6989posts
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GSE Role Modelling: It's OK not to be OK
This post discusses how it’s ‘OK not to be OK’ as a role model. Being a ‘positive’ role model does not mean you must only be positive when something is not right. Inspire and empower others by speaking up and challenging when the need arises, or when support and help is required.
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The road to Royal Air Force Reserves
When I was 23, I walked into a military camp for the first time in my life to be interviewed for a job as an admin assistant at the Headquarters of the Surgeon General. I was met by a large, tattooed Scottish Army Major who shook my hand and welcomed me at the start of my career ‘behind the wire’.
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Why I’m Proud to be a Reservist
23 June is Reserves Day - a chance to recognise the remarkable contribution of civilians who give up their spare time to serve in the armed forces. Civil Servant James Waller shares his pride to be a Naval Reservist. There …
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International Women in Engineering Day 2021
Today is International Women in Engineering Day. It’s a day where we celebrate the amazing work of women within the engineering sector. According to the Engineering UK 2018 report, only 12% of all engineers in the UK are women. We …
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Women in Engineering Day 2021
Nishtha Chopra, Higher Radiation Protection Scientist, discusses her career in science as we look to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on Wednesday 23 June.
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Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Double Winner!
Pi has been awarded 2 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, one for International Trade and the other for Innovation.
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Transforming our services: Appeals, applications and examinations
Stephen Read introduces the work to improve our 3 service areas and how it will make it easier for customers to do business with us.
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Pride at HMRC, Harry's Story
We celebrate Pride Month every June to recognise the progress made for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT+) people, as well as marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In June of 1969, a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, …
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Giving nature a digital hand
Tracey Friday, a product owner in the Digital Transformation team at Natural England working on delivering digital services for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), shares her experience of being on the ‘other side’ of the customer-supplier fence.
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GSE Opportunities: Systems Thinking Level 7 Apprenticeship
A new two-year, blended approach apprenticeship starting in January 2022 is being delivered by the University of Exeter. The apprenticeship has been designed for the public service to improve the quality and use of evidence-based scientific advice to government, and …
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Coverage of Amazon waste allegations
On today's blog we are looking at the regulations to make sure all retailers take greater responsibility for electricals.
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Care Home Open Week preview: Beacons of hope
For almost a decade, care home open days have seen care homes all over the country open their doors to families, friends and local communities. This year’s event, which takes place across a week (28 June - 4 July), has particular significance, providing an opportunity to reunite care homes with their local communities, while celebrating the incredible care colleagues who have remained on the frontline throughout the pandemic.
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Retail banking: how we’ve made switching easier
There are many benefits to switching your current account to another bank or building society. Peter Hill explains why switching can be a great idea, and the work we’ve done to make the process easier and simpler for you.
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Happy World Humanist Day
What is humanism? Humanists hold a naturalistic worldview. To mark World Humanist Day on 21 June, Liz Lutgendorff sheds light on what it means to live without following a traditional religion. Even though non-religious people make up more than half …
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Grow your career in the South West
Are you aware of the Civil Service Careers website? It contains a wealth of information on the range of departments and career opportunities in the south west for you to develop your career.
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Hack2Work: Help DWP customers return to employment following the pandemic
Hack2Work will take place from Tuesday 6 July over 3 days. This is our 5th digital hack, but in line with social distancing, our first online. Hackers will be invited to work on solutions that could help jobseekers identify and access employment provision. Meet our sponsors and find out why they're joining us.
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I’m an international student, what do I need to know about studying in England during the pandemic?
International students are still able to come to England to study during the pandemic, and we understand you may have questions regarding Covid-19 measures and vaccines. So, what do you need to know? You don’t need to have been vaccinated …
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Key things you might not know about fire safety in schools
It is crucial that all students and staff are safe at school. This is especially important in relation to fire safety, where schools, local authorities, and the Department for Education work towards the same goals of ensuring schools are …
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Reversing the trend of declining bees on the Defence Training Estate
This week is National Pollinator’s Week and we’d like to share the initiatives we’ve put in place to help protect bees on the Defence estate. Bees are major pollinators, that ensure food and food security, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity and …
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Winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise was music to the ears of Percussion Play
Robin and Jody Ashfield started their outdoor musical instruments business with a mission to create a product that would enable consumers to embrace music and find a feeling of instant satisfaction and joy.
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Podcast: Building better user experiences
The fifth episode of the DWP Digital podcast is now available to listen to.
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Rising to the Civil Service Challenge of Change
At Civil Service Live, Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case and Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, Alex Chisholm launched the vision for A Modern Civil Service. To kick off our new series, we’ve invited civil servant Shazia Razzaq to share her ideas …
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What we're learning about advice through tests and trials
One of the areas we’re looking at is how much advice and guidance farmers and land managers might need in our new schemes. We’ve got 43 tests and trials exploring this and in this post we’ll share the latest findings.
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Join our North West wellbeing events
Our wellbeing network would like to invite civil servants in the North West to take part in wellbeing events, running from 29 June to 22 July...
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How can I remortgage online?
Find out how we’re making it easier to remortgage online, as well as making history with our Sign your mortgage deed service.
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Engaging with the public about algorithmic transparency in the public sector
Making decisions about individuals is a key responsibility for many parts of the public sector, and there is increasing recognition of the opportunities offered through the use of data and algorithms in this decision-making. But these opportunities will only be …
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Response to Sunday Telegraph splash
The headline of the Telegraph story, “Matt Hancock kept Boris Johnson in dark over Covid vaccines success”, published today (Saturday 19 June) is incorrect, and misrepresents internal processes for data sharing. The information referenced (vaccine effectiveness data against the Delta …
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Response to The Sunday Times article on the cost of cladding remediation
The Sunday Times has today published an article titled “‘Footing the bill for the cladding crisis will cost more than my flat’”. The article uses figures on the cost of remediation from Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) and Institute …
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This year’s school place offers – what the data tells us
This year, 98.4% of pupils starting primary school got one of their preferred choices. The figure for secondary schools was 95.5%.
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We’re hiring more user researchers at GDS
Several user researchers across GDS programmes share their personal experiences and what they're working on right now, as part of the GDS Strategy.
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Can sports days go ahead and will I be able to attend? We answer your questions
Many schools will have broken up for the summer holidays by the time national restrictions ease on 19 July. This means that while schools and colleges will be able to hold the traditional end of term sports day, they may …
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Supporting informed choice in NHS screening – a view from Cancer Research UK
Public Health England Screening asked Cancer Research UK to tell us about their work on informed choice. Sophia Lowes, a health information manager at CRUK, tells us more.
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Government response to the Ella Adoo-Kissi Debrah Coroner’s report
In today’s blog we look at widespread coverage of the government’s response to the Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah Coroner’s report.
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'Green claims' and the CMA
We've found that businesses need guidance to help them understand the best ways to communicate their 'green claims' to customers. That's why we want your views on our draft guidance which sets out 6 principles we think businesses should follow when making environmental claims.
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‘Sitting days’: how are they decided?
The allocation of ‘sitting days’, or the number of days that judges ‘sit’ in court each year to hear cases brought before them, is something that you will likely have heard mentioned in relation to courts and tribunals, particularly around …
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SIREN: One year on
A year ago today we launched SIREN - the world’s biggest real-world study into Covid-19 antibodies. Here are five things that we have learnt from the study so far.
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The G7 comes to Cornwall
Well we can’t let the G7 pass without mentioning all the civil servants from the South West and elsewhere in the UK who got involved in supporting this huge event in our region.
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Why synthetic data could be useful for a government department
Synthetic data could open up possibilities for our department and other government organisations. In our latest blog, lead data scientist Shruti Kohli explains why this is an exciting area of innovation.
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A letter to secondary school and college parents in England on continuing regular Covid-19 testing from Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has today written to secondary school and college parents and guardians in England to talk about the importance of regular testing when it comes to keeping covid out of the classroom.
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Paraffin’s work with global clients has been recognised for its excellence with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade 2021
Paraffin are an award winning capabilities agency. They empower people with capabilities that create positive change and business growth.