Author Archives: HM Government

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.

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.

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

Selvarani Elahi, the Deputy Government Chemist, was invited as a guest speaker at the Annual Open Meeting of the Peninsula section of the Royal Society of Chemistry held at Plymouth University in May 2017.

Selvarani gave a presentation that began with the origins of the Government Chemist in the mid-19th century when professional chemistry was in its infancy. At the time eager debate took place within the newly founded scientific societies, such as the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry), on new discoveries and how to communicate these to demonstrate the benefits of chemistry to society.

Government first established a laboratory in 1842 with a single scientist to determine the adulteration of tobacco for excise purposes. From these humble beginnings the laboratory grew and official recognition of the importance of chemistry was established by the appointment of a Government Chemist. The Laboratory of the Government Chemist, as it was subsequently called, grew in stature to provide government departments with accurate chemical measurements and sound scientific advice to underpin a modern industrialised society.

Peninsula section of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Selvarani took the audience through the different types of cases that the Government Chemist has had to deal with over the years. She explained the work behind recent food safety and food fraud events such as the “horsemeat scandal” and the presence of peanut in a nut-free factory.

For more information about the work of the Government Chemist please contact us.