Report of study conducted by IDeA and Socitm and sponsored by software company SAPThe report examines municipalities in fourteen countries around the world engaged in the development of e-governance. It offers case studies and identifies best practices on customer service, internal efficiency, and citizen engagement. It focuses on a variety of e-government initiatives that include secure e-services in Spain, e-democracy in Norway, and research on efforts to drive down costs of government services in the United States and Canada. It shows authorities are wrestling with common problems and similar objectives around the globe. The study reveals an encouraging trend that rather than implementing e-government in a piecemeal fashion, local authorities are working together to entirely transform local government services.
European Week for Safety and Health, launched today, is focusing on stress. The events throughout the UK are aimed at raising awareness of what organisations can do to tackle stress in the workplace, establishing an environment in which to share knowledge and promote best practice. Stress is the second biggest cause of sickness absence days of employees in the UK. It costs UK industry approximately £6.7 billion each year in lost revenue. In human terms, depression, anxiety or a physical condition ascribed to work related stress results in half a million people per year reporting stress at levels that is making them ill.For the past two years, the Health and Safety Commission has been tackling occupational stress as one of its Priority Programmes. Last year the Health and Safety Executive published new guidance aimed at helping managers undertake effective risk assessments to tackle stress in the workplace. They are now working with partners from industry, local authorities and practitioners to help develop Management Standards that will act as a yardstick in measuring how successful employers actually are in dealing with this issue.
Chancellor Gordon Brown added his voice to what is becoming a chorus for new localism, freeing frontline services from the grip of Whitehall. He said there will be a range of new financial freedoms and new powers for local authorities to trade, retain fines, develop new services and decide council tax exemptions and discounts. Details of the freedoms will be announced in the local government bill, but it is already clear that the proposals go much further than those announced in the white paper.Gordon Brown also said he recognized that much more needs to be done and he and Home Secretary, David Blunkett, will shortly publish a discussion document that highlights how decisions in the Treasury and Home Office can do more to devolve power to communities. The need for a discussion document is a clear indication that the boundaries for new localism have not been set and that this is the start of the process rather then the end.