Archives for March 2001

HEALTH SERVICE AIMS TO KEEP OLDER PEOPLE HEALTHIER

Headlines, PublicNet: 30 March, 2001

Pilot schemes offering health checks for people retiring from work will begin next week as part of the National Service Framework for Older People. The framework sets national standards for preventing illness and improving care among older people and provides a blueprint for care services across England over the next decade.The pilots will take different approaches which could include checks and advice on bloodpressure, fuel and heating, fitness level, diet, immunisation and screening programmes. Research shows that many current health activities fail to cater for people who have retired and that health checks or information are seldom offered to employees before retirement. The pilots will test different ways of targeting health checks at people aged 50-65 who are approaching, or just past, retirement and who do not have access to pre-retirement help from their employers.

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STRATEGY LAUNCHED TO CUT THROUGH PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT JUNGLE

Headlines, PublicNet: 30 March, 2001

Performance measurement in the public sector has grown over the years in a haphazard and unco-ordinated way. The Social Exclusion Unit’s report ‘Better Information’ exposed the chaos of the current systems revealing that though much data exists on social deprivation little can be used to analyse the problem by neighbourhood, because it was not collected in a consistent form, was not collected at all, or was not being shared between organizations. Cabinet Office researchers also found that some performance measures act as barriers to multi-agency working.In response to this patchwork of bespoke systems which are founded on different criteria, the Treasury has launched a Performance Measurement Strategy. The strategy aims to ensure that performance management initiatives are integrated nationally and locally. This includes across organisational boundaries to help joined-up working.It also seeks to standardise the definitions used in measures collected across public services, where this will help research and joined-up working.

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UK GOVERNMENT GATEWAY DEMONSTRATED TO INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE

Headlines, PublicNet: 29 March, 2001

The UK Government Gateway, launched in January, was demonstrated in Seattle to an audience of 400 government officials from 80 countries to show how citizens and businesses can interact with government over the Internet. The demonstration was presented by e-Envoy Andrew Pinder, and Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and chairman.Electronic transactions from the Inland Revenue, HM Customs and Excise and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will begin to arrive at the Gateway during April. Other organizations planning to put services into the Gateway in the near future include the Department of Social Security, Department of Trade and Industry, the Northern Ireland and Scottish Executives and the Welsh Assembly. The Gateway will be rolled out through about 200 central government departments and agencies and 482 local government institutions over the next five years in the drive to have all of the government online by 2005.

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PUBLIC SECTOR DRIFTING INTO LEADERSHIP CRISIS

Headlines, PublicNet: 29 March, 2001

Public sector leadership is moving towards crisis and prompt action is needed stop the drift. This is the conclusion of a report by the Cabinet Office’s Performance and Innovation Unit. The problem is not a decline in the quality of leadership, but a slowness to respond to the changing world. Leaders in the 21st century are facing demands to modernise public services and orient them more closely to the needs and wishes of customers. There are also higher expectations on the part of the general public, who expect public services to keep up with private ones. Other radical changes include increased opportunities, and requirements, for partnerships both across the public sector and with private and voluntary organizations and pressures to harness new technology and deliver government services electronically.Welcoming the report, Prime Minister Tony Blair called for action to strengthen and support leadership across the whole public sector.

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PROFESSIONAL SENSE-MAKERS: MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES AMIDST AMBIGUITY

Abstracts, PublicNet: 29 March, 2001

Noordegraaf MThe International Journal of Public Sector Management, (UK), 2000 Vol 13 No 4

Start page: 319. No of pages: 14

Observes 12 Dutch public managers to determine the managerial competencies of real life public managers. Briefly examines the literature on managerial behaviour, commenting on the difference between theory and reality and then combines a modified garbage can school approach to decision theory with the leader behaviour school to develop a research framework. From observation discovers that public managers manage issue streams amidst political struggle by ensuring that written and spoken texts flow upwards. Identifies the three dimensions of attention allocation – actor attendance, actor attention and issue attention – and lists the mechanisms used to treat big issues, going on to discuss the professional competencies displayed by public managers. Concludes that competent public managers can perceive cues and relate them to issue streams, adding that they are able to initiate issue streams and bring them ahead.

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BEYOND THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION

Book News, PublicNet: 28 March, 2001

This report by the New Local Government Network, the Local Government Association, and the Institute for Public Policy Research is the culmination of a joint venture between the three organisations. It argues that central government should share increased public service burden and learn to trust local government. by forging a new relationship. The report draws together reflections on four policy areas – community leadership, democratic renewal, transforming public services and central-local relations. It identifies how change can be brought about.Published by New Local Government Network www.nlgn.org.uk

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DEPARTMENTS TOLD TO GET CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ACT TOGETHER

Headlines, PublicNet: 28 March, 2001

Government departments have been told by Sir John Bourne, the Comptroller and Auditor General to get a grip on corporate governance and risk management. He is Parliament’s watchdog for all government departments and a wide range of other public sector bodies.Corporate governance in government is going through an evolutionary process. The need for top management to steer the organization was first recognized in a report from the Treasury in 1986. As a result of the Cadbury Committee report in 1992 about the role of board members in the private sector and the establishment of audit committees, departments tightened up financial controls. Following the Turnbull Committee report in 1999 recommending that in the private sector the board should be responsible for all systems of internal control, the Treasury issued guidelines on implementing the recommendations in central government.

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ONE STOP GOVERNMENT SHOP PILOT GOES LIVE

Headlines, PublicNet: 28 March, 2001

The first Post Office to pilot the one stop Government shop programme has opened its doors in Leicester. The ‘Start Here’ touchscreen kiosk can be used by customers to gain access to information ranging from advice on benefits, health and education to information on housing, care and crime. The pilot, which will be funded by 25 million pounds from the Department of Trade and Industry, will be extended to all 287 Post Offices in Leicestershire and Rutland in the next few months. If the pilot demonstrates that the problems of developing the one stop shop can be overcome and the public respond, the service will be progressively extended to all the 18,500 retail outlets.The programme evolved from a report by the Performance and Innovation Unit in the Cabinet Office which recommended that postmasters should become Government General Practitioners with a role, similar to a medical GP. They will offer low level advice and information and help customers to carry out a range of transactions such as paying council tax. Some 28 million people use post office services each week.

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PUBLIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP SCHEME LAUNCHED

Headlines, PublicNet: 27 March, 2001

The Cabinet Office has launched a leadership development scheme for middle managers in the Civil Service, National Health Service, police service and local government. It will help the leaders of tomorrow to work across organisational boundaries to deliver better public services and to develop their leadership skills.The programme will include formal learning sessions involving skills workshops and cross-sector case studies and simulations. There will also be opportunities for secondments and mentoring schemes.

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GROUND BREAKING PARTNERSHIP SET TO CHANGE THE FACE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headlines, PublicNet: 27 March, 2001

Liverpool City Council and BT have set up a company to deliver a wide range of council services. The new company Citizen First, in which the City Council will have a 19.9% stake, will provide the first point of caller contact through an expanded call centre as well as through, mail, internet, fax, e-mail, interactive TV or kiosks. Later the company will take on revenue collection, benefit payments, payroll and human resource management. The contract is worth 300 million pounds over ten years.Some 1200 council staff will move to the new company on long term secondment, but remain employees of the City Council. They will benefit from new skills training, personal development and better environments in which to work. There have been extensive consultations with the trades unions.

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