A National Director for Social Care is to be appointed in what senior social services staff say is a major step forward in revolutionising the way adult social care is thought about and talked about. An advertisement for the post specifies that the successful applicant must be a current or recently experienced director of adult social services.
Read more on NEW POST SEEN AS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN ADULT SOCIAL CARE…
Public sector organisations are being urged to consider updating their IT stock more frequently. The call has come from Remploy e-cycle, which says it is in line with the National Audit Office’s ‘Improving the disposal of public sector ICT equipment’ report. The company is highlighting the report’s claim that the public sector could benefit by as much as 70 million pounds a year.
Read more on PUBLIC SECTOR URGED NOT TO OVERLOOK INCOME FROM IMPROVED ICT DISPOSAL…
Council leaders have reacted to a report stating that they are using so-called ‘spy laws’ to snoop on their citizens and are claiming they use the powers as part of their commitment to putting local people first. The Press Association used the Freedom of Information Act to ask 97 councils if they had used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to carry out surveillance. It found some councils had used the Act more than 100 times in the last 12 months.
Schools across the country are to get access to advice and training materials on how to support children and young people who stammer. The work will be done by the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children, which has been given 340,000 pounds by the Government to develop a stammering information programme that will be rolled out to all schools by 2010.
By Deborah Rowland & Malcolm Higgs
A huge amount of change initiatives fail and drawing on success stories can limit the risk. Based on a combination of four years rigorous research and practical application of the emerging findings, the book explores the dilemmas related to the growing need for change and the difficulty in making change work. It is destined for leaders who wish to implement change more intelligently and effortlessly. Drawing on a combination of research and extensive organisational experience, the authors present a framework for leading change that describes the specific leader practices they have found make the biggest difference between success and failure in implementing high magnitude change.
A poll published by The Children’s Society, as part of its Good Childhood Inquiry, reveals mounting concern about children’s mental health and well being. The Society was seeking evidence on the general health of children, but a large number of responses highlighted children’s mental health and well being, which is an issue barely acknowledged by past generations.
Read more on GROWING CONCERN ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF CHILDREN…
Working across boundaries is vital to the Transformational Government strategy which is steered by the Cabinet Office. Sharing confidential data between public bodies is an essential part of joint working, but there is a high risk of information falling into the wrong hands. In a move to develop processes for joint use of confidential data, ten local councils have set up a shared learning group to refine best practice.
Read more on JOINT WORKING MOVES FORWARD WITH BETTER DATA SECURITY…
This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. Alexis Cleveland, Director General for Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office, describes the biggest challenge facing the public sector as ‘moving out of the silo’.
The Greater London Assembly does not provide effective scrutiny of the London Mayor and should be scrapped. In calling for its abolition, the New Local Government Network argues that scrutinising the work of the Mayor does not require 25 full-time elected politicians and that much of their work is spent compiling reports and investigations that have little impact. It suggests that other London politicians could do the job more effectively.
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