The Guide has been produced by the Department of Health to support community engagement, with particular emphasis on engaging seldom-involved communities. The Pacesetters programme is a partnership between local communities who experience health inequalities arising from discrimination and the NHS and the Department of Health. 

People not receiving support from councils are struggling with a poor quality of life, says the Commission for Social Care Inspection. The Commission’s report on the State of Social Care describes how those who qualify for council support are having a better experience than before, while those people who fall outside the system are having a poor quality experience and are struggling to cope. 

Councils plan to increase re-cycling rates to 45 per cent by 2010/11, but this will not be enough to meet central Government’s environmental policies and national objectives. This finding comes from a State of the Nation 2008 survey by Materials Recycling Week. 

This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It reviews the innovative interactive web site Redbridge i which is designed to allow the London Borough of Redbridge Council to engage more fully with its local citizens to enhance services and to increase democratic participation. 

The move away from the ‘one size fits all’ public services is set to gather momentum following publication of a strategy for ‘Realizing Britain’s Potential’. But changing the way services are delivered is proving difficult.The report from the Cabinet Office presents an in-depth analysis of future challenges for the government covering a range of issues from globalisation to public service reform. 

Serious violence makes up only about 1% of all crime, but a homicide, shooting or stabbing, and every case of sexual violence causes terrible suffering not just to victims, but to their families and it contributes to higher levels of fear in communities. The Home Office has published an Action Plan to tackle violent crime which it sees as one of the most important issues it faces. 

The significant challenges for local government in 2008 were set out in a speech by Communities Minister Hazel Blears. The key issues are transferring power from Whitehall to the town hall and beyond and driving forward community contracts.
The new approach to regeneration with the Working Neighbourhoods Fund is designed to help councils to think creatively about how they might help places dogged by long-term worklessness and turn them around. 

A report from a national charity says three out of four people are not happy with the system of direct payments that allows disabled and older people to arrange and buy their own support services instead of getting them from their local council. The survey by the deaf blind charity Sense found many people’s personalised budgets did not cover the costs of appropriate care. 

Less than two per cent of the items that householders are putting out for collection by councils for recycling has to be rejected, according to new figures. The Local Government Association says the statistics are a tribute to the pride people take in recycling but it has warned that even more needs to be done to reduce dependency on landfill for waste disposal. 

This report from the Audit Commission looks at partnerships lasting 10 or 15 years designed to deliver services such as council tax collection, IT and property management, back office services or specialist services such as highways or building and design services.
More than half of all councils are already engaged in, or seriously considering, some form of service partnership. Councils with strategic partnerships often gain capital investment and meet or surpass their performance targets.