The health line which gives round the clock advice on 0845 46 47 is joining up with other services. The nurses who give the advice currently suggest to callers that they should take some action themselves, visit the accident and emergency unit or call their GP. A pilot project has been launched in Chelmsford to give advice and support on social welfare issues. 

The Department for the Environment Transport and the Regions has called for more joined up thinking by local councils to stem the growth of difficult to let properties. Unpopular housing has grown over the last three years and there are now some 377,000 dwellings that tenants are reluctant to accept. 

More funds are to be made available from the 250m pound Crime Reduction Programme Budget to tackle burglary blackspots. Some 60 projects have already been launched under the Burglary Reduction Initiative to find innovative ways to defeat burglars.Crime reduction partnerships of police, local councils and voluntary and community bodies are being offered funds to mount a new phase of projects. 

In a move to improve the Government’s poor track record in implementing IT, a world-wide search has been launched to find out how others do it better. Recent problems with the implementation of a new IT system for the Passport Office is the latest in a long line of projects to go severely wrong and to cause acute embarrassment. 

Richard Lewis and Steve GillamThe days of a single national contract for general practitioners are over. Personal medical service pilot projects are bringing forward new forms of primary care that may overcome the weaknesses of the single national contract. Initiatives such as nurse- led practices and salaried GP schemes mean that the needs of people who often miss out on traditional primary care arrangements will now be met. The book examines how local contracting is beginning to work. 

Public bodies will now be able to subscribe to Publicnet Briefing through a five year news and information framework contract arranged by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency. The contract brings the benefit of aggregated procurement power to give value for money and government terms and conditions. 

Mystery shoppers, working for the Cabinet Office, who walked into offices of local councils and registrars of births, marriages and deaths, the Benefits Agency, and Job Centres found no signs of joined up government. They also found that the quality of service was generally low. 

2Ginsburg, Sigmund G.Provides special advice for people who are demoralized by downsizing, rightsizing, lateralizing, and seeking to make work meaningful. A timely theme for the legions who want to arrange their work-life and put their heart into it. Excellent for those seeking early retirement and those juggling both family and career.
Published by Wiley: www.wiley.co.uk.  ISBN: 0-471-14558-0. 254 pages, Paper. 14.95 US Dollars.

Plans to recruit a further 20,000 learning support assistants by 2002 are backed by a research report. Researchers found that where assistants had clearly defined roles and planned lessons with teachers in the Literacy Hour, they helped pupils become independent learners. 

The Benefits Agency and local councils are striving to reduce benefit fraud by tightening procedures and introducing new technology. So far there is little to show for their efforts. Meanwhile the Government Statistical Service has cut the annual fraud bill by some 50m pounds after revisiting earlier calculations.