Elected councillors, local authority chief executives and other senior officers who have responsibility for resources are being offered a chance to learn from last year’s beacon winning councils at an Asset Management Leadership conference organised as a final opportunity for those authorities to disseminate information.The conference next month has been organised by IDeA, which says asset management can have a major impact on councils’ comprehensive performance assessment scores. The beacon councils, it says, offer excellent examples of how good asset management can be embedded into wider business and financial planning cycle. The lessons are being adopted by the IDeA Asset Management Peer Review. Each of the Beacon councils, it says, provides an example on how to improve and together they represent a range of local authority experience.
Almost three quarters of people want to see local people given greater control over budgets and services, according to a poll conducted by the think tank the Local Government Information Unit in publishing a new pamphlet, “Empowering Neighbourhoods: Going Beyond the Double Devolution Deal.”The pamphlet calls for the Government to reinvigorate forms of community governance and to promote a scheme for new neighbourhood councils. It also urges the introduction of participatory budgeting pathfinders that would directly involve people from a local community in decisions on how money is spent.
By Vivien Lowndes, Lawrence Pratchett, and Gerry StokerLevels of formal political participation in the UK are generally seen to be in a state of crisis, with turnout in elections declining to historic lows, especially in the most disadvantaged communities. This report suggests that while poverty, inequality, and community strength help shape levels of political participation, they do not determine them. The report compares levels of participation in six different localities and finds that the way institutions work and the way those in charge behave makes a considerable difference to whether people choose to participate.
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A council’s Social Services Department has joined forces with the charity Age Concern to organise a trial telephone shopping service that will allow elderly and disabled people to buy groceries from their village shop without leaving their own homes.The three-month trial will be run by Age Concern and Norfolk Social Services. It will begin in July in the north of the county where two hundred people are eligible to take part. If it is successful it will be rolled out across Norfolk by next year and could benefit up to six thousand people
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The TUC and the Government have jointly launched an online toolkit to get people working in the public sector more involved in improving services. The web-based ‘Drive for Change’ is being sponsored by the Public Services Forum. The initiative involved employers and public sector trade unions.’Drive for Change’ has been designed to help managers, union representatives and employees work together to bring about changes public services. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Hilary Armstrong, who was joined by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber to launch the kit, said employee engagement was the key to successful public service improvement. “The toolkit will make a real difference to ordinary people by bringing managers, unions and employees together to drive forward positive change in public services,” she said.
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This consultation document from the Department for Education and Skills seeks a response to its sustainable development framework. A sustainable school is described in the framework as one that involves pupils in the design of playing areas, experiences reduced incidents of bad behaviour, including bullying and vandalism. Little is wasted in a sustainable school. Surplus items are recycled, composted or donated. Health is taken seriously. Quality food and drink are sourced from local suppliers where possible, and pupils are encouraged to come to school by foot or bike. Diversity in the community is celebrated. Everyone is respected and valued.The document asks schools to consider how they can extend their commitment to sustainable development through eight key areas – or ‘doorways’. The doorways are just different ways of approaching the task of building a sustainable school. They all interconnect, providing different openings onto a set of common challenges. Each can be taken forward through the major areas of school life – the curriculum, campus and community.
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The Centre for Public Scrutiny has awarded a further nine councils 20,000 pounds to carry out innovative action learning projects in the field of health scrutiny. The projects will be test beds to evaluate the health scrutiny processes and lessons learned will be shared with councils across the country. This is the third and final of three rounds of Action Learning awards made by the Centre as part of their three-year Health Scrutiny Support Programme designed to increase capacity as non-executive members to develop their powers to scrutinise health and healthcare.The projects include care management for older people, building healthy urban environments, community development in health and well-being, primary care for people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and men’s health.
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Voluntary and community organisations, trade unions, housing associations, social enterprises, and co-operatives have formed a Third Sector Network to share ideas and experience and work together on issues of common concern. The Network brings together umbrella organisations such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, National Housing Federation, Social Enterprise Coalition, Trade Union Congress, and Volunteering England. The new broad alliance will strengthen the voice of its members and will have a growing influence on public opinion and Westminster.Historically charities and co-operatives have developed along quite separate paths. This network recognises what they in have common and provides an opportunity to raise the profile of the third sector and its value to society and to the economy.
By Colin Talbot This article was first published in Public Management and Policy and is reproduced by permission of the Association. http://www.cipfa.org.uk/pmpa/index.cfm The Civil Service has been subjected to a succession of reforms and the pace of new initiatives has increased in the last two decades. The author argues that despite the introduction of new structures and systems, little has actually changed. He suggests that a culture shock is needed in the shape of a separation of policy advice to ministers and the creation of a national public service to deliver services.
Public sector organisations are failing to keep pace with their customers’ complaints, at a time when the volume of complaints and sense of urgency are rising sharply. They are trailing other sectors such as retail and leisure. They are also failing to make use of the valuable feedback that complaints reveal about service delivery. There are, however, local authorities in the survey whose exceptional performance bucks the trend and scores better in the survey than major commercial brands. These findings come from the National Complaints Culture Survey by the Institute of Customer Service and organisational development company TMI.Over the past five years public sector organisations have consistently been viewed by consumers as the least effective at handling complaints. Twenty-six per cent of respondents rated public sector organisations as the least effective at handling complaints, compared to 19 per cent for the finance sector and 16 per cent for retail.
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