Ministers for Women, Margaret Jay and Tessa Jowell will launch the first ever Government led opportunities fair for women on February 13th 2001. ‘Women Unlimited’ will give practical ideas and advice to women wanting to explore their work choices and take advantage of new opportunities available to them. It will bring together under one roof, experts, employers and training organisations to provide interactive seminars, informative exhibitions and networking opportunities. 

Deciding on the new council structure to replace the ‘committee system’ will be made easier by a set of blueprint options published by the Department for Environment, Transport and Regions. The document sets out a possible structure for the models of a leader with a cabinet, a mayor with a cabinet, or a mayor with a council manager. It emphases the wide diversity of possible options and variations.Councils can decide which model to adopt, but there must be prior public consultation. 

Pemberton J D, Stonehouse G HThe Learning Organization, (UK), 2000 Vol 7 No 4
Start page: 184. No of pages: 10
Presents a model of organizational learning that places organizational culture, structure and infrastructure at the core, arguing that these need to be in place to create a context which will support knowledge management and organizational learning. 

Lawrence R Jones and Fred ThompsonGives a valuable insight into the issues. Although it presents a US perspective, it is relevant to public service managers world-wide. Volume 10 in the series on ‘Research into Public Policy Analysis and Management’.
Published by JAI Press/Ablex Printing. 268 pp. 78.50 US dollars.

A stark warning that the target to put all public services on line by 2005 may be in jeopardy because of a shortage of staff, comes from a survey by the National Computing Centre. The survey found that salaries for IT staff in government are the lowest in the IT profession with the average pay of managers more than 12,000 pounds behind their counterparts in the private sector. 

Tough new powers to withdraw benefits from persistent benefit cheats and investigate fraudsters have been presented to Parliament. The DSS loses at least £2 billion a year through fraud. The Public Accounts Committee estimates that social security fraud is costing the taxpayer up to 4 billion pounds a year. 

The Federation of Electronics Industries, the Department for the Environment Transport and the Regions, the Improvement and Development Agency and local councils are sharing in an initiative to promote e-government. The project, which is funded by the DETR will run until April 2002.The collaborative venture is bringing together a critical mass of councils working in similar ways to take e-government forward at the local level. 

The Pay Review Body has recommended that doctors and dentists receive a pay rise of 3.9% across the board and nurses 3.7%. Inflation stands at 3.2%. The Government will implement the recommendations in full from April 2001. Health Secretary Alan Milburn claimed the pay rises will help increase still further the numbers of trained, qualified staff working in the NHS. 

New advice has been issued to local councils grappling with major constitutional change as a result of the Local Government Act.The act aims to make councils more efficient and accountable by getting rid of endless committee and sub-committee meetings taking a long time to make decisions.
Although these meetings are held in public, in reality the real decisions, especially in areas with strong one party control, are made in party gatherings ahead of these committees. 

Seven companies have been selected from the seventy who expressed interest, to take part in the trial of electronic prescriptions due to be launched in March 2001.