Nick Poole OBE

UKSPF People and Skills Programme Ashford Borough Council UKSPF is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides funding for local areas to invest in communities and places, supporting local business, and people and skills. Ashford Borough Council (ABC) seeks to award a single commission to an experienced education and skills provider to deliver three important local projects.  This organisation will support ABC in delivering outputs and results against these three priority areas in the council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) programme for the 2024/25 financial year. The programme being commissioned will have opportunities in three project areas: Green – Retrofit and Green Skills Outreach - Supporting pathways to learning and employability Step – First Steps in Skills These projects will focus on helping local residents and businesses access skills and training opportunities. They will both improve pathways to current provision while also addressing gaps in resident and business skills where these exist, complementing the current offer available through education providers, Government funding and other programmes locally. Scope Deliver or coordinate fully funded Retrofit Assessor courses which lead to formal qualifications. Supporting firms to help them meet their ‘green’ skills and training needs. Duration in months 8 Value: £200,000 Deadline: 21 May 2024 If you intend to bid and require any support with making applications, please contact [email protected]

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There are some great communities for those working within 🏛️ #Government and the #PublicSector to share information, resources and ideas (linked in the comments*) but it's sometimes difficult as an Independent Contractor who works *In* the Public Sector but not *For* a particular organisation to access these. ❓ Do you know of any x-Gov or Public Sector Communities open to Independent Contractors (so not requiring a .gov or similar email address to access) and, if you are a part of these networks, how useful do you find them?

If tech can make things faster, and more streamlined for us to deliver, how/ where do we reinvest that time and resource?

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Scottish Government’s #Digital Directorate has set out five recommendations for increasing the value of #OpenData from the country’s #PublicSector. https://lnkd.in/enkwDgmb 𝟙. Set out a vision that makes the case for open data. 𝟚. Embrace long-term collaboration and commitment. 𝟛. Create an implementation strategy that is intentional, realistic, transparently monitored, and celebrates success. 𝟜. Set the standards for open data publication. 𝟝. Provide targeted technical guidance and support for publishers and users.

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The Scottish Government Digital Programme is transforming how colleagues approach digital public services. Launched to enhance the outcomes of a rapid review of digital functions, this initiative aligns with the broader public sector reform agenda. The Programme's scope encompasses the core Scottish Government, agencies, and public bodies within the Technology Assurance Framework's purview. https://lnkd.in/eiD88Pmg #PublicSector #DigitalTransformation #ScottishGovernment #Innovation #DigitalScotland

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Who are you and what do you do? A brief introduction to the Jurassic Coast Trust team and the work that we do 🙂

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Exploring the role of indicators in Kingdon's Problem Stream today. How do changes in statistics and data influence problem recognition? Looking for examples where numbers significantly shifted policy attention. #DataDrivenPolicy #PolicyIndicators #PublicPolicy

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Plans for #prisons: The Labour Party government will: Take control of the planning process by classifying prisons as being of ‘national importance’ on public safety grounds, so the approval decision is in ministers’ hands. Deliver the 20,000 promised jail places to ensure there is always enough space to lock up the most #dangerous #offenders Bring together prison governors and local employers to create Employment Councils to drive down #reoffending, linking offenders to training and jobs, and reducing the burden on capacity in the long term. What will this change? I believe taking control of planning in the way described is the way forward to remove the blocks in the prison-building planning process - on average it takes seven years to get planning permission for a new prison. I also support the building of new prisons, not because we have a shortage of space (we don't - what we have is an abundance of prisoners) but to replace the Dickensian, Victorian vermin-infested inhuman conditions reported too regularly in which we ask staff to work and prisoners to live - in 2024 we have raw sewage flowing through a segregation unit whenever it rains; I mean come on. Bringing together Governors/Directors and local employers is a great idea, its already happening with the New Futures network, but it's no use training a prisoner to be a bricklayer if you don't train the bricklayer not the burgle houses - and they tend to burgle houses on release because too many are kicked out on the streets homeless - and Labour say nothing about this. What say you?

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Interesting article on ONS staff retention and recruitment challenges, made even harder by demand for highly skill data scientists and implementation of return to office mandate. https://lnkd.in/gNa2mp2S

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This is going to be a brilliant event. Never mind the creeping impostor syndrome for sharing the stage with such giants :) Looking forward to discussing and learning more about the future of data.

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Immersive tech is about to go mainstream. If you fancy being ahead of the curve, check out these courses from Real Immersive delivered as part of Digital Futures.

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Alert - really useful webinar by the Lep team on innovation programmes for ag tech, food tech seafood etc and it’s supply chain . Send someone along if your thought about accessing innovation funding. Please share

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Interesting para 2.99 in last week's budget: 'The Budget also announces a new Public Sector Reform and Innovation Fund, to support the development of a new approach to improving public services. The Budget allocates £165 million of this to a range of projects in 2025-26, including to support foster carer recruitment and planning reform. In addition the Budget allocates £100 million of this over the next three years to deliver innovative projects, partnering with Mayors and local leaders, and developing new approaches to public service reform with a focus on experimentation and learning. This will complement and inform ongoing reform programmes and activities being delivered by departments' https://lnkd.in/euQf87i4

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DPS for Skills and Investment Grant Funding Worcestershire County Council is putting in place a DPS for Skills and Investment Grant Funding. The Council's Investment in Skills Team aims to help people into employment and to work towards improving skills in the county. The scope of the projects delivered by the Investment in Skills Team can vary in context, value and duration but, collectively, and over time they support the goals of the Team which is funded by various grant providers such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Department for Education, etc . The Team does not have the capacity to meet all the needs of all its Service Users, it therefore commissions the knowledge and skills of externally qualified, licensed and experienced providers to work on a variety of training projects as and when required to meet requirements. There are 5 Categories which Suppliers may wish to apply for, they are: Category 1 Employability & Skills Training for people to build up sector-specific skills and/or upskill to help people gain skills for life, help support skills demands in their local area, and ultimately help people to get into employment and have the opportunity for a progression within their current job. Category 2 Education Training and support to help adults improve their numeracy skills in everyday life and boost their employment prospects. It also aims to contribute to businesses to develop their employees' numeracy skills which can boost productivity, increase profits, and improve employee retention. Category 3 Digital Developing digital tools to support various projects. Category 4 Consultancy Advice and support for businesses in the county via curriculum development, workforce planning, and supported internship. The aim will be to support businesses with growth and competitive advantage by fulfilling their staffing/skills needs. Category 5 Health and Wellbeing Training, advice and guidance to support health and wellbeing, and to improve confidence, resilience, motivation, social integration with the goal of empowering people to achieve their true employment potential. Value: to £25,000,000 Deadline: 30 September 2028 If you intend to bid and require any support with making applications, please contact [email protected] Sign up for Live Tender Alerts at: https://lnkd.in/dReZwFQb

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The latest Local Government Chronicle devolution map is very -ahem- colourful, and this time includes Wales Read it here to find out why (quick before gets out of date) https://lnkd.in/eiaQxFGQ

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🙋‍♀️ Can you help? Are you a heritage sector organisation? Do you have a good story to tell about how you recruit, retain and support your trustees? We need your stories! Historic England recently published this report, written by the excellent Dr Ambreen Shah and Getting On Board on the Barriers and Enablers to Board Diversity in the Heritage sector https://lnkd.in/e4CPWtZ7 One of the recommendations is to develop some case studies on Board diversity. Getting On Board have now been commissioned to produce case-studies that exemplify good practice in the sector. We are now looking for Heritage organisations that are willing to be interviewed for a written case study. So have you got a story to tell about: Recruiting trustees: 🎯 Good practice in recruiting board members 🎯How you have reached out to, listened to and recruited more diverse board members 🎯How you have gone about developing inclusive board recruitment marketing and promotional materials 🎯The benefits you offer Board members and how these are communicated to potential board members 🎯What is good heritage Board practice in terms of process around term length and succession planning Retaining trustees: 🎯How you retain board members 🎯How you onboard board members 🎯 Setting up a shadow board, shadowing programme or trainee board member placements Supporting Inclusion, diversity and equity 🎯How you embed Inclusion, diversity and equity as a priority without putting unfair workload or emotional labour on specific Board members? 🎯 How you have made realistic commitment to Board diversity and communicated these internally and externally 🎯How you have conducted a Board diversity audit and communicated your findings in an effective and GDPR compliant way 🎯 How you have developed communication on IDE as a Board, in terms of language and content 🎯How you have effected culture change in your organisation so a diverse Board is welcome and effective Providing on-going Board training and support 🎯 How you have supported your Board members through tough times of challenge and change 🎯 How you have dealt with trolling and negative press as a heritage Board and individual Board member 🎯How you have reported specific issues of online harassment, racism, homophobia, and other hate speech Supporting your workforce to get governance experience. 🎯How you have made it possible for your staff to sit on Boards of other organisations, and what benefits this brings you? Clearly these topics will over-lap – but if any of the above resonates with you please get in touch with me or Dr Ambreen Shah or if you know of a heritage sector organisation that you think has a good story to tell please tag them in the comments! #trustees #governance #heritagesector #inclusion #diversity #equity

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Thank you to The British Academy for providing a space to explore notions of the Digital Good ESRC Digital Good Network. This is genuinely a team effort by so many diverse authors, combining the expertise of academics and strange hybrids such as myself. The result is a positioning piece that interrogates the idea through multiple lenses: 'In order to think about the possibilities of a good digital society, we need to consider what we mean when we use this phrase. This is because a good digital society is ill-defined and contested, despite being widely assumed as a goal, and the resulting lack of consensus is demonstratively harmful. The Digital Good Network is leading work in this area, examining how the term ‘good’ is used and understood in digital contexts, in order to answer the urgent questions: what does a good digital society look like? How do we get there? In this paper, we map out the scale and nature of this task, whilst elaborating on what we believe to be the necessary conditions of moving towards a good digital society. First we summarise important debates and contributions. Then we identify three societal challenges which need to be addressed in order to arrive at a good digital society: equity, resilience and sustainability. We conclude by making three recommendations for future directions of travel: listen to diverse users; consider context; and take a principles-based approach.'' https://lnkd.in/eBYC9hpT Gina Neff, Ph.D. Rhianne Jones helen kennedy

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