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FlyingBinary announced on October 26th 2012 a major expansion of G-Cloud Services only eight months after the initial G-Cloud Framework Agreement awards. Jacqui Taylor, FlyingBinary’s CEO, commented, -Most Departments have legacy systems that are inhibiting adoption of lower cost, flexible cloud solutions. We’ve taken a big data approach and our services assist delivery of policy, ministerial or transparency commitments, while paving the way toward Open Data commitments now and in the future. Recognising that the move to cloud services may require a staged progression, there are specialist services for on- and off- boarding from legacy to G-Hosting to G-Cloud in addition to standard Platform and Software As A Service (PaaS, SaaS) offerings.
For data- and analytics-oriented systems, FlyingBinary now offers end-to-end data visualisation and publication services within public and private cloud environments. The database tier uses Actian Vectorwise, the world’s fastest analytics database, while the presentation tier uses Tableau Software, called the -darling of the magic quadrant by Gartner earlier this year. In addition to these core offerings, FlyingBinary also provides a Social Intelligence service allowing insights from the social web to enhance government and citizen engagement, and an HR Analytics service that provides state of the art capabilities to assist workforce management. Commenting on the technologies employed, Taylor said -It’s only by combining best in class database and analytics platforms that we can offer these integrated cloud services in a true big data fashion.
For email and collaboration platforms in additional to existing G-Cloud Google Apps services, FlyingBinary is now able to assist migration from any legacy email system as the portfolio includes the Lotus Notes migration management service utilising CIMtrek technology. -We’re really excited that users no longer have to lose the rich functionality built upon the Notes system and can finally move their applications to their chosen a cloud platform, said Taylor.
The G-Cloud initiative is designed to deliver fundamental changes in the way the public sector procures and operates Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by providing access to systems that are flexible and responsive to demand, deliver faster business benefits and reduce cost. FlyingBinary is one of a cohort of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) providers awarded a Framework Agreement for the provision of G-Cloud II Services.
Key to all the service offerings from FlyingBinary is a central concept of collaboration and information sharing. FlyingBinary believes that such collaboration is essential for achieving greater efficiency and maximising value for money. With programmes such as the Civil Service Reform, and an environment of continuing economic distress enforcing real resource limits, it is more vital than ever that Departments have the ability to leverage the new technologies available. Although there is a lot of hype and misinformation, big data in this context is really about blending internal and external data sources onto a single platform to deliver a 360o view, and allow Departments to maximise the value of every asset, especially their people, added Taylor.
FlyingBinary provides disruptive analytics and cloud computing solutions and services. The company founders have over 40 years experience of delivering large scale programmes in both the public and private sectors, and created the company in 2009 to provide a lightning rod for organisations wishing to engage with best of breed new technologies. FlyingBinary champions the business user, and is unrelenting in the quest for rapid, agile business value.
For more information:
FlyingBinary: www.flyingbinary.com, @flyingbinary G-Cloud: gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk, @G_Cloud_UK Actian: www.actian.com, @ActianCorp, CIMtrek: www.cimtrek.com, @cimtrek
Yorkshire Ambulance Service has successfully implemented a pilot scheme across it Patient Transport Services (PTS).
The scheme, which saw the introduction of Talecom Wireless Delivered technology and CoPilot Live Professional over Motorola Solutions ES400 mobile computers, has seen improvements in patient care, reporting efficiency and the reduction in its carbon footprint as a result.
PTS crew performance is measured on the vehicle arrival time, departure and how long the patient spends in transit, all of these are monitored by the NHS board of commissioners.
Before the implementation of the new technology, reporting on the efficiency of the service was a manual process, as David Johnson, ICT Associate Director for YAS explains:
Previously, the PTS crews would pick up their paper log sheets along with their vehicle prior to working the day’s shift.
The log would list out in order the schedule of patient transportation and, as the day progresses, arrival and departure times would be hand written in by the crew, along with any specific data relating to the patient.
Apart from occasional contact from the on-vehicle radio or a mobile call, the crew worked the shift, returning the completed job logs with the vehicle at the shift end.
With the exception of some crew members who used their own personal devices, none of the PTS vehicles were equipped with satellite navigation, leaving crew members to plan out their own daily routes.
Measurement was limited to a spot check of 10% of the job sheets that would be manually input and analysed monthly to meet with NHS KPI criteria.
This was proving to be a time consuming and inefficient method of measuring overall performance objectives.
One of the main benefits of the new process is that it is helping YAS maintain accurate records as a KPI. In addition to an almost 100% record of arrival and departure of patients, real-time monitoring enables other KPIs such as the maximum length of time that a patient remains on board the PTS vehicle.
As David explains:
YAS covers a broad geographic area taking in both urban and rural locations. A PTS vehicle operating in Leeds can pick up five patients and be back at hospital within the designated two hour period.
In rural areas there is likely to be fewer patients on each journey but each patient is likely to spend longer on the vehicle. With the Talecom Wireless Delivered solution and CoPilot Live Professional over a Motorola Solutions ES400 mobile computer, we are looking to manage the PTS crew’s workload more dynamically.
Our objective is to do more patient pickups per PTS route while taking into account variables like the maximum amount of time the first patient has been on the vehicle.
A climate-change activist has warned that the world should prepare for life after global warming.
Danny Bloom, 63, Director of the Polar Cities Research Institute said: Living in polar cities is the only best hope for people to survive after 2121 A.D. because billions of people will die from climate change due to causing events like excessive heat waves.
Only remnants of humans will be alive in polar cities scattered across the Northern regions of Earth, New Zealand and Australia.
”The time to start discussing, planning, pre-sitting and pre-building Polar cities is now.â€
Mr. Bloom worked with Deng Cheng-hong, a Taiwanese artist in 2008 to produce designs for self-sufficient Arctic communities.
These include a leisure activity centre that can hold up to 200,000 people and a greenhouse area where food can be grown.
His theory is based on the ideas of British chemist and inventor James Lovelock who envisaged life in polar cities surrounding the shores of an ice-free Arctic Ocean in a greenhouse-warmed world.
Mr. Bloom commissioned a Christian writer in Oklahoma Tulsa writer Jim Laughter to write a new novel titled ”Polar City Red” about a family living in a polar city in Alaska in year 2075.
Mr. Laughter’s 200-page novel explores how faith and religion will survive in a post-apocalyptic world, and asks questions like: “Would mankind’s sins of the past follow him into the future?”
“Jim Laughter’s novel is the first literary novel to ever talk about polar cities, and it deserves a wide readership, both as entertainment and as serious and prayerful thinking. Time is running out,” Bloom says.
Mr. Bloom is a graduate of Tufts University with a major in Literature and a minor in French and Philosophy and his work was reported in the New York Times by Andrew C. Revkin in 2008.
Mr. Bloom is the author of Be Resourceful, Protect the Earth: A Virtual Graduation Speech to the Class of 2099 appealing to college graduates in 2009 to help preserve the earth.
Mr. Bloom’s Polar Cities blog can be found at
pcillu101.blogspot.co.uk/
Internal investigations are often associated with a suspicion of ‘misdemeanour’ ie, health and safety violations, fraud or financial impropriety. Their prevalence in the private sector is influenced by prosecutorial and regulator encouragement and by compliance need.
The question for local government and the wider public sector is whether you too should embrace this trend.
Cost-cutting by prosecutors and regulators has encouraged private sector organisations to carry out their own internal investigations, with the expectation of more favourable sanctions when blowing the whistle. The government is keen to replicate the success of corporate internal investigations in the US to uncover fraud, bringing the facts and key perpetrators neatly gift wrapped to the prosecutors’ door. Internal investigations are also perceived as advantageous to the organisation which might itself be the subject of investigation, prosecution and fine, showing that they have done everything in their power to uncover and investigate wrong-doing.
Government entities are not immune from sanction under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. If local government presents a problem to central government, they won’t be thanked. If they present a problem with a solution, particularly a forensically credible one, it will negate the criticism.
Who should conduct an investigation?
In a recent American case, the company identified an internal compliance failure and fraud. They immediately brought in their Wall Street lawyers. A top-to-bottom internal investigation was advised. The company agreed but decided to use its own, internal resource, albeit supplemented.
Unfortunately, this did not appease the prosecutor. The credibility of all internal investigations relies on a substantial degree of independence. Had the corporation appointed external independent investigators from the outset, they would likely have been in a stronger position. Replace that private sector corporation with a local authority and it is easy to see how the media and political opponents might make a mockery of the investigation’s findings.
The appropriate skill-set is crucial within the investigation team including criminal and regulatory, public law and employment law capability, often supplemented by civil litigation advice.
Key considerations:
Understanding the public sector is critical. This is not a simple straight line read across from private sector internal investigations. It is essential that the investigations team can take account of the -hard” law issues arising from the general public law obligations, for example of fairness, and from the Human Rights Act 1998. The team also needs to understand, and anticipate, the disclosure issues than can arise under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Perhaps most importantly, the investigators need to recognise the different governance and accountability issues that exist for publically-funded bodies.
Practicalities:
1. Who are the likely perpetrators and who knew about the matter? All tainted individuals and departments must be removed from the investigation process.
2. Timing is key. Government bodies such as the police, HSE, UKBA or SFO may need to be contacted but the first port of call should be a lawyer. Part of their remit is to advise on when, and to whom, a report is made. Managing the early stages of an internal investigation is critical.
3. Evidential preservation is everything, managed by a tight, small, confidential, specially formed group of independent senior managers.
4. Internal and external communication is vital: lawyers frequently work with PR consultants to manage this process carefully.
Dealing with employees
An investigation is vital to establish that an employer followed a -fair process” in disciplining an employee. To avoid an unfair dismissal finding where misconduct is alleged, an employer does not have to prove that an offense was committed by the employee, but must instead show that it had a -reasonable belief” that the individual is guilty. Without conducting a full investigation it is impossible for an employer to prove at tribunal that the belief it holds in the employee’s guilt is -reasonable”.
Furthermore, the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures explicitly states that employers -should carry out any necessary investigations” in disciplinary situations. Failure to comply with the Code can result in an uplift of up to 25% on any damages awarded to the employee.
Conclusion:
Only the most ambitious in-house counsel would attempt to conduct an internal investigation themselves. The public sector is in the unenviable position of being at the crossroads of so many conflicting legal obligations that specialist advice is imperative.. Done properly, an internal investigation can pay for itself and provide its own structure for crisis management.
Adam Chapman, Partner
T: 0207 814 1205
E: achapman@kingsleynapley.co.uk
Following consultation with universities Kinetic Solutions, the UK’s leading specialist provider of student accommodation, conference and hospitality management software has introduced a new product, KxInspections to assist in delivering greater operational efficiency that could potentially help universities to achieve competitive advantage.
KxInspections is bedroom inventory control software that completely automates traditionally paper based processes, capturing accurate information in a fraction of the time and streamlining charges and refunds with automated uploading of data.
Many universities in the UK, including Edinburgh and Kent have already proactively sought to improve efficiency, utilising the successful, established KxStudent software from Kinetic Solutions which manages the entire student housing process, updating students’ records and rooms.
KxInspections synchronises directly into the back office KxStudent system, offering universities the most comprehensive student accommodation software solution available, with tangible results including large resource savings achievable from the post inspection administration process.
One of the first organisations to integrate this solution is specialist student accommodation provider Liberty Living, provider to more than 30 of the UK’s most prestigious universities.
Andrew Brewer, financial and systems controller for Liberty Living comments; -We chose to work with Kinetic Solutions to develop the room inspections software based on their understanding of our business, our historical relationship, the integration capabilities with the established suite of Kinetic software and their innovative approach of developing solutions that have real commercial benefit.
Some of the key features of KxInspections that provide greater efficiency, include the ability for inspections to be automatically generated if students move rooms and sending automated correspondence immediately following an inspection. There is a function to track the overall condition of inventory stock and the inspection status can be set at ‘pending’ if further assessment is required.
Charges and refunds are streamlined with automated uploading of data so that damage charges can be automatically deducted from deposit payments and deposit refunds can be made faster and more efficiently. From both the university and the student perspective this is obviously enormously appealing.
Chris Wildsmith, managing director of Kinetic Solutions is delighted by the response to KxInspections, commenting; -For over 14 years we have been integral to our clients businesses, a trusted partner developing real solutions that deliver real impact. We listened to our customers who were having problems with managing inspections and inventory, worked with them to develop the product and were able to launch within six months.
KxInspections liberates universities to spend even less time on administration and more on improving the student experience, which ultimately enhances the reputation of the university.
For further Information on KxInspections or Kinetic Solutions student accommodation, conference and hospitality software visit www.kinetic-solutions.co.uk
Organisations can find out about the potential impact of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) for their staffing policies and practices with a new White Paper ‘Trauma in the Workplace’, authored by UK military veteran’s charity PTSD Resolution. A free copy of the White Paper is available for download.
PTSD can not only affect those involved in front-line police and security services, but staff in a wide range of positions, particularly those engaged in stressful job functions or with members of the public.
Colonel A Gauvain (Retired), a counsellor and chairman of PTSD Resolution, says:
Mental health disorders account for one in five of all work days lost and cost UK employers £25 billion each year. Trauma in particular can result in depression and behavioural problems for employees. Left untreated, the condition may cause avoidable accidents, extended sick-leave and dismissal – and represents a major legal liability for Government, Councils and other employers.
PTSD can result from an incident at work, he says; but also from an event outside the workplace, many years previously, with the effects only surfacing as a result of domestic or work pressures, for example.
Disturbingly, most managers are unable to recognise the symptoms of trauma, from research by the charity. This is why PTSD Resolution has introduced a half-day course: TATE, Trauma Awareness Training for Employers (Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London, Nov 29th, £199 plus VAT).
Resolution is a UK charity (No. 1133188) that offers free counselling to UK Armed Forces veterans and reservists. It also provides support for HR personnel and line managers in public and private organisations to meet employers’ statutory obligations – and avoid the financial impact and the personal cost to employees of trauma.
The trauma awareness training course enables managers to recognise trauma symptoms; understand the effects on staff behaviour; engage with traumatised people to identify practical options; and find a clear route to resolving workplace difficulties caused by trauma.
A free copy of the White Paper is available for download and also details of the half-day course in central London, Nov 29th 2012 TATE Training – www.ptsdresolution.org
Charity at Work
Resolution therapists are trained in Human Givens Therapy (HGT), which includes a form of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TFCBT), consistent with the guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
Patients are not required to talk about the traumatic events. The programme policy is that re-exposure is better done in the client’s visual imagination and while in a relaxed state, protecting confidentiality and reducing distress. This relatively new development of TFCBT is similar to Imagery Re-scripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT).
The Resolution network was launched in February 2010, following a three-year pilot programme, which included a project with the Falklands Veterans Foundation and helped ex-services personnel recover from symptoms which had lasted 25 years in some cases.
The programme has an 83 per cent success rate across the 266 UK veterans treated to date. This is similar to the recovery rate in the recent study of 599 stress-related cases from the general population who were treated using HGT: over 70 per cent reached a significant and sustained improvement after an average of 3.6 counselling sessions.
Treatment is complementary to the work of other armed forces charities, because it can resolve the immediate mental health issues that may be barriers to successful help under reintegration and resettlement programmes.
Therapists also work in prisons, and there is an active programme of engagement with the prison service nationally. The patron of the charity is Lord Ramsbotham, former Inspector of Prisons. There are an estimated 8,500 veterans in prison with 3,000 on parole. NAPO estimates that half this number suffer from PTSD and related disorders.
Resolution provides a service that is absent from the national provision for veterans’ mental health, according to the charity; of those veterans that access counselling through other channels, research suggests that the majority approach their GP and just receive medication, without dealing with the trauma. One study of vulnerable veterans found that only 4% of those seeking counselling had been offered evidence-based therapeutic help.
For further information Contact:
PTSD Resolution at www.ptsdresolution.org or Tel 0845 021 7873 or e-mail contact@ptsdresolution.org.
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Across the country universities are preparing to intake thousands of new students for the coming academic year. During this time, universities will have to manage an influx in the number of security swipe cards issued and an increasing number of modifications to existing ones. As such, it is critical that universities streamline operations as it is simply not good enough for a new student or employee to be denied access to a campus location because of a delay in security synchronisation – and that’s where data integration fits in.
Newcastle University, one of the UK’s leading institutions of higher education and home to over 17,000 students and over 5,000 staff, is set to benefit from the implementation of a sophisticated data integration solution. As a result, the university aims to improve access to campus facilities and customer service.
Access all areas
Newcastle University already had a secure campus based on swipe card access systems to buildings and residential sites. However, its door security system comprised of a number of different legacy based implementations and technologies, all served from a central hub on campus. This meant that the synchronisation of security information and access rights, down to the various discrete systems and card readers across campus, historically happens on a batch basis once a day. Students and staff often found that they would have to wait up to 24 hours before any changes to access rights were effective at the door level.
Working with data integration specialist, Talend, Newcastle University is set to deploy a reliable and scalable enterprise service bus solution, which will enable the university to bring data from different applications together to manage their campus-wide security, accurately and in real-time. With the ability to securely manage huge data volumes efficiently, the university will be able to synchronise real-time access rights changes. For students and staff alike that means unhindered access to all buildings all the time.
Business-wide benefits
The security project is not the first partnership between Newcastle University and Talend. In the past, the firm has worked with the university to deploy an open source data management tool to streamline data efficiently and to provide real-time access to institutional information for its students and staff members.
After implementing an open source data management tool, the university not only sped up the processing of data but it also improved data quality due to the system’s scheduling capability, meaning that jobs can be run automatically at any time. Working in this way, the university gained a round the clock system which processes data instantly, eliminating the chance of human error and allowing staff members to focus on their core teaching. Being open source, the solution also helped Newcastle University to keep costs low and implement the product within days or weeks rather than months, which is often the case with proprietary software.
In fact, new open source solutions are significantly bringing down the cost of handling the voluminous and diverse amount of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data organisations create, capture and store – the so-called -big data”. There is little or no upfront cost and open source software leverages commodity hardware. And, from the perspective of the public sector, open source technologies are allowing them to gain a level of business intelligence that would have been completely out of their reach before.
The big picture
Working with a trusted data expert, universities have the ability to dramatically improve data management and integration across a whole host of operations. At the forefront of technology, Newcastle University has shown exactly this and as students start to flood in for the start of this academic year, the university can be confident that no student or member of staff will have to wait to access critical campus locations or struggle to receive real-time institutional data.
The concept of home working has come back to the top of the agenda this summer with many organisations having been encouraged to give staff the flexibility to stay away from the office in order to reduce pressure on transport systems during the recent Olympics.
When the plans to allow home working within the civil service were announced in May, there was widespread criticism from business leaders who feared several weeks of inactivity. More recently, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, added his voice to the debate when he described the concept of home working as a ‘skiver’s paradise’.
However, these critics overlook the numerous advantages of a switch towards home working – which is not only beneficial for ‘back-office’ workers but also for teams that deal directly with the public.
That’s according to Ian Cox, Managing Director of Performance Telecom, a company founded in 1999 which provides multi-faceted customer contact solutions to a wide range of medium and large organisations.
He said: -It’s absolutely right that a greater adoption of home working would ease pressure on transport systems in our capital city. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Any effort to reduce unnecessary traffic and pollution should be applauded, but the long-term efficiency benefits of home working must not be ignored.”
It’s a practice that offers advantages not only to members of staff but also the organisations that employ them – and the customers they serve. That last point makes home working particularly pertinent for those involved in customer contact.
Mr Cox said: -I attended a Home Working Summit for the customer contact industry in London recently. Delegates were told that in the US, around 60 per cent of employees of customer contact organisations are now working from home, and this is expected to rise to 80 per cent by the end of next year. While the use of home working can reduce operating costs by as much as 20 per cent, it can simultaneously increase efficiency by the same amount, and job satisfaction ratings typically rise by between 35 per cent and 50 per cent.”
So while Boris Johnson makes barbed comments about ‘malingering’, the commercial world is taking a very real interest in the multiple benefits of flexible working.
Of course, it’s not for everyone and the Mayor of London was right to highlight the importance of face-to-face meetings and personal interaction. But there has to be some flexibility that allows staff to work from home where there are clear advantages in doing so.
-There are obvious benefits in terms of easing traffic congestion, cutting travel costs and reducing pollution but there’s also growing evidence that giving customer-facing employees the option of working from home can have a profound effect on not only their own job satisfaction but also, by nature, on customer satisfaction too,” said Mr Cox. -Studies suggest that productivity, accuracy and task completion can all improve as a result of home working.
-Furthermore, home working gives organisations access to a huge pool of untapped talent, including the disabled, young people and single parents, all of whom have a lot to offer, but often have difficulty travelling into offices.”
The efficiency savings that can be derived from having a ‘virtual team’ are also highly significant at a time when there is so much pressure on budgets. By embracing these types of improvements in working practices, organisations can secure vital cost savings.
A key factor in the rapidly advancing case for home working is technology. The latest technology not only gives employees greater freedom to decide how and where they work, but also enables employers to keep track of their activity and facilitates highly efficient operation.
There are a number of key steps to creating a successful home working strategy, according to Performance Telecom.
The first is to ensure that there is a project sponsor within the organisation, a person who will champion the decision and lead the project forward.
The second is to consider starting with a pilot, typically 5% to 10% of existing staff who volunteer to work from home. The pilot will help shape the final solution and ensure that future expansion is smooth and trouble-free.
Thirdly, it is important to see a home working team as entirely virtual, from the agents and team leaders, to managers and even IT support. Trying to mix a home working solution with a traditional bricks-and-mortar team is fraught with issues and will dilute the project.
Finally, and most importantly, team up with a technology partner such as Performance Telecom providing all of the key parts of a system, effectively co-ordinating voice, data, security, information and integration to give you a seamless, multimedia call centre experience, no matter where the agent happens to be.
-Home working is a topic that deserves serious consideration rather than insulting soundbites,” said Mr Cox. -With the right technology partner, it is not difficult to establish a framework for home working to becoming a key organisational strategy that not only improves job satisfaction and morale but also supports improvements in service delivery, while simultaneously contributing to cost savings. That adds up to a compelling proposition.”
www.performancetelecom.co.uk
Britain’s insecure hospitals are presenting terrorists planning a dirty bomb attack with a bonus second wave target.
Terrorists detonating a chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear explosive (CBRNE) device in one location could easily follow up the first attacks with a follow up bomb in anyone of the UK’s hospitals that have been described as ‘wide open’ by security chiefs.
The ill preparedness of medical, ancillary and hospital security staff in dealing with a CBRNE attack would render the hospital useless and potentially contaminated for months after any attack.
This is the assessment of retired Brigadier General Galatas Ioannis, who served as Commandant of the Olympic Hospital CBRNE Response Unit during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Any hospital suffering an attack would have to be shut down, trapping existing patients and blast attack victims within the confines of the hospital until authorities were satisfied the survivors and area were safely decontaminated.
Galatas gave the warning at the London Counter Terror Expo which paid particular attention to security at the London Olympics.
He described a scenario where terrorists would plant an incendiary explosive device designed to spread deadly germs, nerve agents or radioactive material over a large area.
Casualties would result from those caught in the primary explosion and secondary victims contaminated with the ‘dirty’ element of the bomb.
The effect could then be multiplied by terrorists targeting the hospitals to which the victims would be dispatched, a move calculated to create overwhelming strain on the contingency and resilience of the authorities.
Hospital wards, intensive care units and mortuaries would be rendered off limits to all but a few trained staff benefiting from protective clothing and equipment.
All these facilities in most hospitals are currently inadequate to cope with mass bomb casualties followed by contamination.
There are few isolation wards and there are no contingencies in place for contaminated waste water management.
Galatas asks: Is there one NHS or an acute care hospital that is in a state of preparedness for such an action that could happen at an event like the Olympics either it is top secret or nobody cares.
He added: The British Government has left each NHS trust to plan for CBRNE contingency so each trust has bought what it wanted to which in most cases means there is no equipment compatibility from trust area to area.
Hospitals are an easy target, people can come and go with ease, security staffs are basic and poorly trained and there are few if any fences at most UK hospitals.
In the event of a major attack followed by a secondary strike on a hospital, the hospital would have to shut down its services to the general public and be treated as a contaminated area.
The walking wounded would have to be turned away by security staffs that are not trained in the use of Personal Protective Equipment.
Faced with the possibility of contamination themselves the hospital staff would retreat from contaminated patients locking themselves in a safe area of the hospital building or fleeing the area completely.
They would not want to come into contact with contaminated victims they could not help anyway.
Galatas does offer solutions to meet the CBRNE threat that includes increased future medical training, laboratories to be equipped with more germ and nerve samples so contaminated materials can be identified quickly.
Terror medicine should be included in all medical training, more nuclear medical departments and biological labs created.
Non medical hospital staff educated in how to respond and support and facilitate fixed decontamination units in hospitals.
Crucially hospital buildings should have enhanced security.
Galatas advises: When planning think like a terrorist – when implementing think of a victim.
Further information:
Syrian chaos threatens to provide Chemical and Biological weapons shopping basket for terrorists
Spokesmen for the Anti Assad, Syrian National Council, have warned the probability of Jihadi terrorists acquiring chemical and biological weapons will increase exponentially if the Assad regime collapses.
Islamist salafist radicals fighting the regime or regime allies Hezbollah could acquire some or all of Syria’s massive stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
Syria possess large quantities of sarin nerve gas, Tabon gas, VX gas and mustard blister agent.
The stockpiles are stored in over 37 facilities across the Syria.
The regime has also at least five chemical weapon production facilities located in the cities of Homs, Hama, Latakia, Palmyra and al-Safira, and two storage depots in the towns of Khan Abu Shamat and Furqlus.
Syria’s neighbours Jordan and Israel fear the regime might transport its chemical weapons to Hezbollah, as it already has with many of its missile stockpiles.
United States and British intelligence agencies also fear the weapons will fall into the hands of Jihadi Salafists for the purpose of international terrorist attacks.
M15 chief Jonathan Evans warned that Jihadi terrorists still pose a direct threat to the Olympics and beyond in a rare speech last month.
Stressing the Arab Spring has created a more permissive environment for Jihadi extremists Evans said: “Some are heading home to the Arab world again” adding:
“And a small number of British would-be jihadis are also making their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen.”
Some will return to the UK and pose a threat here.
This is a new and worrying development.
Organisations can now use their generated solar energy even when the sun isn’t shining, with the launch of TRI-CELL, a highly-efficient storage system for solar power from TRITEC.
TRI-CELL makes it possible for organisations that generate their own clean energy through solar PV panels to store this energy and use it later. TRI-CELL’s combination of an intelligent energy management system, modular inverters and battery technology mean that solar PV systems can work at maximum efficiency at all times, increasing the financial savings on offer from solar power.
Advanced battery technology
The lithium iron nano-phosphate batteries used by TRI-CELL – which are well-established, safe and environmentally-friendly- have a nominal voltage of 96V. The batteries are comprised of 3.2V blocks, with a capacity of between 60 and 100 ampere hours, depending on the configuration.
Electronic monitoring of all cells prevents individual cells from overcharging and exhaustive discharge. As a result, the batteries are highly reliable. What’s more, the batteries have a lifespan of approximately 5,000 charging and discharging cycles, which means that they will last, on average, 20 years.
Independence from the public power supply
TRI-CELL’s modular inverters have grid feed-in function for on-grid and off-grid operation. This means that organisations generating their own solar power can choose whether or not to feed their excess power into the national grid, depending on their needs. TRI-CELL gives the potential for a solar PV system to be largely independent from the public power supply.
Complete safety
TRI-CELL can be used in single-phase or three-phase parallel operation, which guarantees high efficiency. The secure electric separation of module connections, battery and mains supply ensures a high degree of safety and enables the utilisation of thin-layer modules.
Steve Griffiths, Sales and Marketing Director at TRITEC UK, comments: -Day or night, regardless of the weather, it’s now possible to take advantage of solar power right around the clock, by using the TRI-CELL storage system. Maintenance free and highly reliable, TRI-CELL’s state-of-the-art technology opens up the potential for even greater financial savings from your solar PV system by maximising its efficiency.
www.tritec-energy.com/uk/
Azad Zangana, European Economist at Schroders comments:
-The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the UK economy has contracted by 0.7% in the three months to June 2012. The estimate confirms that the UK is now in its third quarter of its double-dip recession, making it the longest double-dip recession since records began. Compared to a year earlier, the national income is down 0.8%, but the cumulative decline in real GDP during this recession is just shy of 1.4%.
-The results for Q2 GDP are poor to say the least. While the vast majority of economists had forecast another negative quarter, the final print was worse than even the most pessimistic forecast surveyed by Bloomberg. The ONS has explained that special factors have had a negative impact on the data.
The extra bank holiday to celebrate Queen’s Diamond Jubilee means that the economy had lost a day of production/activity. In addition, the ONS points to the wet weather during the quarter, which appears to have impacted construction activity and retail sales. In addition, it is worth bearing in mind that these are still preliminary numbers that are subject to revisions. The ONS has little hard data on activity in June, when most of these special factors would have hit.
-Looking ahead, we expect the UK economy to return to growth in the third quarter as most of the special factors that dampened activity in the Q2 reverse, but also thanks to an additional boost from London hosting the Olympic Games. The Olympics have helped lift employment through temporary jobs created for the games, but also additional working hours being made available in the retail sector thanks to the relaxation of Sunday trading laws. The extra demand from tourists visiting for the games should slightly offset the cost of the disruption to the local economy, but one of the big factors boosting GDP in Q3 will be the inclusion of money spent on tickets for the first time.
-Nevertheless, the data is clearly showing more underlying weakness than we expected, especially in the service sector of the economy. We continue to forecast the economy to return to positive growth in the second half of the year, though we also forecast a return to recession in 2013, partly caused by the Eurozone debt crisis, but also partly caused by a lack of effective policy left available to the Bank of England.
We expect the Bank of England to continue its quantitative easing programme beyond November, but we do not expect the programme to have a meaningful impact. As a result of the latest GDP figures, we have therefore cut our annual 2012 GDP forecast from -0.1%, to a very weak -0.5%. We have also cut our 2013 forecast from 0.7% to 0.5% growth, which is significantly lower than the latest consensus of 1.6%.”
Kitchen cleaning experts, Ingot Services have netted a prestigious contract with Premier League giants Liverpool FC.
After seeing off some stiff competition the Suffolk-based company are all set to deliver a top cleaning service for all of the busy kitchens at the Anfield ground.
Managing Director Alan Maynard says: -“We are delighted to add such an iconic name to our client list and look forward to establishing a long term relationship with Liverpool FC.”
-The kitchens cater for hundreds of thousands of visitors every year so our service is paramount.”
Ingot Services, who celebrate their 25th Anniversary this year, have also succeeded in renewing their contract with Coventry City Council, demonstrating their commitment to winning business nationally as well as locally.
Alan continues: -By winning new business we are also creating employment opportunities and have recently been able to take on a further six operatives, meaning we now have an even greater capacity to fulfil cleaning requests anywhere in the UK.”
Ingot supply a full kitchen cleaning service, including deep cleans, and duct cleaning – an area often overlooked and a potential cause of devastating fires. They work to suit each client at times that are most convenient and issue a certificate of proof of cleaning, requested by most insurance companies, along with before and after pictures.
For more information on Ingot’s services visit www.ingotservices.co.uk or call 0800 731 7892
Yorkshire based Fibrelite, the world’s leading and largest manufacturer of fibreglass access covers has won the Yorkshire Exporter Award, sponsored by Leeds Metropolitan University. The judging panel included The Bank of England.
-In on-going tough economic times it is more important than ever to highlight business success in the region, commented Ian Briggs, Editor of TheBusinessDesk.com.
Fibrelite’s strategy is based on significant growth in export sales particularly into new industry applications as an alternative to metal. Fibrelite currently supply over 70 countries around the world. -We are an international thinking business not a UK company trading abroad, says Ian Thompson, Managing Director who accepted the award.
Fibrelite developed the innovative ‘lightweight’ composite cover for petrol station forecourts and from there quickly went on to be adopted worldwide. Fibrelite is considered as the industry standard by the major international oil companies and continues to lead the way in composite innovation. Many industries including water treatment, railways, telecommunications, power stations and other utilities are already specifying composite as an alternative to metal and concrete.
The increase in metal costs has stimulated the theft of metal manhole, trench and gully covers. Metal theft is now having a serious impact on the global economy through inflated insurance premiums, high repair and replacement costs as well as causing extremely serious health and safety hazards. Fibrelite is strategically placed to utilise its quality, high volume manufacturing facilities in the UK, US and now Malaysia to offer a very cost competitive alternative to metal that can benefit all affected industries.
Fibrelite Launch NEW Eco-Friendly Product Development
Following significant investment in new tooling Fibrelite has successfully adapted the manufacturing process to utilise recycled glass fibres reducing waste and carbon emissions. This eco-friendly manufacturing process means Fibrelite is now able to produce the most cost-effective trench panel to date resulting in significant cost benefits to customers.
Fibrelite’s composite covers provide the perfect alternative to heavy, corroding metal and crumbling concrete access covers. Ideal for access to sewage systems, underground pipework, drainage networks, electrical junction boxes, water treatment plants and commercial fuel storage.
The UK has a positive perception of the Tees Valley economy and the area’s business opportunities according to research undertaken at the country’s largest housing conference.
The study, which took place at the Chartered Institute of Housing conference, was spearheaded by leading local housing and regeneration companies Vela, Coast & Country, Fabrick and North Star and Tees Valley Unlimited, the Local Enterprise Partnership for Tees Valley.
The majority of those who took part in the study were aware that more jobs have been created than lost during the last 12 months and that 12 Enterprise Zones have been designated in the Tees Valley.
Visitors to the Tees Valley ‘Open for Business’ stand at the CIH conference were asked to fill in a short questionnaire.
The key findings are:
80 percent were aware that a major steel plant recently had re-opened at Redcar.
75 percent knew that £30m was being invested in housing projects by housing associations and local authorities in Tees Valley between now and 2015.
60 percent knew that there are 12 Enterprise Zone locations in the Tees Valley.
59 percent were aware that the Tees Valley is in the North East England.
59 percent knew that more job gains than losses had been announced in the Tees Valley between April 2011 – 2012.
The Tees Valley housing and regeneration companies took the opportunity to promote the area as a fantastic place to live and work, as well as promoting the development of new sectors including renewables and digital. The Tees Valley Perception Survey helped gauge delegates knowledge and of the area.
Stephen Catchpole, Tees Valley Unlimited Managing Director, said: -Our research demonstrates that key messages about emerging opportunities and investment being made in Tees Valley are starting to have an impact outside the area.
With Tees Valley LEP tasked to help stimulate economic growth and job creation, it is vital that we engage with representatives from a wide range of sectors so it was important for Tees Valley to have a strong presence at the UK’s largest housing conference.
The study and the ‘Open for Business’ initiative presented ideal platforms for us to inform a wider audience of our progress and what future opportunities will be available within the Tees Valley area.
Cath Purdy, Vela Group Chief Executive, said: -The Tees Valley Perception Study has demonstrated how awareness of the strides being made to improve the area’s economic fortunes is spreading.
The message that the Tees Valley is open for business, eager to build on existing successes and an ideal location for companies to invest in or move to is making its mark.
Housing associations, like Vela, also are making a significant contribution to boosting the local economy.
London, UK, 28 June 2012: Pressure to cut costs in the NHS will have a severe impact on both patient care and the patient experience, according to an independent survey of senior NHS IT directors commissioned by IT services company 2e2. In the survey of 100 IT directors, 87% said they were under pressure to cut costs in order to achieve the Government’s aim to save £20 billion from the NHS budget by 2014-15. Despite this translating into a 4% per year saving across the NHS as a whole, IT departments are being hit harder. Each needs to make an average saving of 10% in 2012 and 12% each subsequent year to 2015.
-NHS IT departments are caught in a trap and can’t walk outâ€, said Adam Kamruddin, Head of Healthcare, 2e2. -Not only do they need to make large savings; they are also tasked with providing the foundations to help improve healthcare standards through supplying more patient-centric services and giving clinicians more face-time with patients. Essentially, IT can and should become a vital part of providing healthcare in the 21st century. Evidently this will require investment and 71% believe that their current IT infrastructure isn’t capable of supporting those objectives. Yet pairing this with the need to cut costs makes for a tricky balancing act. 93% are concerned that cutting IT costs will have a negative impact on both patient care and experience.â€
This challenge is amplified by an underlying lack of strategy. Only 41% of respondents had a clear strategic vision and roadmap for IT, while 61% admitted needing more IT strategy and planning skills within their department. One obstacle is a disconnect between IT and senior management: 54% of respondents believe that senior management does not understand how IT can be used to transform patient care.
At the same time, the break-up of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) means that individual NHS IT departments must take greater control over how they provision and deliver services. Despite the concerns around strategy, 53% of respondents believe that the break-up was a good decision, with 55% saying they will be able to work with service providers that better meet their needs. However, 67% of respondents also feel that they need extra resources and skills to deal with the increase and change in workload that accompanied the break-up, while 61% stated they didn’t have sufficient training programmes in place to address these skills gaps. Specific skills identified for improvement included: application management (67%), infrastructure management (59%) and project management (57%).
Lastly, respondents were still slow to new technologies that could help improve patient care. Even mobile working is relatively unexplored: only 48% of respondents have developed a mobile working strategy, while 71% don’t even have systems in place that enable phone calls to be routed to workers regardless of location. At the same time fewer than half (45%) of organisations have plans to implement telehealth services in the next two years. When asked about implementing a single patient view, where all data on a patient is held centrally and shared, the results were even worse: 79% of respondents don’t have the in-house skills and resources to enable such a view, while 56% believe that it isn’t a realistic or achievable objective. These issues continued with the exponential growth of data all organsiations have to deal with: 84% said this growth is already causing storage and management challenges, while both Local Area and Wide Area Networks are struggling to deal with increasingly large data files.
-Missing out on new technologies can actively hurt healthcare provision, and many recognise this,†continued Kamruddin. -Indeed, 75% stated that their organisation isn’t gaining as much value as it could from analysing patient data: a relatively simple way to make technology work for you. Sadly, the need to cut costs is not going to disappear and neither is the need to improve patient care. IT has huge potential to transform the way in which the NHS helps patients: IT departments must not only lead this transformation but also ensure that senior management understands exactly what IT can do. The NHS has been an example to the world for 64 years: we need to ensure it stays that way.â€
Some of the UK’s leading figures from the nutrition world will be taking part in a special information day in Wrexham on 3rd
July (Wrexham Maelor Hospital).
The British Dietetic Association’s (BDA) Welsh Board is running a ‘Practice and Innovation Showcase’ which will highlight the work of dietitians across Wales and how they are at the forefront of delivering against the Welsh Assembly Government’s health strategy and improving the lives of many in Wales.
In addition to some of the UK’s top dietitians attending, key representatives from the Welsh Assembly Government will also be in attendance.
Speaking ahead of the event, the Chairman of the BDA Welsh Board, Chris Cashin, said:
-Food and the right nutrition is an absolute necessity for every single person. If, as a nation, we get this wrong then the impact is felt right across the spectrum, from an increasingly more obese society, increased and prolonged hospital
admissions, more chronic disease management, to increased mortality figures.
-In Wales, the dietetic profession works hard to deliver against Welsh Assembly Government health priorities, which ultimately aims to improve health across the Welsh nation.
-In Wales, we are leading the way in many areas when it comes to nutrition and our Practise and Innovation Showcase day will highlight all the excellent work taking place in Wales and nutrition leaders from across the UK will be attending to see what they can learn from Wales.
Members of the media wishing to attend or require more information can contact Denise Parish at dparish@cardiffmet.ac.uk.
Copies of presentations and lectures will be made available after the event.
As the demise of Primary Care Trusts approaches, the future face of community health provision was demonstrated in West Midlands town Sandwell recently, when social enterprise Mytime Active showed how it can effectively deliver 23 integrated health services in the local community.
Said Annie Holden, Health Division Manager at Mytime Active, which delivers similar services across the UK: -In April 2013, responsibility for public health transfers from PCTs to local authorities and they need to have confidence in those they choose to deliver their services.
-The ground-breaking work that we have been doing in Sandwell, working with local community groups and delivering integrated healthy lifestyle services spanning the life cycle from early years to older age, is a perfect demonstration of how this work can be effectively outsourced to deliver improved impacts on the health of local communities.â€
Sandwell is home to some of the worst pockets of deprivation in the UK and research by Sport England shows that local residents are amongst the least likely to do regular exercise in the country, but Mytime Active is already changing this by making it much easier for people to access a variety of healthy activity opportunities.
Since it was awarded the contract to deliver these services by the Sandwell PCT in November 2011, over 20,000 attendances have directly benefitted local people participating in their programmes.
Mytime Health’s Stop Smoking programme is achieving a 40 percent success rate, up from 28 per cent the previous year; 14,000 people participate in Sandwell Stride walks; 19 children centres are now delivering FABtots; health checks for cardio-vascular disease have been implemented in all 69 GP practices; Mytime Health’s pioneering pre-diabetes work will feature at the Heart UK Conference; and its Cookwell programme was singled out for a visit by Prime Minister David Cameron in December.
Recently local dignitaries, inspirational local celebrity and athlete known as ‘Blind Dave’ Heeley, health care professionals, patients and voluntary sector organisations all came together at The Sandwell Healthy Lifestyles Showcase at the The Public arts venue in West Bromwich.
They were able to see and sample Mytime Health projects delivered in partnership with a range of local community groups, from FabTots for early years and pregnant women to cycling, including a Watt bike exercise demo, Long-term Conditions Pilot, Slimwell (adult weight management), Extend and Active Sandwell for older people, as well as Stop Smoking Services, Walk from Home (for frailer older adults), Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the Health Trainer Service.
Said Steve Price Chief Executive of Mytime Active -You can’t force people to live healthily, but if you provide easily accessible integrated services, ensuring people know about them and provide a single point of access , so that people are empowered and motivated to improve their health, you can make a huge difference. It was inspiring to hear from participants who have had their health transformed, and we’re committed to doing all we can to extend these improvements across Sandwell.â€
Said Jyoti Atri, Deputy Director of Public Health for Sandwell PCT: -It was good to see Mytime Active working collaboratively with partners to deliver a service which is fully integrated and delivered around the needs of individuals in their communities. We believe this joined up approach to tackling health inequalities is vital for the future of public health.â€
Social enterprise Mytime Active has won two new community health contracts from NHS health commissioners in Wandsworth and a brand new one in Lewisham, securing its position as first choice for child weight management services.
Said Annie Holden Health Division Manager: -We have many years combined expertise in this service area, with successful long-term programmes in London including Bromley, Croydon, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, as well as Sandwell in the Midlands.
Winning these contracts is a great opportunity for us to build on the good work we have been doing at Boost Wandsworth in our previous commission for child weight management and health services for Early Years and new mums, teenagers and adults.
We’ll also be building on our previous experience of workforce training and coordinating with frontline staff and volunteers from other agencies to ensure consistent good health messages are joined up across public services.
In Lewisham, also under the Boost label, Mytime Health will be working on more specialist targeted Tier 3 services for overweight/obese children with complex needs.
Mytime Health Dietitian Melissa Paterson, who recently appeared on BBC Breakfast, gave her opinion on working as part of the team tackling both these contracts: -This will encourage families to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle as part of our integrated approach to community health programmes. We’re really looking forward to working alongside other partners to help tackle health inequalities where it’s most needed.
As a social enterprise, Mytime Active is a non-profit distributing organisation, with all surplus reinvested, to improve the quality of services it provides. They bring their knowledge and expertise of the health sector by delivering coherent and integrated healthy lifestyle programmes to target those most at risk on behalf of the NHS and local authorities. In the current year Mytime Active’s weight management services will have reached over 7,500 children and their families.
Said Steve Price, Chief Executive of Mytime Active: -Our goal is to improve the quality of people’s lives and their well-being by delivering health services that are widely regarded to be top quality, reliable, accessible and customer focused. We are really pleased to be recognised by NHS trusts and local authorities across the UK in partnering with them and other groups in delivering community health care.
Governments across the world can be a traditional conservative affair. Our models of teaching, nursing, policing, justice and welfare are a hundred or more years old; the structures, power centres, laws and management models to control the state have barely changed in decades; the evolution of Departments, Councils and services might be measured in geological terms. One could be forgiven for thinking the way we govern and manage today is unquestionable, a fundamental truth, fait accompli, so what is this whisper of revolution?
Throughout history revolutions have been sparked by recession – drought, poor nutrition, rising prices. For instance the 632 BC Greek constitutional crisis, 476 AD Roman Empire collapsed, 907 Tang, 1368 Yean and 1644 Ming Dynasties fell, or the 1789 French revolution. The global recession that began in 2007 is now expected to create a decade of austerity for the UK public sector, without any change in efficiency, the impact of this recession on vulnerable individuals, families and citizens is unimaginable. This is the crucible for revolution.
And there are other catalysts to change in government such as greater availability of information, data and flow of ideas, changes in technology opening up democracy and open-government, better understanding of how humans and societies work, localisation, co-production, and new ways of leading. This is the fuel for our revolution.
So what is this revolution and how will it change government? Maybe you’ve seen the signs already? Doing services to people vs with them; knowing the costs of everything vs understanding the value; command-and-control vs facilitative style leadership; risk aversion vs risk management; fewer, larger providers vs smaller, more local providers; standardisation of services vs innovation and personalisation; targets vs outcomes; centralisation vs localism. At every point in government there is a struggle between these concepts, with one incontrovertible fact: our current model for government is unaffordable and as demand grows the challenges get worse. We need this revolution.
The changes we are seeing are caught up in the move from reductionist thinking to systems thinking. From a command-and-control model of government to one that is about understanding the outcomes we want, understanding the system that achieves the outcomes, and then designing, nurturing and leading these new services. There are now many examples of 50%+ radical efficiencies because forward thinking civil servants are taking a new entrepreneurial approach to systems and services, how do we take this revolution to scale across government?
Let’s imagine we are buying paperclips for the civil service to get efficiencies: we’d rightly use reductionist methods such as competing providers in a bigger market, maybe we’d buy paperclips as part of a larger stationery category, or sign up for a cheaper 10 year paperclip deal. Translating these approaches has only limited impact of maybe 10% on complex services, such as the £350bn of health, justice, welfare and local government. For 50%+ radical efficiencies we need systems thinking, and we need to scale up this thinking across the workforce.
Efficiencies from systems thinking come in four flavours:
1. Optimise resources by getting the most from all public spend in an area, from the buildings, workforce and hidden community resource, and re-design all of these resources around specific citizen outcomes. Service leaders only control a small amount of the resource that will achieve the outcomes they want – so influence and facilitation become much more important.
2. Target those we want to support and ensure they access the resources and services. But make sure that those who don’t need a service or resource don’t use it up. Identify the right point in an individual’s pathway to target the resource, such as intervening earlier when the cost of support is much cheaper with better results.
3. Choose the right package of different mechanisms to achieve the outcome efficiently, such as new procurement techniques, payment by results, influence over partners, relationships, choice, market management, co-production, etc. There is a large choice of mechanisms to achieve the outcomes we want, but too often we use traditional service models. Interestingly, our understanding of how the human brain works is starting to open a very different choice of mechanisms such as nudge, behavioural change and socio-engineering.
4. Design for the whole system. Understand the outcome we want (surprisingly in many complex services we are not sure what outcome we want), understand the best interventions, and design the system of communities, providers, businesses and Government.
Any serious revolution needs its cavalry of soldiers; for government these soldiers with a new systems thinking perspective on services and outcomes are Commissioners. There are wonderful stories of the changes created in pockets of government, the new Academy for Commissioning announced by Cabinet Office is an excellent start, and the increase in the number of people called ‘commissioners’ has been extraordinary.
But this revolution must be more than just in name – how can we scale up, change our thinking, and deliver radical efficiencies for the most vulnerable families and communities? Whisper it: will you sign up to la Revolution?
Richard Selwyn is a Senior Consultant at Cognizant, and author of The Outcomes & Efficiency: Leadership Handbook.
The investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World and the general culture and ethics of the British media, ‘The Leveson Inquiry’, should conclude with a report in the Autumn. Public hearings are expected to run on into the Summer with the next high profile phase focused on the relationship between the press and politicians, as we have seen with the prime minister and other senior political figures giving evidence recently.
Like the previous phase of the inquiry, which examined the relationship between the police and the press, there could be some prominent casualties. Freedom of the press is unlikely to be one of them, however. There is probably a case for tighter, independent press regulation, but it is hard to see how a liberal democracy can operate without a free press.
We criticise it for trespassing upon personal privacy, grimace at the red tops tendency to the melodramatic, but at the same laud it when it exposes the vagabonds, thieves and chancers from all walks of life. It is also the ‘Fourth Estate’; the referee between vested political interest and the common public good.
Indeed the relationship between the press and politicians in particular, and the public sector in general, has been symbiotic. They need each other, and perhaps it was ever thus. What Leveson is revealing, however, is that the closeness of the relationship has led to practices that are damaging to both parties, leaving their reputation on the wane.
Reputation is difficult to measure in the public sector, but many research initiatives have shown the relationship that exists between reputation and shareholder value in the private sector. For example, a report published in March of this year by Echo Research stated that; corporate reputation accounts for 33% of the value of the UKs top 100 companies; a 5% improvement in the strength of one of these company’s reputation would produce an average of 2% increase in market capitalisation.
We also know from our own everyday experiences that reputation matters.
We all feel more likely to buy the products of companies that we trust , work for organisations we respect, and recommend companies we admire. Trust, respect, admiration are all terms associated with a reputable organisation. They are not terms normally associated with the press.
The challenge for public sector organisations then is to build trust, to recreate a healthy symbiotic relationship with the press. To do so requires that there is transparency, consistency and accuracy in all communications.
Anne Campbell, who was Director of Communications at Suffolk and Norfolk Constabularies when giving evidence at the Leveson enquiry stated that a healthy relationship with the media was essential and acknowledged -that it is important to foster relationships with journalists and editors that are based on trust, openness and honesty… (and) to proactively use the news media to inform the public what we are dealing with, to enlist the help of the public in catching criminals and also as a means to deliver advice and guidance on a range of public safety issues.
Simon Ash, Chief Constable at Suffolk Constabulary, in his evidence to the enquiry referred to the constabulary’s use of media relations management systems that – keeps records of contacts with journalists and other individuals of note, for example local politicians and MPs, to enable the professional management of corporate communications… (and) enable us to bring more rigour to this area of our business.
Generally, the utilisation of software within the Corporate Communications function will ensure that key spokespeople have access to the appropriate lines to take and briefing statements on any issue affecting their organisation, and that they are ready to react consistently to enquiries from any stakeholder group, ensuring they remain the trusted source of information.
Careful management of stakeholder interactions will ensure that the message finds the right people, helping to leverage opportunities, mitigate risks, and protect reputational value. Recording of these interactions ensures the creation of a searchable, corporate memory of – “who met who”, “who said what to who”, and who sent what to who.
Leveson may not know it, but one consequence of the Inquiry may be that public sector organisations commit themselves to software that ensures they can demonstrate transparency, consistency and accuracy in all their stakeholder engagements.
Charlie O’Rourke
MD, AIMediaComms – provider of media relations and stakeholder engagement software.
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