Publicity campaigns and new allowances are delivering results in recruiting more teachers and police. This is despite the counter pressure of a buoyant labour market and an ever widening pay gap between the public and private sectors.Some 17,700 people applied for postgraduate teacher training last year and this is a rise of 10%. Over 34,000 people registered with the Teaching Information Line in the last quarter of 2000 – double the number for the same period last year.

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The target to deliver 25 per cent of Government services electronically by 2002 has been reached more than a year early. More than 40 % of Government services are now delivered on line. It is estimated that by 2002 this figure will rise to 75%. The longer term target is to put all services on line by 2005. The definition of ‘on line’ includes personal computers, web-enabled call centres, and Digital TV. Routine telephone calls or faxes do not count towards the target.The on line figure has been boosted recently by a number of developments. The UK online citizen portal went live in December. This guides internet users through the maze of more than 1,000 Government sites – making searches easier and providing a single information access point for life events like having a baby and dealing with crime. A change of address service with three commercial organisations http://www.ihavemoved.com/, http://www.simplymove.co.uk/ and the PostOffice offer a fast way to let organisations, including government departments, know that there is a change of address. There are also new services about employment relations and roadworks.

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Middleton P.The International Journal of Public Sector Management, (UK), 2000 Vol 13 No 1

Start page: 85 . No of pages: 15,

Investigates how prescriptive methodology can improve software quality by evaluating the effectiveness of the UK government’s structured systems analysis and design method (SSADM) in raising the performance of software developers. Notes that the UK government is not alone in attempting to use methodology to improve effectiveness and then tracks three multi-million pound SSADM projects over three years, analyses end users’ SSADM documents and interviews SSADM project managers. Reports the findings, raising questions about key parts of the methodology, in particular the waterfall
approach, the assumption of a stable strategic context, the ability to obtain detailed requirements, the application to micro computer projects and the one-track approach. Concludes that people, rather than methodology, are the key factors in raising productivity and puts forward recommendations for ways of developing staff.

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