Councils with high scores in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment invariably demonstrate a clear commitment to information and communications technology. The Society of Information Technology Managers in local government has compared the CPA results with its own surveys and found a clear correlation between the two sets of data. Its findings are published in the report ‘Making a Difference’.SOCTIM found that councils with an above par ICT service are more likely to have an excellent or good CPA result. Councils with an ICT service below par have a 50% chance of a weak or poor assessment and are unlikely to have an excellent or good result. Top performing councils spend between 21 and 32% more on ICT than the poorer performers. They also score highly in the SOCTIM user satisfaction surveys. Councils with top rated websites are twice as likely to have an excellent CPA result.
Patients with a wider range of conditions can expect reduced waiting times and shorter journeys as the NHS moves treatment for more conditions away from hospitals and into Primary Care Trusts. Some specialties such as ear, nose and throat are already carried out in local surgeries and annually some 600,000 treatments are now carried out locally.Shifting healthcare away from hospitals will involve nurses taking on work in areas such as heart failure, diabetes, stroke care and falls prevention. General Practitioners will take on work related to child protection, drug misuse, emergency care, epilepsy, headaches, mental health, palliative care and respiratory disease.
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Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organizations, has set out a vision of one million people in voluntary bodies delivering public services ten years on. The scenario he paints shows growth in voluntary sector activity coming from a range of sources. There will be contracts to deliver probation and social work services and transport infrastructure. Hospitals and schools will be operated as community interest companies and as not-for-profit organizations. Integration into public service delivery will be fostered by voluntary organizations having their performance measured, inspected and compared by a government-appointed regulator.Local strategic partnerships bring together councils and other parts of the public sector, business, voluntary and community sector organizations. They provide the infrastructure for greater involvement of the voluntary sector in delivering services.
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The Institute for Public Policy Research warns that Government plans for widespread development of Community Interest Companies could run into difficulties because of their complex structure. In a report ‘In the Public Interest?’ it argues that CI companies are only suitable for specific areas of the public sector.Last month the Department of Trade and Industry announced radical plans to create a new type of ‘community interest’ company, bringing together voluntary sector expertise and private sector entrepreneurialism. They will be designed to liberate the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals with public sector values and create new opportunities at local level to provide services where they are needed most. It is envisaged that the sort of people who will want to set up such a company will typically be entrepreneurs who want to do good in a form other than a charity. The concept of the CI company was outlined in the report “Private Action, Public Benefit”, published by the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit in September 2002, see www.dti.gov.uk/cics/background
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By Richard J. StillmanThe United States is commonly referred to as the last global superpower, exercising unrivalled political, economic, military and social influence. Yet, paradoxically, unlike any other nation, Americans were – and remain – radically antistatist. Until roughly the twentieth century the United States did not want, need, nor create a powerful administrative state to govern itself, let alone others abroad. This essay explores that peculiar paradox, namely how Americans govern as the last global superpower today, yet retain an inherently fierce hostility to government. The thesis that is developed argues that it is a deep-rooted reformist faith which ultimately shapes US statecraft as a unique style of reformcraft, with both benign and not-so benign consequences.
By Marshall Sashkin and Molly G SashkinTraditional, “transactional” approaches to leadership involve a kind of contractual arrangement: the leader issues orders and subordinates are expected to carry them out to the best of their abilities. This is fine as far as it goes. Transformational leadership goes a step further. Transformational leaders achieve superior results because of their ability to transform people from dutiful followers into self-directed leaders who go beyond simply doing what is expected of them. Drawing on research that investigates leadership, culture, and performance in dozens of organizations, the Sashkins describe the specific behaviors and personal characteristics of transformational leaders, who make leadership matter. They show how these leaders construct empowering organizational cultures that nurture self-reliance and long-term thinking.
Line managers in the National Assembly for Wales are being given greater responsibility for human resources management. The HR system is to be replaced by automated procedures that will allow the 4000 managers and staff to maintain their own personal records.The new system will include employee recruitment and training software modules, all of which will be accessible through the Assembly’s intranet. The system will help the HR department identify staff training and development needs and to manage performance.
The major threat to securing value for money from local government’s investment in technology is the limited capacity of officers and members of councils to manage the transformational change. A survey by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to find out how councils are responding to the challenges of e-government revealed a need to address people issues to overcome the failure of many councils to take a strategic approach to e-government.The survey showed that 72% of councils reported that both officers and members lacked adequate e-government skills. 69% of councils had identified specific skills gaps in officers and 51% in members. The skill gaps were not so much concerned with technology, but rather with strategic thinking and change management. 84% of councils reported that officers lacked process re-engineering and change management skills and 69% believed that members did not appreciate how e-government could contribute to the strategic objectives.
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Doctors are calling for a set of guidelines to ensure that patients are not moved out of hospital beds into a form of Continuing NHS Care (CNC), which fails to meet their medical needs. The BMA sets out the demand in a report which urges the Department of Health to emphasise the needs of the patient.The BMA says patients who could benefit from continuing care are those who do not need to stay in an acute hospital but need nursing, paramedical and medical care that prevents them from being formally discharged.
NHS Direct, the round-the-clock health advice service, is set to grow in a three-year programme which will enable it to handle 16 million calls a year by 2006. This will more than double the service’s call-handling capacity and will be backed by an 80 per cent funding increase to 182 million pounds.Announcing the plans the health minister, John Hutton, highlighted the success of the nurse-led service which already deals with half a million calls a month. With its web-based partner NHS Direct Online it is already the largest e-healthcare provider in the world.