By Mick Davies. Reproduced by permission of eGov Monitor Weekly. Councils have joined together to form LASSEO, the Local Authority Smartcard Standards E-Organisation. The author outlines how the application of smartcard technology is progressing rapidly. The challenge is to focus on the needs of the citizen and bring together services and providers.
Payouts for discrimination are likely to increase as new legislation adds age, sexual orientation and religion or belief to the existing grounds of sex, disability and race. A survey by the Work Foundation found that one third of responding organisations were failing to monitor the diversity of external job applicants and losing an opportuntity to spot discrimination.The report Recruitment and Retention also highlights the tendency amongst many organisations to encourage word of mouth job applicants. Just over a quarter of respondents say they have a policy of actively encouraging employees to recommend friends, while just under a quarter do the same with family members. The Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission both warn against word of mouth recruitment where the workforce is predominantly one sex or racial group.
Two years into the ten year NHS plan there is evidence to show that changes are making a difference, but very real problems remain. Investment alone will not deliver results, a culture change is also required. This is the verdict of the NHS Modernization Board in its Annual Report. The Board is a 30-member advisory panel of health and social care professionals, including frontline staff and patient representatives, who provide independent advice to Ministers on the way forward for the NHS.The Board recognizes the crucial part that morale plays in improving health services and is dismayed that the high level of trust patients place in their doctors is not matched by the trust and esteem of the organisations in which they work. Unless the NHS demonstrates that doctors are seen as essential partners in the implementation of policy, at every level of service, morale will continue to wane. There is a need to ensure the NHS with 1.3 million staff, is seen as an attractive place to work and there is a recognition of the scale of the challenge to improve morale among hard-pressed staff. Commenting on the report the NHS Confederation said: “Better patient care can only be delivered if clinicians are fully involved in the improvement agenda.”
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