A new guideline to help people who work with children spot and stop abuse or neglect is being published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The guideline outlines how social workers, teachers and police officers, along with others working outside healthcare, can spot the signs of abuse or neglect and how they should act faced with a range of differing circumstances. The guideline includes physical, mental and sexual abuse as well as newly recognised forms of abuse such as female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual exp... Continue reading

Corporate sustainability must be placed at the heart of the Government’s proposed reform of corporate governance if it is likely to succeed, says IEMA, the worldwide alliance of environment and sustainability professionals. It says the reforms must ensure boards look beyond short-term financial performance to also include environmental, social and wider economic factors if plans are to successfully restore public faith and trust in privately and shareholder-owned organisations. Responding to the Government’s Green Paper consultation, whic... Continue reading

BIFM has incorporated Building Information Modelling (BIM) into the Facilities Management Professional Standards to reflect the growing impact it has on the working practices of FM professionals. The addition follows a BIFM survey, run in late summer 2016 in conjunction with UK Construction Week, which revealed that 85% of respondents support opportunities to fully integrate FM throughout the building project life cycle. The majority of those who took the survey also agreed that BIM can help support the ongoing delivery of facilities manageme... Continue reading

The burden of proving the status of a worker may be shifted from workers to employers, the chair of a government review into modern employment has suggested. Matthew Taylor, who was appointed by the Government in October to investigate whether ‘employment regulation and practices are keeping pace with the changing world of work’, has said the feeling among workers that they lack control or a voice in the workplace was fuelling ‘misery and anger’. The Taylor Review said it was already considering introducing an online government tool t... Continue reading

Responses to the Government’s document, Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, are recognising the key areas that need work in order to enable disabled people to stay in and get back to work. Published in October 2016, the paper was intended to ‘mark the start of… a far-reaching national debate, asking: “What will it take to transform the employment prospects of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions?”’ A ministerial comment from Damian Green, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, an... Continue reading