Iain Roxburgh, Coventry City Council’s former Chief Executive, has been appointed to lead the Consortium of Local Authorities. For the past decade the consortium of 25 local authorities has pooled research and worked with the University of Warwick on issues facing local government. From its base in the Local Government Centre at Warwick Business School it has successfully combined world class academic input with the expertise of elected councillors and council officers and led to many innovations in public policy.The Consortium’s current research themes include an examination of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, how local authorities work with Local Strategic Partnerships, and the scrutiny aspects of political management. Its research programme is shaped by member authorities.
Pension order books and giro cheques for benefits are being phased out during the next 18 months. Some 13 million people will receive a personalised letter and a leaflet giving details of their options and information about what to do next. They can choose to be paid through bank or building society accounts, or to take up the new Post Office card account.The switch to electronic payment has involved the installation of computer terminals in 19,000 local offices at a cost of 1.5 billion pounds. The ‘Horizon’ project has taken four years to develop. One of the aims of the project is to reduce fraud and make a significant cut in the 80 million pounds lost annually through lost and stolen order books.
By Paul Richter, Mark Bevir, R. A. W. Rhodes and Patrick Weller.This article questions what lessons can be learned from an analysis of public service reform. It examines the part played by beliefs and traditions and explains how it is possible to shift from prediction to informed conjecture and policy advice as storytelling. It seeks to show that an interpretive approach produces insights into public administration. The authors argue that it is feasible to give policy advice to public sector managers by telling them stories and providing rules of thumb (proverbs) to guide managerial practices.