Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has called for a meeting between his Cabinet and Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy to discuss ways of mitigating the effects of the recession. In his speech to the Scottish National Party conference on April 18, Salmond warned the Whitehall government not to cut £1bn from the Scottish budget in the name of efficiency savings. People in Scotland, he said, ‘will not easily forgive any politician or any party that stands in the way of Scotland’s recovery’. He announced that £95m of European Union funding would be used to stimulate business growth and create jobs.
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has named 40 leading figures from health care, business and the public sector to become part of a National Leadership Council for the NHS. ‘We want to improve the overall quality of our leaders, equipping them with the skills to make our vision a reality,’ Nicholson said. Among those named were Clare Chapman, director general of workforce for the NHS and social care; chief nursing officer Dame Christine Beasley; Care Quality Commission chief executive Cynthia Bower; and Bill Moyes, executive chair of foundation hospitals regulator Monitor.
Scottish colleges are to receive an extra £14m in funding in 2009/10, the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council has announced. The 43 colleges will be given £572m, a 2.5% rise on 2008/09. Most of the extra cash will be spent on bursaries, childcare and discretionary funding for students. Clive Travis, chief executive of Scotland’s Colleges, welcomed the funding. ‘Scotland’s colleges sector is working hard to minimise the effects of the recession,’ he said. ‘While the bursary allocation is welcome, we hope to see this increased in future and also to see the introduction of bursaries for higher education students.’
The Criminal Records Bureau has launched an electronic application system it hopes will bring faster results to its largest customers. Customers making more than 3,000 checks a year may now use e-Bulk to send multiple applications and receive the results electronically, the CRB said. Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said: ‘The CRB plays a vital role in helping deliver increased protection of the vulnerable, having stopped more than 80,000 unsuitable people working with children… in the past four years.’
Sarah McAdam, London Central area director for the Courts Service, has been appointed chief executive of the Commission for Rural Communities. She will take up her post in August, replacing interim chief executive Gill Payne, an executive director of the CRC. The CRC provides advice to government reflecting the needs of rural England. Its chair, Stuart Burgess, said: ‘Her leadership will be invaluable as we continue to represent the interests of rural communities at the highest levels in government.’
