Leading information technology and computing practitioners from central and local government will be brought together today to look at the best ways of delivering effective e-Government.They will join representatives from various agencies and NGOs as well as experts from the private sector at a two-day conference which will look at a range of subjects including streamlining the flow of information. 

Council tenants who take over managing their own housing estates can achieve high quality services at reasonable costs, according to an independent report.Research by a team from Oxford Brookes University, carried out for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, found that more than half of Tenant Management Organisations also make a big contribution to regenerating the areas in which they live. 

By Conor RyanThe pamphlet recognizes recent improvements in education but highlights weaknesses. A quarter of children are unable to read and write adequately, there are problems with much teacher training, vocational education is still poor and there are still too many poor schools. Addressing the failure of schools requires radical reform and concrete change. 

A series of speakers will today examine the idea that plans for the reform of public services may be undermined by Britain’s cultural climate which sees fewer people wanting to become involved in service to others.The event in London has been organized by the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, under the title “Reform of Public Services; a cultural problem?”
Speakers will include Pippa Bagnall of the NHS Executive, Professor Ray Tallis of the department of geriatric medicine at Hope Hospital in Salford and Heather Rabbatts, chief executive of iMPOWER plc and former chief executive of Lambeth Council. 

A new funding formula for local health services to balance areas of high cost and high need will be introduced as part of a campaign to switch the emphasis in the National Health Service to prevention rather than cure.The Government’s Cross Cutting Review of Health Inequalities includes a series of measures which it is hoped will reduce the numbers of unnecessary deaths through ill-health to reduce health inequalities. 

By Geoff Mulgan. Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. Governments, from early civilizations onwards, have looked across frontiers for ideas about how to govern better. This global trade in policy reached new heights in recent years. From the perspective of Director of the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office, Geoff Mulgan looks at the global trade and other drivers of policy innovation including what works in practice and comparisons between organizations.

The three year primary care plan, Liberating the Talents, launched by Health Minister John Hutton, sets out a vision of a totally reformed service. Delivery of the plan will require managers at all levels to set about changing the culture and to re-think the way things are done now. 

The National Audit Office is concerned that the taxpayer is not getting sufficient benefit from projects funded by the Treasury’s Invest to Save budget. Some 88 million pounds has been allocated to projects to deliver improvements in health, education, transport and tackling crime. A similar amount is being spent on delivering local improvements in public service delivery mainly through better use of IT. 

This report commissioned by the DTI and produced by the Society of Information Technology Management, provides a snapshot of progress being made by local authorities in the implementation of broadband across the UK. The report also provides information on the likely speed of future developments. Almost 80% of the larger authorities will be committed to a strategic approach to broadband across all networks by September 2004, but only 30% of shire districts will be. 

Chris Simpkins, 50, is taking the skills he has developed as Chief Executive of South Holland District Council in Lincolnshire to the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, some 300 miles from the South American mainland. His salary as Chief Executive will be almost 100 thousand pounds plus a gratuity of 25%.