A million pound Innovation Fund has been set up to explore ways of modernising the role of health visitors.Tessa Jowell, Minister for Public Health, said: “Health visitors are absolutely crucial to the delivery of the Government’s public health strategy. We have set ourselves ambitious tasks: to tackle the root causes of ill-health; to narrow the gap between the best off and the worst off; to build a Health Service, not just a health care service.

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The Government says that housing providers, such as councils and housing associations, can play a key role in tackling the crime problems facing local communities.Home Office Minister Alun Michael said that housing providers have local knowledge which can play an important part in addressing local crime problems.The Crime and Disorder Act, which began to be implemented last month, calls on public sector organisations, including the Police, to work together to produce specific action plans to deal with crime as it affects individual areas.

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McAdam R, Mitchell NTotal Quality Management, (UK), Jul 98 (9/4&5)
Start page: S160 No of pages: 4Investigates the development of a business process re-engineering model for the public sector that takes into account public sector issues, and eschews the application of existing private sector models; identifies the key public sector success factors, and uses these as the basis for the evaluation of a number of change models. From this analysis, develops a new model for the public sector, and derives its methodology. Concludes that even when modified by the public sector success factors the proposed model needs to take account of localized success pertaining to the individual organization.

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The government’s attempts to improve quality and reduce variation in the quality of patient care in the NHS has been given a qualified welcome by the Institute of Health Services Management.The attempt to drive up and unify standards follows a handful of well-publicised cases where patients appear to have been failed in the quality of medical care they have received.

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There has been welcome support for the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement of an urban white paper next year.And the Urban Task Force already in place to look for answers to urban problems has responded by stepping up its work in order that its findings and be presented and considered in the white paper.

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Edited by: David Farnham, Professor of Employment Relations, University of Portsmouth.Many changes are taking place in the public sector across Europe as emphasis is being placed on the efficient use of resources, the way that public organisations are managed and their relationship with clients and customers. Post-bureaucratic structures are being introduced and a more managerialist culture is being established. A new type of public servant is emerging – the public manager. This book consists of three theoretical chapters and nine case studies of public managers, which examine these changes amongst member states of the European Union. The concluding chapter identifies common trends and explains similarities and differences in terms of the constitutional, political, cultural and economic contexts.

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Home Office Minister Alun Michael has urged local authorities to continue backing youthful interest in communities as a way of encouraging positive alternatives to disaffection and social exclusion.And he told delegates at a Local Government Association and National Youth Agency seminar that partnership was key to giving young people the opportunity to make a difference in their communities.

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A new survey shows that partnership working, training and family friendly working practices lead to higher levels of employee commitment and job satisfaction.The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey involved the DTI, ACAS, the Economic and Social Research Council, and Policy Studies Institute. It covered the views of 30,000 employees, 1,000 worker representatives and managers in over 3,000 workplaces, making it the largest survey of its kind.Key findings from the research show that more than half of workplaces have mechanisms to promote employee involvement and these same workplaces have had the highest levels of productivity growth.

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Bonczek S, MenzelPublic Management, (USA), (76/3):
Start page: 13 No of pages: 5

Suggests that misconceptions about the place of ethics in the public services can have a detrimental effect on standards and spells out eight common assumptions which the authors consider false; believes ethical deficits must be addressed by managers if high standards are to be achieved: creating and distributing a written ethics policy is not enough.Subject(s):

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The Lord Chancellor’s Department is urging all magistrates’ courts to make use of a model charter for use as a basis for improving public service.Geoff Hoon MP, Minister of State at the Lord Chancellor’s Department, says magistrates should not forget that courts are a public service.

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