CONSULTATION LAUNCHED ON IMPROVING EARLY YEARS SERVICES

A public consultation has begun on ways to meet the needs of individual children and their parents, including a call for closer working between local authorities, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Jobcentres Plus. The exercise has been launched by the Department for Education and Skills around new guidance produced jointly with the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department of Health.

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The toolkit, published by the Improvement and Development Agency, was designed to help councils take a balanced approach when assessing how well they support carers. It was developed by four councils recognised as beacons of good practice, with the cooperation of Carers UK and the carers’ leads at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.The toolkit comprises a balanced scorecard, strategies and a questionnaire for carer feedback. The scorecard is designed to assist councils in pulling together data that should be readily available into one central location. This will help demonstrate a range of activities that support carers and ensure that the performance indicator C62 is seen in context of an overall strategic approach.

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NEW BODY WILL CHAMPION LOCAL ISSUES

A new panel has been set up to champion the issues that are the heart of local communities. The policy panel, which brings together leading public sector figures and academics, is being facilitated by the Local Government Information Unit. The new group aims to develop new thinking and direction to help local government to cope with future challenges in a changing political and social context.

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TRANSPORT BILL ‘A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY’ FOR LOCAL COUNCILS

The Government’s Draft Local Transport Bill has been welcomed as a golden opportunity to tackle long standing problems and deliver better transport. The Local Government Association said the Bill had taken on board calls for councils to be given greater control in improving transport services but it said local authorities were now on the front line of the debate on road pricing.

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This report sponsored by the OLM Group, a supplier of information solutions for children’s and adult services, explores the operational issues of how local government can ensure their Local Area Agreements successfully progress to the next level of development.It highlights questions that Senior Officers can apply to assess their readiness for the challenges that lie ahead in relation to LAAs. It encourages consideration of a range of topics to help ensure that local agreements successfully navigate the next stage of development from addressing issues such as time constraints to the importance of establishing clear plans.

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This report from the Institute for Public Policy Research argues that the British civil service needs to drop its ‘we know best’ mentality and learn from countries like Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Singapore. It describes the Whitehall policy-making process as closed and insular, often conducted behind closed doors and without external expertise.It also claims that there is a gulf between those designing policy in Whitehall and those delivering it on the front-line. The civil service sees itself as a distinct and separate part of the public service. Policy is not evaluated on a systematic and ongoing basis. The mantra of ‘what matters is what works’ is undermined by the fact that the civil service often does not know what works.

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COMMISSION SAYS SENSITIVITY TO RISK IS MAKING PUBLIC SPACES BLAND

Local councillors and designers need to be more confident and less afraid of risk to save street and public spaces across the country from being bland. The call comes today from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, which says over-sensitivity to risk, arising from a misplaced perception of a rampant compensation culture and restrictive interpretations of health and safety regulations are leading to standardisation in designs.

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TIME FOR ACTION TO END INTERFERENCE IN PLANNING SAY COUNCIL LEADERS

Local authority leaders have welcomed proposals in the Government’s Planning White Paper but they say the time has come for it to act speedily to put in place plans to reduce the levels of central policy guidance and to end the involvement of ministers in local decisions. Meanwhile, environmental campaigners have said they will work hard to get a stronger environmental emphasis in final legislation.

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COMPANIES SIGN UP TO NEW SUPPLY DEAL FOR FIRE SERVICES

The six companies who have won framework agreements to supply appliances to fire and rescue services have formally signed them at a ceremony at Staffordshire Fire Service headquarters organised by Firebuy, the new national organisation set up by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Firebuy believes the deals represent a big move forward in procurement.

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CALL FOR CITIES TO HAVE POWER TO RAISE CASH FOR TRANSPORT IMPROVEMENTS

England’s big cities need the power to raise more money so they can carry out much-needed improvements to local transport systems, according to a report published today by the Centre for Cities at the Institute for Public Policy Research. It backs the idea of a supplementary business rate, which was endorsed by Sir Michael Lyons in his recent report on the future finance and functions of local government.

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