Voluntary organisations are to share more than ten million pounds from the Pension Service Partnership Fund to help older people claim state benefits to which they are entitled. News of the funding follows a successful pilot run by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.The money will go to 170 voluntary bodies, including Citizens Advice, Age Concern, Carers UK and Deafblind UK and covers the next two years. Pensions Minister, Malcolm Wicks said the fund would allow what he called “a mighty coalition” of organisations to deliver extra help to hard pressed pensioners. As well as charities and voluntary bodies, local authorities, housing associations and NHS Primary Care Trusts can benefit from the funding.

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Sherwood Energy Village at Ollerton in Nottinghamshire has won the first Enterprising Britain Competition, which was launched by the DTI and the Treasury last year to highlight the most enterprising places in the country. Ollerton, a former mining area, beat 11 other regional finalists to take the award.The Energy Village scheme was devised by the local community to tackle the devastating social and economic effects of the closure in 1994 of the colliery and the subsequent loss of the town’s textile factories. The project, which is supported by the East Midlands Development Agency, has helped to rebuild and diversify Ollerton’s economic base to ensure it is never again reliant on a single market sector.

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The guidelines have been created for central government, local government, non-departmental public bodies and agencies and they provide assistance to those facing the challenge of electronically enabling public services. The document is designed to help providers to develop coherent service delivery strategies that encourage high take-up of electronic services, achieve cost savings and deliver better quality public services. It also seeks to increase understanding of the impact a multi-channel service delivery strategy has on public service providers. It explains the link between existing Public Service Agreement targets around electronic service delivery and recommendations of the Gershon Efficiency Review.The guidelines describe business transformation as a prerequisite for realising the benefits e-government. Managing the change in service delivery will impact the provider strategically as well as operationally. Each provider should consider how to developing its people skills and job roles and how to align and restructure its business processes to support business transformation.

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