By Tom Bracey
A whole menu of innovative options has been investigated, including ‘virtual wards’, which use the systems, staffing and daily routine of a hospital ward to provide care in people’s homes, multi-agency teams providing older people’s care and intensive programmes to give older people back skills they may have lost after a stroke or severe illness.
Local leaders will have greater freedom to lead and set local priorities, but the price to be paid is a tightening of the purse strings. Using simple arithmetic to calculate to size of budget cuts could pose a threat for many councils and other bodies. Capacity to deliver radical change is the unknown factor and setting tight deadlines could spell disaster.
Read more on VIEWPOINT: GREATER FREEDOM FOR LOCAL COUNCILS COMES AT A PRICE…
By Robert Hardy
The Kent Total Place (TP) pilot is focused on improving services to the customer, reducing duplication and improving efficiency across the public sector. Although Kent partners have welcomed the focus that the pilot timescale brings, the key actions were already underway before TP was announced and will persist for at least 3 to 5 years.
“The Skills Plus centre at Ashford Gateway has proved really popular and numbers of adults attending regularly to improve their skills have exceeded our expectations. I believe the Gateway concept enables us to reach more people in a way that fits with their busy lives and I am keen to see Adult Education feature in more Gateway developments.“
(Head of Service – Adult Education)
Mr X’s partner had recently and suddenly died and he came to the Kent Gateway, knowing he had to register the death but at a loss for what to do next.
Brett Green and Chelsea Stevens were the very first customers to use the new Housing Plus service and have found it invaluable.
Brett moved to Spain with his family in 2005 and quickly found work in the building trade. He met and set up home with girlfriend Chelsea Stevens whose family had made Spain their home in 2003.
By Michael Carley and Rosalind Bayley
Planning policy and new legislation are creating new development frameworks to help meet the burgeoning need for quality new housing in sustainable communities. But the reality is that delay and growing complexity continue to hinder progress. The authors describe their real life experience and call for better co-ordination between planning activities in the public and private sectors.
By Fred Robinson, Richard Else, Maeve Sherlock and Ian Zass-Ogilvie.
Public understanding of poverty in the UK is limited and this makes it difficult to generate support for tackling the issue. The media has a key role to play in publicity and it is most effective when it presents the views, experiences and opinions of people with experience of poverty. The authors explain the opportunities to disseminate material in the traditional and ‘new’ media and describe the roles and responsibilities of voluntary and community organisations in helping journalists find case study individuals.
Read more on GETTING THE POVERTY MESSAGE ACROSS THROUGH THE MEDIA…
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.
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