The Improvement and Development Agency has launched a project to share experiences and information on the development of partnerships. It is planned that the website will bring together examples of good practice and identify where there may be gaps. During the summer and into the autumn it is hoped to use online collaboration to build a set of guidance contributed by users for users.Each week a new topic based on the draft guidance will be introduced. Then it is down to the users. With the help of theme leaders it is hoped to build up a picture from comments provided.

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Local government and health service leaders in Wales have been urged to support public service reforms set out in a report produced by Sir Jeremy Beecham, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association. The call to public service leaders and representatives of business and the voluntary sector was made by the First Minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan.He told them the need for reform was pressing but Wales had the opportunity to make its public services “the best in class”. He committed the Welsh Assembly Government to working with other public bodies to achieve the reforms set out in the Beecham Report which was published last week.

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Representatives from local authorities and central government will be joined by people with disabilities in a review of Government policy on independent living for disabled people. The review was announced by Baroness Royall, a government health spokesman in the House of Lords, who said that for too many people independent living was still a dream.She said the cross-Government review would identify practical steps that needed to be taken and look for creative solutions to the obstacles faced by many disabled people. “Independent living is a reality for some disabled people in spite of the disabling barriers that still exist. However, in its fullest sense, independent living is still a dream for too many,” she told peers.

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