Select Committee Looking at Barriers to Accessing Work Experience for Students and Young People

The House of Commons Youth Select Committee has launched a new inquiry into barriers to work experience.

The Committee is calling for evidence from a wide range of witnesses, including businesses and charities, as well as students and young people who have been directly affected by these barriers.

The announcement comes as a YouGov poll reveals more than two-thirds of young people (71 per cent) are expecting it to be tougher to find a job in 2030 with 58 per cent of all 11-18 year olds citing a lack of work experience as a barrier.

On the agenda

This year, the committee will look at issues including:

• What does good quality work experience look like? 
• What do young people and businesses expect to get from it? 
• How important is good quality work experience to successful industrial strategy?
• What evidence is there that work experience boosts social mobility? 

The Youth Select Committee call for evidence closes on Monday 18th June 2018 and the Committee will hold oral evidence sessions in the House of Commons in July.

Who can submit evidence?

The Committee welcomes submissions from a wide range of stakeholders, including students, young people and the organisations that support them, businesses, universities and schools.

The Committee is particularly interested in hearing about the differing experiences of groups of students and young people experience in making the most of work experience (eg. due to ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic background and geographic location) and how these might be overcome.

Submissions from students and young people are invited to answer any of the following questions:

• What does “good quality work experience” look like? 
• What do young people and businesses expect to get from it? 
• How important is good quality work experience to a successful industrial strategy?
• What evidence is there that work experience boosts social mobility? 
• How do differences between young people (eg. geographic location, socioeconomic background, ethnicity, disability) affect the work experience opportunities they people have?
• How could resources to help young people find out about and access work experience be improved? 

Evidence can be submitted by contacting the British Youth Council via email here.

Those interested can also submit evidence directly to Parliament via post to Clerk of the Youth Select Committee c/o Work and Pensions Committee, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA.

CQC Local System Review of Cumbria Highlights Inconsistent Implementation of Joint Working Strategy

The Care Quality Commission has published its findings following a local system review of Cumbria. This report is one of 20 targeted reviews of local authority areas looking specifically at how people move through the health and social care system, with a focus on how services work together.

The reviews look at how hospitals, community health services, GP practices, care homes and home care agencies work together to provide seamless care for older people living in a local area. The review considered how the system was performing for people aged 65 and more, focusing particularly on typical pressure points.

CQC reviewers found that older people in Cumbria had inconsistent experiences of health and social care. While the organisations involved do have a health and wellbeing strategy and a vision for the whole of Cumbria, there was inconsistency in how the strategy was interpreted and how services were delivered.

• There are Cumbria two sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) and two clinical commissioning groups, for the north and south of the county. The STP plans differed in their interpretation of the health and wellbeing strategy and there were no specific links between the two plans.
• The vision for the health and social care system was that services across the whole of Cumbria would be delivered through 15 integrated care communities which would tailor services to the needs of people living in each local area. This approach was viewed positively across the system but the integrated care communities were newly established and at different stages of maturity in different areas.
• People waiting to be discharged from hospital in Cumbria did not always have a positive experience. Some people experienced long delays because of hold-ups in the assessment process, because home care packages were not available, and owing to a shortage of suitable care home placements.
• There had been some recent improvements with senior health and social care leaders working together in reducing delays, but it was too early to tell whether these improvements would be sustained in the longer term. 
• In primary care, CQC saw there was excellent leadership, especially in the south that was helping drive change and improvement at Integrated Care Community level.
• The system had not resolved the key challenge of ensuring that a suitably skilled health and social care workforce was available in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of local people.
• The system needs to work better with independent care providers and with voluntary and community sector services, which play a vital role in keeping people well and out of hospital.
• Other barriers to integration persisted, such as separate ICT systems that led to difficulties in information sharing and duplication of effort.

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of Primary Care Services, said “It is clear that across Cumbria system leaders are keen to build relationships, and improve how they worked together. However, this work is at an early stage and is fragile.

“We could see that the implementation of the health and wellbeing strategy was leading to pockets of progress, with initiatives preventing people from being admitted to hospital unnecessarily and being supported to stay well in their own home.

“However, we found there was variation between how each integrated care community operated, and significant work was needed to ensure that people across the county consistently experienced high-quality care services that met their needs. This would involve more robust planning, governance and performance measures.

“The health and wellbeing strategy, although focusing on improvements to long-standing issues such as keeping people out of hospital avoidance and maintaining people at home, was reactive rather than proactive. This was a missed opportunity to think more creatively about meeting the needs of a diverse and often rural community.

“While it is encouraging to see plans being developed and it is clear that health and social care professionals have real desire to join-up services, the system is very early in its journey towards integration.”

HMRC Working With Online Marketplaces to Tackle VAT Fraud

HMRC has asked all online marketplaces operating in the UK to sign an agreement to help tackle online VAT fraud and errors taking place on their platforms in a bid to make trading fairer for law-abiding businesses, big and small, who share trading platforms with less scrupulous companies.

Online marketplaces have a responsibility to ensure their sellers understand the tax rules and prevent fraud from happening on their watch.

To assist HMRC in tackling online VAT fraud and error, the agreement asks online marketplaces to commit to:

• educating online sellers from the UK and abroad about their VAT obligations in the UK either via their own help and support or by directing them to HMRC’s GOV.UK guidance
• responding swiftly when notified by HMRC that sellers are not playing by the VAT rules, and setting up a system to take appropriate action 
• finding a suitable and lawful way to provide HMRC with information about their sellers, when requested 

HMRC will publish the list of all online marketplaces that sign up to this agreement. If an online marketplace that signs the agreement fails to meet the commitments, HMRC will remove them from the list.

Mel Stride, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said "The growth of online marketplaces has helped many businesses to sell more products across the UK and has contributed greatly to the economy.

However, there is a small minority of sellers not paying their fair share of tax, and we’re committed to working with marketplaces on multiple levels to tackle tax evasion."

This agreement builds on world-leading powers, known by the term joint and several liability (JSL) rules, which hold online marketplaces accountable for VAT fraud committed by sellers on their platforms.  These were first introduced in September 2016 and were strengthened further in March 2018.  Only time will tell if these changes will be enough to level to playing field when selling online.

Health Insurers Agree to Share Data on Independent Healthcare Providers With CQC

The CQC has set out plans to work more closely with four health insurers AXA, BUPA, AVIVA and Vitality in new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreements.

These agreements represent a public commitment from the health insurers to share information with the CQC about the quality and safety of independent healthcare services. The CQC will use this information to improve how it monitors quality and safety in these services.

Examples of the types of information that will be considered for sharing with CQC include:

• Claimants feedback of their experiences of care, including complaints
• Patient safety risks
• Evidence of emerging themes which may be indicative of a wider safety issue across a hospital or provider group
• Outcomes of insurer visits to services that identify safety issues
• Poor clinical treatment or poor clinical outcomes for patients

The information sharing agreements will also cover information about good practice and improvements in care as well as highlighting issues of concern.

CQC Places Coventry Care Service in Special Measures Following Significant Risk Management Failures

Following its latest inspection the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has placed RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning; 5 Pears Court into special measures and rated it as Inadequate overall.

The children’s home at Five Pears Court is one of a group of specialist built bungalows at the Pears Centre in Ash Green, Coventry. The centre provides care for children and young people up to the age of nineteen and there is a school and accommodation for children attending the school on the same site, which is regulated by Ofsted.

The CQC carried out this inspection - following concerns raised by Ofsted about the part of the facility it regulates.

At the time of CQC’s first two visits during this inspection four children or young people lived at 5 Pears Court, but by the time of the second visit, on 5 April, one child had been removed from the service by commissioners, due to concerns surrounding their care and welfare.

Key Concerns:

• The Provider’s Information Return (PIR) did not reflect the findings of the inspection.
• The CQC found safeguarding concerns were not always recognised by staff and managers when incidents occurred at Bungalow 5. 
• Staff and managers had not received the appropriate level of safeguarding training to meet the needs of children and young people at the home. 
• Risks to people's health and wellbeing were not always identified, and risk management plans were not always in place to instruct staff on how they should manage risks to people consistently and safely. 
• There were not always sufficient qualified and trained staff on duty to care for children and young people safely, and to meet their social needs. 
• There was a lack of leadership for staff at the home, including clinical leadership. 
• The CQC found there was no current analysis and overview of accidents, incidents, complaints, feedback and safeguarding concerns at the home to assess whether any trends or patterns were identified and future risks could be mitigated. 
• The registered manager and provider did not fully understand their responsibility to comply with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and work within the principles of this. 
• Children and young people were not always supported in a way that respected their privacy and dignity. 
• Children and young people were not always offered activities and social experiences that met their requirements and social needs. 
• Quality monitoring procedures needed improvement to ensure these were undertaken regularly, to monitor service provision. 

Maggie Hannelly, CQC’s Head of Inspection for Adult Social Care in the central region said “Inspectors found the service was failing to provide safe care. Risks to people’s health and wellbeing were not always identified, and risk management plans were not always available to instruct staff on how they should manage risks to people consistently and safely.

“There were not always sufficient qualified and trained staff on duty to care for children and young people safely and we were concerned about a lack of strong leadership at the service. As a result of our findings, the service has been rated Inadequate and placed into special measures.

“The service must ensure it takes robust action to ensure improvements are made and we will return to carry out further inspections.”

Authors Urged to Write to Government Over PLR for Ebooks

The Society of Authors campaign for PLR on ebooks has stepped up a notch with a request going out to all authors to lobby the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for urgent action.

Last year, following lobbying from authors and illustrators, and legal cases in Europe, the government agreed to extend PLR to ebooks.  However there is concern that the Government has not taken the necessary action to implement the necessary changes. An additional piece of secondary legislation needs to be passed, which the Government committed to completing by 1 July 2018, so that the first in arrears payments could be made by February 2020.

Talking about the issue the Society of Authors said "We are calling on our members to write to Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. We have drafted a template letter below, but feel free to edit and personalise this as you see fit. Please send the email to enquiries@culture.gov.uk and copy in tgallagher@societyofauthors.org."


The Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

By email

Dear Mr Hancock,

I am writing to ask you to ensure that there is no delay in implementing the extension of Public Lending Right (PLR) to e-books.

Legislation to extend PLR to e-books was passed as part of the Digital Economy Act 2017. As an author [or illustrator/editor/poet etc as appropriate] and a member of the Society of Authors, I wholeheartedly welcome this reform. PLR provides me with a modest but important payment (around 7p) each time one of my books is borrowed from a public library, and it is right that legislation has caught up with advances in technology and PLR extended to e-books.

However I am concerned to learn that the Government has not yet taken the necessary action to implement the change. As you’ll be aware, an additional piece of secondary legislation needs to be passed for the change to come into effect. The Government committed to completing this by 1 July 2018, so that the first in arrears payments could be made by February 2020.

So far no such secondary legislation has been laid before Parliament. I am concerned that we are running out of time for this legislation to be passed and the reform implemented by 1 July 2018.

I know that you were the Minister responsible for taking the Digital Economy Act through Parliament, in your previous role as Minister of State for Digital and Culture. At the Society of Authors’ summer party last year, you emphasised your commitment to supporting authors’ rights, including through the extension of PLR to e-books.

I would therefore be grateful if you could update me on the progress that has been made in implementing this change, and commit to ensuring that it comes into force by 1 July 2018.

I look forward to hearing from you.

For advice and guidance on managing PLR visit the Society of Authors website - click here.

Building Care Services Around the Needs of Clients Leads to Outstanding Rating by CQC

Tigh Sogan care home in Croydon has been rated Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection in February 2018.

The service provides accommodation and care to people with Learning Disabilities.

They were particularly commended for their approach to managing and reducing challenging behaviour.  Each person was supported to create a ‘personal folder’ where they recorded things which they liked and things they did not like, which could be triggers to challenging behaviour. Staff received regular training, approved by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, in positive behaviour support. Staff said the training was excellent and that the provider gave on-going support in helping people stay safe. Residents said they felt safe and relatives were in agreement. Staff discussed safeguarding at each team meeting.

The relative of one resident, who had a poor quality of life in their previous placement and refused to engage with people or in any meaningful activities, said: “Our son has got his life back and this has changed our lives too. They’ve done wonders for him here. The progress he has made and the support is outstanding. It’s so person-centred. There are group activities but there are always staff available if he wants to do something else.”

The provider recently began a programme at a local hospice to train staff in understanding how to provide high-quality care to people at the end of their lives. As part of the programme people are supported to consider how they would like to receive care at the end of their lives through involvement with their families.

Key Findings

• The provider had excellent systems in place to support people in relation to behaviours which challenged the service. Assessing needs and implementing consistent ways of working tailored to each person. 
• Staff received training in relation to positive behaviour support and understood people’s needs well.
• Care plans were carefully designed so people's emotional needs, individual preferences and interests were well catered for.  Each person was supported to live a meaningful life despite difficulties they experienced in their day to day lives and previous difficulties in engaging in activities. 
• People had individualised activity programmes in place which met their particular interests and needs very well.  Staff supported people to increase choice and control in their lives through their excellent understanding of people's needs and preferences. 
• People were at reduced risk of social isolation as the provider actively encouraged socialising and building relationships. 
• Systems were in place to reduce the risk of abuse. 
• Staff were well supported with induction, training, supervision and annual appraisal to help them understand their role and responsibilities. 
• The provider identified, assessed and managed risks relating to people’s care as well as to the premises. 
• There were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to support people with each person receiving individual support throughout the day. 
• People received coordinated care when moving between services such as hospital admissions and when newly admitted to the care home. People were supported in relation to their day to day health and to access healthcare services they required. 
• Staff understood people’s communication needs well and adapted their communication for the different individuals. People were encouraged to develop their independent living skills. 
• The registered manager created a positive, encouraging environment for people, staff and relatives who visited the service and had a good understanding of their role and responsibilities. Leadership was visible and capable at all levels and staff also understood their role well. 
• The provider had good governance systems in place to audit and improve the service with frequent checks of the service in line with CQC standards.