By Karen Lucas, Sara Fuller, Anthony Psaila and Diana Thrush Despite efforts to renew Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods, the dirty and neglected appearance of many deprived areas continues to plague local residents. There is an array of legal powers and in many cases funding, but the ‘clean up’ process is slow or stationary. The authors argue that local strategic partnerships are well placed to overcome this patchwork quilt of responsibilities and deliver cleaner neighbourhoods.

More councils will be able to compete in the next round of the Beacon scheme following the addition of three new themes. The scheme was established in 1999 to identify councils to act as centres of excellence and to share their learning with others through open days, secondments and publications.The additional themes are: better procurement; supporting rural services and improving housing services by involving tenants. The themes carried forward from the previous round are: early intervention with children at risk; positive youth engagement; road safety; service delivery through partnerships; valuing people; and waste and recycling. The additional themes will allow more councils to share examples of good practice and learn from each other to improve the services they deliver.

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Since 2000 councils have spent some 2.5 billion pounds on eGovernment, but as yet there is little evidence of transformation in services. On the contrary, research by MORI shows a 10% decline in satisfaction with local authorities over the last three years. The Society of IT Management believes that eGovernment initiatives to date have been concerned too much with technology and too little with change, too much with improving access to services, and too little on back office efficiencies.The Society believes that the demands placed on councils by the Gershon Efficiency Review will force them to change their approach to eGovernment. Currently eGovernment is seen as a technology initiative in which the focus is on electronic service delivery and discrete projects, with limited potential savings or change. The new approach, which the Society describes as e2Government, will build the notions of efficiency and effectiveness. It will result in business transformation initiatives leading to potentially significant efficiency savings and major changes to public service operations. This will involve higher risks but higher rewards.

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By Barbara C. Crosby and John M. BrysonWhen Leadership for the Common Good was first published in 1992, it presented a revolutionary approach to community and organizational leadership in a shared-power world. Now, in this completely revised and updated edition, Barbara Crosby and John Bryson expand on their proven leadership model and offer new insights and guidance to leaders. This second edition is a practical resource for a new generation of leaders and aspiring leaders and includes success stories, challenges, and real-world experience.

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