UNISON, the country’s biggest trade union has signed an agreement with the Open University to provide greater learning opportunities for the union’s members. The agreement cements a relationship between the two organisations, which has seen thousands of UNISON members gaining access to higher education.The union says Open University courses act as a gateway to professional qualifications, which are often denied to low paid workers. This, with the support of employers, can offer a new chance to develop a successful career path. Under the agreement, the union will work with the university to create better linkage between UNISON training programmes and the university’s access courses. Both organisations will collaborate with employers to expand learning programmes in the workplace.

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A new centre of expertise in local government and politics opens today. The Local Governance Research Unit is based at De Montfort University in Leicester and will focus on research in key areas of local governance including public participation, political leadership and e-democracy.The Unit brings together the University’s research in the field of British and comparative local government. Many of the staff are internationally recognised in their fields, which include -local democracy and voting systems, local political leadership and management including executive models and scrutiny and issues facing rural local authorities as well as public participation and e-democracy and voting options.

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The purpose of the Survey is to evaluate the effects of the Best Value regime and other performance initiatives on staff perceptions of their working environment and organisational performance. The findings include a tendency of line managers to seek workers’ views when faced with service-related problems, but in a significant number of cases, these views are not always seen as being taken seriously. Many respondents stated that management simply paid ‘lip service’ to employee involvement. There was some evidence that line managers and staff trusted each other. However, the results suggest that many local government workers do not trust elected members. This was attributed to the political priorities facing members, and their focus on short-term results in an attempt to win public support.Those working in ‘Excellent’ authorities were better informed of what was going on when compared with those working in lower rated authorities. Low staffing levels, high bureaucracy and inadequate equipment were seen as undermining improvements achieved through enhanced staff skills. The issue of under-staffing was perceived to be less acute in ‘Excellent’ authorities and more pronounced in ‘Poor’ authorities. Excellent’ authorities in addition were perceived to have the equipment needed to deliver services effectively, and less likely to experience staff absenteeism. ‘Excellent’ authorities were also found to provide staff with the training needed to achieve high standards of service.

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An improved website has been unveiled to coincide with a national Walk to School week, which begins today. The Safe Routes to Schools site is being operated by the sustainable transport organisation Sustrans. It has been re-launched with new features and information designed to support those interested in Safe Routes to Schools projects.The original site went online three years ago but since then there has been what the organisation calls a “phenomenal uptake” in the programme, which has seen two conferences held in Leicester and Belfast. The aim of the campaign is to encourage parents to walk to school with their children as often as possible during this week and beyond. Where it is practical, they are being encouraged to walk the whole route or to drive and walk part of the way, so school gates are kept clear of traffic.

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A former prison governor, who is now a leading academic, will today brand education in Britain’s prisons ‘a disgrace’. Professor David Wilson will speak at a meeting of the Forum on Prisoner Education where his audience will include Home office minister Ivan Lewis.Professor Wilson will detail research showing that nine out of ten inmates at Liverpool prison have education abilities below those expected of an 11-year-old but that the jail can offer education courses to only 18 per cent of prisoners.

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The number of vehicles abandoned in England and Wales has gone up by almost a third in the last three years and local government leaders are warning that it is set to rise even further. Research from the Local Government Association says the increase is the equivalent of an average rise of 22 per cent in illegal car dumping for each local council.The figures show an overall increase of 28 per cent in the number of dumped cars from the year 2000 -2001 to 2002-2003. Urban communities are the worst hit and the London boroughs had the highest average number of abandoned vehicles reported put at 6,589 per authority. The average for district councils was 1,060. In the same three-year period, the cost to councils of dealing with abandoned vehicles rose by a quarter from just over 27 million pounds to almost 34 million. The LGA is predicting that the problem will get worse because of the increased costs of treatment and disposal of unwanted cars brought about by the EU directive on End of Life Vehicles.

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Politicians and environmental campaigners would win wider public support if they were more effective at linking environmental issues to poverty and ill health, according to a new report today. The Institute for Public Policy Research says rather than thinking there are votes in rare birds or pandas, environmentalists should be making the connection between poverty, pollution and the quality of local environments.The research says industrial sites are disproportionately located in deprived areas and children living in those areas are five times more likely to be killed by a car. The report shows lack of access to clean air and green spaces can often exacerbate respiratory diseases, like asthma, and other health problems such as obesity, for people living in deprived communities.

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Lindsay Dransfield Many public bodies are introducing electronic document management systems and this will justify a tick in the box towards the 2005 target of electronic service delivery. These systems are a temporary fix that continue to cause end-user frustration because they do not address the problems of internal processes. The author describes how document management technology can deliver when it is integrated with a workflow infrastructure, because it is about meeting the needs of tomorrow as well as those of today.

Editors: Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Iain Somerville.In this second volume of The Drucker Foundation’s Wisdom to Action Series, twenty-seven remarkable thought leaders help today’s leaders meet the challenge of releasing the power of innovation. Leading for Innovation brings together Clayton M. Christensen, Jim Collins, Howard Gardner, Charles Handy, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, C. William Pollard, Margaret Wheatley, and other thought leaders to offer practical guidance on leading organizations to a new dimension of performance. This collection of essays explores the unique qualities required to lead innovators, and shows you the way to develop a culture that promotes innovation. The contributors encourage thinking about innovation and describe how it is necessary to abandon practices that no longer work. They offer a wealth of thoughtful and incisive essays that will help leaders take their organizations and communities to a new level of excellence.

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Local authority policies need to be ‘rural proofed’ according to a new study. The survey says meeting the needs of rural people and thinking through what could potentially affect those who work and live in the countryside is vital for local authorities. The report from the Local Government Association and Countryside Agency highlights how ‘rural proofing’ needs to be embedded more widely in local authority planning and delivery.The study, `Think Rural – a survey of rural proofing in local authorities’ found most English councils that took part felt the idea could be valuable in helping them deliver good, accessible services meeting the needs of rural people. The report goes on to encourage councils, and those involved in Local Strategic Partnerships, to take rural issues into account in all policy development, scrutiny processes and service delivery.

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