Politics

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News story: Universities rated in Teaching Excellence Framework

UK university teaching quality recognised for the first time.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has today (22 June 2017) published the first set of ratings for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

It has revealed that the majority of UK universities are offering quality teaching to their students – 59 providers were rated ‘gold’, 116 rated ‘silver’ and 56 rated ‘bronze’.

The ratings will help students decide which university or college to apply to and encourage teaching and learning excellence across the UK.

Universities Minister Jo Johnson said:

These results, highlighting the extraordinary strengths of our higher education system, will help students choose which university or college to study at.

The Teaching Excellence Framework is refocusing the sector’s attention on teaching – putting in place incentives that will raise standards across the sector and giving teaching the same status as research.

Students, parents, employers and taxpayers all have a shared interest in ensuring higher education equips the next generation of graduates for success.

Universities taking part have been assessed by an expert panel in 3 areas:

  • teaching quality
  • the learning environment
  • the educational and professional outcomes achieved by students

As set out in its white paper, Success as a knowledge economy (May 2016), the government will shortly begin a lessons learned exercise into this first trial year of the TEF. The findings of the lessons learned exercise will inform the operation of the TEF in 2018 and the intention to move to subject level assessments.

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HM Government

“NHS Wales performance stable, despite growing demand” – Vaughan Gething

The vast majority of people waiting for NHS treatment continue to be seen within access and treatment targets, despite increasing demand for services across Wales, new statistics published today show.

Thursday 22 June 2017

The latest statistics show: 

  • 79.4% of immediately life-threatening ambulance calls received a response within 8 minutes in May 2017, above the 65% target, which means the target performance has been met above 70% for 13 consecutive months. The median response time for this category of calls has remained less than 5 minutes since August 2016. Around 50% of amber calls were responded to in around 14 minutes
  • The target for non-urgent cancer performance in April 2017 was met for the first time since May 2016 – with 624 out of 635 people (98.3%) seen within 31 days, exceeding the 98% target. Urgent cancer performance remains at its highest since November 2014,  with 502 people out of 562 seen within 62 days
  • Referral to treatment performance has remained stable since early 2016. In April 2017, 86.7% of patient pathways had been waiting less than 26 weeks to start treatment, the best April performance since 2014
  • The number of people experiencing delayed transfers of care from hospital in May 2017 remains close to record lows, despite the increasing demand for health and social care services
  • The number of people waiting over 8 weeks for a diagnostic test in April 2017 is the second lowest since March 2011 and the lowest April figure since April 2010
  • In May 2017, fewer patients spent 12 hours or more in an emergency care facility, from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge compared to May 2016
  • Demand for NHS services is increasing across every single activity and performance measure monitored included in the monthly report. 

Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething said: 

“Our health and social care services continue to experience increasing demand – but despite that, the statistics released today show the vast majority of people continue to be seen within access and treatment targets. 

“Recognising the ongoing growth in demand and costs of services, we’re investing more than ever before in health and social services.  

“I want to thank NHS and social care staff for the tireless work they do to deliver first class services across the country. Together, we will continue to do everything we can to drive up performance so that every patient receives timely, quality care.”

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Welsh Government •

News story: Customer research manager vacancy at the IPO

This post will support the work of customer insight in transforming services. Closing date for applications is 4 July 2017.

Purpose

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is transforming its services for our customers using modern technology. Our transformation portfolio includes a number of projects that are being delivered in accordance with the Government Digital Service project approach. The successful candidate will lead the User Research function within the wider IPO Customer Insight team.

Role and responsibilities

  • lead and develop the IPO User Research function, investing in the team’s capability, with a focus on continuous learning and improvement
  • manage and lead customer research exercises, including usability testing to identify customer issues and areas for service improvement
  • represent customer requirements in projects to build new online capability
  • engage customers in the development of online services, tools and content
  • make authoritative recommendations for courses of action within the context of professional practice

How to apply

Full details of this role and how to apply are available on the Civil Service jobs website

The closing date for applications is 4 July 2017.

For more information please email adminvacancies@ipo.gov.uk.

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HM Government

News story: Crime news: outstanding bill submissions for Crown Court work

Reminder letters are going out about the need to bill for Crown Court work for cases that finished more than 3 months ago.

We are sending out reminder letters to providers to send in bills for Crown Court cases that finished more than 3 months ago.

The letters are going to providers:

  • about outstanding bills under the Litigators Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS)
  • where the instructed advocate has yet to submit a bill under the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS).

The help of providers is needed to forward letters to advocates about billing under AGFS. This is because we do not have contact details for advocates until they have submitted an AGFS bill.

Advocates are asked to give their support when letters are forwarded to them.

Why are you doing this now?

We’ve reviewed our services and are concerned that delays in submitting bills under LGFS and AGFS is affecting our service delivery.

Further information

Nil-Bill-CCMT@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk – for any questions about this process

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HM Government