Education Minister David Blunkett has published a 350 million pound strategy to tackle education black spots in six inner city areas across the UK. When implementation reveals what measures work best they will be extended to other areas.
The strategy embraces pre school children who benefit from the Sure Start nursery education programme to 16 and 17 year olds who will have the opportunity to attend university summer schools. 

Following recruitment drives for nurses, teachers and school governors, a new campaign has been launched to recruit magistrates. There will be a series of advertisements in national newspapers and magazines as well as titles aimed specifically at ethnic minority communities. The visual images in the advertisements challenge the prevailing view of magistrates being out-of-touch fuddy-duddies.
There are just over 30,000 magistrates and they sit for about 35 half days each year. 

The Sema Group has been awarded a 12 million pound contract under the Private Finance Initiative to develop and run the NHS Strategic Tracing Service. The system will contain details of 52 million patients in England and Wales who have been given a unique number since 1996. In addition to patient identification details the database will include information about their GPs, trusts and health authorities and the relationships between them within the NHS. 

Harvard Business Review Series

The Harvard Business Review paperback series is designed to bring today’s managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world The eight articles in Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management highlight the leading-edge thinking and practical applications that are defining the field of knowledge management. 

The Better Government for Older People strategy is taking shape with the announcement of measures to improve health care. A National Service Framework for Older People will be published in April 2000. It will set out standards for health and social services working together to deliver high quality care.
Work on the Framework will be led by an independent External Reference Group who will consult health and social care professionals and managers, service users and carers, and others. 

Eight pilot projects have been selected to target crime hot spots. The eight police forces will share the 5 million pound budget. There will be a further 12 development projects over the next three years with a total budget of 32 million pounds. The projects will take a problem solving approach to reducing crime with an emphasis on testing new cost-effective tactics. This is part of a 250 million pound Crime Reduction Programme which will also extend over three years. 

Additonal teaching is to be provided for the top 10% of children in inner city comprehensive schools. Some 100,000 children will receive extra lessons after school or on Saturdays. Funds will be made available for extra teachers and local education authorities will decide the best way to implement the initiative.
Another step towards reform came with the announcement that some of the activities of the London Borough of Hackney will be taken over. 

Dickens L
Human Resource Management Journal, (UK), Vol 8 No 1 98
Start page: 23. No of pages: 18.
Examines the literature on human resource management (HRM) and questions whether it represents an advance for gender equality, as some commentators have suggested. Argues that the HRM model is gendered and that this is reflected in HR concepts and practices which serve to perpetuate gender inequality. 

Police forces have been urged by the Audit Commission to look at the impact of joint working with other public bodies on their need for buildings. The Commission’s report highlights the way that innovative approaches to sharing facilities with other emergency services and local agencies can improve partnerships. 

The post code in which a patient lives will no longer determine the quality of care received if the newly launched clinical governance initiative succeeds. Guidance issued to Health Authorities and Trusts aims to develop a truly national health service in which there is equitable access to consistently high quality healthcare for all patients.
Arrangements are being made for setting clear national standards through National Service Frameworks and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.