An online tool has been launched to help local authorities and health services to improve life expectancy in deprived areas. The Health Inequalities Intervention Tool is an interactive website designed to be used as part of a wider strategy to deal with inequalities. The site will be used by Primary Care Trusts, Practice-Based Commissioners and local authorities in Spearhead areas to gain understanding of the impact of simple, effective, evidence-based measures can have on the life expectancy gap in their areas. It contains both national and local information on current life expectancy for each of the 70 Spearhead areas, and the gap between life expectancy in those areas and the rest of England.

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Local authorities and the police are being urged to make greater use of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts as a way of nipping anti-social behaviour in the bud. The Home Office says the effective use of the contracts has brought respite to thousands of communities in England and Wales. The call for more use of them came as the Government published guidance for those engaged in the fight against anti-social behaviour.The guidance has been drawn up with help from a number of agencies, including the police and councils. It offers examples of best practice and reflects how Acceptable Behaviour Contracts are being used as part of the toolkit for dealing with anti-social behaviour. The Home Office says 25,000 contracts are in place and the effects are being shown in the 94 per cent of areas where there has been a fall in anti-social behaviour.

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By Fran Branfield and Peter Beresford with Eamon J. Andrews, Patricia Chambers, Patsy Staddon, Grace Wise and Bob Williams-Findlay. There is an increasing emphasis on user involvement in health and social care policy and practice. Users of services are experts in their own experience. But service providers and researchers have begun to ask what evidence there is that it improves services. The authors present the views of users and suggest ways in which user involvement could be more effective.