A new study is to find – and recommend removal of – the barriers that stop community groups getting public money to boost their areas.The regional co-ordination unit (RCU) in the Cabinet Office will be responsible for the study, and will develop practical proposals to put to the Prime Minister at the end of November.
People in Wales have been offered a say in the next phase of the development of partial self-government.The National Assembly, now up and running for two years – wants public input to how it should organise its priorities for the next two years of the current term. Elections are planned in May 2003.
Although surveys of local councils continue to show that a significant proportion have not yet devised strategies for e-government, more evidence continues to emerge that others have reached the implementation stage.The 29,000 council tax payers in Weymouth and Portland will shortly join those in the Bracknell Forest Borough Council area by gaining online access to their accounts, including the ability to make payments. They will be able to view pages showing how much they owe and when installments are due. It is planned to extend the facility to Business Rate payers. In a later development benefit claimants will be able to check how their benefit has been calculated and when payments are due. The system has been installed by Academy Information Systems.
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Over 100 of the larger councils in the UK have been offered a deal which would give freedom from a long list of targets set by Ministers and a relaxation in requirements to devise strategies and detailed plans to meet the needs of Whitehall departments. To make the deal more attractive there is an offer of pump priming funding, greater freedom to borrow capital and a potential bonus of 2.5% of their budget. All this comes to councils that are prepared to set 12 stretching targets that cover local priorities and some of the principal national targets and sign a local public service agreement with the Department for Transport Local Government and the Regions.Twenty councils signed up to local public service agreements in a pilot scheme and the targets they set included increasing the percentage of pupils obtaining five or more GCSEs at Grades A- G, bringing down the number of domestic burglaries and cutting the numbers of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 25%.
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Marshall JCharts how different human qualities are beginning to be valued in society and within organizations, arguing that qualities such as interdependence, intuition, receptivity are gaining parity with the traditionally-valued qualities of independence, rational analysis and control. Points out that this is being accompanied by a blurring in the gender-based stereotypes in which women were labelled as having certain qualities and men others. Sees these changes as being necessary precursors for learning organizations. Explores the approaches to learning which are needed in learning organizations, praising people who are able to combine analysis, intuition and values-based intelligences. Cautions that these emerging approaches have yet to consolidate their place within organization, suggesting it is possible that they may be co-opted to meet the needs of the old ‘command and control’ approach. Considers how leaders can support learning within their organizations, enabling a rounded approach to inquiry and decision, and working effectively with uncertainty and complexity.
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National Audit Office ReportThe report calls for the NHS to do more to reduce waiting times. It also calls for an end to manipulation of the system for cosmetic purposes, for inequalities across the country to be reduced and for the information system to be sharpened up. The NAO found that 20% of consultants admitted to giving earlier treatment to patients to meet targets. Waiting lists were judged unreliable because some patients only featured on lists after varying periods as outpatients and the names of other patients should have been removed from lists. The report urges wider implementation of innovative practices and identifies five key areas of good practice. It recognizes that the National Patients’ Access Team has a comprehensive range of work programmes in place and is taking forward the recommendations.
Graduates and the unemployed are being encouraged to work in public services. The Civil Service is setting out its stall in a Carers Fair. The police are running a training scheme to bring unemployed people from the ethnic minorities up to the recruitment standard.’Creating the Future 2001′ will be held at the Westminster Central Hall in London on 31st July and 1st August. Some 20 departments, the Civil Service Fast Stream, District Audit and HM Prison Service will set out what they do and present a picture of the opportunities they offer. There will be a series of seminars to allow graduates to ask questions about the kind of work involved, a Ministers’ Question Time and an open forum where civil servants of minority ethnic origin will share their experiences of working in the Civil Service
The TUC has set out its concerns about the Government’s intentions to invite the private sector to play a greater role in modernizing public services. It warns that this path will lead to an increasingly bitter dispute and to derailment of plans.The reasons for opposing greater private sector involvement were set out in a statement by TUC General Secretary John Monks. The TUC believes that the market left to itself will not deliver equality of access to public goods such as health care, education, quality public transport and a high quality environment. Private involvement also undermines democracy and diminishes accountability for delivery, because a dissatisfied public cannot remove those responsible at a subsequent election. It also argues that some services should not be subject to the profit motive since this might conflict with other objectives.
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The New Opportunities Fund, a National Lottery distributor of good causes money, is funding the development of the Peoples Network in local libraries to bring Internet access to all users. The scheme will link every public library in the UK to the Internet and the Grid for Learning, making technology accessible to local communities. This funding supplements money local councils are investing in developing technology in libraries.The Peoples Network will shortly have almost 4000 computers in libraries to allow local people to use word processing, spreadsheets, databases, graphics packages, and scanners free of charge. These facilities particularly benefit students who need to type up school or college work and the unemployed who can use the Internet to research jobs and then use the word processor to type up their CV. Local organizations can use the database to keep membership records and tourists can use email to keep in touch with family and friends.
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The Office for National Statistics has stepped in to make good the chronic lack of information about what is happening at the neighbourhood level. With a 28 million pound budget from the Treasury’s Capital Modernisation Fund it will provide information for small areas in a way that has not been possible up to now.The lack of information about neighbourhoods was highlighted in 1999 in the Social Exclusion Unit’s Policy Action Team report. A commitment to provide the information was made in the National Strategy Action Plan launched by the Prime Minister in January 2001. The information black hole currently makes it difficult to pinpoint employment, drug and housing blackspots and particularly to detect emerging blackspots.
Read more on JOINED UP INFORMATION TO PROMOTE NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL…
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