CHILD POVERTY HITS ETHNIC GROUPS

Over half of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black African children are growing up in poverty. This finding comes from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on ‘Poverty and Ethnicity in the UK’.

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SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PATHFINDER GOES TO PRISON

Secure Healthcare, a pioneering new social enterprise company, is set to provide healthcare services in Wandsworth, the UK’s second largest prison. Prison inmates are promised a significant improvement in healthcare standards as they are invited to become members of the ground-breaking scheme.

The venture is supported by a Pathfinder Grant from the Department of Health to help with set up costs. The Pathfinder programme is designed to lead the way in delivering innovative services to the public sector. The Office of the Third Sector, which is part of the Cabinet Office, is promoting the delivery of services by social enterprise companies and community and voluntary groups.

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The Audit Commission is seeking views on proposals to replace the current system for measuring the success of local authorities, CPA, with a radically different regime, Comprehensive Area Assessment. CAA will start in 2009 and focus on the risks an area is facing and what might happen if they are not addressed, rather than the current approach which is concerned with how well or how badly a local authority is performing.The new system will continue to provide assurance about how well run local public services are and how effectively they use taxpayers’ money. But the expectation is that it will be more relevant to local people by focusing on issues that are important to their community.

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