The Civil Service summer placement scheme for 2004 is being expanded by some 60% and it will be opened up to disabled graduates. The scheme is run by the Cabinet Office and the inclusion of disabled graduates is part of a drive to ensure that the Civil Service meets the Government’s commitment to achieving greater representation of minority ethnic staff, women and staff with disabilities at senior levels.A wide range of summer placements will be offered to disabled people to gain valuable work experience and forge the next vital link in establishing their careers. The Cabinet Office hopes to dispel discriminatory attitudes and practices by placing trainees in various government departments where they will be introduced to the interesting and varied challenges in today’s modern Civil Service.

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The setting up of nine regional centers of procurement excellence will boost implementation of the national procurement strategy launched last Autumn. The strategy seeks to change the tradition of individual purchasing decisions by over 400 separate councils, often buying the same thing. The main aim is to enable councils to use their collective buying power to negotiate lower prices or work with suppliers to develop improved products and services to get better value for the 40 billion pounds spent annually. The Procurement Strategy sets out how central and local government, working together with partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors, intend to set about improving local government procurement.The new centres will drive innovative change in procurement by providing expertise to other councils and by building on existing good practice. They will be funded by 3.6 million pounds from the joint Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Local Government Association capacity building fund.

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By Steven JonesThis article discusses the various initiatives that have been introduced to measure and improve local government performance in the UK over the past decade. It explains why the Local Government Improvement Programme (LGIP) is the most aligned to the modernization and performance improvement agendas. The author uses a new outcome-based measurement model to assess how the six local authorities which piloted the LGIP responded to the ‘areas of concern’ identified by review teams. The analysis suggests that there are a number of organizational determinants that underpin successful performance improvement and which could have wider currency for both the UK and European local government sectors.

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