This report by the Tomorrow Project , commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, argues that forcing people to work longer isn’t the answer to the pensions crisis. The real alternative may well be a new, flexible approach to retirement that both transforms the experience of old age and brings “ripple down” benefits for future generations of younger workers. This new concept of “liquid lives” forms the conclusion of a two-year research project into the future of retirement.As Britain’s demographics have changed, people have moved from entering work aged 15, working for 50 years and dying on average ten years later, to a situation where most start working at 18, work for 47 years and survive in retirement for 20 years. This means that traditional approaches to career development are also changing. Rather than being stuck in an unfulfilling career by the fear of impending retirement, people feel able to change career into their fifties and beyond. The need to adapt working patterns to become more flexible for older people has a positive knock-on effect for the terms and conditions of younger workers – not least because people at the top have one eye on their own future flexible working needs.

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Surrey is the first county council in the UK to beat the national deadline for making 100 per cent of its suitable services available electronically. The target date is December 2005. The Council now provides some 900 processes electronically. To ensure that residents can use the Council’s new electronic services it has installed at least one computer in each of its 52 libraries with free Internet access.According to a survey by the Society of Information Technology Management, Surrey is one of only three county councils to provide a ‘transactional’ website. For the web site to be transactional, it has to include the ability to apply for service, pay for goods and services, and make a booking, for example for a resource, course or room. Surrey’s website is ranked as one of the top 20 local authority sites in the country.

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Management of change in the health service is running up against people problems. A survey by the Royal College of Nursing found that almost three quarters of nurses were not consulted about the introduction of electronic health care records. A report by the British Medical Association says changes to service delivery are being resisted by sceptical staff in the NHS, particularly doctors and managers.The RCN survey found that around seven in ten nurses believe that electronic appointment booking, records, prescriptions and ordering or reviewing diagnostic information are important projects and crucial to improving patient care. Nearly as many consider spending several billion pounds on IT are a good use of NHS resources. But only 8 per cent of nurses believe they have had adequate information about these developments.

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