Citizens in eleven cities in Belgium are trialing electronic identity cards, which on the outside resemble a credit card. If the six month trial is successful cards will be issued to the remainder of the ten million population of the country and everyone over the age of twelve will have a smart card with multiple applications.The card, which uses Sun Microsystem Java technology, provides the traditional functions of an identity card such as name, photo, date of birth. Future applications include payments and reservations for events. It is also expected that card holders will be able to put their own electronic signature to digital documents such as declarations or application forms, which will have the same value and legal status as the documents that are nowadays signed by hand.
A project has been launched to find the key ingredients of successful turn round strategies adopted by the fifteen councils described as poor or weak in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment published in December 2002. The project will be led by The University of Birmingham’s Institute of Local Government Studies with support from the Open University, Cardiff Business School, MORI and KPMG. The project was commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Audit Commission, the Local Government Association and the Improvement & Development Agency.The aim is to learn about ways in which councils with performance problems can most effectively improve. Attention will focus on the strategies councils adopt to strengthen their corporate governance and management, and the way this impacts on the services for which they are responsible. The ways in which poorly performing councils change as they implement recovery plans will be closely monitored. Lessons will be drawn about the process of central government engagement, the effectiveness of recovery strategies adopted by councils and the longer-term improvements that they achieve.
Learning from the Comprehensive Performance Assessment is helping to raise the standards of public services. All the larger councils were involved in the first phase of CPA and the remainder are now being brought into the regime. This summary of learning from the Audit Commission shows that councils will enhance their corporate effectiveness when they have political leadership that focuses on change and continuous improvement, develop strong community leadership and have clear frameworks for managing performance that support council priorities. Other characteristics for performing well include people management strategies that harness staff energies and skills to deliver council objectives, a robust approach to procurement and a good understanding of their local context and the diversity within local communities in order to identify and meet the needs of those communities.Published by the Audit Commission http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk