Test beds FAQs
When and how were the results of the successful test bed bids announced?
What is happening now ? is there a hiatus between the announcement and the test bed activity commencing?
What happened to any good ideas that the regions who have not been awarded test bed status proposed?
What communications have taken place from the centre to unsuccessful test bed bids?
Would there be an appeal system for the unsuccessful regions?
When and how will we find out what is happening in the test bed regions?
Will the test beds cover all aspects of the Next Steps proposals?
When and how were the results of the successful test bed bids announced?
The (former) Skills Minister, Phil Hope, announced the results at a Conference on 15 May, and the Department issued a follow-up Press Notice. We plan to announce the results in this month’s edition of our e-newsletter.
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What is happening now ? is there a hiatus between the announcement and the test bed activity commencing?
In announcing the test bed regions on May 15, Phil Hope said “This decision marks the end of the beginning of the Next Steps process. It’s now time to look forward to the next stage. To roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. To make the vision of Next Steps a reality.” To that end, the test bed regions, NatCen, and officials from DfES, Ministry for Justice, DWP and other partner organisations met on 23rd May to discuss the expressions of interest in detail and to agree what happens next. Finalised details of what each test bed region will be doing will be agreed by the end of June. NatCen will be undertaking visits to the test beds to talk to stakeholders and explain how the evaluation strategy for the test beds will work.
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What happened to any good ideas that the regions who have not been awarded test bed status proposed?
At the same time as announcing the successful test bed regions, Phil Hope announced the establishment of a new, small innovation fund, set up jointly with the Ministry of Justice. This will ensure we don’t lose the many valuable and innovative ideas put forward by those regions not selected as test beds.
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What communications have taken place from the centre to unsuccessful test bed bids?
A letter was sent out from Phil Hope informing the regions whether they had been successful in their application to become a test bed. A further communication will be sent out in June setting out how we propose to keep those regions who were unsuccessful engaged and supported from the centre.
Phil Hope wrote to the unsuccessful regions at the end of April, thanking them for their interest and in their continued work on this agenda.
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Would there be an appeal system for the unsuccessful regions?
No. It was not that kind of ‘commercial’ process and we expect a great many of the excellent, innovative ideas put forward by unsuccessful regions to be implemented anyway. Many will be broadly cost-neutral anyway – and we are establishing a new, small innovation fund to support implementation of those where an element of seed-corn or development funding is needed.
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When and how will we find out what is happening in the test bed regions?
We have appointed NatCen and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London to evaluate the progress of the test bed regions. There was much to commend in their proposal to us, but we were particularly keen on their ideas about communications and good-practice sharing. We will make further announcements about our proposals here – where we’ve taken care to learn the lessons about communication from the OLASS development regions – in due course.
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Will the test beds cover all aspects of the Next Steps proposals?
Yes. Committing to doing so was a requirement of bidding to become a test bed region.
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