The greatest health risks that children face today are obesity, mental ill health and sexual problems. Schools are the obvious place to do something about countering these risks and this article explains how the healthy schools initiative is supporting teachers to tackle these problems.
Read more on TACKLING OBESITY MENTAL HEALTH AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN SCHOOLS…
Moving from where public services are now to a Total Place approach will require radical transformation. Whatever measure is used to calibrate the scale of the change, be it number of people, work traditions, money involved, they are all at the top of the scale. The change management challenge is massive and no one would expect it to go smoothly. The first glitch has appeared with Whitehall departments failing to get the message out to people on the ground.
By Martin Evans and Lewis Williams
The huge changes to social policy since 1979 have created winners and losers. The authors describe the effect of the changes on typical families of high, medium and low earners.
Read more on COMPARING TAXES AND BENEFITS IN 1979, 1997 AND 2008…
By Sean Lusk and Rob Hutchinson
This article was first published in Public Management and Policy and is reproduced by permission of the Association. http://www.cipfa.org.uk/pmpa/index.cfm
After a decade or more when government talked incessantly of ‘targets’, it now seems that everyone is talking ‘outcomes’. Yet many deputy heads of secondary schools, many assistant chief constables, many hospital managers or local authority heads of service are understandably suspicious—is this shift in language just the latest waft of Whitehall hot air?
By Tim Dent
Helping people to be active is important for their health, for tackling social exclusion and for regeneration. The level of activity can vary from gyms and swimming pools to art galleries and museums. Local councils provide a whole range of these cultural activities and it is important that they give value for money to their customers. The author explains how quality and performance audits and facility ‘health checks’ can help ensure customer satisfaction.
Read more on PROMOTING HEALTHY ACTIVITY AND DELIVERING VALUE FOR MONEY…
Business intelligence is about making better use of information that is already stored away. Some 95 per cent of councils have made it a strategic priority, but few have quality data to support effective business intelligence. The author analyses why this is so and describes the barriers to developing business intelligence to give insights into how organisations are performing. He outlines a path to better business intelligence.
Read more on BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE BRINGS BENEFITS TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR…
By Judy Wakelin
With more than 130,000 workplace injuries every year, health and safety is high up the management agenda. Not only does a healthy and safe workplace promote productivity and reduce costs in absences and insurance, it also limits the risk of claims. The author draws on the experiences of councils and explains how developing a structure for managing health and safety responsibilities can deliver dividends.
Read more on COUNCILS INVESTING IN HEALTH AND SAFETY REAP DIVIDENDS…
Total Place, which allows the way in which taxpayers money is spent in a local area to be challenged, has triggered a seismic shift in the public service landscape. The scale and shape of this landscape shift has been set out by Communities Secretary John Denham. Although Total Place is still in the initial pilot phase, the tremors are already being felt across local councils, primary care trusts, the police, fire service, criminal justice agencies, Job Centre Plus, Government regional offices, economic development agencies and the Learning and Skills Council.
Read more on TOTAL PLACE SET TO CHANGE PUBLIC SERVICE LANDSCAPE…
By Joke Delvaux and Sini Rinne
Government action to tackle poverty depends on building public support but very few initiatives explicitly aim to build support for the poverty agenda. The perception of poverty is often misguided, with people believing that it is a result of laziness, or an inevitable part of modern life. The authors set out ways of changing perceptions and building public support for addressing the problem. They urge closer working between the anti-poverty networks, the voluntary sector and Government.
Poverty in the UK is a particularly challenging issue. Although it would be difficult to find anyone who did not support the idea of tackling genuine poverty, explanations of why poverty still exists, and how to deal with it, are contested and political.
This research identifies a number of interesting initiatives to address poverty, but also uncovers useful evidence about what is not happening. It forms part of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s programme on public interest in poverty issues.
Focus of current anti-poverty initiatives
By Jude Wells
Team building, when people work at different locations and the job they do is changing, is a major challenge. The key factor in team building is communication, ensuring that messages move in all directions. The author outlines the challenge faced by an Adult Social Care Service and how the issue of communication was successfully addressed.
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