Research by The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency into portable equipment that can be used on the battlefield will soon benefit NHS patients. Work on developing equipment such as sensors that can monitor vital signs (heart, pulse rate etc) and provide other medical information that can that can then be relayed to a remote location, has progressed to the point where it can be used for non military purposes.The Treasury has made a grant of 10m pounds from the Capital Modernisation Fund to allow the equipment to be used by NHS patients in their homes as an alternative to spending time in a hospital. Initially trials will be restricted to a limited number of conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Patients will have all the equipment necessary for monitoring their condition, including a video link. The data would travel through the telephone line to whichever hospital was in charge of the patient’s treatment. The community nurse would play a vital role in providing ‘on the spot’ care.
Measures announced by Education Secretary David Blunkett to deal with disruptive pupils and the introduction of youth justice reforms are part of the Government’s joined up approach to tackle the growing problem of disaffected young people. Research shows that when disruptive pupils are excluded from school they are on a potential fast track to crime. Some 70% of excluded pupils enter the criminal justice system.The aim of the new education measures is to deal with the various stages of disruption and limit the number of exclusions whilst recognising that disruptive pupils have a harmful effect on the total school system. Learning support units, or ‘sin bins’, within schools will be increased from 420 to 1000 at a cost of 28m pounds. There will also be a recruitment drive for ‘learning mentors’ who will assist teachers in dealing with disruptive pupils. In a move to get excluded pupils off the streets and back into a school, there will be a payment of 3000 pounds for schools that take in pupils excluded from other schools. The target is to reduce exclusions by one third by 2002.
Read more on JOINED UP APPROACH TO DISAFFECTED YOUNG PEOPLE…
Page R, Curry AThe TQM Magazine, (UK), 2000 Vol 12 No 1
Start page: 11. No of pages: 7
Argues that globalization and technological change have engendered contempt for managerial authority among workers and that TQM has the potential to change this. Expands on work pressures and the misgiving surrounding TQM through it being: fingered as the cause for delayering; criticized when implementation and/or empowerment went awry; blamed for flexibility resulting in short-term contract employment. Sees academic education bolstering a ‘get rich quick’ mentality, and organizations seeking the lowest cost base on a global scale as an undermining of national economies – all of this resulting in an insecure workforce, with ever-decreasing representative power. Touches on cases where TQM worked as it should and gives a few examples where managers got things badly wrong. Expands on a ‘new approach’ – team suggestions being implemented automatically unless management disapproval is publicly stated within a set time, the team being kept within its process boundary (and protected from rogue managers) by an appointed ‘boundary manager’. Concludes with some short case histories of the ‘new approach’ and actual and projected benefits.
Burglars posing as council officials, police or utility workers in order to gain access to homes are going to find life more difficult in the future following a partnership commitment between the public, private and voluntary sectors. The package of measures include a nationwide leaflet drop by the National Neighbourhood Watch Association, the creation of 20 pilot schemes to help identify ways to tackle this crime and the setting up of a steering group to co-ordinate activities. .There are over 16,000 reports of bogus caller fraud every year but it is believed that the true figure is four or five time higher, because people feel a sense of shame at having to admit that they trusted someone enough to let them into their homes without checking identification first. The average age of victims is 81 and 60 per cent are female, with the majority living alone.
The 69 consumer champions appointed in February 2000 have met each other for the first time and learned from Cabinet Office Minister Ian McCartney what is expected from them. Their role is to spearhead the customer focus campaign that will embrace all public services. As well as central government agencies such as the Benefits Agency and Employment Service it will cover the health service, including hospitals and GPs, the emergency services – fire, police and ambulance, the courts and local council services including schools.It was made clear to the champions, who are all board level officials, that the customer focus campaign is a vehicle for changing the way public services are delivered and that their task is to steer the culture change. They are expected to achieve this change by using customer feedback and consultation to set improvement targets.
UK Online, the gateway to Government services on the Internet, will be provided by BT. Testing of the new service will start in July and limited facilities will be available for public use from the autumn. A fully operational service will run from summer 2001.UK Online will be the first point of call for Internet users who want to make use of any central or local government service. They will be able to access the system through a personal computer, TV or mobile phone. Services currently available on the Internet include NHS Direct, consumer advice, Foreign Office advice for travellers and searches and returns to Companies House. Services due to become available later in the year include electronic filing of tax returns, VAT registration and returns, job vacancies and the Small Business Service.
Read more on BT WIN CONTRACT FOR GOVERNMENT INTERNET GATEWAY…
Richard Broadbent, former Group Managing Director at Schroders plc has scrapped the 19th century management structure at Customs and Excise which was based on policy area responsibility. This is the start of a process of change which so far has produced a six person Management Committee to manage the department and abolished overlapping responsibilities. Committees responsible for co-ordination between the different policy areas have also been scrapped.The re-structuring of the senior management team will allow the Board to focus exclusively on strategic issues and approval of annual plans and budgets prepared by the Management Committee. Richard Broadbent, who was appointed Chairman of Customs and Excise in February 2000 will chair the Committee as well as the Board. Committee members will have individual cross department responsibilities such as policy, central functions and outputs. This switch from a vertical to a lateral structure will make each members responsible for specific issues which span across the department and this will end the fragmentation of accountability which caused problems in the past.
Keeping track of who is doing what is difficult, which is why the LGA has published this detailed analysis of the full range of initiatives. It provides a comprehensive guide to the present range of programmes and gives the location and telephone and e-mail contact details for all the zones and community-based initiatives across England and Wales. It also lists all the local authorities which fall within such areas by type of initiative. It concludes with a grid giving the geographical distribution of zones and area-based initiatives. It also explains the aims, partners, funding, powers, timescale, implementation and monitoring plans for each type of initiative, and for each one there are case study examples of how they are working in practice.Whose zone is it anyway? 20 pounds (or 10 pounds to local authorities) from IDA publication sales on 020 7296 660
Davis G, Weller P, Craswell E, Eggins SPublic Administration, (UK), 1999 Vol 77 No 1
Start page: 7. No of pages: 44.
Analyses how the structure of government has been changed in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom over the past thirty years, focusing on the changes made to departmental structures. Examines three major influences on the departments – the parties in government, prime ministers in office and the electoral cycle. Searches for the principles that underpin the organization of government departments, reviewing the rationales that have been set out for the change. Concludes that shape of government departments is a product of prime ministerial interests, pressing policy issues and administrative convenience – the decision based on the need to ‘satisfy’ rather than first principles. Sets out the conditions that explain the patterns of change within government.
Police forces, like hospitals, achieve widely differing levels of performance. Until now there has been no way to group the various measures together to present a balanced scorecard. Neither has it been possible to set common efficiency targets for all forces, recognising those that perform best and are most efficient. A report by the Treasury’s Public Services Productivity Panel claims to have solved this problem. The author of the report, Clare Spottiswoode, Associate Partner at PA Consulting, demonstrates how the use of two efficiency-measuring techniques – Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis on a small number of Best Value outcome measures can produce an overall efficiency measure.The technique allows the relative efficiency of each police force to be assessed. It is then becomes possible to rank forces into bands of relative efficiency, with forces in the lower bands being asked to make up about half of the gap between themselves and the top performing forces. Top forces would be given comparatively smaller targets. This approach can be readily integrated into the Best Value regime with the new efficiency targets being incorporated into Performance Plans.