MORE COMMUNITY JUSTICE CENTRES PROMISED

The Government is planning to establish ten community justice initiatives following a year of successful operation by the community justice centre in north Liverpool, which is the first of its kind in England and Wales. The centre deals with anti-social behaviour and the crime associated with it.The initiative is designed to involve the community so that local people can play a large part in how the centre is run, including saying which crimes they feel affect local people most and by suggesting unpaid jobs for offenders.

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PUPILS TAKE COMPUTERS HOME

Some eighty percent of secondary school pupils in the UK have computers at home, but this leaves one million children without access to the Internet at home because there is no computer in the house. In a move to shrink this digital divide the Department for Education and Skills has launched a ‘Computers for Pupils’ initiative under which eligible schools will receive 10,000 pounds to allow them to fund computers and Internet access.

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ROLE OF DOCTORS EXTENDED TO INFORMATION PRESCRIPTION

Patients, on average, remember about ten percent of what was said during a consultation with their GP and in most cases they follow the care path suggested to them. Because information is the key to helping people make choices about their health care, the Department for Health wants patient to be better informed. The 2006 White Paper ‘Our Health Our Care Our Say’ committed the government to introducing’ Information Prescriptions’ which will give specific information about resources relevant to individual circumstances.

A series of pilots have been launched to trial this new idea. They are being run in partnership with voluntary organisations like Cancerbackup and Macmillan Cancer Support. The initiative will initially focus on cancer and mental health and later on vulnerable older people, and will run until the end of 2007.

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By Mike Brewer, Alissa Goodman and Andrew Leicester. Using household spending to assess poverty reveals different trends to those resulting from examining income. The authors looked at the lowest-income households, and the impact on children and pensioners. They argue that spending is a more reliable guide to longer-term resources than income measured in household surveys.

By Margaret J WheatleyThis pioneering work describes how recent discoveries in the new sciences radically alter our understanding of the world and can teach us to live and work well together in these turbulent times. It has been adopted as required reading by businesses, nonprofits, government agencies and schools at all levels.

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COUNCILS IN RUNNING FOR PEOPLE’S MILLIONS GRANTS

A number of local authorities, ranging from big cities to parish councils, are among organisations who have been told they are in the running to win a 50,000 pound Big Lottery Fund award in the People’s Millions contest. In all, 131 projects have been shortlisted across a number of regions.

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THOUSANDS MORE COUNCIL HOMES TO BE TRANSFERRED

Thirty eight more English local authorities have been given approval for plans to transfer more than 94,000 council homes over the next two years, as part of the continuing drive to refurbish social housing across the country. Twenty-four of the authorities have been granted an immediate place on the Housing Transfer Programme. Further talks will take place with the others about their schemes.

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This report from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations calls on the vital relationship between voluntary and community organisations and local government to be strengthened. It recognises many of the recommendations in the LGA’s recent vision, ‘Closer to People and Places’, and highlights significant opportunities for local government and the voluntary and community sector to work together at both a local and national level.The report outlines key areas where voluntary and community organisations and local government must work together better. Partnership is essential and voluntary and community organisations should be involved in Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements. All local public bodies and all local partners, including voluntary and community organisations and local businesses, should be brought together to strategically plan for the future and be involved in developing sustainable community strategies.

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NGOs EXPERIMENT WITH TECHNOLOGY TO INFLUENCE POLICY MAKERS

Non-governmental organisations, campaign groups and charities are experimenting with new ways of using information and communication technology to engage individuals and stakeholder groups to lobby for social and political change. They are making use of blogs, webcasting and online discussion groups, according to a new report from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the ICT Hub in partnership with the Hansard Society and supported by the Vodafone UK Foundation.

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COUNCILS NEED FULL POWERS OVER STREETWORKS, SAYS DRIVERS GROUP

Urgent and decisive action is needed to stop chaos caused by uncoordinated and over-running road works according to a leading motoring organisation.

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