By Alan McGregor, Andrea Glass, Kevin Higgins, Lynne Macdougall and Victoria Sutherland Different approaches have been used over the years to tackle social exclusion. They include area based initiatives, such as health and education action zones, and central initiatives such as the welfare to work programme. The authors surveyed this patchwork quilt of local and central initiatives and found some of the causes for poor integration. They suggest ways in which better integration can be achieved.

One of the first local authorities to respond to government calls for the establishment of special bodies to protect vulnerable adults from abuse has issued its Adult Protection Committee’s first annual report. Blackburn with Darwen’s APC says the small number of abuse cases it has investigated are potentially “the tip of the iceberg” and many more could be being ignored simply because people are unaware of the seriousness of adult abuse.The committee has launched an information campaign highlighting the need for people in the area to speak out about the abuse of adults. It coincides with the publication of the report which looks at its work during the last year to protect vulnerable adults.

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Local councils are to get more support to help their overview and scrutiny committees to carry out their reviews of health services. It will include a one off payment of two-and-a-quarter million pounds to develop ways to assist local authorities in their new health scrutiny role.The Health Minister, Rosie Winterton said the payment was being made to the Centre for Public Scrutiny, which jointly with the Local Government Association, will aid the long-term development of health overview and scrutiny committees.

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