Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Hampshire County Council, in partnership with the Big Lottery funded Learning at the Centre Project at Basingstoke Discovery Centre, have been working with people who have communication difficulties to create a training film to help staff and others to communicate more confidently with people who find speech challenging.

This small group, supported by staff from the Learning at the Centre Project, Hampshire Learning Centre and Adult Services, wrote and made a short film whose key message is to "have patience and listen".

The film is sometimes challenging to watch as there are no sub-titles, but people do not speak in subtitles - patience and listening carefully with respect will provide the answers.

The film will be used as a training aid by Hampshire County Council, but with the agreement of the group who made the film it is freely available to all organisations and individuals, particularly those who come into everyday contact with people who sometimes struggle to be heard and get their point across.

The film was supported by the Learning at the Centre Project as a development opportunity for Project participants.

• Play 'How to talk with me' film

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Passengers with internet enabled smart phones, tablets or laptops travelling on local bus services in South Hampshire will soon be able to surf the web, catch up with emails and homework, shop online, book tickets for local attractions or check journey times on the move.

Free Wi-Fi being rolled out this month

Free Wi-Fi on local buses is being rolled out from this month (August) thanks to a successful £4.5 million bid by Transport for South Hampshire (TfSH) to the Department for Transport's £50 million Better Bus Area Fund. Together with additional investment from bus operators in the area - including Black Velvet Travel, First, Go South Coast (which includes Bluestar, Uni-link, and Wilts & Dorset) and Stagecoach - this bid is helping to fund a £7.3 million project to improve the quality of bus travel in South Hampshire.

Chairman of Transport for South Hampshire, Councillor Mel Kendal, said:

"By the end of August the first phase of work to install free Wi-Fi on buses across South Hampshire will have been completed for services in Southampton and the surrounding area, including parts of Test Valley, Winchester, Eastleigh and the Waterside. The second phase this autumn will see the programme rolled out in the south east of the county, including Portsmouth. Free Wi-Fi is just one of a range of initiatives we are working on with bus operators to improve bus travel in South Hampshire. We believe that by improving the overall passenger experience, this will encourage more people to travel by bus - and this, in turn, will help to stimulate the local economy.

"This investment, added to other successful bids for Local Sustainable Transport Funding for this area, will bring significant transport improvements for all forms of road-based travel. Attracting new customers and encouraging people to leave their cars at home will help save them money by avoiding high fuel costs, boost their fitness levels and help them develop a more active lifestyle. As more and more people switch to alternative ways of travelling, we should start to see some positive benefits such as gradual reductions in traffic volumes, allowing the local economy to grow so that more jobs are created.

"Investment in other improvements such as refurbished buses, better lighting onboard and 'smart' card ticketing systems represents a comprehensive package that will help make sustainable transport a more attractive alternative and encourage people to switch from their cars."

Councillor Asa Thorpe, cabinet member for environment and transport, Southampton City Council, said:

"As if the environmental argument for public transport wasn't compelling enough, now passengers can use local buses as a mobile office while they travel. Given the choice of dead time stuck in traffic or a chance to catch up on banking, social networking and emails on the bus, this new service should lead to a good uptake of people wanting to travel smarter and take the bus in Southampton and across southern Hampshire."

Speaking on behalf of the South Hampshire Bus Operators Association (SHBOA), the Managing Director of Black Velvet Travel Ltd, Phil Stockley, commented:

"This region benefits from a strong culture of partnership between bus operators and local authorities. Free WiFi on-board is just the first of many examples of how the open-minded exchange of ideas, inspiration and innovation is bringing real benefits for bus passengers in the area."

In addition to the provision of free Wi-Fi, plans for improving bus travel in South Hampshire include:

• Wi-Fi installed in 565 buses
• the refurbishment of 137 buses, including new wooden-effect flooring and upholstery for seats
• providing next stop audio visual systems
• communication tags at bus stops providing up to date bus timetable information via smart phones
• customer training for bus drivers
• and LED lighting which will significantly reduce carbon emissions.

Transport for South Hampshire was established in 2007 and brings together, as a formal, joint committee, the local transport authorities of Hampshire County Council, the Isle of Wight Council and Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils, transport operators and Government agencies.

The cost of the Wi-Fi project is £900,000 over two years with the bus operators picking up the ongoing costs after that time. The remainder of the £4.5 million funding will be used to deliver the other projects (outlined above) as part of a comprehensive package to improve the quality of bus travel in South Hampshire.

• Transport for South Hampshire

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Hampshire schools are enjoying 21st century fibre optic broadband thanks to Hampshire County Council's HPSN2 public services network.

The new Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN2) is a shared service that provides secure data, voice, text and video services to public sector organisations across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The £90million development project is the first of its kind and the biggest public sector collaborative procurement initiative to date in the County.

Offered in partnership with Virgin Media Business, HPSN2 is a national leader in public service networks; delivering to the highest government standards of security. It now gives fast and secure internet access to schools and education centres across Hampshire, regardless of their location - whether urban or rural.

99% of Hampshire schools have opted to join HPSN2: from small primary schools to the largest academies. They enjoy business-class bandwidth up to 100Mbps with a range of optional flexible services such as mobile telephony and additional bandwidth.

Making the internet safer for schools

All HPSN2 schools have access to Flexible Web Filtering service at no extra cost. With Flexible Web Filtering, each school has access to a simple web management tool which allows them to decide which websites they can and cannot access. This allows schools to take control of the internet in their own classrooms, tailoring access to support innovative and engaging learning.

All HPSN2 schools (regardless of whether they use Flexible Web Filtering) enjoy SafeSearch protection; a system offered by most of the leading internet search providers such as Google and Bing. It allows users to tailor their internet search experience to filter out results that may not be age-appropriate (for example, when searching for images on the internet). With HPSN2, SafeSearch is always enabled for these leading search providers at its strictest setting.

Supporting learning across Hampshire

Having rolled out HPSN2 across Hampshire, ahead of schedule and within budget, the underspend is being reinvested into the service, giving primary schools even greater bandwidth than originally planned. HPSN2 is now also being offered to other local authorities.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said:

"The fact that almost every school in Hampshire has chosen to join HPSN2 is an impressive achievement. As the internet is increasingly used by pupils to support learning, and by schools to access more and more services online, it is vital that we support them by offering an internet service that is fast, cost-effective, reliable and safe. HPSN2 gives schools control over the websites and online services that they need, in order to make education richer, more rewarding, and more fun."

HPSN2 is designed to enable mobile and flexible working for the public sector from teachers to emergency services workers. The project aimed to cut operating costs and HPSN2's project team began by installing an IP Virtual Private Network infrastructure to bring together local councils, agencies and emergency services networks over a single connection. Thousands of staff now have real-time access to critical applications and information from any location at any time.

There are also plans to set up wireless hotspots around the county to support mobile workers, including social care teams. The network will also enable each partner organisation to choose the bandwidth and service options they need to achieve tasks specific to them.

When developing Flexible Web Filtering, Hampshire County Council built upon an industry-leading product to develop a bespoke solution for Hampshire schools. Schools can opt to use this service or continue to use the existing filtering policies managed by the County Council.

• HPSN2 for schools