A new report from the Public Audit Forum (PAF) argues that, with clear risk assessment by auditors, electronic service delivery need not lead to a loss of accountability. There are fears among some working in the public sector that the increasing moves to electronic service delivery, as set out in the Modernising Government Agenda, could lead to a lack of control and accountability.The new report tries to address those concerns, by pointing out that delivering services over electronic networks does not result in new audit objectives, but in new risks that need to be addressed. It sets out how electronic service delivery affects audit, the importance of information security standards to audit evidence; and how auditors need to respond to the new challenge.

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A new agency is to be set up to boost patient safety in the NHS. The National Patient Safety Agency will run a mandatory reporting system for logging all failures, mistakes, errors and near-misses across the health service.For the first time it will introduce a single body to handle errors and mistakes and ensure that lessons are learnt and spread throughout the health service.

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Pilot areas across the UK are to be offered free conversion to digital TV as a means of looking at how to increase take-up across the board. So far the take-up of digital TV isn’t moving as fast as the Government had hoped – which delays its hopes of switching off analogue transmissions and selling released frequency bands by 2010.More importantly, the slow take-up of digital technology is threatening the UK’s aim to be a world leader in the field.

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By Geoffrey Filkin Dr. Andrew Larner , Steve Dempsey and Greg Wilkinson,This report calls for rapid developments in local government to meet the 2005 target for online service provision. It recommends an effective national strategy and calls for the transformation of quality of access via a national network of locally-owned call centres operating to common standards. It also urges greater public consultation and communication with local authorities through ICT and the re-engineering of selected back office functions.

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A majority of people in London want the health service to remain universal and free at the point of use. This is the finding from a poll commissioned from ICM by the King’s Fund and the Evening Standard to gauge the public’s views about health, in advance of the general election.Over half the people questioned were opposed to the NHS purchasing services from the private sector, and over four fifths rejected the idea that the NHS should shrink and be replaced with private health care.

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One stop shops are now the most popular channel for accessing government services. Support for doing business in the shops has doubled in the last year. This is the finding of a survey published by KPMG Consulting in ‘E-Government For All’. The report recommends that local councils should champion a network of e-enabled one stop shops to meet the demand for human contact when dealing with government.At this early stage in the development of one stop shops, most bring together the services of the organization. The 40 local authorities that have either opened or plan to open shops mainly offer the services provided by the council. The new Working Age Agency, formed out of the merger of the Benefits Agency – the benefit paying arm of the Department of Social Security – with Employment Services, provides a one stop shop for job hunting and welfare support.

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By Hilarie OwenThis book offers the motivation and tools necessary to unlock the leadership potential within each of us. Hilarie Owen argues that, through simply discovering their own potential, anyone can become a great leader within their own sphere of ambition regardless of their position within a formal hierarchy. Features numerous inspirational anecdotes and cases of achievements of a cross section of society as well as a series of challenging exercises. In search of leaders blows away traditional views of leadership and sets readers firmly on the road to personal responsibility and achievement.

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Library queues have been banished from the Allerton Library in Liverpool with the introduction of a computer which replaces people behind the desk. To issue or renew books, borrowers swipe their library card, press a button and are issued with a receipt which provides the title of the book, and the date it is due back. To return books, customers swipe their card, press another button and drop the books into the letterbox which is placed under the unit. A new lower desk has been introduced for use by children, the disabled and wheelchair users.Borrowers have found the automated routine easy to use and responded positively to the new system. As well as reducing waiting times, staff are now more readily available to help with queries and advice.

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A cross party group of MPs claim that attempts to bring the Civil Service into the 21st century are failing. They urge the setting up of a royal commission to produce a comprehensive strategy for change. The MPs claim that the old fashioned culture personified by Sir Humphrey in the television comedy Yes, Minister, maintains its stranglehold on Whitehall. The Civil Service is highly skilled in the process of government, which includes providing top class advice and memos of the highest quality. It is not good at delivering policies.The MPs claim that civil servants have not responded to their changing roles which now include policy delivery as well as advice. They want civil servants to be better informed about their roles in assisting ministers. They also call for urgent action to get clear descriptions of the skills required to respond to the changing situation.

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Keeping healthy and recovering from illness is as much about fitness as popping pills. The three hundred exercise referral schemes up and running around the country will be improved and new projects will be developed as a result of new national standards for exercise referral by GPs. Exercise on prescription has proved particularly valuable for coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and mental health problems, including depression. The National Quality Assurance Framework was commissioned by the Department of Health and written by representatives of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences and Exercise England.The framework covers services for patients referred by their GP or practice nurse to supervised exercise programmes usually delivered through gyms and local leisure centres. GPs, primary care nurses and registered fitness professionals will now be able to offer high-quality supervised exercise referral programmes to all patients who will benefit from them. The new national standards will help to identify patients for referral and the right scheme for them to be referred to, clarifying responsibility of clinicians and qualified registered fitness professionals and assisting NHS trusts to incorporate exercise as part of a cardiac referral programme.

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