Whitehall and public sector organisations are heavily involved in the latest round of Foresight, the programme for looking at the future, led by Department for Trade and Industry. The programme develops visions of the future by looking at possible needs, opportunities and threats and deciding what should be done now to make sure that the challenges can be met. The work of the Foresight Group builds bridges between business, the science base, voluntary organisations and government across all areas and activities.

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More than 20,000 people have found jobs using the new telephone jobseekers service, Employment Service Direct. Since the launch in January 1999 it has been refined by putting callers directly in contact with employers by phone. Jobseekers calling the service on 0845 6060239 receive details of either local or nationwide jobs. The database contains 300,000 vacancies.

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Maddock S, Morgan G

The International Journal of Public Sector Management, (UK), Vol 11 No 4 98. Start page: 234. No of pages: 18

Looks at the role and effectiveness of public agencies in the UK, barriers to the movement away from bureaucratic administrations formed as a feature of the contracting environment and the impact which health and social service reforms have had on staff: new skills required to manage competition, reduced morale, changed management processes and cross-departmental working. Contends that the impact of contracting and managerialism has resulted in a loss of social capital and a mismatch between management and contracting models and the policy desire for partnership and collaboration between individual staff and individual agencies. Claims that a combination of a medical resistance to managerialism and the medical establishment’s traditional codes of practice forms a major obstacle to bringing professionals and agencies together. Explores issues of equal opportunities and the particular views, perceptions and experiences of women managers in relation to managerialism.

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