As the voluntary sector awaits publication of the Treasury’s Cross Cutting Review and the call to help deliver more public services, it warns that it should not be viewed as a cheap option. The sector can provide niche services and specialist local knowledge in delivering services such as drug rehabilitation, or ex-offenders working with young offenders. 

The promise to councils that Whitehall will release its grip on the work of local government is starting to be delivered with the ending of detailed prescription for councils tax bills. The aim is to make council tax notices clearer and more understandable. The move will mean that councils will no longer be required to send taxpayers complicated financial information or include explanatory notes on the bill. 

By Gill RinglandThe author shows how scenario thinking can help public sector organizations think about uncertainty in a structured way. The book focuses on the use of scenarios for developing public policy, whether by engaging the public or for use within government. Drawing on a wealth of global examples, Scenarios in Public Policy, provides managers at all levels with the knowledge, best practice guidelines and a practical toolkit to use scenarios in the public sector.
ISBN 0 470 84383 7. 

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recommends employers to give clear advice to their employees on the use of mobile phones while behind the wheel. This follows the government’s proposal to allow the police to prosecute an employer who “causes or permits” a worker to use a mobile phone while driving. 

Information to support the development of the health workforce is held in isolated pockets without any links between them. The three main databases are held by the NHS national censuses, workforce development confederations across the country and the postgraduate deaneries responsible for medical training and they all operate independently. 

The GMB union wants urgent legislative action on workplace stress. It believes that employers and enforcement authorities are not taking the issue seriously despite the fact that it is estimated to cost employers about 370 million pounds and society about 3.75 billion pounds a year.The union is critical of the current trend of promoting alternative therapies such as massage and aromatherapy in the workplace, because it believes it raises the danger of trivialising what is a workplace killer. 

The 20 councils taking part in piloting local public service agreements have discovered some of the reasons why they have difficult relationships with central departments. 

By Gill JonesYoung people are becoming increasingly sharply divided between those who have and those who do not. At a time when the major policy thrust is to combat social exclusion, the report shows how difficult this will be. Despite investment in education and training, inequality continues and becomes more extreme. Polarisation of experience occurs in every aspect of transition to adulthood. 

Liverpool City Council continues to make it easier for people to get in touch. Libraries are now being used to provide one stop shops for council services. In the pioneer site the shop has in its own section of the library and offers the same services as the city’s four larger one stop shops. The shops give people access to all council services under one roof, from housing benefits to education awards. 

Finding ways of making back office systems, such as finance, human resources and procurement, work smarter, is a key element of the NHS Modernisation programme. The National Shared Services Initiative aims to introduce standardised systems across the NHS to make the collection of data quicker, easier and more accurate.Some 600 NHS finance departments use different methods, processes and software and the result is that information varies in quality and is difficult to collate.