2Keith Hellawell, the UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator, has welcomed new guidance on drugs misuse for teachers and youth workers.The new guidance was criticised earlier this week, ahead of issue, for the suggestion it might tie the hands of headteachers in dealing with pupils found with drugs.
Extra money has been allocated for training social care staff, following a series of scandals up and down the country in which poor quality of social service provision and supervision has been a factor.Health Minister John Hutton has also announced a new initiative to develop better training for top managers and a new awards scheme.
Considers the problems arising from the UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI), i.e. partnership between the public and private sectors; and reports that the current government is trying to revive the PFI programme, e.g. by training civil servants in best practice tendering methods. Argues that some projects are definitely unsuitable for PFI (e.g. defence contracts for front-line equipment) while others are arguable (e.g. building and running prisons). Discusses the efforts being made to deal with the difficulties of accounting for PFI, ensuring project quality and allowing for longer term planning of capital spending; but believes there is still ‘a lot to learn’.