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Aware that there are still more than 5,000 surplus places in schools countywide, education officials in Carmarthenshire are finding it tough identifying which schools to shut down. Under the latest update to its Modernising Education Programme, the Welsh council says there are 10 schools not thought to be viable in the long term. The report listed another 31 to be considered but members of the council's education scrutiny committee called for the list to be removed in case it appeared their future had already been decided. Tensor supply a range of time and attendance systems which deal with all methods of job rostering, budgeting and costing, plus calculation of payroll, wages and hours. PC Clock's analysis module consists of a scaled-down version of Tensor's acclaimed WinTA Lite time and attendance software and suits a school or college. Pupils (or employees) are simply presented with an input screen on their PC allowing them to clock in and out. It is a cost-effective method of ensuring that your organisation remains compliant with any regional and national legislation.

A council has instituted a pay freeze because it needs to save a total of £40m over four years. Senior management and councillors at Oxford City Council have agreed to a pay freeze and staff will not receive any annual pay rises, as part of the draft budget. About 60% of the budget gap (which is about £6m) will be met by efficiency savings, while about 25% will be addressed through increased council fees and charges. Free swimming for children could also be affected. All frequently used methods of hours calculation, wage structure and shift patterns (including overtime and flexitime) are handled by the WinTA Net Time & Attendance and integrated security management system from Tensor. Available in Lite, Small Business and Enterprise versions, the system is cost-effective for those employing from 10 to 10,000-plus staff. The system allows you to create a series of shift premium rules that enable employees to earn bonus payments under special circumstances. The bonus is calculated either as extra hours or monetary amounts and can be included in the export to payroll.

The National Health Service workforce is to be slashed across Sussex. About 20 per cent of posts at NHS East Sussex will be lost following a consultation into how to make savings; NHS Brighton and Hove announced it will also implement job losses next year; while NHS West Sussex will take the total county redundancies past three figures before April. Meanwhile, the Government wants GPs to form consortiums to take over responsibility for commissioning local hospital, GP, dental and community services. Tensor’s leading Time & Attendance PC software gives your organisation total control over hours, wages and shifts. In our systems like WinTA Start, ‘Groups’ are used to define sequences of shift patterns. Rolling Groups repeat a block of shift patterns. The block can contain any number of days or weeks. AutoSelect Groups have multiple shift patterns available per day. Here, WinTA Start will select the most appropriate shift depending on when an employee starts work. So if you move an employee's shift, WinTA Start will automatically assign the correct shift to the employee.  

A fraud investigation is taking place at a ‘noted’ brand of printers after allegations of false documents being produced. The world's largest banknote printer De La Rue, whose clients include the Bank of England and dozens of other nations, claims its volumes are likely to drop by a fifth this year after this production crisis. The Serious Fraud Office is currently investigating the matter of false test certificates after the company finished its own inquiry. Factories working in security-sensitive areas can ease their worries with a combined first class integrated Access Control and Time & Attendance system. Tensor has designed WinTAnet in conjunction with a new range of colourful, .NET and wireless enabled smart card and biometric clocking and access control equipment for 20 to 10,000-plus people. Current customers can upgrade without having to change their T32xx or T25xx clocking stations. Unexpected door usage ‘early warning’ email alerts are included. It combines the requirements of visitor control, identification, rostering and job costing; while the personnel software handles all major hours calculation methods.  

Northumbria Police this week revealed it was shedding 450 civilian jobs to meet financial targets, given that central government funding will be reduced. The force said this measure will not affect police officers, although a recruitment freeze is underway there. It added in a statement: "Police staff have also been invited to take advantage of other flexible working arrangements to generate further savings. This includes options such as part time or reduced hours working, job share, term time working, flexible retirement or possibly early retirement." If employees are asked to undertake different shifts or working patterns, maybe because the firm is struggling, then Tensor’s range of Windows™ based smart card time and attendance products take this in their stride. Our two time and attendance systems are WinTA Lite (for smaller companies) and WinTA Enterprise (for larger companies) which deal with all clocking matters, from simple collection of employees' clocking data, through to job costing and extensive labour hours analysis. Many working patterns – flexi-time, night shifts and overtime – are easily created with the software.  

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Kirsty Williams described the draft budget for Wales as a missed opportunity to root out waste in the NHS. Cash for large infrastructure projects like building roads, hospitals and schools are likely to be cut drastically over the coming years, as many planned schemes will be delayed or cancelled. Overall the budget is next year due to fall by £860m and by £1.8bn by 2014-15. The biggest losers are economy and transport and environment, down by more than 21 per cent over three years. Financial planning by your organisation’s accounts department will be made simpler with clocking technology from Tensor. The WinTA Lite.NET system is designed for smaller companies and takes care of Time & Attendance, Working Time Directive, multiple shifts, flexi time and job costing issues. WinTA Lite operates a single time clock, the versatile T32xx Clocking Station, and can record employee details for up to 250 people. WinTA Lite stores information on up to 1000 production or department jobs. Employees use proximity read smart card or fobs to book time against these jobs.

Scottish Labour's finance spokesman Andy Kerr accused the ruling Scottish National Party of putting their political interest before that of the country by bringing forward a one-year rather than a three-year budget. He said: "It is outrageous that our local authorities, health service, our universities, further education colleges, police and fire services are being denied the ability to plan effectively.” Mr Kerr was reacting to the budget which has cut resources to housing, prisons and universities, resulting in union officials warning about job losses. Tensor is the leader in the field of hours and wages calculation, which helps a firm’s managers plan its budgets properly. A major requirement of any Time and Attendance system is the ability to export information to the payroll system. Tensor has worked with all of the major payroll packages such as Sage. Our time and attendance software has a wide range of options that extract payroll information in exactly the correct format. It can share or receive information from third party applications by using readily available interface modules. Data transfers can occur either on demand or more usually as an automated process.

Writers have joined community leaders in expressing concern at plans to reduce library services, a trend which is expected across the UK as public service budgets are trimmed. North Yorkshire author GP Taylor and Will Self have protested at North Yorkshire County Council announcing a consultation on reducing its library provision. More than half of the 42 libraries in North Yorkshire could be at risk, making a potential saving approaching £2m. Among the proposals are to replace full and part-time staff with volunteers. A Tensor Time and Attendance system is the top way to manage your organisation’s staffing and payroll budget set-up. All user activity within the system is recorded for audit purposes, with time and date transactions of information both before and after changes. Logs also maintain records of system events for fault finding and trouble shooting. Language is not a barrier with our software packages as they are both multi lingual and linked to the regional settings of your PC. In this way ‘local’ formats are used when displaying currency, dates and times.  

A report written on behalf of a council recommends that, for increased security and benefits to the disabled, taxi drivers should pay for the costs of CCTV cameras in new cabs. The document was written for Brighton and Hove City Council by the GMB union and the Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People. The council needs to act in order to meet new legislation set to come into law. Other councils, like Crawley and Eastbourne, have encouraged the adoption of CCTV by offering grant schemes or part funding for the installation. Tensor and its partners CCTV Surveillance supply and maintain a big range of digital CCTV camera systems tailored to a customer’s wishes. Our software enables footage to be viewed remotely from any or all connected CCTV cameras as events happen. It also allows you to retain evidence quality CCTV footage whilst reducing the amount of memory required for each video clip. Built-in MPEG-4 support provides simultaneous viewing of both JPEG and MPEG-4 video streams, allowing the user to optimize bandwidth usage on constrained networks.  

New mountain bikes issued to police patrols have been given the thumbs-up by local children. The cycles, which will help combat graffiti and antisocial behaviour, give officers a high-profile presence along the Edinburgh to Falkirk Union Canal and will enable them to access areas like a new BMX bike facility. A police spokesman said: "Our own cycle patrols have been down to the new BMX cycle place at Slateford and the reception the kids gave them was absolutely immense, because they're on bikes as well." Tensor access control systems are perfect for thwarting unauthorised access and a powerful tool for fighting crime at your business. The Tensor Access network is completely bespoke and can be used to control most standard types of internal and external electro-magnetic door releases. Both smart card and biometric access control scanners can be combined on the same network, giving you full control over who is allowed access through any controlled point at any time of day. Sensitive or dangerous areas can easily be denied to those who do not have the appropriate security clearance.

The Government announced it was going to scrap four primary care trusts (PCTs) in Sussex by the year 2013. Bosses at the trusts are required to reduce management costs by 45 per cent over the next three years. Since senior officials need to make cuts, job losses are inevitable, and consultations are taking place within all the PCTs. One of these, NHS West Sussex, says it is currently consulting with its 350 staff on structural changes and this process will lead to approximately 40 job losses. Tensor smart card Time and Attendance recording technology results in the swiftest method of clocking in and out available. The smart card microchip is a passive device which holds a unique factory encoded ID number that cannot be duplicated, making it very secure indeed. Our WinTA time and attendance software makes reporting and analysing wages and shifts at your organisation simple, leading to improved productivity. Additional features on your system take into account diversity of working rules. Using Auto Clockout, employees are automatically clocked out at a certain time.

An MP has questioned whether the plans to close two Sussex fire stations, saving less than £250,000 a year (not even 1 per cent of the County's annual fire budget), were the right way to proceed. Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel & South Downs, also met County Fire Officer Max Hood to discuss the issue and to relay concerns raised by his constituents. Firefighters at the stations told Mr Herbert that the Findon and Keymer stations played a valuable role in providing cover beyond their immediate areas. Tensor's security products can be integrated with fire roll call software that will automatically generate a report in the event of a fire or other emergency. In such a situation, your immediate fire roll call reports are generated containing the crucial information concerning who is on site. Staff members at your firm simply log themselves on and off site using either a smart card or key fob. In the event of an emergency, the fire roll call software flags up the emergency while simultaneously activating your existing warning system.