Plans to speed up public service reform have been outlined by a senior member of the Government. Liam Byrne, the Cabinet Office Minister, said the aim was to give more freedom to staff delivering services but to enforce basic standards of service.

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More councils are being urged to sign up to the latest stage of a carbon trading system. The Local Government Information Unit wants authorities to join the second phase of its Carbon Trading Councils scheme for the next financial year.

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By Helen Rollings

Treating patients in hospital is expensive and hospital is not the place where patients want to be. Patients prefer to remain in their own homes where their quality of life is greater and support costs are much less. The author describes how Swindon Primary Care Trust installed monitoring systems in homes so that nurses could manage their patients remotely. Success in Swindon has prompted a new look at the extension of telehealth.

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