UNISON’s Positively Public campaign to keep public services in the public sector has been extended to the Doncaster race course. In a move to get the message across in a different way the union sponsored three races: ‘UNISON the Trade Union in Front’ Maiden takes’, ‘The union in front is UNISON’ Maiden Fillies Stakes’ and ‘Back a Winner with UNISON’ Handicap Stakes. The day at the races was enjoyed by some 1000 UNISON members and their families.Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said: “The race is on to keep public services where they belong, in the public sector. My tip for the punters is that Positively Public will win by a head. UNISON believes that if the government uses its head, reads the evidence and listens to the public service workers on the front line, they too would say no to creeping privatisation. But sponsoring the races at Doncaster is also about getting the union’s message across in a fun way”.

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E-Government Solutions (UK) Ltd. is bringing its 10 years experience in designing building and managing solutions for the public sector from the US to the UK. The parent company NIC, is the e-government market leader in the US and has the largest installed base of public sector e-procurement systems including a single marketplace servicing 1100 local government organisations. It has a portfolio of some 80 interactive service applications, many of which run in 23 US State portals.The company has appointed Ian Busby as its Chief Executive. He will drive the company’s growth in Europe with the aim of replicating the success of its parent company. He joins from Deloitte Consulting where he was a partner responsible for e-government and business-to-business marketplaces. Prior to joining Deloitte, he was the Divisional Director of consulting business at Capita, the UK’s principal business services company. The first ten years of his career were spent as a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, the Political and Constitutional Planning Unit of the Northern Ireland Office and the Government of Australia.

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WOMEN councillors interviewed for an LGA report cited the attitudes of male colleagues towards them and the aggressive nature of local politics as amongst their key reasons for standing down from local government. Based on research through focus groups, the report highlights some of the key reasons why certain groups including women, ethnic minorities and the full time employed are under represented in local government and what local councils need to do to tackle this. The main problem identified by women was balancing family life and council duties. Unsociable meeting times, the difficulty of arranging childcare and feelings of guilt about spending time away from their children were all fundamental issues for women councillors.The report is available from IDeA Publication Sales on 0207 296 6600 Fax: 0207 296 6600 ISBN 1 84049 225

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