The Work Foundation has called for the Government to adopt a new business-led approach to measuring productivity and performance in the private and public sectors. The call results from a year-long study into high performance working and productivity by the Foundation’s Work and Enterprise Panel of Inquiry. This was a business-led initiative run in partnership with six companies, Tesco, Lloyds TSB, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Eversheds and Manpower, and the public sector trade union Unison.The Panel claims that its findings show that traditional measures of productivity are meaningless. It has developed a new productivity model, the High Performance Index, that links what an organization does to how it performs. The Index defines and measures core areas of business and can be used to track productivity performance. The areas include customers, governance systems; stakeholders; human resource practices; and creativity and innovation management.

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Figures from the Office of National Statistics show a continuing picture of health inequality across England and Wales. There is a difference of eight years in life expectancy between the best and the worst areas. Rural areas top the life expectancy table with 79.5 years in the league leaders, Rutland and Dorset. The exception in the top ten is the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with 78.9 years.The north west of England has some of the lowest figures with Manchester at the bottom of the table with 71.0 years. Next comes Blackpool 71.7, Liverpool 72.5, Knowsley 72.9 and Blackburn with Darwen 73.0. In the north east Middlesbrough has 72.9 and Hartlepool 73.0. The London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, 72.7 and Lambeth, 73.0 are also among the bottom 10 areas.

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By Ronald W. McQuaid, Colin Lindsay and Malcolm Greig. A pool of information is being painstakingly built up of the effect of providing technology to access public services. This research reveals the reality of the digital divide and emphasizes the need to ensure that those needing the service most do not miss out. It also raises the fundamental question of whether services should match the current behaviour of customers or seek to change behaviour.