A plan to develop seven ‘pathfinder’ sites to lead the widespread adoption of telehealth in England has been scrapped and replaced with a new scheme after progress stalled in mid-2013.
NHS England will instead promote a wider suite of telehealth services in areas where ‘energy already exists’ for the technologies.
Read more: NHS England abandons health secretary's pledge on telehealth
The ground-breaking deal to share support services including HR, ICT, finance, benefits, council tax and business rates was approved late last week by the cabinets of Labour-run Newham and Conservative-controlled Havering.
Read more: GB: London: Havering and Newham to progress £40m shared services deal
The Ventnor school has appointed Centerprise International, of Hampshire, to deliver the school’s ICT Provision.
Group member Steve Jones, who led the procurement process, said: "The Centerprise bid stood head and shoulders above the competition in its vision and innovation.
Read more: GB: Isle of Wight: School’s £500,000 IT budget for latest digital technology
It's a while since I put pen to paper. I wrote weekly for seven years about IT in education. It barely seems possible that there was that much to say about the subject but, as is the way of things, eventually there was nothing left to say, and so I stopped.
This followed a recommendation at the meeting by the Leader of Purbeck District Council, Councillor Gary Suttle, that the partnership should not proceed at this time.
In July 2013, Purbeck District Council had resolved to commission a business case to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of sharing services through partnership with Christchurch and East Dorset Councils. This initiative was in line with the Government’s strategy for improving efficiency in local government driven by the austerity programme and has been progressed by the Council Leaders and senior management from the three councils.
Read more: GB: South West England: Decision made on shared services partnership