The Cabinet Office denied the prediction of massive job losses across public service made by David Romley in Publicnet on 19 May. In the article
http://www.publicnet.co.uk/publicnet/fe990519.htm he described the downsizing that would result from the Government embracing e-commerce as a major part of the modernisation programme.

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Guidance from the newly created National Institute for Clinical Excellence will not on its own raise health standards. NHS Trusts and primary care groups will need to develop ways of translating the guidance into everyday practice. This is the conclusion of a report published by the King’s Fund.

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Councils have been invited to enter a competition for finding centres of local government excellence. Identifying potential candidates is the first move in the Beacon Council Scheme. Applicants will be assessed initially by a team from the Department for Environment Transport and the Regions and the Improvement and Development Agency. Finalists will be decided by an independent advisory panel. Successful councils will retain the status of a Beacon Council until April 2001.

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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.

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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. This is done through seminars to teachers/governors from other schools; mentoring; workshadowing; provision of in-service training; consultancy; using the Internet to spread good practice and developing partnerships with Initial Teacher Training institutions/local schools/LEAs.

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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). Identifies criteria for measuring service quality: tangibles; reliability; responsiveness; assurance; and empathy. Discusses many of the ‘gaps’ experienced by customers. Describes QFD in detail and develops a logical progression from SERVQUAL. Presents two short case studies: the first in a psychological service and the second in a careers advisory service, both in Scotland, and outlines how QFD, in association with process mapping, has been used to improve service and enhance staff motivation and understanding.

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Central Government departments and agencies now have instant access to a wealth of information provided by Public Finance magazine and Publicnet. Users connected to the Government Secure Intranet (GSI) can go directly to sites with news and views about public service developments with one click on the mouse. There are also links to other information providers, including the BBC and ITN.

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Research into the management of housing benefit payments and council tax collection has shown that performance indicators are not a reliable way to assess effectiveness and efficiency. The research, carried out by Loughborough University, revealed that multiple objectives often conflict. Minimising resource costs may conflict with tackling benefit fraud. Some authorities place greater emphasis on take-up and have more extensive accuracy and verification checks than others. This higher level of accuracy puts up the resource costs, but these are far outweighed by the savings made from more accurate payments. The researchers concluded that it does not always follow that high cost councils are inefficient, or that low cost councils are examples of good practice.

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The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education wants more creative and cultural education in schools. The Committee was set up jointly by David Blunkett and Chris Smith last year to recommend on the creative and cultural development of young people through formal and informal education.

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The health survey for England has highlighted areas of poor health in adults of 16 and over. The analysis maps the unequal chance to be healthy and reveals the black spots, such as the South Yorkshire coal field, and the mining area of Cornwall.

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