A new Taskforce has been set up to look at what part voluntary and charity bodies can play in welfare-to-work reform. It will be led by acevo – the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations – and the Department for Work and Pensions and it will explore the Third Sector’s potential role and make recommendations for how that potential can be used. 

Schools across England can now collaborate, to buy and pay for goods and services more efficiently online. It follows the linking of Capita’s SIMS management information system to the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ online procurement portal, OPEN, for web ordering of all the items schools need.
More than 22,000 schools use SIMS, which becomes the first MIS system to link directly to the OPEN eProcurement engine. 

By Donal McKillop and John Wilson
This article was first published in Public Management and Policy and is reproduced by permission of the Association. http://www.cipfa.org.uk/pmpa/index.cfm
Banks accounts have become a ‘must have’ in the 21st century, but a large number of people do not hold a current account. These people suffer disadvantage in receiving benefit payments, in employment and in the charges they pay for credit.