Patience Atkinson-Gregory of horticultural suppliers Amberol offers some useful advice for councils, businesses and communities striving for success in Britain in Bloom.

Britain in Bloom is one of the UK’s greatest community achievements. It brings together people from different backgrounds, generations, cultures and organisations with the common goal of improving the place where they live and work. As such, it is an initiative that should be celebrated and supported by businesses, community groups and local authorities.

Read more on WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO SUCCEED IN BRITAIN IN BLOOM…

Trust and confidence in leaders in the public sector is at a two year low according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Halogen.

Trust and confidence in senior leaders has fallen to a two year low, with almost one third of employees believing that performance management systems are unfair. That’s according to a survey of over 2,500 employees published by the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, in partnership with Halogen Software.

Read more on TRUST AND CONFIDENCE LEVELS LOW IN PUBLIC SECTOR…

The second Annual Report of the Major Projects Authority, established by the Prime Minister in 2010 to provide central assurance over projects, presents a glowing picture of success in the past year, but fails to explain its role in the Universal Credit disaster.

Read more on MAJOR PROJECTS AUTHORITY COVERS UP FAILURE AND UNIVERSAL CREDIT STAGGERS ON…

Rent collection has moved a long way from cash changing hands on the doorstep. This article describes how technology moves money from the tenant to the housing association and updates all records on the way.

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In this book Melanie Franklin describes what needs to be done to create the right environment for change.

Relationship building skills are critical to the success of change; change managers need to be able to work cooperatively with individuals and groups who emerge as the change progresses and are not easily identifiable at the start.

Read more on AGILE CHANGE MANAGEMENT…

The Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee has highlighted the lack of an IT system to make automatic cross checks of housing data to prevent fraudulent claims for Universal Credit.

Housing benefit will form a significant part of Universal Credit when all benefits are rolled into one payment.
Under the current housing benefit system, local authorities can cross-check claims across a range of data relating to other council services. The Committee believes that it is vital that a fully developed and tested IT system, which allows DWP to cross-check data, is in place before Universal Credit is implemented on a national scale. Worryingly, it appears that there is no automated system in use in the Pathfinders and is not clear when or how a system will be available.

Read more on MPs EXPOSE GAP IN UNIVERSAL CREDIT ANTI FRAUD SYSTEMS…

The Public Accounts Committee has criticized departments for delivering less than 20 per cent of the regional growth fund to businesses and for failing to create the predicted number of jobs.

Read more on REGIONAL GROWTH FUNDING NOT REACHING BUSINESSES…

A new alliance has been launched to widen the pool of business professionals making themselves available as governors, as well increase awareness amongst employers about the benefits to be gained by supporting their staff to be school governors.

Read more on ENCOURAGING BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS TO BECOME SCHOOL GOVERNORS…

The success of the NHS is highly dependent on its IT systems and improved efficiency quickly feeds through to the sharp end. In this article Poul Nielsen describes the role that IT analytics can play in giving managers tighter control of their systems to boost efficiency.

Read more on USING IT ANALYTICS TO IMPROVE IT SERVICES IN THE NHS…

Landlords blame the steep rise in repossessions on changes in Government policy and are worried that the radical changes that will follow the introduction of Universal Credit will bring a threat to the rental market.

Read more on LANDLORDS CONCERNED UNIVERSAL CREDIT WILL FUEL REPOSSESSION…