Providing a better experience for those who need health or social care is the driving force behind this new consultation on how to improve the assessment process. Progress on integrating the activities of those who provide health services with those who provide social care is limited by failure to share data and ways to resolve the problem are being sought. There is general agreement that the assessment process for people who need health and social care services should be quicker, simpler and more convenient.

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Getting it right first time is important to all organizations because follow up calls are annoying to customers and costly to the service providers. Failure to get it right has become a significant feature of the efficiency agenda and local councils have been given a target to reduce avoidable contacts. Help is now at hand to reduce avoidable contacts for website users where English is their second language.

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By Steve Bundred

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

Localism, where a wide range of decision making is moved down to the local level, is growing in popularity and its advocates are becoming more vocal. The author presents the case against widespread localism. He argues that governments prefer centralism for reasons such as avoiding post code lotteries. He also believes that ministers have the support of electors to exert control over local authorities because many councils have failed to win the hearts and minds of the people they serve.

Roger Latham says in his introduction to George Jones’ May 2008 PMPA report that ‘George reaches conclusions which any local government officer would feel warmed by’. True, but that’s not the point!

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