By Jack Foster and Larry CorbyThe ability to come up with fresh ideas is critical to success in any venture. Ideas can help people; they can save and fix and create things; they can make things better and cheaper and more useful; they can enlighten and inspire; and they can solve problems. But what is an idea, really? When you get right down to it, an idea is simply a new combination of old information-information you already have.Why, then, in this age where so much information is readily available to us, does the thought of having to come up with ideas on command strike fear into the hearts of so many people? Jack Foster takes the mystery and anxiety out of the idea-generating process. He presents step-by-step guidelines that can help anyone and everyone become a veritable font of ideas. This book shows, in concrete terms, how to create ideas out of the enormous amount of information that is available to us.
Government departments need to identify and share best practice to improve the way they commission, manage and use research to help improve their services, according to the National Audit Office. In a report to Parliament today, it makes a number of key recommendations on the way research is used.Sir John Bourn, the head of the NAO, says with the support of the Office of Science and Technology, departments have been modernising the way they deal with research to support service delivery and improve policies. The recommendations in the report, entitled, “Getting The Evidence: Using Research in Policy Making” are designed to continue that process. They arise from a study compiled on behalf of the NAO by RAND Europe, which has looked into how a number of governments commission, manage and use research.
Read more on AUDIT OFFICE WANTS SHARING OF BEST PRACTICE ON RESEARCH…
District councils are being asked for their views on the framework for reaching Comprehensive Performance Assessment scores. The Audit Commission is consulting the authorities following the announcement last month of details of the methods which will be used in district CPA inspections. At the same time the Local Government Association wants to know what they think as it raised doubts over the Commission’s proposals. The Commission has issued consultation documents and councils have until May 28th to respond. The LGA meanwhile wants to ensure that the proposed system does not act to “dampen down” councils’ scores.The Commission document, ‘Delivering CPA for Districts’, sets out how different pieces of evidence collected in the assessment inspections could be weighted to produce a final score. It is proposing the use of the same categories as in last year’s assessment of single tier and county councils – excellent, good, fair, weak and poor. Councils will be scored on ten themes: ambition, prioritisation, focus, capacity, performance management, achievement on quality of service, achievement of improvement, investment, learning and future plans.
Read more on DISTRICTS ASKED FOR VIEWS ON CPA SCORE PROPOSALS…