex is joining her on exactly the same course with a view to pounding the same beat when they graduate.
The commitment to being a copper certainly runs in the family as Alex aims to go directly into police training while Karen hopes to go to university before either entering the force or training as a teacher of Uniformed Public Services.
The Uniformed Public Services BTEC prepares students for a range of careers including the Police, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Ambulance Services, the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, the Prison Service and HM Customs and Excise.
Karen and Alex are just two of the millions of students, who for over 27 years have taken BTECs in vocational subjects ranging from business studies to engineering to animal care.
Said Karen Harris: -This BTEC will open up doors to new opportunities for me. And now Alex is joining me at school, I can keep a closer eye on him and make sure he’s behaving himself! I hope that doesn’t make me bad cop!
Said Alex Harris: -I was a bit worried about starting at the same school as my step-mum, but I’m quite enjoying the competition between the two of us. She can drive me in every morning now too!
No speeding into college for these two though, or Alex may find himself arresting his mum!
TRIBUTES are being paid to a Lancaster police officer who died at the weekend.
Detective Inspector Glen Oldham, 44, had served with Lancashire Constabulary for over 24 years, all of which he spent based in the north of the county. His last role was heading the CID team at Lancaster.
Sadly, Glen died suddenly while on holiday in Scotland at the weekend. He leaves his wife Audrey, who works at Lancaster police station as a HR advisor. The couple lived near Lancaster.
Superintendent Richard Spedding, Lancaster Police, said: Glen truly was a top officer and he will be sadly missed not only by those he worked with, who were proud to call him a friend as well as a colleague, but also by the local community who he was dedicated in serving.
-His death has had a devastating effect on the Northern policing family and beyond. We will remember him as a committed and well respected officer, who cared deeply about his work. Glen was always optimistic and hard working, his constant focus on assisting victims touched many and ensured that offenders were brought to justice. His loss will be felt by many and our thoughts are particularly with Audrey and his family at this sad time.
A funeral service will be held at The Priory, Lancaster, at 11.30am on Wednesday December 8.
Improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff is almost certain to be the major factor in the dramatic fall in healthcare associated infections, new research has found.
The DaRo Group, which manufactures hand hygiene inspection cabinets used by NHS organisations for staff training purposes, carried out in-depth research over three months to assess the impact of improved hand hygiene practices in hospital settings.
The research included gathering important information and statistics from key agencies such as the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). It also involved engaging directly with a number of leading infection control experts.
Annette Jeanes, Consultant Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: -In terms of reducing infections such as MRSA and C.diff improved hand hygiene has been the key. Microbiologists and infection control experts have known the importance of hand hygiene for many, many years. However, the real difficulty was changing the hearts and minds of people and getting them to take the issue seriously.
-In recent years patients, politicians and the press have become involved, which has helped to raise awareness of the issue. However, the fact levels of infections are now statistically measured and people are being held responsible for performance is the main reason for improved behaviour towards hand hygiene in hospitals and this had lead to a major reduction in infection rates.
Dr Tony Elston, Consultant Microbiologist and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust said: -I would certainly agree that improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff has been the principle reason for the reduction in MRSA rates and, along with a other measures, has played a vital role in helping to reduce a number of other infections such as C.diff.
-In recent years HCAIs have been falling at a significant rate and it is no coincidence the reduction has happen after stringent hand hygiene improvements were introduced. Hand hygiene for staff is extremely important. Our clinical staff now undergo vigorous hand hygiene training, which includes testing their hand washing competence under an ultra violet ‘glow box’ which highlights any bacteria which is left after the hand washing process.
HPA figures show healthcare associated infections, such as MRSA and Colstridium Difficile have fallen dramatically since the NPSA launched the Clean Your Hands Campaign in 2004 with the aim of improving hand hygiene amongst healthcare staff.
Between April 2004 and March 2010 MRSA rates in hospitals across England fell from 7,233 to 1,898. Similarly, cases Clostridium Difficile (C.diff) in hospitals in England have fallen from 55, 498 in to 25,604 in recent years.
Damon Goodyear, Managing Director of the DaRo Group, based in Sudbury, Suffolk, said: -We wanted this research to be a real fact finding mission. A lot of resources nationally have gone into raising the importance of hand hygiene to stop the spread of infection. However, what we haven’t seen is any report which shows how effective the improvements have been and how much of a role improved hand hygiene has played in terms of helping to reduce HCAIs.
-Our research, backed by the opinions of leading experts, clearly show improved hand hygiene amongst hospital staff is the major reason for the fall of HCAIs in hospital settings. We feel it is only right to make our findings public to ensure the importance of hand hygiene retains a high profile.
Health experts across the UK, Europe and America now agree that improved hand hygiene has played a major role in reducing HCAIs and as a result in May 2010 the WHO launched the ‘Save lives, clean your hands campaign’ inviting hospital workers and healthcare professionals to actively promote hand hygiene to reduce infections. To date 11,500 healthcare facilities representing 6.5 million healthcare professionals have registered their commitment to the campaign.
Washing hands for 20 to 30 seconds according to NHS and WHO guidelines is known to significantly reduce risk of cross contamination, therefore reducing risk to patients becoming exposed to infections. Healthcare professionals should clean their hands before touching a patient, before a medical procedure, after being exposed to a patient’s body or body fluids, after touching a patient and after touching a patient’s surroundings.
-Although improved hand hygiene is helping to reduce HCAIs this is no time for complacency and there is still much more work to be done. Micro-organisms and viruses are becoming much more sophisticated and resistant so we have to keep ahead of the game. Although there is almost a 100% compliance with the national hand hygiene requirements in some organisations, many individuals still do not clean their hands properly and this is something which needs to improve, added Annette Jeanes.
For more information of the hand hygiene inspections cabinets go to
www.handinspection.co.uk
Before we can hope to achieve best practice, we need to address ‘best thinking’ – that is, to assess the patterns of thinking amongst our managers. How managers think will affect the way they manage and interact with their team, ultimately affecting the success or failure of a project or initiative.
In order to bring a project to a successful conclusion and if they are to develop and maintain a strong relationship within their team, a manager needs to have a clear sense of their role.
Over recent years I have started to consider how people think and whether everyone has a mental crib sheet, a ‘to do’ list in their head. As a trainer and mentor, I am a great supporter of management training which focuses on competence and behaviour, but I also believe that the way managers think has a huge impact on their management style.
In fact, I was so convinced that the way managers think defines them as leaders, shaping the way they allocate their time, making decisions and ultimately delivering, that we at pearcemayfield decided to conduct some research into the subject. We carried out a modest research study among practicing portfolio, programme and project managers and assessed the views of their senior managers on their abilities.
The study revealed some intriguing patterns of thinking and it quickly became apparent that the most highly regarded managers are those with a clear sense of direction, who understand why they make a particular decision and are able to articulate the reason for making that decision. This self-awareness doesn’t come easily to everyone and can separate the drivers from the driven.
We asked our sample of managers to make their own personal action list at a particular point in their project or initiative and, of course, no two lists were the same. Where some people are inclined to concentrate the majority of their time reacting to and solving problems, others spend their time more proactively – clearly separating the managers into two groups. We also found that everyone does have a mental cribsheet but that the think-act mechanism varies from one person to another.
The self-aware manager should understand that relationships are central to success and this trait did emerge from our findings, with the leaders showing a distinct bias towards developing and maintaining relationships. By committing between 60 to 85 per cent of their time to engaging with stakeholders, our high performing managers illustrated they were thinking about their relationships in a real and active way, rather than just ticking the right boxes.
Most of us are able to examine the success or failure of our projects and programmes and have the means to measure the performance of individuals. Research from Harvard indicates that personal performance is actually based on being part of a team and on joining a new team those previously performing well experience a drop in performance. If this is the case then perhaps we also need to address the role of the extended team.
From other studies among high-performing project managers it has been revealed that there is a tendency for them to assess unexpected issues which arise before committing them to a formal part of the management process or logging system.
These high performers advocate a cooling off period when faced with unforeseen circumstances, on the premise that many apparently serious issues often come to nothing. They believe it is unnecessary to complicate matters by formally recording an issue which can force unnecessary urgency and demand on the management team.
It seems to come quite naturally to the successful project manager to build extra time, or what we call a personal float, into their working schedules, to allow sufficient time to cover for unplanned events. Interestingly, not everyone in our study was able to work in this way, or was capable of thinking ahead, leading us to examine the ‘knowing-doing’ gap. This differentiation between people seems to come down to someone’s level of self-awareness and self-confidence which they constantly measure against their management capabilities.
Out of our study three particular patterns emerged relating to the way project, programme and portfolio managers think. They are all self-aware, have a bias towards building relationships and an ability to build a personal margin into their thinking.
When looking at how to get the best performance out of our managers which will lead to the benefit of them individually, the members of their team and the business as a whole, if we just focus on best practice, we are missing an important piece of the jigsaw. We obviously need to continue to concentrate on management training in core competencies, but until we start to think about our thinking we will not truly benefit from best practice.
John Edmonds is an experienced project and programme manager and head of training and development at pearcemayfield www.pearcemayfield.com. He was on the authoring team of the highly acclaimed version of the project management method PRINCE2, released in 2009. John writes in his blog called The Opsimath.
www.pearcemayfield.com
CSC (NYSE:CSC) has announced that the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust has successfully completed a proof of concept (PoC) evaluation of its Clinical Information Portal. This was developed as part of a pilot of the NHS Interoperability Toolkit.
Going live on June 10 of this year, the portal was initially deployed within the trust’s haematology and dermatology departments. During the 60 day evaluation period, the success of the portal grew to include two additional departments: cardiology and renal. Since completion in September, due to demand from clinicians, the trust extended the use of the CSC portal for a further two months to cover the period whilst it completed its procurement process of selecting a portal system to be rolled-out across all hospital sites.
The PoC was initiated to enable the trust to evaluate the use of portal technology as a replacement for paper case notes. Working with CSC and NHS Connecting for Health, the PoC project managers devised full assessment criteria against which results could be measured and opinion of clinicians assessed.
CSC partnered with Carefx Corporation, a leading interoperability platform provider, to deploy the portal which is built on Carefx’s Fusionfx platform. After announcing a partnership agreement in April 2010, both organisations have worked together to deliver the PoC at the trust.
The portal has enabled healthcare professionals to obtain a single screen view of a patient’s notes, collated from information currently held in disparate clinical and administration systems across the trust, such as PAS (patient administration system) and PACS (picture archiving and communications system). It has allowed consultants, their registrars and specialist nurses to consult with patients by viewing patient medical history, key treatments, referrals, diagnosis and test results electronically rather than by paper case notes.
Since completion of the PoC, evaluation reports indicate complete success. All of the targets set have been met or exceeded and feedback from clinicians has been extremely positive, indicating that there have been no problems seeing patients without the traditional case notes.
Use of the portal has given healthcare professionals the ability to have instant access to comprehensive patient records, meaning that treatments can be based on the latest data, ensuring care plans are as relevant and as safe as possible. Clinical and administrative efficiency has also increased significantly with clinicians reporting, on average, a reduction of clinic times by up to 30 minutes. Also, nurses no longer have to spend time moving case notes around and clerk time searching for and preparing case notes has been cut drastically, which previously could take up to 60 percent of their time.
-Just being able to view all critical information about a patient on one screen is a revelation, stated Professor Patrick Chu, consultant haematologist at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust. -The use of portals is clearly the way forward to help increase efficiency, improve treatment and diagnosis and patient safety. It will make the paperless clinic a reality which is long overdue. I wholly support the wider adoption of this technology so that healthcare professionals are free to concentrate on the care of their patients.
Supporting Professor Chu’s comments, James Norman, Director of IM&T at the trust also agreed that the success of the PoC has provided the business case required to ensure that a portal solution is deployed across the trust.
-We are aiming to begin full roll-out of a portal system at the beginning of 2011, he said. -To get us to this stage I must give credit to the support and professionalism of the CSC and Carefx personnel that worked closely in partnership with the trust staff to help ensure the evaluation was a success. It has certainly been refreshing for me to see users embrace the system and witness their delight in the end results. We are excited about the efficiencies and opportunities that a portal can bring to the trust through the elimination of case notes and improved access to the right information at the right time for clinicians.
Crucially, as the portal can integrate systems from multiple vendors, this is consistent with the trusts objectives around interoperability, protecting their existing IT infrastructures and assuring flexibility in the future.
Andrew Spence, CSC’s UK director of Healthcare Strategy, added: -This pilot demonstrates how clinical staff can benefit from this approach. By making access to relevant data simpler as part of their workflows, clinicians can spend more time concentrating on their patients rather than IT. No longer will clinicians or administrative staff have to remember multiple passwords and user names and have to interrogate different systems for each part of a patient’s record, which brings gains for everyone.
-The results speak for themselves and I believe the work with Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital will ultimately benefit other trusts in the NHS. It is clear that portal technology can drive efficiencies and provide a more seamless service for patients.
With more than 82 per cent of the adult population now having access to the Internet, Tufin Technologies is warning IT managers of the need to prepare for a potential network overload situation as workers use their company IT resources for everything from multimedia greetings to videoconferencing connections to distant colleagues.
And that, says Rueven Harrison, the security lifecycle management specialist’s chief technology officer, is before we even begin to talk about those organisations that host Web sites in the online retail sector, or process payment card transactions.
“Even at the best of times, the Internet is well loaded with Web surfing and general email exchanges, but the current cold snap, combined with the impending holidays – and the fact that many people are taking their annual leave allocation before the year’s end – means that workers are turning to the Internet to ratchet up their work efficiency,” he said.
“Videoconferencing is definitely in vogue amongst many of the companies we encounter, but the real potential Internet killer is the number of Web site visitors – and the consequential IP traffic that these sessions generate,” he added.
According to Harrison, the potential overload situation will crank up a few more stops this coming weekend as Thanksgiving starts in the US, and Black Friday-driven online shopping starts in earnest.
Amazon, he explained, has done its bit to get users online with its UK-based Black Friday lightening sales, which has resulted in peak-time page issues with the Amazon.co.uk site.
Whilst Amazon is using all manner of Internet load balancing to ensure that users of its site only have to wait a short while for a page to load at peak times, the fact that the mighty shopping giant’s Web site is exhibiting page loading delays indicates the potential scale of the problem, he went on to say.
So what can IT managers do to stop their Web sites – and the company IT resources – from becoming seriously stretched?
The solution, the Tufin CTO says, lies in careful planning.
IT managers and their staff, he advises, need to start monitoring their systems. The firewall, he points out, is a good point for monitoring connection rates.
“If there are rules that you need to report on, make sure that audit logs are being generated. If you are not recording firewall performance stats, turn them on now – before you need them,” he said.
“Secondly, start looking for anything that can cause an interruption of service due to resource exhaustion. What is your firewall connection table limit? If it was 25,000 last year, it probably should be higher this year,” he added.
Harrison went on to say that managers need to look at what their peak IP traffic was last year and what the peak has been so far this year – you should, he says, plan for somewhere between a 20 and 200 per cent increase, depending on your business model.
You will also, he notes, want to ensure you don’t hit your maximum number of IP connections at this time of year.
“Most security experts advise setting this number low enough to stop a denial-of-service, but at this time of year we are expecting sudden bursts of connections, so flexibility is the name of the game,” he explained.
It’s also, he said, worth printing out some hard copies of performance trends from last year. It is much easier if you already have them handy when you are trying to understand this year’s trends.
“Also take a look at all of your disk drives. Logically, do you have plenty of space? Don’t forget to physically walk to your firewalls and make sure there are no failed drives with the little red lights on. With firewalls tucked away in data centres, and drives in RAID, we all sometimes forget to look for faults on devices, like a failed drive in a RAID mirror set,” he said.
“Finally, don’t forget the cloud. If, like many organisations you are running a hybrid data centre configuration, ensure that your cloud service provider has sufficient spare and on-demand capacity to support a surge in peak time demand,”
Using these recommendations, Harrison says that IT managers can develop a good risk analysis strategy that they can update on a regular basis.
As your IT resource grows and diversifies, he adds, your IT security planning will then not get left behind. Then, if the worst really does happen, you’ll be as prepared as possible.
For more on Tufin Technologies:
www.tufin.com or Yvonne Eskenzi on 0207 1832 833 or email Yvonne@eskenzipr.com
The University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded the top prize at the Guardian Public Services Awards 2010 for reducing its energy consumption and carbon emissions by 26% over the last three years, saving £15,000.
As well as the Overall Winner Award (sponsored by Hays Recruitment), the trust also won the Sustainability prize (Sponsored by Capgemini). All of the organisations that won individual categories were considered for the overall award, and Manchester beat eleven other category winners to win the top prize.
At the awards ceremony in London last night, broadcaster Jeremy Vine, who hosted the event, said: -With efficiency and sustainability at the forefront of the public services agenda, the judges thought the long-term energy and cost savings planned at both of the trust’s hospitals made it an extremely worthy Overall Winner this year. In addition to its use of sustainable technology, Wythenshawe – which aims to be Britain’s greenest hospital – actively engages staff to share in its ambition through the provision of employee allotments, cycle to work and car sharing schemes, and the judges said it was an excellent example of best practice.
The prestigious Public Servant of the Year award was won by John Biggin, Director of Doncaster Prison and Young Offender Institution. John, who joined the prison service 25 years ago, won the award – sponsored by Unison – for his outstanding leadership, creativity and commitment to both prisoners and staff, including bringing the Doncaster Rovers football team into the prison to offer coaching sessions. The award was voted for by members of the public.
David Brindle, The Guardian’s Public Services Editor, said: -The Public Servant of the Year category is perhaps the toughest since the candidates have to stand the test of public scrutiny. John’s commitment to the prison service over 25 years is a true demonstration of what public service is all about. Much of what John has achieved has been the result of activities and incentives that dissuade prisoners from rule breaking. For example, in the past year he has introduced media and arts activities to improve education and reoffending rates and has even encouraged Doncaster Rovers to provide sports coaching to inmates. He is a true inspiration, and my congratulations go to John and all the shortlisted candidates.
North Yorkshire Police statement regarding police officer recruitment
In relation to reports in the national media about police forces in England and Wales putting in place a recruitment freeze in response to the Comprehensive Spending Review, North Yorkshire have issued to the following statement:
Having reviewed the force’s financial position, in common with many forces, North Yorkshire Police have decided to cease the existing Police Officer recruitment process and will not be recruiting Police Officers for the foreseeable future.
We recognise that this news is disappointing for aspiring police officers with current applications pending, all of whom have by now received a letter informing them of the situation.
The English National Screening Programme for Diabetic Retinopathy (ENSPDR) is working with Quicksilva, an independent provider of software to the private and public sector, and OLM Professional Services, a specialist provider of consultancy services to the health and social care sector, to put in place a framework for automating the sharing of data between GP practices and diabetic retinopathy screening programmes.
Current information sharing processes have presented barriers to the accurate identification of screening programme participants, resulting in a significant number of individuals being overlooked. Quicksilva has developed a bespoke application, called the GP2DRS database, which will automate the transfer of patient data between GPs and local screening programmes.
At present details of people with diabetes are made available to screening programmes through various manual processes. With 8,000 GP practices and nearly 100 screening programmes in England, this represents a huge administration burden that is also prone to error. As a result, screening programme registers are often incomplete or out-of-date. Built in .NET, the GP2DRS database will automate the transfer of patient details, notification of eligibility and consent for screening, and the return of screening results to GPs.
Esther Provins, National Informatics Lead, ENSPDR said: -Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of loss of sight in the working age population. If caught early it can be successfully treated, but the current system for information sharing between GPs and LSPs represents a number of challenges due to the sheer volume of data that needs to be shared, processed and logged by both parties. This data tidal wave is impacting patients on two levels. Firstly, it restricts screening programmes from identifying individuals that need to be screened. Secondly, we don’t always have the most up-to-date information about current patients, impacting the quality of service they receive.
-The GP2DRS database will significantly overhaul how patient information is managed, resulting in a more streamlined and effective service for all concerned.
The ENSPDR is working closely with screening programmes and national NHS organisations to ensure that the new process is understood and the technology can be adopted as soon as possible.
Gayna Hart, MD, Quicksilva commented: -Without question the GP2DRS database is going to a have a positive impact on the patients’ experience. Diabetic retinopathy screening programmes are outnumbered by GPs 80 to 1, which represents a significant administrative strain for them. Automating the sharing of data will ease the pressure point and allow them to concentrate on other activities that have a direct impact on the service they deliver which they are rightly very proud of.
Quicksilva is delivering the GP2DRS data base in partnership with OLM Professional Services, part of the OLM Group, who deliver technology and consultancy solutions for adult and children’s services, health and the corporate IT market.
Peter O’Hara, CEO, OLM Group said: -In recognition of OLM Group’s ASCC approved supplier status, which demonstrates the strength of our commitment to the sector, we are delighted to partner with Quicksilva on this project. We are proud to be involved in such a vital project that will help screening programmes across England to be more efficient and proactive.
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