Teachers traditional pay rises to be replaced with performance based pay

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262496/Automatic-rises-mediocre-teachers-scrapped-Heads-decide-gets-salary-increase-performance-related-pay-proposals.html

Number of policemen continues to decrease

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2261830/The-blue-line-gets-little-greyer-Number-police-officer-aged-26-halves-years.html

Net number of prison places to fall

7 prisons with 2600 places are to close, whilst a prison with 2000 places is to open, with a net fall of 600 places.  So expect the Ministry of Justice to come up with further laws to reduce the number of people in prison.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/10/seven-prisons-england-close

Improving Public Services : Coalition Promises in Mid Term Review

http://midtermreview.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/improving-public-services/

Schools

We will increase the value of the Pupil Premium – to £900 per pupil in 2013/14 – while continuing to hold schools to account for what they achieve with the extra money.

We will provide a ‘catch-up’ premium of £500 for every 11 year old who leaves primary school below the expected level in English and maths.

We will introduce revised Key Stage 2 tests to make sure that no child is failed
by low expectations.

We will invest an additional £1 billion to expand good or outstanding schools, including enough funding for up to 100 new Free Schools and Academies in areas of basic need.

We will replace GCSEs with a new, more rigorous qualification.

We will restore the reputation of A levels as a world class qualification, working with universities to ensure that students are equipped for university study.

We will support more parents, community groups, charities and others wanting to set up new schools, primarily in areas of disadvantage and basic need, while continuing to help existing schools to become Academies.

We will implement the recommendation of the School Teachers’ Review Body that teachers’ pay progression should in the future be dependent on performance, not time served, and that schools should have greater autonomy to set teachers’ pay within a broad national framework. Statutory minimum and maximum salary levels for classroom teachers’ pay will be uprated by 1 per cent in both 2013/14 and 2014/15.

We will continue to raise the floor target that schools need to meet so that all schools improve with rising national standards.

We will legislate for the changes set out in the SEN Green Paper to expand parental choice and control.

We will support the establishment of Studio Schools and Technical Academies.

We will support Teach First to train 2,000 exceptional graduates per year as teachers by 2015/16. We will also expand the existing model of physics scholarships to other specialist subjects to attract the best graduates into teaching strategically important, but understaffed, subjects.

We will reform vocational qualifications at Key Stage 5 to ensure that only the most valued are recognised.

We will continue to tackle failing schools head-on by accelerating the Academies programme, and intervening to replace the leadership of weak schools.

We will shine a spotlight on coasting schools by giving parents access to improved data on school performance.

We will attract and inspire more pupils to study science and maths by increasing the number of teachers with specialist subject knowledge and improving the skills of existing teachers in these subjects.

We will work to have an education system that ranks among the best in the world by attracting the most capable people into the profession. We will offer high-achieving graduates financial incentives to train as teachers and will spread outstanding practice across the education system by continuing to expand the number of Teaching Schools, modelled on teaching hospitals.

NHS and Social Care

We will continue to improve the NHS by:

• increasing the health budget in real terms;

• abolishing strategic health authorities and primary care trusts from April 2013, saving £1.5 billion annually;
• establishing health and well-being boards to bring together local authorities and the NHS to co-ordinate provision of health and social care (we will also transfer £300 million of additional funding from the NHS to social care to develop better integrated health and care services); and
• investing up to £300 million over five years in specialised housing for those
  in need of care.

We will continue to reduce preventable early death by:

• introducing a new bowel screening programme to reduce incidence of, and mortality from, bowel cancer, saving 3,000 lives a year; and
• making the UK the first country in the world where doctors will have to be revalidated – a process of regular assessments to ensure that their training and expertise are up to date and that they are fit to carry out their duties.

We will continue to improve the standard of care, particularly the treatment and care of people with dementia and other long-term conditions, by:

• establishing the Friends and Family Test for all hospitals, to ensure that prospective patients can see exactly how previous patients and staff rate quality of care;
• setting an ambition for the NHS to put mental health on a par with physical health, significantly improving access and waiting times for all mental health services, and reducing the incidence and impact of post-natal depression through earlier diagnosis and better intervention and support;
• establishing Healthwatch as a consumer advocate with new powers;
• investing £56 million over four years in children and young people with mental health problems to help transform care in light of the scandalous abuse at Winterbourne View hospital;
• implementing a strategy aimed at building a culture of compassionate care for nursing, midwifery and care staff;
• consulting on further measures to protect people who rely on care services where the provider fails in England;
• introducing a national minimum eligibility threshold to make access to care more consistent across England;
• introducing a Universal Deferred Payments scheme so that nobody will need to sell their home to pay for the costs of residential care in England;
• legislating to give people with eligible needs for care an entitlement to a personal budget and a care and support plan in England;
• working with the Alzheimer’s Society, recruiting 1 million people to become Dementia Friends to improve awareness of dementia and support for those with dementia; and
• gradually increasing the availability of personal health budgets to increase patient choice and control.

We will continue to bring the technology revolution to health and care by:

• providing £100 million for NHS nurses and midwives to spend on new technology to free up time for patient care and make essential patient details instantly available on the ward. Those organisations that receive positive feedback from patients in the Friends and Family Test will not have to repay any of the loan; and
• establishing the new 111 service, to provide immediate over-the-phone access to health services.

Crime and Policing

We will modernise police pay and conditions and implement greater flexibility in the working methods of the police. We have already implemented recommendations from Part 1 of the Winsor Report and will consult on proposals from the review’s Final Report.

We will establish the College of Policing in statute as soon as Parliamentary time allows. The interim College came into existence on 1 December 2012 and is already beginning its work of enhancing the professional capabilities of the police.

We will take steps, following the Leveson Report, to ensure that the police operate to the highest ethical standards and that the public can have full confidence in police integrity.

We will scrap the existing system of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and replace it with a more effective system for protecting the public. In particular, we will give these victims a greater say in what forms of sanction offenders receive out of court through a new Community Remedy.

We will legislate to create a new offence of drug driving.

Justice

We will go further with our Rehabilitation Revolution to reduce reoffending and cut crime.

We will legislate to put restorative justice and other ways of tackling low-level crime on a statutory footing throughout the criminal justice system.

We will make use of new technology to track offenders in order to protect the public, help prevent further crimes and make a reality of community sentences.

We will test weekend and night courts and a range of other measures to speed up justice, based on the success of ‘swift justice’ after the 2011 summer riots.

We will continue to work with the voluntary sector to explore the potential for further new rape support centres.

We will enable court broadcasting to help to demystify the justice system.

Government Transparency and Information Technology

We will take further steps to increase the transparency with which politicians report on meetings with senior figures in the media, as recommended by Lord Justice Leveson.

We will implement the proposals set out in the Open Data and Transparency White Paper.

We will continue to open up government procurement, create a level playing field for open-source software and split large ICT projects into smaller components.

We will transition all government departments, agencies and arm’s length bodies onto GOV.UK by April 2014.

We will redesign all government transactions (more than 100,000 per year) to make them digital by default.

We will make sure that no one is left behind by ensuring there is Assisted Digital provision for those who are unable to use digital services by themselves.

We will improve management information, as proposed in the Civil Service Reform Plan, and ensure that it is used as a basis for board meetings, operational decisions and appraisals of senior officials.

We will publish data in the Quarterly Data Summaries in a way that is more meaningful to the public.

We will continue to push for greater transparency throughout the public sector so that people know what is being done in their name.

Might we have major strikes this coming Spring?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257461/Documents-suggest-senior-figures-Unite-believe-general-strike-tool-armoury-fight-public-spending-restraint.html

Having fortnightly bin collections over the Christmas period, not so good

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256050/Rubbish-mountains-grow-Britain-areas-havent-refuse-collected-THREE-WEEKS.html

Teachers morale low

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/02/education-policies-hitting-teachers-morale

Schools risk being privatised if they are failing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/9741110/Primary-school-league-tables-2012-Nearly-500-schools-miss-targets-for-the-three-Rs.html

Very right wing Gove says teachers' pay needs to be docked if they work to rule to protest against his reforms

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9740017/Michael-Gove-dock-teachers-pay-if-they-work-to-rule.html

Government considering introducing anti strike laws for teachers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2245459/Gove-war-footing-teaching-unions-expected-launch-industrial-action.html

Further unintended consequences of having police commissioners : doing it part time and employing others to do your job!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2245296/Anger-newly-elected-police-commissioners-second-jobs-appointing-deputies-run-offices.html

We never wanted weekly bin collections!

Apparently we don't want weekly bin collections. Apparently we have been pining for fortnightly collections for years and years whilst we had weekly collections.

Rewriting history again!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9696858/People-dont-want-their-bins-emptied-every-week-say-councils.html

Water companies imposing water meters

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233139/Water-firms-force-thousands-homes-meters-meet-targets-cut-usage.html

Department of Education to shed 1000 jobs

Glad to see Education standards rising! This represents approximately a quarter of the department's work force.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20324346

Rail travel: customers are now plebs

A new tier  of lower class carriage is to be introduced.

"Bob Crow, left wing leader of the RMT transport union said: 'Now we know, the door is open for the train operators to introduce third passenger class as and when it suits them.

'We knew that this Government was winding the clock back on employment, benefits and legal rights but now they are opening up the option to dive back in time more than 50 years to the days of third class rail travel.' 

But Lord Myners said:'I was astonished by the response which suggested there could be a cattle class carriage at the back or one for toffs at the front'. 

But a Department for Transport spokesman said: 'It is completely untrue and deliberately misleading to claim that this Government wants to introduce 'third class' fares. "

The government has the idea of introducing a premium economy class. IE more crowded trains in standard class! 

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2232481/Return-class-Rail-companies-draw-controversial-plans-reintroduce-tier-service-trains-bad-be.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/thirdclass-trains-how-bad-could-they-be-8317078.html 

Doublespeak : The police commissioners are not political!

It's been nothing but political! You get labout and conservatives talking about it. You get commissioners considering priorities based on what local people want.

That is by definition political!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/09/police-crime-commissioner-elections-politics

MPs want vulnerable children to be taken into care more quickly

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2229289/Take-children-care-say-MPs-despite-20-rise-death-Baby-P.html

whilst morale has been really low for social workers. http://howlifeischanging.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/social-worker-morale-very-low.html

   Remember.. we have the fairest government ever.

Social worker morale very low

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/06/social-workers-morale-rock-bottom

I doubt the government really cares, as is the case with the police morale.

Police morale plummeting

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9653552/Police-morale-is-plummeting-says-Lord-Stevens.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20204721

does the government care? Do they heck!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9655200/Low-morale-in-the-police-is-inevitable-after-cuts-policing-minister-says.html

Having low morale is just part of life now. The government makes any changes it wants and then says "well such changes are inevitably going to give low morale".  An emotion is now just seen by government as a physiological response by the human body; the human being is still as wholesome and as fullfilled as they have always been.

Probation service to be privatised

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221178/David-Cameron-Private-firms-rehabilitate-criminals.html