A campaign by a group of charities to raise awareness of the need for new approaches to social care has been welcomed as a step in the right direction by local government leaders. ‘Right care Right deal’, has been launched under the Carers UK umbrella to support calls for what the charities call ‘brave and innovative solutions for the social care system. 

A tax on high earners could cut council tax bills by 200 pounds for each household according to a report from the New Local Government Network. It argues that levying a small supplement in income tax on people earning more than 200 thousand pounds a year would take the pressure off council tax bills and allow reforms to take place without penalising householders. 

Government plans to personalise public services, which would involve greater sharing of information about people, should be resisted says a report published today. In ‘Who do they think we are? Government’s hidden agenda to control our lives’, Jill Kirby, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, says the Government’s Information Sharing vision statement set out in September 2006 now has a hollow ring to it. 

Twenty-five local authorities are to pilot a scheme to give better support to children whose mental health is at risk. The councils will take part in the Targeted Mental Health in Schools project and try new ways of improving services to vulnerable pupils. 

By Paul Skidmore, Kirsten Bound and Hannah Lownsbrough
Social networks enable citizens and communities to access social capital which in turn provides people with the resources to work together and tackle problems for themselves. Improving social outcomes in this way is more effective, more legitimate and cheaper, than traditional public service delivery. The authors look at the problems of engaging people in governance and developing relationships. 

Council leaders have warned that using planning powers to control the spread of fast food outlets will not be a silver bullet in the Government’s fight against increasing obesity. Promoting local authority planning powers to limit the spread of outlets in certain areas, such as close to schools, is one element of a 372-million pound cross-Government strategy to deal with the problem. 

Every local authority in England is to get a copy of the first ever code of practice on working with Muslim women. It is being sent out by the Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, who is calling on communities and councils to look at what more they can do to give the women a chance to take a greater part in civic society as well as tackling violent extremism. 

The Beacon Scheme, introduced in 1999 for councils and in 2003 extended to other bodies including police and fire authorities, is designed to improve performance. The scheme aims to share good practice on improvement across local Government and provides for awards to authorities that demonstrate excellence or innovation in specified service themes. 

The public service ethos is alive and well with younger workers in the
public sector feeling particularly strongly that their jobs are useful to
society. The findings are contained in ‘Is there still a public service
ethos?’ by Peter John and Mark Johnson, in ‘British Social Attitudes: the
24th Report’, published today by NatCen. 

Local authorities and central Government need to do more to monitor and
evaluate the impact of children’s centres according to a new report. The
study “How well are they doing: the impact of children’s centres and
extended schools”, is published today by the Office for Standards in
Education, Children’s Services and Skills.