By Steven Cohen and William EimickeThis is the third edition of the leading text for public administration. It has been the standard manual for public administrators for over a decade. It focuses on helping real-world managers and managers-to-be meet the demands of their jobs head-on rather than working around the constraints of government. It aims to create effective public managers who seek to shape events rather than be shaped by them.
This is the 1000th edition of Pubicnet Briefing. Since the first edition went out over the Internet on Monday 8th June 1998 subscribers in the UK and 47 other countries have been kept in touch with the changing scene of public services in the UK. The daily e-mail has reflected the most radical that public services have ever experienced. It has reported a continuing stream of initiatives and the high expectations of the initiators. In some cases it has charted declining enthusiasm as unforeseen problems started to emerge. Perhaps ‘action zones’ are the best example.In 1999 the Office for Government Commerce selected Publicnet Briefing as a leading provider of public sector news and information and awarded a five year framework agreement to supply public bodies.
Hospitals that want to cut the strings that tie them to Whitehall and become NHS Foundation Trusts face a tough challenge. The route to autonomy is only open, at the moment, to the 48 acute trusts awarded a three star rating in the recent performance assessment. They have until November to produce evidence of high standards of clinical care and demonstrate sound governance, a commitment to developing staff, high quality leadership, a responsiveness to patients and effective working with local organizations. They will then have to convince a panel, which will include outside experts, that they can go delivering improvements, The successful trusts will be shortlisted and those awarded foundation status will become operational in April 2004.The new foundation trusts will have the option of establishing themselves as not-for-profit companies. They will become more accountable to local communities rather than to national government. Ministers will lose the power to direct trusts and they will no longer be involved in appointing their Board members. The thinking behind this earned automomy is that it should help to unleash public sector enterpreneurialism and innovation.
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