By Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris.

This book offers advice for making the shift to the first leadership position.
The number of people who will become first-time supervisors will likely grow in the next 10 years, as Baby Boomers retire. Perhaps the most challenging leadership experience anyone will face isn’t one at the top, but their first promotion to leadership. They must deal with the change and uncertainty that comes with a new job, requiring new skills, and they’ve been promoted from peer to leader.

Read more on FROM BUD TO BOSS: SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO REMARKABLE LEADERSHIP…

Changes in the teachers’ performance management rules will give more power to headteachers to deal with underperformance.

There has been widespread concern across the profession that pupils are suffering from underperformance, which is not being tackled with sufficient vigour. In the last decade only 18 teachers have been banned from the classroom. The figure contrasts with the estimate, made by Chris Woodhead when he was the head of Ofsted, that there are 15,000 incompetent teachers in service.

Read more on HEADTEACHERS GIVEN MORE POWER TO DEAL WITH UNDERPERFORMANCE…

By Robert J Herebold.

Stop hiding from tough decisions and learn to confront them head-on. Why do managers at all levels sacrifice corporate success by shying away from making the tough decisions?

Read more on WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK? TEN BOLD STEPS THAT DEFINE GUSTY LEADERS…

The UK Business Process Services market is predicted to grow annually at 7 per cent. The main reason for the increase is the advent of cloud computing.

TechMarketView, a leading IT analyst firm, has increased its November 2010 UK BPS market growth forecast for 2011 from 4.2 per cent to 5.3 per cent. The analyst firm raised its forecast in light of more positive news coming from the industry and some significant new contract awards. The UK BPS market is expected to reach a value of £6.6bn by 2014.

Read more on ANALYSTS PREDICT CLOUD COMPUTING WILL BRING DRAMTIC CHANGE…

Ofsted has warned that service children who face regular moves from home and school can suffer high levels of anxiety and stress when their parents deploy to armed conflicts.

Ofsted inspectors found that the stress experienced by service children as they move from school to school was made worse by poor systems for the transfer of children’s records between schools. Traansfers were not co-ordinated and important information was delayed or did not arrive at all.

A key shortcoming was that there is no accurate single database of Service children or effective system to track their movements. There was also generally a lack of continuity of support and provision for children from Service families as they move between schools, heightened in areas where small numbers of Service children were being catered for and where there was less understanding of their needs.

The report, requested by the Ministry of Defence, also found that Service children were potentially susceptible to social and emotional disturbance while a parent or other family member was on active deployment.

Read more on HIGHLY MOBILE ARMED FORCES CHILDREN NEED BETTER SUPPORT SAYS OFSTED…

The Cabinet Office has signed up 100,000 Big Society ‘Digital Champions’ to help millions of adults get online by the time the Olympics comes to Britain.

The champions are employees and users of services. They include 23,000 volunteers from Age UK, 21,000 from John Lewis, 10,000 from Beatbullying and 5,000 from Public libraries.

Read more on BIG SOCIETY SIGNS UP 100,000 DIGITAL VOLUNTEERS…

The re-think on public service reform away from privatisation has brought innovation back to the agenda. Ministers now have evidence that innovation is a viable alternative.

The Bedfordshire Total Place partnership is taking forward initiatives that evolved from work done in pilot projects in 2009/10 that showed eliminating duplication of effort could improve services and cut costs. The Total Place pilot showed that two per cent of persistent offenders are responsible for almost a third of crime committed in the county and the average cost of dealing with these offenders is around £500,000 each per year. An integrated offender management model is being launched in the summer and it will bring together representatives from all justice organisations on one site.

Read more on INNOVATION SET TO REPLACE PRIVATISATION IN PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM…

The Work Foundations warns that coalition policy is failing to deliver the public service innovation that could dramatically boost value for money.

The Foundation’s report argues that the private sector should be used as a model rather than a substitute for public service innovation. It warns that a narrow focus on cuts and the ‘outsourcing’ of innovation to the private sector risks neglecting the potential of the public sector itself. Instead, the coalition should use the lessons of the private sector to reach a better understanding of how public spending can support innovation and boost value for money through investment, networks and nurturing innovation ‘ecosystems’.

Read more on PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION IMPAIRED BY REFORM POLICY AND SPENDING CUTS…

Public service reform and the Big Society are relying on mutuals to deliver services. The launch of a one stop shop for advice and help will boost growth.

The Co-operative Group, the UK’s biggest mutual organisation, has launched a one stop shop to give a full range of practical assistance and advice on mutuals from the early stages of thinking through appraisal and implementation to the first full year of trading.

Read more on MORE SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM AND BIG SOCIETY…

The government’s Champion for Active Safer Communities, Baroness Newlove, has detailed what residents, businesses, local agencies and central government can do to begin a generational shift in the country’s approach to activism and tackling neighbourhood crime.

Read more on OUR VISION FOR SAFE AND ACTIVE COMMUNITIES…