New funding for organisations to research ways of supporting disadvantaged families during the school holidays has been launched by the Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi today (28 March).

The £2 million investment will go towards exploring how best to help the most disadvantaged children to benefit from healthy meals and enriching activities.

Organisations across the country are being invited to apply for a share of the funding pot and will be encouraged to work across a number of regions, or in partnership with other experts.

Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi said:

I encourage charities and expert organisations across the country to apply to take part in this exciting programme to help us better understand children’s current access to healthy meals and enriching activity during the school holidays.

We want every child to reach their potential and healthy meals and activities can contribute to their development and improved attainment.

Academic standards are rising and there are now 1.9 million more children in schools rated good or outstanding than in 2010. We are building on this success by supporting the country’s most disadvantaged children, including through free school meals and the up to £26million investment I announced last week to kick-start or improve breakfast clubs in at least 1,700 schools.

Evidence suggests that attending out-of-school activities can have a positive impact on children’s educational, health and well-being outcomes.

The Holiday Activities and Food Research Fund announced today will help to ensure that every child, whatever their background or wherever they are growing up, has the opportunity to reach their potential. It follows the announcement in January that the government would undertake initial research in 2018 followed by a targeted pilot programme in the 2019 Easter and summer holidays.

This work aims to support children’s education by:

• testing the effectiveness of interventions;
• looking at take-up of provision;
• identifying the costs involved; and
• considering whether there are particular areas where this kind of programme would be most effective.

It continues support for the most disadvantaged families provided by the government, including the provision of free school meals to 1.1 million of the most disadvantaged children, and the £2.5 billion funding given to schools through the Pupil Premium to support their education. Last week, the Department for Education also announced up to £26 million to kick start and improve breakfast clubs across the country.

Academic standards are rising in primary and secondary schools thanks to government reforms and the hard work of teachers. Most importantly, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers has already shrunk by 10% at GCSE and 10.5% at KS2 since 2011.

To ensure this work is implemented effectively, ministers will work closely with Frank Field MP and expert stakeholders, as it develops.

The bid round will be open from 28 March 2018 and will close on Wednesday 18 April 2018. There will be a separate bidding process for participation in the 2019 Easter and Summer pilots. Organisations can bid for the funding on Contracts Finder

On 28 March 2018 the United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, and the Brazilian Minister for Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, Marcos Jorge de Lima, co-chaired the tenth UK-Brazil JETCO meeting held in London.

The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the JETCO and noted significant advances since the last meeting in Brazil in December 2016. The ministers announced the initial conclusion of the Joint Trade Review, with the exchange of trade and investment information, and identified opportunities to facilitate and deepen trade between the UK and Brazil.

They also reiterated their commitment to engage further on facilitating increased trade, creating opportunities and enhancing bilateral economic relations. This includes continuation of the development of the UK government’s Prosperity Fund programme in Brazil.

Global economy

Brazil and the UK welcomed the encouraging signs of trade liberalisation and a increase in global trade growth. Brazil has resumed growth as structural reforms have been carried through. Both countries reiterated their belief that a combination of a more responsible, more transparent, more predictable macroeconomic framework, aligned with international standards, is crucial for sustainable economic growth and development.

Brazil and the UK remain advocates for free markets and free trade. International cooperation is vital to make the global economy work for everyone and address shared global challenges. Both sides committed to strengthen co-operation in the G20, World Trade Organization (WTO), Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other multilateral bodies to that end.

Bilateral economic relationship

In 2016, the value of trade between Brazil and the UK was £5.4 billion for goods and services. Brazil represented a significant share of UK total exports to Latin America and the UK represented 8.3% and 7.4% of Brazilian total exports to and imports from the European Union, respectively.

Both countries also reiterated their support for the timely conclusion of an ambitious and balanced EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Association Agreement. Additionally, in support of continuity and certainty in the UK-Brazil economic and trade relationship, the countries agreed to work closely to ensure the continuation of important EU agreements as the UK leaves the EU.

Trade

Brazil and the UK discussed the progress on bilateral trade since the agreement in JETCO 2016 to work on a Joint Trade Review. Ministers welcomed the insightful and useful work to identify trade opportunities to the benefit of both the economies, respecting both EU and Mercosur competence.

In particular, ministers agreed that the UK and Brazil would:

• expand the Trade Steering Group, established at the 2016 JETCO, with 2 work streams covering trade and investment in goods and services
• ensure the goods and services work streams coordinate work to improve the business environment for firms and increase opportunities in bilateral trade
• continue work under the goods work stream to consider trade facilitation, exports culture and technical assistance for Brazil through the Prosperity Fund
• aim to develop a roadmap for sector-based discussions before the next JETCO
• develop a dialogue between private sectors of both sides on services
• welcome the signature on 23 February of a memorandum of understanding between the Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) and UK Export Finance to finance infrastructure projects through co-financing and co-investments mechanisms. UKEF has already announced up to £3 billion to support UK exports to Brazil

Multilateral trading system

Brazil and the UK agreed on the importance of the WTO framework and recognised the efforts for the Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference in December 2017. Both countries emphasised the importance of a stable and predictable global trading system.

Brazil and the UK reinforced their willingness to expedite implementation of the trade facilitation agenda, with the full and timely implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, significantly reducing transaction costs for businesses importing and exporting goods and services. The UK welcomed Brazil becoming an observer of the Government Procurement Agreement in the WTO.

As the UK prepares to leave the EU, it will look to Brazil as a key partner in the WTO and for its support in re-establishing itself as an independent member of the WTO.

Intellectual property (IP) and innovation

Ministers were pleased to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral Patent Prosecution Highways (PPH). The pilot programme, which will commence in autumn 2018, builds on work initiated under the UK-Brazil Memorandum of Understanding on IP. It will support UK and Brazilian businesses via prioritised examination of patents already granted by one of the offices. Brazil is engaged in many actions addressed to patent process efficiency and welcomes UK efforts to support some of these actions in the context of Prosperity Fund projects.

Building on a memorandum of understanding on innovation signed in 2016, Brazil and the UK launched that year a joint call for the development of smart city technologies. Of the 7 projects selected in that call, 4 are already in implementation. Both countries agreed to extend and deepen the collaboration on innovation by launching a bilateral dialogue on social finance and skills for the future in the wake of the Brazil-UK Science, Technology and Innovation Year, launched in February 2018.

Trade facilitation – Prosperity Fund

Ministers confirmed the positive cooperation on trade facilitation driven by the UK government’s Prosperity Fund and recognised the continuous effort of both countries to create a comprehensive multi-year programme. This will reduce costs of trade and create opportunities for an additional number of companies to participate in international trade chains.

Building on commitments from JETCO 2016, both ministers celebrated the progress in designing a programme which aims to:

• reduce the time and cost to import and export in Brazil through the implementation of technical solutions in Ports.
• support an additional number of micro, small and medium enterprises to export, import and participate in global value chains
• increase Brazil’s compliance with OECD instruments, moving towards accession
• reduce the time for analysis and granting of patents and trademarks
• identify issues in which Brazil and the UK could further develop regulatory practices
• confirm the intention to work on a 4 year trade regulatory coherence programme to deliver technical assistance with a view to improve regulatory practices in Brazil

The British Deputy Head of Mission (DHM) in Brazil Liz Davidson and Minister Marcos Jorge de Lima signed a Memorandum of Understanding confirming the intention to take this work forward in the coming years, once the programme is fully approved by the UK government.

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Ministers strengthened the positive cooperation on Building Information Modelling (BIM) driven by signing the Memorandum of Understanding between MDIC, PPI and BEIS, acting through the UK BIM Task Group.

Private sector outcomes

Ministers were pleased that business representatives were able to contribute to the JETCO and will continue to have discussion on the subjects developed during JETCO through a dialogue between private sectors on both sides to seek to increase bilateral trade relations.

Our redundancy payments helplines will be running a limited service until Monday 9 April.

Due to business improvement work, the Redundancy Payments Service helplines will close at 2pm on Thursday 29 March.

The helplines will reopen at 9am on Tuesday 3 April but will be offering a limited service until Monday 9 April. Fewer phone operators will be available during this period and you may experience longer than usual wait times.

If you are calling for an update on your application, please be aware that we are upgrading our finance system and cannot make any payments until Thursday 5 April. We will automatically begin making payments again on 5 April.

Please wait until Monday 9 April to contact us about an outstanding payment.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during these upgrades.

Published 28 March 2018

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The Home Office’s Exit Check Programme ran from April 2014 until 31 May 2016, when it was formally closed. The inspection concluded that this was premature and makes 1 overarching recommendation: that the Home Office re-establishes the Exit Checks Programme, with appropriate Programme oversight, governance and documentation, in order to drive the improvements needed in data quality and completeness and to coordinate and encourage its effective operational use.

The report contains 9 recommendations, the most relevant in terms of further improving staff engagement and performance at Stansted relate to Border Force’s internal communications and the provision of appropriate training.

This inspection focused on the ‘Residential Tenancies’ measures introduced in the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts in support of the creation of a “compliant environment”. It makes 4 recommendations, all of which point to the need for more grip and urgency from the Home Office in managing the “Right to Rent” scheme.

The original inspection, published on 2 February 2017, made 12 recommendations. The re-inspection found that Border Force had done a good deal of work towards implementing the recommendations, but that some remained “open”.

This report contains 2 recommendations, each broken down into several parts, and identifies a considerable amount of work for the Home Office to do to improve its handling of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

We wish to secure greater coverage for 2018 face to face, Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme and Civil Legal Advice contract work.

We are seeking to secure additional services in the following areas to ensure universally good coverage for 2018 civil contract work:

• specialist legal advice delivered via the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) helpline in the discrimination category

• Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS) services for the Cornwall scheme area

• face to face family housing and debt and immigration and asylum services in some geographic areas

An expression of interest for the Cornwall HPCDS opened on 28 March and closes at 5pm on Friday 13 April. Other tender opportunities will open in April 2018.

Where can I find out more?

Details about the further tender opportunities are available on the civil 2018 contracts tender page. This includes:

• update notice detailing the further tender opportunities

• expression of interest to deliver HPCDS services in the Cornwall scheme area

• additional notice concerning CLA education and discrimination contracts

Further information

Civil 2018 contracts tender

Published 28 March 2018

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