Archives for October 1999

NHS DIRECT STARTING TO JOIN UP

Headlines, PublicNet: 29 October, 1999

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 advice will be provided by the Social Services emergency duty team who will be located with the nurse advisors.The joining-up project will be expanded in March 2000 by linking directly to the local community pharmacy service. This will allow NHS Direct nurses to refer callers directly to their local community pharmacy services for further advice on drugs and medicines. The project is being piloted in conjunction with the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

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CALL FOR MORE JOINED UP THINKING

Headlines, PublicNet: 29 October, 1999

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. The greatest concentrations are in the north west, north east, Yorkshire and Humberside.Researchers of the Policy Action Team, following up a Social Exclusion Unit report, found that housing policy decisions were taken on a council area basis, despite the fact that the housing market does not recognise the council boundaries. The team found instances where authorities were releasing greenfield site land for housing in excess of the local need. They did not take into account the housing situation in neighbouring areas. The result was that new housing was in direct competition with old housing.

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BURGLARY BLACKSPOTS TARGETED

Headlines, PublicNet: 28 October, 1999

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. The amount of funds available will depend on the number of burglaries in the last three years multiplied by 100 pounds. It is planned to fund about 200 projects which will start in March 2000.

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WORLD-WIDE SEARCH FOR BETTER WAYS TO IMPLMENT IT

Headlines, PublicNet: 28 October, 1999

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. Leaks suggesting that the cost of the debacle will be borne by the public in higher passport charges has brought anger and demands for better project delivery.The search for best practice is being carried out by a team in the Central IT Unit of the Cabinet Office. It is led by Ann Steward, Deputy Director, who is seconded to the Cabinet Office from the Australian Federal Government’s ‘Office of Government Online’.

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TRANSFORMING PRIMARY CARE

Book News, PublicNet: 28 October, 1999

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. It shows that many pilot projects are changing traditional relationships in primary care. NHS Trusts can improve planning for local needs and overcome the obstacles of the single national contract.

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FIVE YEAR NEWS CONTRACT FOR PUBLIC BODIES

Headlines, PublicNet: 27 October, 1999

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. This is the first time news and information services have been included in a government framework contract.The contract represents a breakthrough in bringing down the barriers between the different areas of the public sector and between different professional groupings. News and views are being increasingly gathered from a wide range of people across the public sector and the opportunity to share knowledge and good practice with a wider audience will support the aim of cross boundary working.

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ACTION PLAN FOR BETTER QUALITY JOINED UP SERVICES

Headlines, PublicNet: 27 October, 1999

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. These depressing findings have led to an Action Plan to deliver seamless, simplified and more helpful services.Every year 2.5m households change their address and because there is no joined up working, these changes generate 20m transactions. Currently, e-mail cannot be used to notify a change. The Action Plan envisages, in the long term, that only one notification of a change will be necessary and this will trigger an advice to all other public bodies. The short term target is to set up a Government Gateway by December 1999 and launch a pilot notification system using two departments. This will be extended to a national pilot by 2001.

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MANAGING WITH PASSION: MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR JOB AND YOUR LIFE

Book News, PublicNet: 27 October, 1999

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.

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PLANS FOR LEARNING SUPPORT ASSISTANTS GET BACKING

Headlines, PublicNet: 26 October, 1999

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 research report shows how head teachers and local education authorities can effectively manage learning assistants so that they motivate pupils and help in raising standards.It is proposed that learning assistants should have a professional status and a unified career structure. A national framework of training and qualification is being developed.

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BENEFIT FRAUD GOES DOWN

Headlines, PublicNet: 26 October, 1999

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. The importance of this revised base line figure for fraud is that this is one of the targets in the Public Service Agreement between the Benefits Agency and the Treasury.What has emerged from the Government Statistical Service statement is that it is not possible to place the same reliance on figures of fraud as it is, for example, on the size of hospital waiting lists. Earlier in the year the Audit Commission published a figure for benefit fraud some 100m pounds below the latest estimate.

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