John Williamson explains how local authorities use floral displays to boost the local economy.
We all know that appearances are important. There can be few more depressing sights than a deserted high street with boarded up shops and litter everywhere. Unfortunately, this is becoming an all too common sight in our town centres and it seems that dilapidation simply begets yet more decay, creating areas of depression and poverty.
The Government wants more public contracts to be offered to small and medium sized enterprises. But delivering this change across all public sector organisations is difficult. Graeme Young explores the procurement culture which favours the larger companies and he looks at the barriers and risks to doing things differently.
Read more on CHANGING THE CULTURE SO SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES WIN MORE PUBLIC CONTRACTS…
Public sector organisations are holding increasing amounts of sensitive data. At the same time, the sector is increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals. Chris Hardy looks at what can be done to counter the growing cyber threat.
John Williamson of horticultural suppliers Amberol has advice for local authorities taking part in this year’s Britain in Bloom competition.
The eyes of the world will be firmly focused on the UK in 2012 with the arrival of the Olympics, as well as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee historic celebrations, so it is particularly important that our public areas look their best. Britain in Bloom has played a fundamental part in developing more attractive communal landscapes, transforming city centres, towns and villages, bringing people together to restore pride in their neighbourhoods.
Read more on THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN BRITAIN IN BLOOM…
The life chances of children are directly related to the quality of parenting. This article explains how parenting skills can be improved to increase the attainment level of pre-school children.
In Gosport, children’s attainment is below the national average. Little Waves Children’s Centre and Woodward Lewis used “Positive Deviance” facilitation to address the problem from within the community. By mobilising a group of mums, who got together to learn from each other on how to overcome barriers to their child’s learning and development, a new support group has been established and practical methods to addressing the problem are being disseminated throughout the community.
The impetus for the programme came from the 2009 Children’s attainment results, which showed attainment in Hampshire as low when compared to the rest of the UK. Children in the pre-school age group scored just 51.8%. The Gosport district of Hampshire scored the lowest at only 41.8%, 10% lower than the rest of the country.
Read more on RAISING THE ATTAINMENT OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN BY POSITIVE DEVIANCE…
The size and scope of mobile working projects expected to increase dramatically across local government in the next two to three years. This article looks at the benefits and barriers to its development.
Read more on MOBILE WORKING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT SET TO GO MAINSTREAM…
With the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games only a few months away, local authorities are under increasing pressure to encourage the nation to get active and provide new and improved leisure facilities to ensure a lasting Olympic legacy. This article looks at the way partnerships can help.
Social workers can become more productive by using mobile technology. Caroline Cozier of OLM Systems, explains how the development of a Caremobile App Store has brought benefits to social workers and their departments.
One of key recommendations of the Munro Review of Child Protection: A Child centred system, published earlier this year was for local services to be freed from government targets, national IT systems and regulations, and allowed to design their own services and procedures. However, in a time of severe budgetary cuts and constraints this recommendation has unnerved some social care organisations, being construed as an expensive route to improving efficiencies. Undoubtedly, organisations will want to continue to see service improvements, and more tangible benefits in the form of cash savings and intangible benefits including improved employee performance, but they will need to fund these from a new slim line budget.
As cross-party talks on social care reform bring the future funding of elderly care into the spotlight, Ian Stone, sales, marketing and development Director at apetito examines the vital role Community Meals play in keeping the elderly in their homes for longer, easing the burden on Britain’s overstretched care system.
Anti-social behaviour and petty crime bring misery to many areas across the country. Many approaches are being used to tackle the problem, some more expensive than others. This feature describes how a crime reduction charity working in partnership with Community Housing succeeded in bringing change through a sports project.
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