Wider consultations
Post Office Banking: a consultation on developing the banking and financial services available at the Post Office
The Post Office offers a wide range of financial services, and the Government believes the time is right to expand their offer. The Prime Minister announced on 29th September 2009 “I want the Post Office to play a much bigger role; bringing banking services back to the heart of people’s communities”.
A consultation has now been launched setting out the Government's vision for Post Office banking and the values that should underpin it. It puts forward a number of proposals for new financial products that the Post Office could offer including: a Post Office current account, a Children's Savings account to encourage saving at the Post Office from an early age, new services for small businesses including a Post Office business account, and a weekly budgeting account to allow those on low incomes to take advantage of direct debits and reduced bills. The closing date for responses is Wednesday 24th February 2010.
The consultation can be accessed from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website here
The Children and Young People’s Directorate are currently considering ways of reshaping provision for children and young people with BESN to better meet their needs.
The first phase of this process has involved detailed analysis. They are now consulting on a vision for a continuum of BESD Needs provision based on a set of principles. The analysis has identified some of the key emerging issues, for example:
- Outcomes for CYP are good in places but are inconsistent and sometimes poor.
- There are some unacceptably levels of exclusions and pupil absence though the LA and schools are making progress in addressing these.
- Some schools report a difficulty in accessing specialist multi agency in the county.
To access the review click here and access the report ‘Analysis of provision for CYP with BES needs’
Alongside this report you’ll find the document ‘Continuum of BESN Provision’ This is a diagrammatic summary of some of ‘the vision’ together with key underpinning principles the CYPD wishes to consult widely upon.
Then go to the ‘BESN Consultation Document’ to respond to this first phase of consultation either on line of by printing off the questionnaire
The consultation ends on 14th January 2010.
It is important that the rural perspective is clearly heard whenever there is an opportunity. These are some ongoing local regional and national consultations in which you may wish to participate.