Demos researcher and author of the report Kirsten Bound said:
"Understandable concerns over the link between biofuels and food security
are in danger of obscuring the bigger picture. Brazil is a world leader in
the production of biofuels, but its competitive advantage in science and
innovation is built on much more than that.
Brazil is a quiet achiever - it has managed a steady rate of growth without
the social and economic stretchmarks visible in China and India. Its
successful science and technology sectors are grounded in large part on its
natural and environmental assets. Brazil challenges the received wisdom that
knowledge economies can't also be natural asset-based economies."

Report recommendations:
*       The UK must update its perceptions of science and innovation in
          Brazil and seize the growing opportunities for collaboration;
*       The UK should partner with Brazil to create bilateral 'bright green'
          scholarships to build on the 2007-2008 Brazil-UK Year of Science and
          Innovation;
*       Brazil should develop an international forum for natural knowledge
         economies, to promote best-practice, scientific collaboration, and
         commercial ventures;
*       Brazil should create an Overseas Brazilians Day and take other
          measures to galvanise the Brazilian diaspora worldwide;
*       Brazil should complement new innovation policies with investment in
          research and development programmes across different scientific sectors.

Notes for editors:
1.      'Brazil: The Natural Knowledge Economy' is the outcome of a six
          month research undertaken in partnership with Centre for Strategic Studies
          and Management (CGEE) in Brazil.

2.      The report launch will take place from 10.30 to 13.00 on Tuesday 8
          July, at the Institute of Engineering & Technology, Savoy Place, WC2R 0BL.
         Speakers will include Andrew Cahn, Chief Executive of UK Trade and
         Investment, His Excellence Carlos Augusto R. Santos-Neves, Brazilian
         Ambassador to the UK, Fernando Rizzo, Director of The Centre for Strategic
         Studies and Management in Brazil, Luiz Augusto Horta Nogueira, Professor of
          Applied Energy at Itajubá Federal University in Minas Gerais, Charles
         Leadbeater, Author of 'We-Think' & Demos Associate, and Kirsten Bound,
         Demos, author of Brazil: The natural knowledge economy.

Contact:

Peter Harrington: 0207 367 6338, peter.harrington@demos.co.uk
Claire Coulier: 0207 367 6335, claire.coulier@demos.co.uk

Out of hours mobile: 07914 963 224
Demos switchboard: 0207 367 4200

• The government must urgently develop a more coherent strategy around the way personal information is held and used. It must implement ‘cash-handling’ disciplines to ensure that personal information is treated with sufficient value and respect.
• Government departments should have a responsibility to tell individuals how their information is used and how that affects them.
• The Information Commissioner’s Office needs strong new powers to ‘swoop’ on any organisation holding personal information and audit its use and security. 
• Major public projects should be road-tested for their effect on personal data with privacy impact assessments.
• Belated public engagement with ID card scheme must be urgently sought now, or the scheme abandoned.
• Individuals should have the right to know and contest what information about them, their finances and their lifestyle is being traded in the private sector
• Banks should consider a no-claims bonus for people who successfully protect their identity.
  

The conversation between GPs and patients – the cornerstone of modern healthcare in the UK – is under enormous pressure, and must be rethought for a less deferential age in which patients have access to vast amounts of medical information, a report launched by Demos today will argue.

The report argues that the traditional model of ‘doctor knows best’ is being eroded. People, especially those with rare or chronic diseases, increasingly want to participate in their own treatments. GPs and policymakers must embrace patient engagement in medical treatment and healthcare, rather than stigmatising informed patients as ‘cyberchondriacs’.

The pamphlet, produced in partnership with Pfizer UK, Rethink and Diabetes UK, and based on in-depth consultation with GPs, policy-makers and service users, argues that patient engagement can and should form the basis for effective health policy reform. Endless Whitehall quick-fixes only defer the problem; the real key to transforming the health system is to enable patients to actively participate in the conversations taking place in GP’s consulting rooms.

Demos researcher and author of the study Jack Stilgoe said:

"Any GP will recognise the patient who comes into their surgery carrying armfuls of printouts from the internet. But rather than groaning, doctors need to see this as a good thing. Patients are becoming experts too, and the NHS needs to acknowledge this and listen to them.

As Lord Darzi puts the finishing touches to his review on the future of the NHS, the focus should be less about the mechanics of the system, and more about the people that are at the heart of healthcare."

Report recommendations:

 ·        GPs and patients with chronic conditions should jointly establish ‘outcome statements’ with shared goals, creating a partnership between GP and patient; 

·        Patients with long-term conditions should be allocated personal healthcare budgets to allow them to take part in building the services and care which suit them best;

·        Government should create ‘Wikirecords’ – online, accessible records which patients could contribute to and comment on;

·        Information and condition-specific ‘patient packs’ should be provided by GPs and the NHS as an integral part of treatment;

·        Patient groups such as Diabetes UK and Rethink should create pilot programmes to realise the vision of patient engagement set out by Derek Wanless in his 2002 report;

·        Government should place GP–patient relationships at the heart of the proposed NHS Constitution.

Editors’ Notes:

1.      ‘The Talking Cure: Why conversation is the future of healthcare’ is the outcome of a nine-month research project to look at ways of rebuilding the crucial few minutes of conversation between patients and GPs that are the foundation of the entire health system. For more see www.demos.co.uk/projects/healthyconversations

2.      The report will be launched on Wednesday 14 May 2008, from 9am to 10.30. The launch event will take place in the Council Chamber of the Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrews Place, Regent's Park, NW1 4LE. Dr Howard Stoate MP, Member of the Commons Health Select Committee, Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, Colette Goldrick, External Affairs Director at Pfizer UK, Douglas Smallwood, CEO of Diabetes UK, and Prof Peter Beresford will speak at the event.

Government called to re-think towns and cities as think tank asks, where have all the children gone?

Children are segregated out of our public spaces and excluded from the community itself, warns Demos. The study, based on investigations of public areas and interviews with children across England, finds public spaces that are actively antisocial to children and built around the convenience of the car and the shopping trip.

Seen and Heard: Reclaiming the public realm with children and young people, recommends some radical changes, for example at 20mph speed limit where streets are shared with children and creating iconic play spaces at high profile locations. The report urges adults not to be so hung up on kids hanging around, underlining the importance of unstructured play and socialisation in growing up.

Beverely Hughes MP, the Children’s Minister, and Lord Richard Rogers will be speaking at the launch at the Cut Bar of the Young Vic Theatre, SE1 8LZ. The event starts at 8:45 for 9:00am.

Co-author Celia Hannon from Demos said:

 “With cars outnumbering children by three to one, the acceleration of house building, and the privatisation of public space, places once used by young people for playing and exploring rites of childhood are quickly being swallowed up.

“Unless young people are in structured activities or acting as mini consumers, we assume that they are causing trouble. Our streets, squares and parks need to be accessible and enjoyable for all, otherwise existing anxiety around anti-social behaviour will get worse. Its time to open up our towns and cities for all and make them more playful. Children should be seen and heard”

Adrian Voce, Director of Play England, who commissioned the work, said:

“This report addresses one of the most serious challenges we face as a society: the disappearance of children and young people from public space. The consequence is a decline in their opportunities for play, recreation and their own social and cultural lives other than through electronic media or highly structured activities. Demos's proposals, all intended to help reclaim young citizens' rightful stake in the public realm, are welcome and demand a positive, robust and urgent response from all levels of government and from society at large.”

Based on nine months of in-depth interviews with young people, professionals and policy makers in six areas of the UK, the report commisioned by Play England and funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Children Play Initiative, surveys a vandalised park with run-down play areas and nothing for young people to do, an estate where the car takes precendence over children and a town centre where the ‘shared’ space is not shared with young people. Seen and Heard: Reclaiming the public realm with children and young people aims to start a national debate on the room we leave for childhood in our public spaces and has specific proposals for the Government to:   

• Appoint youth planners to ‘youth proof’ development proposals and audit public places to identify areas in need of investment
• Introduce an anti-social behaviour hotline so that young people can report adults who are threatening their right to be outside and in public spaces
• Open up areas dominated by the car by introducing 20mph speed limits across residential streets
• Create iconic play spaces at high profile locations to challenge expectations of where play can take place
• Encourage innovation with neighbourhood play toolkits, local budgeting and by transferring assets to the community
• Use ‘intermediaries’ such as youth workers and teachers to solve conflicts between young people and adults
• Arrange job swaps between architects, police, landscape designers and town centre managers so they understand how their work affects young people

ENDS

CONTACT

Contact: William Higham, Demos, 020 7367 6325, 07939 228255. william.higham@demos.co.uk. Interviews and full copies of the embargoed report available by request.

To RSVP for the event, email: seenandheard@demos.co.uk.

News Release: Embargoed until: 00:01 hours, Monday 5 November 2007.

Demos pamphlet:  Out of Step: The case for change in the British armed forces launched today.

THE UNKNOWN SOLDIERS:

THINK TANK REPORT WARNS THAT BRITAIN IS LOSING TOUCH WITH THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES AND REFUSES TO INVEST SUFFICIENTLY IN THEIR WELL-BEING

In a time of turbulence and risk, the British armed forces are on a dangerously unsustainable course, a major new Demos report warns. The men and women of the armed forces are being let down by underinvestment. The armed forces have an unfocused brief, insufficiently linked to the threats of the future. The nation itself is divorced from them and their needs.  

Stretched budgets remain tied up in big-ticket, high-profile hardware while the ‘software’, the men and women who make up the armed forces are overlooked. Unless pay, terms, housing, training and recruitment are sufficiently resourced, the future for the armed forces looks bleak.

The report’s authors: Dr Timothy Edmunds, senior lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Bristol, and Professor Anthony Forster of Durham University said:

‘Despite sterling service in Iraq and Afghanistan, UK armed forces are over-stretched, under-resourced and under tremendous organisational strain. It is time for a new, pragmatic and public debate on UK defence; one that is honest about current economic, organisational and societal constraints. It will require a more open-minded and flexible approach from senior military commanders; and a willingness on the part of the government to face up to the contradictions that lie at the heart of British defence policy.’

Based on extensive research and consultation, the report analyses the new security challenges from serious and organised crime, international terrorism, religious and ethnic conflict and makes recommendations on how to meet them.
  
The report is part of a major new series on national security, part of the Demos Security Programme. Charlie Edwards, programme head at Demos said:

‘We must support those who are currently serving on operations while we remember those who have lost their lives serving this country. Ten years ago this government pledged to invest in our armed forces but politicians and senior commanders have been slow to adapt to changes in the security environment and in wider society. As a result our armed forces are out of step at the beginning of the 21^st century.  As any boxer will tell you, you can only punch above your weight for so long.’

Commenting on the report, the Royal British Legion said:  

‘While much of Demos’ report is outside our remit, the Royal British Legion warmly welcomes Demos’ new focus on the contribution made by our armed forces, the risks they face on our behalf, and the importance of upholding the nation's Military Covenant with its service people, past and present, and their families.’ 

Report recommendations include:

1. Far greater public understanding about the kind of missions and risk that serving men and women face in modern warfare.
2. A total review of the organisation of the Ministry of Defence and the role of the armed forces to make sure there is a fit with the new national security strategy based on current threats and risks.
3. Sustained effort to repair the ‘Military Covenant’ between service personnel, their families and the nation.
4. A wider debate about the true costs of the expeditionary warfare that has grown to become the cornerstone of UK defence policy. Also, an open and wide public debate about the benefits this provides to UK security.
5. Far greater prominence and support for domestic roles of counter terrorism, responding to national disaster and homeland defence for UK armed forces.
6. More attention to pay, terms, housing and conditions for serving men and women, above the acquisition of expensive, high tech military equipment.

Notes to Editors

Out of Step: The case for change in the British armed forces aims to provide an independent analysis of the current situation building on two successful workshops in the first half of 2007 and a series of interviews with serving and retired personnel, policy makers, NGOs and academics.

 
Suggested by residents of Redcliffe at a community event, the urban beach is part of an experimental project to encourage people to use different spaces to meet and interact with each other.

 
Visitors to the beach, which will be open from 8am - sunset everyday until September, will be able to join in beach activities such as volleyball and sandcastle making, learn salsa, caporia and knitting or just relax and listen to live music.

 
Melissa Mean, Head of Demos’ Cities Programme says: “We want people to make this beach their own and use it to meet new people and try out new things. We’ve built the beach using locally sourced sand, solar energy and buildings that are fully recyclable. And we’ll be encouraging visitors to recycle all their rubbish.

 
“Turning a rundown space into somewhere people can actually use will help us learn what regeneration projects are possible in large cities like Bristol.”

 
Liz Johns, Community Regeneration Manager at the South West of England Regional Development Agency says: “Bristol Beach will be a thriving and vibrant public space for residents, visitors and local businesses. With food and drink being provided by local Bristol entrepreneurs and a range of creative and cultural events taking place, the urban beach will promote Bristol as a creative place to visit, work and live. This is an innovative way to reinforce the message that South West England is a centre for creativity and enterprise.”

 
The opening on Saturday will be marked with a Redcliffe community beach party from noon until sunset. There will be activities from all ages including Arabian dancing, drumming workshops, an African band and sandcastle competitions.

 
Emily Price at Bristol City Council says: “We're looking forward to using the harbour in a new and exciting way.  The wharf boasts some of the best views of the city and we hope that people will take this opportunity to sit back, relax and enjoy the summer in Bristol.  Fingers crossed for the weather!"

 
ENDS

For further information and to arrange interviews and a visit to the beach, please contact Victoria Shooter on 020 7367 6325 victoria.shooter@demos.co.uk

 
Notes to Editors

• The Bristol Beach project is being led by Demos, an independent think tank www.demos.co.uk, and Zero Zero, a not-for-profit architectural development agency, with Nest Building, a sustainable building practice. Melissa Mean Head of the Cities Programme at Demos and a resident of Redcliffe is leading the project.

• The £120k project is being sponsored by the South West of England Regional Development Agency, Bristol City Council, Hewlett Packard and Skanska. The construction of the project has also been supported by Churngold and Febrey Ltd.

 
The new Demos report, BCN-LDN, says that the city’s population will grow by 700,000 by 2016, but that its inhabitants will be pushed out by high poverty levels and a lack of affordable homes unless growth is ‘structured and sustained’ to benefit the people most in need.

 
The report argues that, as London gears up to the 2012 Olympics, it must learn from the mistakes of the 1992 host city, Barcelona. It says that as well as producing a huge public spectacle, London must ensure it provides a lasting public legacy – and not succumb to its cavalier ‘burn and churn’ mentality.

 
In comparing Barcelona and London, the report, produced jointly with a think tank from the Catalan city, suggests what ingredients make a great city. It says that London should be praised for its diversity, acceptance of difference and adaptability but that it can learn from Barcelona by:
 

• Bringing more popular culture onto the streets and public spaces, rather than in stuffy galleries and institutions
• Focussing more on family life and respecting all generations
• Understanding better the natural landscape when planning regeneration
• Ensuring there is a strong, inclusive legacy for the Olympics as well as a spectacular event
• Creating more pedestrianised areas to encourage café culture

“London and Barcelona are both iconic cities with ambition and strong values. But they have much to learn from each other. London has a strong global identity with many plus points; organic areas such as Borough and the city’s parks really set it apart from its Catalan counterpart.

 
“But the success of the Olympics and London’s ability to accommodate its growing population rests heavily on the government putting aside quick fixes and looking to the long-term.”

ENDS

For more information, a copy of BCN-LDN and to arrange interviews with the report’s co-editors Melissa Mean and Joost Beunderman, contact:

Victoria Shooter on 020 7367 6325 victoria.shooter@demos.co.uk

Notes to Editors

• BCN-LDN was produced jointly by Demos and the Fundacio Ramon Trias Fargas in Barcelona

• Demos is the think tank for everyday democracy, the idea that all people should have greater influence over factors that affect them and their communities (www.demos.co.uk)

Appointed as part of a wide ranging reorganisation of Whitehall, Healey is expected to lead the next stage of the local government reform, putting the Prime Ministers ambition of greater citizen engagement into action at local authority level.

Mr Healey will speak at the launch of a new pamphlet from the think tank Demos. Produced in association with Hewlett-Packard, a leading technology innovator in the UK public sector, the pamphlet, Unlocking Innovation: Why citizens hold the key to public service reform, collects essays and analysis from a wide range of public sector experts and practitioners. The pamphlet’s chapters offer timely lessons on how public services can better engage their users based on examples of best practice in the public and private sectors.

Welcoming the pamphlet, Mr Healey said:

“Over the past 10 years the government’s investment and reform have delivered massive improvements in our public services. Waiting lists have shortened, crime figures have fallen, and the performances of local authorities have vastly improved. But the public rightly demands more. As the new Demos pamphlet demonstrates, the next stage of reform must be about allowing frontline service staff the resources, time and motivation to fully engage citizens in designing the services that the public relies on.”

The collection includes contributions from:

• Paul Coen, Chief Executive of the Local Government Association arguing that local authorities should learn how to develop and spread innovation without relying on Whitehall direction.

• Sir David Varney, Treasury Adviser on transformational government calling for services to improve effectiveness and efficiency by focusing new technologies on front line delivery as well as back office functions.

• Geoff Mulgan, Former Head of Policy in the Prime Ministers Office on the challenges of scaling up small, local initiatives.

It also presents a series of case studies that showcase citizen-focused innovation in action, including:

·         ‘In Control’, a social enterprise that provides social care users with easy and flexible access to individual budgets, making it simple for them to choose their own package of services.

·         Hammersmith and Fulham council using detailed survey data to redesign their customer contact centre to better serve local people.

·         Public private partnerships for tenant management organisations using deep dialogue with local residents to improve levels of service in social housing.

·         ‘Innovative ecosystems’ that have allowed educationalists, academics and artists to come together to build ‘mediascapes’ that allow pupils to enter a virtual world of sights and sounds in order to learn in an interactive and cooperative way.

Simon Parker, co-editor of the collection and Head of Demos’ Public Services programme, said:

“Our public services are in danger of being out of step with the everyday experiences of the people they serve, creating a damaging paradox where services improve but satisfaction declines. Solutions to this challenge won’t come from Whitehall, but from giving teachers, police officers and doctors the space to work with citizens in delivering services that meet their needs and expectations, putting the public at the heart of reform. The message is clear: Whitehall cannot have a monopoly on innovation.”

While the pamphlet offers guidance for local service delivery, it will also resonate with central government departments. With this in mind, Healey’s government colleague and newly appointed Secretary of State at the Cabinet Office Ed Miliband, has contributed a foreword to the collection.

Mr Miliband writes:

“Genuinely supporting the involvement of users and communities is a way to bring about a higher quality of service, a stronger public realm, and the flow of innovative ideas that this pamphlet rightly identifies as necessary. It means that across public services we need to strengthen the scope for input from users, improve the opportunities for collective accountability for local services and strengthen the ability of frontline staff to be sources of innovation and collaboration.”

Ends

Media enquiries: Mark Fuller, Head of Press and Public Affairs

Demos
+44 (0)20 7367 6325 or +44 (0)7952 286223
mark.fuller@demos.co.uk

Unlocking Innovation: Why citizens hold the key to public service reform will be launched at a speech by John Healey MP, Minister of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, on Tuesday 10^th July 2007

Demos is the think tank for everyday democracy, the idea that all people should have greater influence over factors that affect them and their communities.