By Ann Mooney and June Statham with Antonia SimonAn analysis of national labour force trends with a survey of more than a thousand employees aged over 50 and recently retired staff from local authorities found that people between 50 and retirement are a ‘pivot’ generation, combining work and care roles. Two-thirds are in paid employment, while six out of ten 50-year-olds have living parents and a third have grandchildren. Nearly half the local authority staff surveyed had some caring responsibility. Few of the employees interviewed wanted to give up their jobs in order to take on caring responsibilities. In some cases, the health of carers had suffered as a result of trying to absorb the impact of a demanding caring role, without it affecting their work life. Flexible working hours came top of the list of the workplace policies that employees thought would help them to balance working and caring responsibilities. There was strong support for the opportunity to work reduced hours.

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The first major change in the Civil Service pension arrangements for thirty years has now come into effect. The new scheme gives a choice of pension and enables members to put more in to get more out, as well as delivering a number of benefits.For an increased contribution of 3.5% civil servants will benefit from a pension package which includes partner benefits, higher death in service benefits, improvements to ill health benefits for the seriously ill, better children’s benefits and an increased opportunity for choice about benefit packages best suited to the individual. This is the first pension scheme in the public sector that provides survivor benefits for unmarried partners, irrespective of gender.

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Community led partnerships and innovation are the common factors in the projects which have reached the final stage of the Award for Urban Renaissance. The finalist will be announced at the end of the month.A crime and anti-social behavour partnership in Northampton involving the police, the borough and county councils and residents association reduced the annual crime rate on the estate from 832 in 1998 to 292 in 2001. To cut crime they employed a neighbourhood warden to target repeat dwelling burglaries, altered landscapes to give greater protection and peace of mind, used CCTV, fenced in alleyways, improved lighting, created motorcycle barriers and installed alarms and locks.

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