The annual pay reward survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development includes responses from the private, public and voluntary sectors covering 2 million employees.

The survey found that one third of respondents have a reward strategy and a further one quarter plan to create one in 2008. Last year 40 per cent of respondents intended to bring in a reward strategy; most have not succeeded so far, indicating that implementing a reward strategy is far from easy.

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The new national programme to develop middle managers in local government, through building leadership and management capacity, will be funded by Communities and Local Government and the Local Government Association.

The programme seeks to enhance management and leadership skills, improve the performance of local government through building management and leadership capability, develop skills and personal effectiveness of managers to enable them to do their jobs effectively and take on more demanding and challenging roles in the future and to develop best practice solutions to the practical issues facing local authorities and encourage cross sector working and diversity;

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Voluntary and community organisations are set to play a major role inthe government’s “Strategy for Protecting the Public and Reducing Reoffending” as the third sector delivery of public services gathers momentum. The Change Up Public Service Priority Programme included five pilot projects commissioned by the National Offender Management Service to test out approaches to building the capacity of the voluntary and community sector to allow fuller participation in delivering offender services.

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Public expectations about how taxpayers’ money is spent are increasing and there is a growing concern about whether value for money in all areas of government is achieved consistently. The recent Whitehall Capability Reviews and the external assessments made of local government, health and the police have all shown significant opportunities for organisational improvement.

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This report from Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development summarises an event organized by the Institute and the Trades Union Congress on the changing landscape of age and retirement. The key message from the event is that demand for working beyond 65 looks set to increase markedly in the next 15 years.

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Community cohesion has become an important policy issue in recent years following the race-related disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in 2001. This report from Communities and Local Government sets out finding of research into predictors of community cohesion.The report examines the issue at both the individual and the community level.

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Almost half of organisations in the UK no longer award employees an across the board annual pay rise or cost of living adjustment, according to this year’s Annual Reward Management survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Manufacturing, production and private sector service firms are the least likely to provide such a pay rise. But the decline in the yearly traditional pay rise seems to be spreading throughout employment sectors.

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This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It reviews the innovative interactive web site Redbridge i which is designed to allow the London Borough of Redbridge Council to engage more fully with its local citizens to enhance services and to increase democratic participation.

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The significant challenges for local government in 2008 were set out in a speech by Communities Minister Hazel Blears. The key issues are transferring power from Whitehall to the town hall and beyond and driving forward community contracts.

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This report from the Audit Commission looks at partnerships lasting 10 or 15 years designed to deliver services such as council tax collection, IT and property management, back office services or specialist services such as highways or building and design services.

Read more on FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE: VALUE FOR MONEY IN STRATEGIC SERVICE DELIVERY PARTNERSHIPS…