Charities and voluntary groups will be able to access more financial support to help them win contracts to deliver public services. The money will be available under a partnership between Futurebuilders England and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Futurebuilders, the 215 million pound Government fund providing support and investment to help third sector organisations win contracts, is to work with the bank in an effort to make its services more accessible and to give organisations more options. 

Researchers have found that teachers are divided over the merits of using Web 2.0 applications, such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia in the classroom. The study commissioned by communications provider ntl:Telewest Business shows that half of them feel the applications add value to education while the other half see them as a distraction with no academic benefits. 

By Steve Cross
Managing the financial processes in adult social care is a complex task. Paper based records are labour intensive and inefficient with suppliers waiting long periods for payment. The situation is compounded by unreliable data making financial monitoring and planning extremely difficult. This was how it was in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The author describes how the situation was transformed by integrating the care process with the financial practice processes.