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Story Line and Written Tasks |
Story LineIntroductionA joint review is being undertaken by the Department for Children and Education, the Department for Enterprise and the Metropolitan Police Force into how to regulate most effectively the supply and use of video games for children. The review has been prompted by media coverage of children being influenced by video games. Claims have been made that the games are a bad influence and have led to an increase in youth crime. The joint review (termed the Bergman Review after the Review Team Leader) seeks to address issues surrounding the negative impact of unregulated use of video games with potentially harmful content by children up until the age of 18. Extensive research will be compiled and the various interested parties and stakeholders involved will have an opportunity to raise and discuss issues that particularly concern them (discussed further below). The intention is to then plan policy that will create a positive move forward in clarifying and implementing effective outcomes to the issues raised. You work in the policy team which has commissioned the review. Key issues to address include:
Your policy team has identified key stakeholders from industry, third sector, policy and academic areas. Positive aspects of video-gaming, both on purchased systems and online, include:
Negative aspects include:
Currently, the most positive, pro-gaming stakeholders are the game developers, manufacturers and retailers. The Bergman Review has held workshops to discuss the review with the video games industry, the internet industry, and children’s charities. It has also included qualitative research in a series of focus groups across the UK, segmented by age of child, socio-economic status, geographical location and level of concern about the internet and video games. Further to the Review’s research, Ofcom’s submission to the Call for Evidence – a Government consultation – included a survey of the views of children, young people and parents on the issues raised surrounding the internet and video-gaming. Possible policy outcomes could include classification, regulation, distribution, guidelines for parental monitoring, education for children and adults on both the benefits and risk management of online gaming, potential advertising campaigns and the development of a comprehensive information resource. This is an emotive issue that receives a lot of media coverage, and can be very contentious for the Government. It has the potential to create positive media coverage or very damaging coverage. It is essential that you develop any supporting materials or written work with fully informed research and within a clear, concise and defined structure. Written TasksParticipants are required to complete a Written Task after each of the 6 Core Modules. Each written task will be handed in as a hard (paper) copy at the next module the participant attends. Emailed work or late work will not be accepted or assessed. The Written Tasks will be marked with detailed feedback comments by the Course’s Internal Assessors, for the benefit of the delegates when carrying out such tasks in the future. Module One Written TaskYou work in the DCE (the Department for Children and Education) and have policy responsibility for legislation affecting child protection. You have received the following note from the Secretary of State’s Private Office. “Ministers have become aware of the Bergman Review into children and new technology, and are seeking further guidance to the issues being raised and addressed by this paper. Please provide a Briefing to the Minister for Children covering the findings so far and possible ways forward.” You should provide a Brief of about 2 pages. All the sessions of Module One are relevant to this task but in putting this Briefing together you should take account in particular the sessions on communicating with Ministers and structuring Briefings. If any ethical or propriety issues seem to you to arise in the Brief you can refer to the session on the ethical constraints on Civil Servants or visit the Civil Service ethics section of the Cabinet Office website: www.cabinet-office.gov.uk In structuring your document you can either follow the headings suggested during the module, or those recommended for Briefings on your Departmental intranet, or any others that seem to you appropriate. Module Two Written TaskYour written task for Module Two is as follows: Write an Impact Assessment on the findings of the Bergman Review to date. Consider the following questions: Do you need to take action? Are the findings suggesting that the issues being explored are creating problems that need policy solutions? How is the research comparing with the media coverage of this emotive issue? Areas to research and address could include:
Whilst part of the task is to work within the constraints of the Story Line, you should feel able to be creative. Remember, this is an exercise offering an opportunity to demonstrate how well you understand the policy process, aspects of obtaining and assessing evidence, measuring policy performance and how scrutiny by Parliament should be taken into account. It may be useful to look at the BERR website for more information on Impact Assessments at www.berr.gov.uk
Instructions:
‘Thank you for your letter of 30 June enclosing one from Guy Callindoure CB of Kennet Bank, Ogbourne Maizey,
Letter Writing Exercise: Background Notes
It is on the major east-west route between
The first record of
Like many Wiltshire towns,
Environmental policy in Marlborough
DETR will be asked to produce an environmental policy for development and they will need to take into account existing legislation and procedures. They will need to document any changes they are proposing and have them assessed by independent bodies. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust will monitor the environmental health of sites and areas for development. The Wiltshire and Swindon Biological Records centre will provide developers with the environmental information they need to make decisions about the impact on flora and fauna in the area. DETR are considering developing a site of disused warehouses and depots south of the town. They would be able to improve the look of the area by landscaping it with trees and plants, which are compatible with local scenery. This activity is likely to be popular with local people who consider this area an eyesore at the moment and a place where people tend to dump their rubbish when the local tip is closed. Economic regeneration in Marlborough There is a need for regeneration in rural areas as larger companies take over the smaller local businesses and move to larger towns or, increasingly, into Europe. There has been a trend of job losses over the last few years in local towns such as Swindon, Chippenham, Newbury and
It is critical to the economic prosperity of the area that new businesses and organisations are attracted to
Marlborough and the surrounding towns are under-represented in bulky goods so the trade goes to Swindon,
All economic development is done in partnership with Wiltshire County Council whose priority is to find work for local people and affordable housing. Traffic in
Many locals believe that the retail park is undesirable for traffic reasons. Wiltshire County Council are in partnership with Kennet District Council and are beginning a transport study of the
They aim to improve community transport provision to small settlements and make it efficient, frequent and affordable. They want to improve traffic management measures, reduce peak time congestion and promote HGV access onto appropriate routes. They also want to give better access to services for non-car users.
The scenario now is that the press/media are full of the story that a junior Minister has resigned from DETR allegedly as a result of his profound disagreement with the development of
Your task is to provide a one short paragraph answer to the question, and responses to 3 or 4 supplementary questions that are likely to come up. In drafting these you should take into account the guidance for oral PQs discussed on Module 4, and make reference to the handout on Lines to Take. In particular the answers should be short, as positive as possible and of course sayable. Please also provide a covering note with some background and context for Secretary of State who will answer this particular PQ. Please feel free to use your imagination as much as you think necessary. When submitting this task, please also answer, on a separate sheet the following questions:
What would be your checklist of 5 key things you need to do on receiving a PQ (either Written or Oral)? The task following this Module takes you away from the imaginary scenario of developments near
The task is to write a short Report, about 4 pages long, using the material presented in Module 5 to analyse the performance of your own work team to make recommendations for changes to improve delivery. (If you are in a singleton post without staff then consider ‘your team’ to be those other people with whom you have to co-operate and interact to achieve your set goals, otherwise consider your team to be those people managed by your boss (Reporting Officer), including yourself). Your aim is to deliver a well presented and well argued paper paper which would convince your top management team to implement your recommendations. You should feel able to approach assembling your evidence and analysis as seems best to you, but we suggest your paper should at least cover:
How the current style of leadership contributes to, or reduces, these problems, What changes you would recommend to your own and others’ approach to: a) Leadership, and b) Management, so as to improve delivery. Your should structure your report appropriately and use Headings and other “sign posts” to help readers find their way. Several of your training and personnel managers have previously expressed an interest in how the subjects we cover on the course can be applied to your current workplace. Imagine that you have been asked to attend the Module 5 seminar by your boss, to establish what the sessions were about and to see whether there were useful messages, tools, techniques which you could put in to practice in your workplace. We would therefore like you to write a Brief on the day, three to four pages in length, which addresses the following points:
The final written task is in three parts. The first part of the task is to draft a short report (2,400 words) assessing the performance of your Team within your Government Department or Agency, together with recommendations for improvement, in delivering the Prime Minister’s objectives for the civil service set out in his Docklands speech in February 2004: "The principal challenge is to shift focus from policy advice to delivery. Delivery means outcomes. It means project management. It means adapting to new situations and altering rules and practice accordingly. It means working not in traditional departmental silos.” (see introductory presentation from Module 1). You may want to focus on one or two examples familiar to you on the way (a) policy and (b) change have been/are being delivered. Your assessment of this performance should use the skills and learning you have received from the course modules (and the feedback from tutors on your work). Your report should: q Recommend ways in which your Team within your Department or Agency could be more effective in future. q Set out in the report the framework and methods you would use to project manage your recommendations to deliver real changes (outcomes) in the way your Team within your Department or Agency should work in the future. q Outline the communications strategy that should be adopted to run alongside the implementation of your recommendations. You should research statements and speeches by Ministers and senior civil servants, answers to PQs and other material in the public domain as background to your report, as well as your own professional experience. Please respect the Official Secrets Act in performing this task. You should attach an annex to your work stating which documents, speeches or Acts you have referred to. The second part is to draft a short speech (about 2 sides of A4) for your Minister to use in presenting the findings of your report to the House of Commons and “Commending the report to the House”. The third part is to draft a Ministerial submission (1.5-2 sides of A4) recommending the way forward to your Minister which would cover your draft speech and your report. The assessors will be looking for evidence that you understand why things are being done as well as how they are done. They will also be looking for how able you are to express complex ideas concisely and simply (using principles such as those outlined in Module 1 – Working with Ministers, for example) and how effectively you use the course material for your written task. When assessing and marking your written work the assessors will be looking for the following elements. 1/ Comprehensive Coverage of the Subject 2/ Appearance of Work (is it visually easy to read?) 3/ Clear and Detailed Citation and Referencing of Evidence and Sources 4/ Evidence Based Thinking and Proposals (and a “political sense” of what will be acceptable to a Minister) 5/ Consideration of Risk (and how this is to be handled) 6/ Clarity of Expression and Correct Use of Grammar 7/ Original Research 8/ Fresh Perspectives on the Subject (challenging “Conventional Wisdom”) A Numerical Mark will be given for each of these elements by the internal assessors. The external assessors may decide that if a written task demonstrates excellence in all of these 8 categories, then a special grade of “Excellent” may be awarded. Any Task which is deemed to be “Needing More Work” may be resubmitted once, taking into account the comments of the internal and external assessors, at a time which is mutually agreed, to fit in with the timetable of subsequent series’ final written submissions.
Please submit your work as one word document to Simon Gillon
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