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Why We Need a Greater Diversity of Experts for Effective Public Dialogue

One of the key outcomes from the ‘Use of Experts’ workstream report was for the role of experts to be more carefully considered in the planning and delivery of public dialogues. This article looks at one aspect of that report – to advocate bringing in a greater number and diversity of experts in public dialogue and why that is becoming even more pertinent.In the public dialogues Sciencewise-ERC has funded and advised on, a sample of members of the public is asked to deliberate on an issue, exploring their hopes, fears and aspirations so that policy can be better informed by those views.

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Stem Injection Systems

A Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) project to tackle invasive non-native plant species (INNS) in the Dumfries and Galloway area, is using state-of-the-art treatment equipment from Stem Injection Systems (Europe).

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SPENDING REVIEW CUTS SET TO CAUSE CHAOS IF NOT ACCOMPANIED BY WHOLESALE CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT STYLE

Drastic cuts announced in October’s spending review, whilst achievable, could easily result in chaos to services if not managed appropriately. As the scale of the required savings in local government finally becomes clear, the reality is dawning that many authorities simply do not have the band-width or skills to deliver the budget reductions in any way other than through service cuts. Much of the opposition to the austerity package from both the public and unions is being driven by this fear

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Siemens IT Solutions appointment

Siemens IT Solutions and Services has appointed a Head of Government Affairs to champion and develop relationships with central and local Government partners and trade associations. Steven Barker will take this ambassadorial role and lead engagements with public sector working groups concerned with standards in procurement, emergent and changing ICT strategies, plus the identification of innovative products, services and solutions.

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Quangos, Mergers & Costs

What’s the real cost of rationalising quangos? Forget efficiency savings argues Marc Cetkowski, Head of Government and Public Sector at global project management consultancy PIPC. It is hoped, of course, mainly by the coalition marketing machine, that the potential devastation caused over the next 6-12 months will be quickly superseded in five years time when the coalition parties stand on the re-election platform and announce -we made the savings…we bought the deficit back into control.

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Best thinking drives best practice

Before we can hope to achieve best practice, we need to address ‘best thinking’ – that is, to assess the patterns of thinking amongst our managers. How managers think will affect the way they manage and interact with their team, ultimately affecting the success or failure of a project or initiative.

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Keeping your staff's personal information safe online

Keeping your staff’s personal information safe onlineMedia law expert Cleland Thom warns of the dangers of mixing business with pleasure

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Fire Alarm Notification for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing uses ProcessFlows SMS Technology

The ProcessFlows Text Message Server (TMS) platform was chosen by Fireco, manufacturers and installers of wireless fire safety products, as the text messaging gateway for their new Deaf Message Service (DMS) fire notification solution for the deaf and hard of hearing.

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Nineteenth Century technology could save Councils millions by reducing their electricity costs

Jobs are being lost that could be saved - one local authority employee said. -We’ve had energy efficiency proposals sat on our desk for two and a half years. If we’d actioned them, we could have kept the key staff members we’re about to loose. Considering all of this this, it is surprising how few energy efficiency measures have actually been deployed. So what barriers are making it hard for the public sector to act?

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Having your photo taken – is it right up your street?

You’re out in the street and someone takes your photo without asking. What can you do? And do you have any control over what they do with that image?

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Consultancy and 21st Century Government

The new coalition government set an early pace with the announcement of over £6bn reductions in spending for the current year, an emergency budget and some important re-ordering of priorities at the centre. But these are small beer compared to the scale of what is planned for the next few years.

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A Tale of Two Hacks:

The world of hacking has evolved into two major varieties: industrialized attacks and advanced persistent threats (APT). There has been a lot of discussion around the validity of APT recently some have even connected APT with panties. But APT is a real threat. So, what’s the difference between APT and industrialized hacking, and how should you respond?

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Deficit reduction measures will raise UK unemployment close to 3 million by 2012

Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) predicts that the coalition government’s deficit reduction measures will stall any recovery in the UK jobs market later this year, result in a post-recession peak in unemployment close to 3 million, and slow any subsequent return to low unemployment.

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How Colleges can benefit from paperless accounting

Apart from shrinking your carbon footprint, what other benefits are there for Colleges that move to electronic based financial management? As well as examining the environmental effects, Simon Kearsley, CEO at accounting software vendor, Symmetry explores other reasons why going paperless can improve processes, save time, increase efficiency and contribute to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) efforts.

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PR Media Law Guide

A new e-book has been published to guide PR and comms staff through the maze of media law. The PR Media Law Guide explains how to keep comms operations safe from threats like defamation, the Data Protection Act and contempt of court. It also explains how to use media law and the regulatory codes in proactive and reactive situations, and to deal with post-publication issues.

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Lean thinking for peak public sector performance

Lean thinking, and working, has had huge buy-in from across the manufacturing sector for many years now and, more recently, there are increasing numbers of organisations from service and public sectors who are beginning to understand that lean principles and approaches are just as relevant to them.

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The value of consulting

There has never been a time when leaders, managers and businesspeople have not sought and obtained advice from external experts. Modern capitalism and the development of a welfare state increased this requirement for additional support.

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TALKING ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Living up to its reputation as a specialist in the field of leadership and learning development, pearcemayfield, has launched an audio series on the 2009 edition of project management method PRINCE2.

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SUNDIALS ' A LOST HERITAGE …?

In a country that boasts some seven hundred listed learned and professional societies, including over thirty bearing the prefix ‘Royal’, it is not likely to excite the attention of the general readership to learn that there is such a society committed to antiquarian clocks. However, it may well come as something of a surprise for them to know that there is an organisation in the United Kingdom that is devoted to the study of sundials, namely the British Sundial Society.

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TRAINING SPECIALIST AWARDED RISK MANAGEMENT ACCREDITATION

Already well respected as an innovative provider of project and change management training, pearcemayfield has added risk management to its range of training products.

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