This guide from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development urges organizations to capture talent through building stronger partnerships with recruitment agencies. It provides advice and guidance for HR and recruitment agencies on building and maintaining strong partnership relationships. 

This white paper from Cave Tab Ltd describes how organisations can achieve cost savings of more than 30 per cent and improve service levels by outsourcing the scanning of documents within an electronic document management system.
The benefits from electronic document management include speedier access to information, improved customer service, reduced filing costs and enhanced security. 

This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It features leading experts exploring the issue of Telecare to help councils meet their social care responsibilities.
Telecare is becoming increasingly important in providing support for older and disabled people. It is being used increasingly by social services because of the part it plays in risk management. 

The Department of Health has published details of the Investment Programme for third sector organisations working in areas which are the responsibility of the Health Service and local councils.
The document helps third sector organisation decide if this funding stream is applicable to both their organisation and the proposed activity for which they are seeking funding. 

This collection of essays from the New Local Government Network is edited by Iain Roxburgh. The essays follow from a seminar of academics working in the field of governance. The writers overwhelmingly support the view that the balance in governance between the centre and the locality is wrong and something fundamental needs to be done about it.
A key issue that needs to be addressed is citizen involvement and voter turnout. 

The 2008 survey from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development shows absence for all workers fell from 8.4 days per employee per year in 2007 to 8.0 days in 2008. Public sector absence remains the highest, but has fallen from
10.3 days to 9.8 days, voluntary sector absence fell from 9.6 to 8.7 days, while in the manufacturing and production sector it fell from 7.6 to 7.2 days and in private sector service firms it remained static at 7.2 days. 

Keeping citizens informed about the performance of their council is progressing from an accountability requirement towards creating a lever to raise efficiency and effectiveness. Research commissioned by Communities and Local Government showed wide variation in practice, cultural barriers and little enthusiasm to promote timely and meaningful publicity. 

A Local Involvement Network (LINk) has been set up in every area of England to help people influence or change the way local NHS and social care services are delivered. They are designed to help the community to speak with a stronger local voice and to help services provide better care. The networks will start operations in September 2008.
A LINk is made up of individuals and community groups who work together to improve local health and social care services. 

This Cabinet Office review explored how to involve communities more
effectively in the fight against crime whilst also raising public confidence in the criminal justice system. The starting point was that without public action, support and confidence, the police and other criminal justice agencies cannot make communities safer. However, for the public to play their part, they need to see and experience services that tackle crime effectively, give them confidence and back them up. 

Guidance for conducting place surveys has been published by Communities and Local Government. The surveys will seek to capture local peoples’ views, experiences and perceptions, so that the solutions for an area can reflect local views and preferences. The surveys will also track people’s changing perceptions, as a way of determining whether interventions made in an area result in the right outcomes for local people. They should reveal if people
feel happier, healthier or safer.