John Soutar, 15 years old from Lionel, Isle of Lewis, has been selected as the national winner in the 2008 BT Internet Ranger of the Year Awards. The awards are a nationwide hunt to find and reward young people who are playing a crucial role in helping older generations get online.
The BT Internet Ranger Awards, now in their fourth year, celebrate stories of outstanding young people who are sharing their internet skills with others. It forms part of the BT Internet Ranger campaign, set up following research which highlighted that nearly a third of parents and grandparents, 32 per cent, have been taught or encouraged to try the internet by a young person aged between 13 to 16 years. John was presented with his prize of a laptop plus £250 in IT vouchers from Angus McNeil MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar at a special event held today at the BT Tower in London. John, who attends Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, was recognised for helping his mum, Elspeth, start a new life on Hebridean Island after she became a single parent. With a solid understanding of the internet and a natural knack for web design, John designed and built a website for the family business - two self-catering cottages for holiday-makers on the island - from which the entire family income had to be earned. John spent hours teaching Elspeth how to manage the website as well as how to research, advertise and take bookings using the internet. With patience and a level-headed approach, John provided Elspeth with regular refresher courses as the business became more successful and consequently, more complicated. John’s internet-tutoring skills and talent for web design were quickly picked up by the local community, where he has offered his expertise to help teach both adults and children about the internet at an innovative local IT project, for which he has also spent hours building their website.

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7 October 2008
© BT

The IT Diploma Supporters’ Club met for the first time in London recently. The group has been formed to champion the new diploma for 14-19 year olds, and to provide a forum to discuss its development and delivery. Around 70 participants from the IT and Telecoms sector, Higher Education Institutions, schools, colleges and Education Business Partnerships came together to focus on three main areas - employer engagement, higher education engagement and support for schools and colleges. Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK attended the event and said: “Effective collaboration between educators and employers is vital to the success of the diploma. This club brings together key partners keen to help make the diploma the best possible experience for students.” The Diploma in IT is one of a suite of new qualifications for 14-19-year-olds in England. Developed in partnership with employers and universities, the diploma blends general education and applied learning to provide a motivating and challenging programme of study. For more information about the Diploma in IT, visit www.e-skills.com/diploma

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6 October 2008
© e-skills uk

Natural England has today (Friday 3 October) published new Environmental Stewardship (ES) handbooks to provide farmers with a comprehensive guide to ES and how to apply. A dedicated Environmental Stewardship phone number has also been established: 0300 060 1115; and for the first time applicants for Entry Level Stewardship schemes (ELS) can now apply online at www.naturalengland.org.uk The new handbooks, which cover every available ES scheme, apply to all agreements starting on or after 1 October 2008. The handbooks have been re-designed and include information on new options and changes to the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) bringing farmers up to date on how ES can help their farm business and how they can apply. Almost £3 billion is earmarked for ES and other agri-environment schemes from 2007-2013, under the RDPE. Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said: “Environmental Stewardship remains essential to the health of our natural environment and the success of certain species and we know this can go hand in hand with a successful farming enterprise. We will work closely with the farming industry to ensure these ES schemes continue to work for the benefit of farming, the countryside and wildlife.” View the handbooks: www.naturalengland.org.uk/planning/grants-funding/es/default.htm
View the ELS: www.naturalengland.org.uk/planning/grants-funding/es/els/online.htm

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6 October 2008
© Natural England

Alston Healthcare, one of the Department of Health’s 26 social enterprise pathfinder projects, is working on a telehealth project. The Cumbrian company aims to provide community health services, including e-health services, across a rural area, with particular focus on older people. In 2006/07, it received £15,500 revenue and £5,000 capital from the Social Enterprise Unit and set about providing a broadband infrastructure that staff from the local hospital and primary care trust could use when visiting patients at home. It is now planning a three phase telehealth project. Phase one, a pilot study, will take place from January to March next year and focus on two or three rural areas. Further phases will be subject to additional funding. The pilot will put a range of telehealth monitoring equipment into homes to enable people with chronic conditions to monitor their conditions, with the aim of reducing hospital admissions and long-stays, and promoting health and reducing anxiety. Data will be sent to clinical staff over the broadband infrastructure set up last year. Alston Healthcare has also started implementing a video communication system over which patients can be assessed remotely by nurses and doctors. The first video link will be between Alston and Penrith hospitals, but the idea will be extended after an initial trial. The video links could be used for minor injuries and illness, dermatology problems, and patient reviews and consultations when the patient might otherwise have to travel a considerable distance. Alston Healthcare’s first project was to give laptops to nurses so they could get web access to records and other information. A year ago, Daniel Heery, project manager for Alston Healthcare, told EHI Primary Care that the move had halved unnecessary patient admissions and reduced by a third the need for GPs to make home visits. Alston Healthcare wants to make using the web for health the norm in the town and to work with the National Programme for IT in the NHS to get some of its projects into the area.

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29 September 2008
© EHI Primary Care

Organisations providing services to beneficiaries in the third sector face a huge number of valid competing pressures on their time and resources. Often technology gets relegated down the list because in many cases it is not part of core service delivery. It is not a bad thing to view technology or ICT as a utility service in the same way that an organisation may view lighting or drainage. It is essential that there is a contingency or back-up in place should there be a problem with the plumbing or the lighting; in the same way this should apply to the computers used in an organisation. There are many ways to organise the contingency solution, one of which is through engaging the services of an external provider of ICT services. In the same way as you would bring in a specialist to deal with leaking tap a specialist provider of ICT services is best placed to deal with ICT emergencies. This report looks in detail at the Social Enterprise model of delivery and draws on the knowledge of those with experience of it to critically ask if it is the best solution, what services could be provided together with the pitfalls and benefits of this method of service delivery.

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29 September 2008
© ICT Hub

With the threshold for submitting annual accounts to the Charity Commission changing shortly to £25,000, the online database GuideStar UK has announced that it will continue to capture and display information from all Trustee Annual Reports and Financial Statements it receives, regardless of size. A simple method will be provided to voluntarily submit accounts electronically. Plaza Publishing news alert item http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=2221.

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26 September 2008
© VoluntaryNews

One the final reports to come out of the work of the ICT Hub is now published. “ICT Support for the Third Sector: Is Social Enterprise the Solution?” was commissioned by the ICT Hub to answer the following questions: Should the sector try and deliver ICT support services from within, or should it rely on services from the private sector? If yes, what sort of services should be provided for the sector? How have current social enterprises emerged? What problems have they encountered in their birth and growth? How can these be avoided? Are they robust enough and, if not, how can this be improved? It will be of value to: Anyone thinking of setting up a social enterprise to deliver ICT services to the third sector; Anyone running a social enterprise that delivers ICT services to the third sector; Policy-makers and funders who want to understand how they can support the development of social enterprise models to deliver ICT services to the third sector; Anyone interested in helping to meet the ICT support needs of the third sector. It is the work of 4 of the regional ICT champions who also run social enterprises.

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26 September 2008
© Yorkshire and Humber ICT Champion

Blackdown Hills Natural Fibres approached COSMIC to create a new site that would encompass all their different suppliers and projects. The site also encourages others from the Blackdown Hills area who share their ethos to get in touch and join the group. COSMIC delivered a clean and clear site that lets the subject speak for itself: www.naturalfibres.org/

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24 September 2008
© COSMIC

IDeA have commissioned a new report on measuring equality at a local level to help authorities gather equality data. Measuring equality at a local level - the full report (PDF, 63 pages, 599KB): http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8850673 The new comprehensive area agreements (CAA) will specifically test outcomes of ‘how well inequality is being addressed’. To tackle these issues, councils will need to demonstrate they know their communities. They will need to understand both their local community profiles and key ‘equality gaps’ often experienced by different communities. Councils will therefore need to understand national equality data and where this can be supplemented by local data sources. Accessing and analysing this information will be crucial to delivery on a number of key national indicators. The report clarifies the need for high quality equality information across the sector. It informs local partners of the availability of equality information in a wide range of data sources at a national and local level.

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22 September 2008
© IDeA

Devon LINk came to COSMIC looking for a site that gave them the control to edit pages themselves and to have a way of getting interaction with members of the public. COSMIC created a Content Management System driven website for them and added a Forum to the site enabling the public consultation the client required. Website: http://www.devonlink.org/

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22 September 2008
© COSMIC