With a large proportion of government ICT spending moving to public cloud services by 2015, open source (OS) software must be implemented in the public sector. OS is a lower cost and more flexible solution compared to proprietary systems but there is still a reluctance to procure OS due to its short track record in this sector.

Read more on OVERCOMING FEARS ABOUT OPEN SOURCE – A SUCCESS STORY…

Rural communities could lose a vital part of their livelihood unless a better and more sustainable way is found to support 10,000 village and community halls.

Some 80,000 volunteers who run the halls, which provide an essential hub for community activity, social support and crucial services, are struggling with loss of funding and the increasing needs of people who use them.

This warning comes from the Rural Community Action Network which provides a support service for volunteers who own and manage rural community buildings on behalf of their community. RCAN has launched a national campaign to highlight its support for those volunteers and to demonstrate the valuable role community halls play in people’s lives. However, cuts to its own budgets and increasing demands for its services mean its own work is under threat. It is calling for Government, local authorities and other policy-makers to work together nationally and locally to decide how best to invest their reduced resources to help maintain the valuable support service RCAN provides.

Read more on COMMUNITY HALLS SQUEEZED BETWEEN BUDGET CUTS AND INCREASED DEMAND…

Deepak Chopra sets out a path for unlocking the potential for greatness. He decodes the mysterious qualities that have propelled history’s greatest leaders to the top of the ranks and shrouded them in legend – Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Buddha – and provides a hands-on approach to understanding and mastering these qualities.

Read more on THE SOUL OF LEADERSHIP…

If approached in the right way, citizens are willing to change their behaviour and do more to help themselves and others, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Read more on CHANGING BEHAVIOUR BY NUDGING OR THINKING…

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has told troubled families co-ordinators that they are at the vanguard of a revolution in social policy.

The 152 co-ordinators, representing all major councils, met to consider how to deliver the Prime Minister’s pledge to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families in the next three years.

Read more on TROUBLED FAMILIES INITIATIVE IS A REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL POLICY…

Policy making, the core activity at the heart of government, has now entered the market place with the award of a contract for policy advice to the thinktank Institute for Public Policy Research.

Read more on LAST BASTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE OPENS DOOR TO OUTSOURCING…

The digital divide, with the elderly on the wrong side, is limiting wider use of online public services.

The digital divide, formerly between the haves and the have nots, has shifted to a generational issue. Four out of ten people aged 65 or over do not have access to the internet at home, with 5.4 million having never used the internet. Only 5% of those aged 65 or above own a smartphone compared to nearly three quarters of 16-24 year olds.

Read more on DIGITAL DIVIDE THREATENS GREATER USE OF ONLINE PUBLIC SERIVCES…

This publication describes the support available to councils to develop effective Healthwatch organisations.

Healthwatch is the new independent consumer champion for both health and social care. It will exist in two distinct forms – local Healthwatch, at local level, and Healthwatch England, at national level. The aim of local Healthwatch will be to give citizens and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality. Local Healthwatch will also provide or signpost people to information to help them make choices about health and care services.

Read more on DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE LOCAL HEALTHWATCH…

The Social Market Foundation has followed other organisations in expressing concern about proposals for introducing Universal Credit next year.

A report from the think tank, ‘Sink or Swim: the Impact of the Universal Credit’ describes interviews with low income families to get views about how they would adjust to six specific reforms under the new Universal Credit.

Read more on THINK TANK CALLS FOR CHANGES TO UNIVERSAL CREDIT…

Public service pension reforms will save £430b over the next 50 years and this will reduce the cost to the taxpayer by about half.

Publication of the Public Service Pensions Bill is the final stage in reforming current arrangements. The Bill is forecast to save £65 billion, of the total £430b savings, over the next fifty years.

Read more on PUBLIC SERVICE PENSION REFORMS CUT COST BY HALF…