The Committee says during the pause in the Home Office's review of the police funding formula, an independent panel of accounting firms, financial experts and the College of Policing should be appointed to assist the Home Office in formulating revised proposals. The review process was paused after Home Office officials made serious errors in calculating the funding allocations for police force areas. These errors resulted in forces who had been advised they would be "winners" under the new funding allocation finding they are in fact facing cuts, and vice versa.

UKVI altered its service standards timetable so that a higher proportion of new straightforward claims for asylum are given an initial decision within six months. This is at the same time as the number of applications is rising. The total number of main applications in the year ending September 2015 was 19% higher than in the year ending September 2014. In Q3 2015 the number of main applicants and dependants reached 12,028 compared to 7,567 in Q2 2015. The number of asylum applications surpassed the number of decisions made in Q3 2015. We are concerned that the department may not be able to maintain the service levels it has set itself on initial decisions for new asylum claims within 6 months. To do so may require further funding and resources. We recommend that the Home Office reconsider its country guidance on Eritrea, taking into account the findings of the Independent Advisory Group on Country of Origin Information. We will continue to monitor closely the proportion of successful and unsuccessful asylum applications from Eritreans

This succinct, tightly-written book offers a critical examination of the key issues facing policing in modern Britain. Those issues can be summarised in the following way: how is the apparently insatiable demand by the public for more policing and better protection to be satisfied, given the continued limits on public spending; that there is concern that what the public demands may not have a significant effect on crime levels; and that further extension of police powers and the reach of the law could themselves have unwanted consequences. All these questions are posed and answered on the basis of the wealth of research and operational evidence gathered by the police service itself, the Home Office, and independent researchers.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

Response to HC 939, session 2010-12 (ISBN 9780215561602). Dated December 2011