Twelve towns and cities across England and Wales have been chosen for closer examination of their efforts to build crime fighting partnerships.In July the Crime and Disorder Act set out a statutory partnershiparrangement for police and local authorities to work together to combat crime. 

Sowa M, Niland R
Public Management, (USA) (76/11):
Start page: 4 No of pages: 8
Two papers by sufferes (who are/were high-flying US city managers) stress the importance of changing attitudes to clinical depression, which must be accepted as a medical illness requiring treatment. The, two authors describe their own cases, what happened to them at work and at home, aiming to raise awareness of the problem and its potential manifestations in the workplace. 

There’s evidence that the revamp of the Charter Mark to make it a management tool to drive up standards of public service is proving successful.More government departments and agencies than ever before have seen the value in applying for the award. One hundred and twenty three government departments and agencies have applied this year, compared to 66 in 1997.
There’s a similar record number of entries from the prisons service, housing associations and local government. 

The NHS has been set a whole list of targets to improve the quality of the working lives of staff. Failure could mean Government intervention, even the replacement of trust boards.
The aim is to tackle the staff shortages that are becoming an increasing problem for NHS managers. 

Health Secretary Frank Dobson says it is partnerships, both local and national, and involving the NHS and voluntary bodies, that will lead to the sweeping changes needed in children’s services.His comments come after the launch of Quality Protects:Transforming Children’s Services, a major three year programme designed to help local authorities raise the quality of services for children at risk and children in care.
He said: “This is where bad practice ends. 

Tony Blair has defined what he means by the ‘Third Way’ - his model for the values on which public sector services should be based during his Government.He said: “The Third Way is the route to renewal and success for modern progressive politics. 

New survey material seems to challenge recent criticism of local government for its poor performance in beating the so-called Millennium Bug.The Government’s recent quarterly report on the problem, backed with information from the Audit Commission, compared local government’s progress poorly to that of other public sectors. 

Youth justice agencies have been set targets to speed up their ability to deal with young offenders.The Government says the time taken to deal with a young offender should be halved from the current 142 days.The joint Home Office/LCD circular, “Measuring Performance to Reduce Delays in the Youth Justice System”, also offers advice on identifying both potential difficulties and good practice. 

Nicholls J A F, Gilbert G R, Roslow S
Journal of Consumer Marketing, (UK), 1998 Vol 15 No 3
Start page: 239 No of pages: 13
Aims to help organizations develop an instrument with which to measure customer satisfaction within a service setting. Reviews the literature relating to service quality and customer satisfaction, focusing on customer expectation, technical and functional approaches, the influence of time, and service quality versus service satisfaction. 

A package of measures has been announced which will aim to provide better, independent regulation of the accountancy profession, covering both private and public sector.