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BNP leader Nick Griffin tells GPSJ they are hated by the politicians and people should vote for them as a protest against the political elite. Stuart Littleford speaks with Mr Griffin in Oldham as part of the coverage of the By-election. Listen to the interview below.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage tells GPSJ what the have to offer voters in the Oldham East & Saddleworth By-election. He tells Stuart Littleford that a good manufacturing base is key to economic stability. Listen to the interview below.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg tells GPSJ that the government is taking cybercrime seriously in 2011. He was speaking to Stuart Littleford on a visit to Oldham in support of Elwyn Watkins for the upcoming by-election. Full interview below.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley tells GPSJ that he is happy with the way the swine flu crisis is being handled and with the advice he has been given for the under 5’s. He also said patients will benefit from GP’s controlling budgets The idea is based on the notion that GPs have a better understanding of patient need than the managers who currently make these kinds of decisions with funding. He was speaking to editor, Stuart Littleford, at LTE scientific, Saddleworth on the by-election election campaign trail with the conservative candidate Kashif Ali. Full audio interview below.
The following statement is issued on behalf of Assistant Chief Constable Pat Geenty On 13th July 2010 at Oxford Magistrates Court Sergeant Mark Andrews was found guilty of causing Actual Bodily Harm to Pamela Somerville whilst she had been a prisoner in police cells at Melksham Police station on 4th July 2008. Following an appeal his conviction was quashed by Lord Justice Bean at Oxford Crown Court on 18th November, 2010. At the appeal Lord Justice Beane concluded that the injury to Pamela Somerville was not intentional and was not as a result of criminal action by Sergeant Andrews. Whilst respecting that decision our concern was such that it was felt appropriate to independently examine whether any Police conduct breaches had occurred hence the conduct hearing that has now concluded. The conduct hearing made up of senior officers from outside of Wiltshire have carefully listened to witnesses and considered all relevant evidence in this case. It has reached a decision that Sergeant Andrews should be dismissed from the force and this will take place with immediate effect. We have always accepted that Pamela Somerville was injured whilst in our care and I want to apologise again to her for the way she was treated whilst in our care. We acknowledge that there has been substantial media coverage and public interest in this case and that the images on the custody CCTV will have had an impact on the force and those who work within it. The criminal appeal hearing concluded that Pamela Somerville had been lawfully arrested, was intoxicated, very uncooperative, verbally abusive, and disruptive to the processes which the law required the Police to carry out nevertheless this conduct hearing has concluded that Sergeant Andrews actions whilst not criminal fell well below the standards expected. I hope that this decision will be of comfort to Pamela Somerville who was injured whilst in our care and I want to emphasise that she had not committed any crime. The public can be reassured that their safety remains our top priority and we will learn any lessons that need to be learnt to reduce the chance of any such future incident. The public can also be reassured by the fact that this incident was first reported by another Police Officer. She acted in accordance with the highest traditions of what the public expect of a police officer in bringing her concerns to notice and our view of and support for her actions are not changed. Police Officers and Police Staff have a duty to report concerns to supervisors and will always be supported in doing so for the benefit of us all. There can be no greater responsibility than the care of people in our custody regardless of the reason for that custody and considerable effort and importance is placed on ensuring that processes, systems, training, and staff attitude is directed towards facing up to that responsibility The Police have the power to arrest people in charge of a motor vehicle who they have reason to believe are suffering from the effects of alcohol and who then fail or refuse to provide a specimen of breath for a breath test. Both trial Judges accepted that Pamela Somerville was lawfully arrested and taken to the custody centre and that it was justified to return her to her cell. Lord Justice Bean concluded in his summing up following the appeal that it was evident that Pamela Somerville was intoxicated, very uncooperative, verbally abusive and disruptive to the processes which the law required staff to carry out. None of this justified the way in which she was treated. Pamela Somerville was not prosecuted for any offence and the original charge of failing to provide a breath test was withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service No matter how good our systems, processes and training, it is impossible to give a 100% assurance that guidelines will not on occasions be broken. Whilst that is unpalatable it is a reality of the complexity of Policing. This incident occurred well over two years ago and in that time in excess of 30,000 people have been dealt with in custody centres in Wiltshire. During that period there were no other serious assaults of this nature and although there were a small number of complaints of assault (less than 20), none were substantiated following thorough investigation. Wiltshire police and its managers will not shirk from our responsibility to continue to reduce the chance of a re-occurrence of such incidents. As part of a wider national inspection programme the force has undergone four independent inspections, two by the National Police Improvement Agency, one in respect of mentally disordered offenders and one by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and the Prisons Inspectorate. The latter inspection involved a total of 13 Inspectors arriving unannounced and spending four days with the Force. They carried out a thorough inspection in respect of ‘Dignity and Respect’ and produced a favourable report highlighting national best practice and concluding that interaction with detainees was ‘Respectful’. Independent visitors are able to enter any part of any custody centre unannounced. They regularly do so and have unrestricted access. No issues have been raised concerning the treatment of detained people. Wiltshire Police has CCTV throughout its custody centres and this is being upgraded now to comply with new national standards. We are not complacent and we welcome the fact that the Wiltshire Police Authority has commenced its own independent review of our custody practices. We will not shirk from our responsibility to continue to ensure that we provide a professional service to the public.
Debbie Abrahams the Labour candidate for the Oldham East and Saddleworth By-election visited a sports centre in Oldham . Kaly’s Sports Centre has ‘state of the ar’t cricket practice facilities and huge childrens paly area, she met locals and saw how the centre is helping the lcoal community. The centre is owned and run by councillor, Shadab Qumer, who wanted to put something back into his local area and is proud of the way the facilities are helping the youngsters. Debbie met and spoke to members of the centre and was given a few lessons in cricket batting. Debbie said recently: It’s an honour and a privilege to have been selected as Labour’s candidate. Now I’m looking forward to getting out and meeting as many residents as possible in the next few weeks to listen to their concerns. It’s important that the real issues and concerns of people in the borough are not lost during this by-election campaign. People feel let down by the LibDem-Tory broken promises on police cuts, tuition fees and VAT. It doesn’t have to be this way, there is an alternative. This is an opportunity for people to send a message to the Government. Oldham East and Saddleworth needs a Labour MP who will stand up and fight for them. I’m determined to keep my promises and deliver the best possible deal for people in this borough. Oldham East and Saddleworth CLP chairwoman Jill Reid said: “This selection process has attracted a great deal of interest and I would like to thank all the candidates for the way they’ve conducted themselves. The members have had the final say and in Debbie Abrahams we have chosen a candidate who knows the borough well and will stand up and fight for local people. With the by-election approaching I know that Labour now has the best candidate to represent Oldham East and Saddleworth in Westminster. Only Labour will stand up for the people in the borough.
Drastic cuts announced in October’s spending review, whilst achievable, could easily result in chaos to services if not managed appropriately. As the scale of the required savings in local government finally becomes clear, the reality is dawning that many authorities simply do not have the band-width or skills to deliver the budget reductions in any way other than through service cuts. Much of the opposition to the austerity package from both the public and unions is being driven by this fear. In fact, our research and experience over many years shows that most councils could achieve the required savings through enhanced productivity, with service cuts being an absolute last resort. However, it is a fact that historically the sector has been poor at delivering such improvements and departments will never have been through anything like this before. Indeed, few will have the skills to deal with the kind of dramatic restructuring and behaviour change needed to drive necessary productivity increases in the order of 20-30%. Yet, if this were to be achieved it would satisfy the coalition’s requirements whilst also preventing frontline services from ending up as the fall-guy. There is a real risk that officers will attempt to get there by taking a ‘top down’ approach where broad-brush mathematic percentage cuts are imposed on middle managers without any attempt to restructure, remove inefficiencies and take difficult decisions regarding performance management and accountability. In short, without fundamentally changing the way in which the departments operate. However, such fundamental change is precisely the approach which provides the solution to the problem. Our work includes detailed shadowing and minute-by-minute recording of the activity of managers and other staff in the private and public sectors. We found that while junior management and staff in the private sector are on average productive for 44 per cent of the time, staff in the public sector were productive for only one third of their working day. To put this another way, approximately two-thirds of the working day of junior staff in the public sector was ‘lost’. In simple terms, if utilisation rates in the public sector matched those of the private sector the same work could be done with a staff reduction of nearly one-third. Clearly there are differences between the two sectors and a direct comparison is overly simplistic. However, our analysis clearly identified the categories of lost time and found that typically one-half to two thirds of the lost time is in fact recoverable. This sort of dramatic increase in utilisation would help significantly in delivering the savings without cutting activity levels or service provision. Of course, high levels of ‘lost’ time in the public sector do not indicate that staff are either lazy or incompetent. Our analysis shows that those people who come to work determined to do a good job, work hard and do their best often find a range of hindrances stacked against them. So how can the public sector bring about a radical improvement in productivity? Our analysis together with over 24 years experience of implementing productivity improvement programmes, points quite clearly to the need for a significant cultural change, with a much more active management style, combined with better management control systems and more individual accountability for performance. Yet, often in public sector departments, the systems are not in place to analyse staff utilisation levels in any detail nor to identify variances to plan early and prompt managerial correction. This means that amongst management there is often the view that their people are working at full capacity. This feeds the belief that greater efficiency can only be achieved through a dramatic external intervention, such as an expensive new IT system, or outsourcing. The evidence of our work shows quite clearly that this is not the case. During Knox D’Arcy’s work for the public sector, we have also found that there is a huge disparity between the amount of time managers think they spend actively managing and the reality, indicating that getting managers to realise they also have to change is part of the challenge. Many managers in the public sector are just not good enough at setting clear expectations, identifying and confronting off-schedule performance and other basic management activities. Indeed, often the culture of the public sector runs against this approach. Chief Executives must also recognise that simple exhortation will not rectify these weaknesses and that management needs help to get through this challenge. Paul Weekes is Principal Consultant at Knox D’Arcy (www.knoxdarcy.com), a management consultancy.
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.†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? 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.
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