Live RHI inquiry: DUP chief executive Timothy Johnston says adviser appointment letters were 'tick box exercise' BelfastTelegraph.co.uk The DUP's most powerful unelected official is giving evidence to the RHI inquiry. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/live-rhi-inquiry-dup-chief-executive-timothy-johnston-says-adviser-appointment-letters-were-tick-box-exercise-37363462.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article37363626.ece/cd88c/AUTOCROP/h342/timothy_johnston_RHI.JPG Email The DUP's most powerful unelected official is giving evidence to the RHI inquiry. Timothy Johnston, who is now the chief executive of the DUP, was a special adviser to Arlene Foster when she was First Minister. In his witness statement, published by the inquiry on Thursday, Mr Johnston denied attempting to delay RHI cost controls and said he had no detailed knowledge of the scheme. Read updates from Mr Johnston's evidence here: Belfast Telegraph Digital … [Read more...] about Live RHI inquiry: DUP chief executive Timothy Johnston says adviser appointment letters were ‘tick box exercise’
Ticking a box
Council bans tick box asking about criminal convictions on job forms
Bristol City Council has become the first local authority in the country to ban the tick box that asks about criminal convictions on job forms. The council has signed up to become a Ban the Box employer in a bid to remove barriers to employment for people with criminal convictions. The Ban the Box campaign, which originated in the USA, calls on employers to remove requests for disclosure of unspent criminal convictions on job application forms and to evaluate the skills, abilities and persona of all candidates equally before asking about criminal convictions. Bristol’s local authority will now use job application forms without a tick box for all its roles that don’t require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Jobs that require such checks often relate to working with children or vulnerable groups of people. The move comes after the Council’s Human Resources Committee recommended that Bristol Council should become a Ban the Box employer in autumn 2016. … [Read more...] about Council bans tick box asking about criminal convictions on job forms
Military veterans struggling to adapt to civilian life because of MoD’s ‘tick-box’ support
Military veterans are struggling to adapt to civilian life, a charity has warned, as former service personnel criticised the Ministry of Defence's "tick-box" support. Many working-age service leavers feel “undervalued by society and misunderstood by civilians” with the resettlement process failing to address their lost sense of belonging, the study by Ssafa, the Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen’s Families Association, found.. The charity surveyed over 1,100 former service personnel between the ages of 18 and 49, for a new report titled The Nation’s Duty: Challenging society’s disservice to a new generation of veterans. Over three quarters of those polled (77 per cent) - all of whom had sought help from the charity - said they felt they were not fully prepared for civilian life with 19 per cent saying the resettlement package failed to provide them with suitable skills or qualifications to find a job. Sir Andrew Gregory, … [Read more...] about Military veterans struggling to adapt to civilian life because of MoD’s ‘tick-box’ support
Stracathro assurances sought after resigned reaction to “tick box” Mulberry decision
Home / News / Local / Angus & The Mearns by Janet Thomson January 27 2018, 9.28am FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail Sign up to our Daily newsletter Want to read more?Subscribe today from £1 a week Local politicians have been swift to condemn the decision to close the Mulberry unit at Stracathro Hospital after its fate was finally sealed. The Angus unit is to go as part of a Tayside-wide redesign of mental health services. Mairi Gougeon, SNP MSP for Angus North and the Mearns, described the decision as “bitterly disappointing” and called for assurances that Stracathro has a future. She branded the public consultation over Mulberry a “tick box exercise”. North east Conservative MSP Liam Kerr slated the SNP government for not stepping in earlier to address problems with the recruitment of junior doctors adding: “If steps had been taken to recruit junior doctors, none of this would be necessary.” Mrs … [Read more...] about Stracathro assurances sought after resigned reaction to “tick box” Mulberry decision
A&E tick box diagnosis ‘far less effective than doctor looking at the patient’
Forcing medics to use a “tick box” formula in A&E to decide how ill people are could raise patients’ risk of death, a study suggests. Simply looking patients up and down in an “eyeball triage” was found to be a more efficient way of spotting the most serious cases. Since the 1970s, doctors have had to ask patients a number of set questions and then use a formula to decide how seriously ill they are. Critics argue it creates a “tick box culture” where NHS staff are not trusted to use their expertise. A study, published in Emergency Medical Journal, looked at 6,300 Danish patients who were assessed using both methods. They were classed from green for not urgent, to yellow, orange or red for most urgent. Patients were more likely to die when categorised as red by the “eyeball triage” than they were using the traditional, formal structured method. Even junior medics and students made better decisions by simply looking at the … [Read more...] about A&E tick box diagnosis ‘far less effective than doctor looking at the patient’