A system to improve recruitment within the National Health Service was launched last night by the NHS Confederation. NHS Executive Search is designed to help the service in England to place the right people in the right jobs by connecting thirteen executive search firms with health service organizations.It will make a project manager available to act as an interface between the NHS and each of the providers of search services. The system, which will be available for all NHS organizations and will provide advice and a broad range of services ranging from advertisements to assessment. The organisations involved have been selected for their expertise and innovative approach.

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Local police authorities and Chief Constables have been urged by the Home Secretary to play a full role in taking forward the next phase of the police reform agenda to deliver better community-based policing, while at the same time developing effective systems to tackle serious organised crime and the terrorrist threat.David Blunkett told senior officers and the chairs of authorities that far-reaching reforms, redefining police relationships with the communities they serve, could increase local accountability, help to tackle crime and build safer communities. He said greater community involvement and strengthening community-based policing, properly accountable to the public, had to develop from the bottom up, rather than being imposed from above.

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The research was carried out by the Institute of Local Government Studies, School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham for the Improvement and Development Agency. The logic that joint service provision might imply joint reviews and joint scrutiny has recently begun to be followed. The aim of the research was to draw from the stakeholders’ experience to understand key challenges for stakeholders in undertaking joint reviews and to identify ways in which these challenges have been faced. The report presents key messages about the approaches, challenges and potentials of joint reviews coming from the experiences of six case study reviews in England. The report collates a series of key messages that the case studies illuminate. They include: recognising the exchange between shared and individual goals; active relationship-building is essential; review participants’ seniority and capacity to fully and equally participate are significant; and leadership, co-ordination and administration can follow differing models.The document is available at http://www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/80256D350027CD0F/httpPublicPages/4795A
567A822372D80256D9400521C6A/$file/Joint%20reviews%20report.pdf

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