The Care Council for Wales will begin the process of registering social care workers in Wales in Autumn 2004, with residential child care managers being the first to be invited to register. Residential child care workers, adult care managers and domicilary care managers will be required to register from April 2005, residential adult care workers from September 2005, and domicilary care workers from September 2006. 

By Deborah WilsonThis article analyses the impact of a value-added performance indicator (PI) on the rankings of secondary schools in the English league tables. School rankings are seen to be very sensitive to the type of PI employed, and the new value-added PI is likely to result in significant movements up and down the rankings. There is still scope for schools to try and game the system in order to improve their league table position. 

Hardy, B., Hudson, B. & Waddington, EThis self-assessment tool emerged through collaboration between the Department of Health and the NHS Trent Region. It is applicable to many cross-sectoral partnerships, although it was developed in the context of health and social care. 

The drive for better financial management in the public sector is resulting in the creation of new senior finance posts and fuelling salary increases. The latest edition of Hays’ Guide to Salaries in Accountancy, reporting on trends in the public and private sectors for second half of 2003, reveals that Directors of Finance in Higher Education secured the greatest salary increases with 4.8 per cent. 

Chancellor Gordon Brown has promised that more grants and loans will be available to voluntary sector organizations in the summer to improve their capacity to deliver public services. The funding will support the development of financial management and other skills and be made available through the Futurebuilders Fund. 

Local authorities will benefit from a new device designed to raise awareness of the risks and effects of flooding around the UK. FloodRanger, a flood simulator, has been launched by the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King. 

The National Health Service is to be the first major user of significant broadband capacity in the public sector. It follows the announcement that BT has been awarded a 530 million pound contract to provide and manage a broadband network to link all health service organisations in England.The New National Network, also known as N3, will provide a platform on which to run new systems being delivered by the national programme for IT. 

By Patrick Abrahams Much is being done by people in power to relate to local communities, but many communities currently feel disaffected by central government and its local representatives. The author looks at the role of the 12,000 parish and town councils in the UK as a conduit for local opinion and feedback. He examines the barriers to them establishing websites and calls for local portals that people can use without knowing who is responsible for what

Six good quality early years services have been praised for their joined up thinking and named as Sure Start Children’s Centres. The schemes are the Somerford Children’s Centre in Dorset, and five based in Leeds, the Bramley, Chapeltown, Hawksworthwood, Beeston and Windmill Centres.They join a growing network of centres each providing integrated access to five key services, early education, childcare, health services, family support and help into employment. 

Four hundred Community Wardens are to be recruited by local authorities across Scotland as part of a campaign against anti-social behaviour. In total the country’s 32 local councils will spend thirty million pounds on measures to combat the problem over the next two years.Other measures will see some authorities expanding mediation services to deal with problems before they get out of hand and an increase in the number of specialist teams run by councils to deal with anti-social behaviour.