The Local Government Association is re-organising to strengthen its policy development role.
Now a year old, the organisation formed to represent all local authorities out of three previous organisations representing different size bodies says it’s time for a review of the way it operates.
One change involves merging some departments so that they reflect structures in local authorities. 

The fifty year old National Health Service, has been found to be more cost-effective to the nation than if health provision were in the hands of private enterprise.
A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research reviews possible funding options for the NHS. It concludes that taxpayers get better quality healthcare and value for money from the NHS, and would lose out if the private sector were allowed to gain ground. 

McCrindle J, Jones R K
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, (UK), Vol 11 No 2 98
Start page: 41 No of pages: 4
Sets out the principles that underpin the new complaints procedure introduced for the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, and the objectives set for it in Scotland. Investigates how well the procedure is working, six months after it has been implemented. 

An investigation into the personal liability of people serving on councils, NHS trusts and other public bodies has recommended better guidance about what could be at stake. It has set public service organisations a twelve month deadline to issue the guidance, aimed at giving confidence to people for whom worries about personal risk are a deterrent to entering public service. 

Linda Keen and Richard Scase
Lecturer in Management, University of Kent at Canterbury; Professor of Sociology and Organizational Behaviour, University of Kent at Canterbury.
Local government in Britain is undergoing fundamental transformation. This book explores the impact of these changes upon the attitudes, behaviour and job satisfaction of the managers most affected by them. 

Comparing Risk and Costs Contracts
Siddharthan K, Reid W M
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, (UK), Vol 11 No 2 98 Start page: 45 No of pages: 5
Explains how older people, who are Medicare beneficiaries in the USA, are being encouraged enrol in Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and looks at the use of risk and cost contracts as part of the health care prepayment plans. 

PROVISION SAYS GOVERNMENT
The UK’s largest ever study of drug treatment has shown that every pound spent saves more than three pounds on crime.
The study, one of the largest in the world, is tracking more than 1,000 drug misusers and the effects of treatment on cutting drug use, improving health, social functioning and criminality. 

Policy Networks, Governance and Accountability.
RAW Rhodes Professor of Politics, University of Newcastle.
This book provides a challenging reinterpretation of changes in central, local and European Union government and is an helpful aid to the understanding of government and governance. 

Chan P S, Peel D
Business Process Management Journal, (UK), Vol 4 No 1 98
Start page: 44 No of pages: 12
Examines the factors which persuade companies to re-engineer, and specific types of impact that re-engineering has on organizations. 

PROJECTS
The National Audit Office has warned health authorities and trusts to stick to new guidelines on major development projects if they’re not to fall into the same problems as a hugely over-spent project at Guy’s Hospital in London.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn told Parliament that the development, Thomas Guy House, was more than three years late on completion in April last year.