The transition from policy, administrative or professional work into management can often be swift and painful. For the first time, the new manager becomes responsible for the work of others as well as her/his own. The feeling of euphoria is quickly replaced by the stark realities of doing a very different job.
The Civil Service College wants to smooth the transition with a new ‘Introduction to First Line Management’ programme. . 

A further 125 schools have been given Beacon status and they will implement programmes from September. The Beacon School scheme started in 1998 with 75 schools.
Schools are selected on a criteria of excellence and they use funding to pursue particular activities such as reducing teacher bureaucracy. The key function of a Beacon School is to share good practice and innovation. 

Curry A, Herbert D
Managing Service Quality, (UK), 1998 Vol 8 No 5.
Start page: 339. No of pages: 11
Highlights the importance of measuring service quality in public service organizations, stating that client quality, professional quality and management quality all need to be carefully evaluated. Aims to demonstrate the relevance to services measurement of the SERVQUAL model and of quality function deployment (QFD).