Personnel officers from around the country have been given details of innovative work by York City Council which has reduced absenteeism among teachers by taking a new approach to stress.The pilot project cut the number of days off per employee from 10.5 to 8.9. The higher figure had remained stable for the two years before a pilot project - the ‘WELL’ scheme - began. Stress was identified as the major cause for absence. 

Lawyers, and representatives from local authorities and voluntary groups will today hear details of ground-breaking schemes to improve access to legal advice for poorer people in the south east of England.Rosie Winterton, Minister at the Lord Chancellor’s Department, will address the New Routes to Justice conference in Reading, organised by the region’s Legal Services Committee. 

By Janie Percy-Smith with Tom Burden, Alison Darlow, Lynne Dawson, Murray Hawtin and Stella Ladi, Promoting evidence based policy and practice is recognized as a key issue across public services and there is a widespread assumption that research will bring improvements. The authors challenge this assumption and claim that the impact of research in local government is relatively small. They describe weaknesses in disseminating findings and the lack of skill shown by policy officers in carrying out research and interpreting results. They also offer advice for officers, members, local government organizations and researchers.

Local authorities, social services departments and schools must all play their part in combating youth crime and the anti-social behaviour of young gangs according to the Home Office Minister, John Denham. He called for an end to inward looking attitudes that were standing in the way of progress.Speaking to a group of senior police officers, Mr. Denham said dealing with problems such as gangs of youths hanging around in public places was not just a matter for them. 

Latest figures show the number of people applying for places on social work courses has gone up by 8 percent in the last year. The provisional statistics are from the Social Work Admissions System, which handles six out of ten applications.The figures are seen as the most accurate indicator of the number of people wanting to enter the profession. They show an increase from 4,680 applicants last year to 5,070 in 2,002. 

This report by the Audit Commission looks at the impact on neighbourhood renewal policy of the move away from special funding to a reliance on mainstream services to improve conditions in deprived areas. New policies on such as, health, education, police, probation and local authority services, such as street cleansing have to be cascaded throughout the organization. 

Police forces have been warned that their work in reducing crime could be damaged by public dissatisfaction over the way non-emergency calls are dealt with. The Home Office Minister, John Denham, has called for a shake up in the handling of such calls.The results of the British Crime Survey show that people who have had direct contact with the police are less satisfied with the service forces provide than those who have not, including those who have been victims of crime. 

The Audit Commission has been accused of playing into the hands of the ‘name and shame culture’ with its plans for a Comprehensive Performance  Assessment framework . 

By Paul GlenLeading Geeks challenges the conventional wisdom that leadership methods are universal and gives executives and managers the understanding they need to manage and lead the technologists on whom they have become so dependent. This much-needed book- written in nontechnical language by Paul Glen, a highly acclaimed management consultant- gives clear directions on how to effectively lead these brilliant yet notoriously resistant-to-being-managed knowledge workers. 

A new website is offering members of the public the chance to compare the performance of their local councils with that of other authorities.The site, launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, will provide open access to all the UK’s local government Best Performance Indicators. That means visitors to the site will be able to check how well their local council is doing in almost a hundred aspects of services.