By Monique Juchaud Information management can be seen as steering a course between deluge and drought. A new breed of business intelligence systems holds out the prospect of refining the burgeoning volume of information into streams that are valuable to users. The author describes how Nuneaton Council is benefiting from a system that has started a process to give users the information they need.

By Fran Bennett with Moraene Roberts Giving people in poverty a voice in poverty research can significantly affect the outcome and resulting policy interventions. The authors give an overview of ways of moving away from the supplier of information approach to using the expertise of the people involved. They also explore the major challenge of finding ways of feeding the participatory approach into national level processes and of engaging with topical policy debates.

By Naomi Eisenstadt Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. The Sure Start programme is about nursery education and childcare and it seeks to improve the health, education and emotional development of young children. Naomi Eisenstadt, Director of the Sure Start Unit, sets out a vision of mainstream services joining up to provide for the needs of disadvantaged children and their parents.

Lindsay Dransfield Many public bodies are introducing electronic document management systems and this will justify a tick in the box towards the 2005 target of electronic service delivery. These systems are a temporary fix that continue to cause end-user frustration because they do not address the problems of internal processes. The author describes how document management technology can deliver when it is integrated with a workflow infrastructure, because it is about meeting the needs of tomorrow as well as those of today.

By Dr Oliver James Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. The undesirable effects of performance targets on public services and the failure of many organizations to measure what is really important are areas of concern. At the extreme this has led to a call to abolish centrally set targets. The author describes the difficulties of target setting and the limitations on their use in relation to Executive Agencies. He also explores the way thinking about targets is changing and the direction it is moving.

The Department of Trade and Industry predicts that the UK call center industry is set to gain around 200,000 jobs in the next 3 years. Much of the recent growth has come from the public sector. This article looks at the potential for boosting the delivery of public services from adopting call center technology.

By Peter Newman and Tassilo Herrschel. Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. Much of the debate about Assemblies for the English regions is focused onthe structure and role of the new institutions. The author draws on examples of regional government from Germany and France to show that there are other key issues to consider such as how the institutions get adapted on the ground and the relationships with other tiers of government.

e-Government is steadily becoming a reality across public services, but the key issue which is emerging is not technology but take-up. This article explains how Doncaster Borough Council has created an electronic housing management service with a range of on-line facilities for its tenants. Although many tenants benefit indirectly because the system is used by staff to respond more rapidly to callers, there has been a slow take-up on line. The Doncaster experience highlights the take-up issue and puts the focus on access and marketing.

By Mark Sandford Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. With the prospect of Assemblies for the English regions drawing near, attention is focused on what impact they could make. The author draws on the lessons from the Greater London Authority for insights on the influence on public policy, despite little executive power and limited spending ability.

By Fay Blair and Bob Evans The authors offer an uncompromising critique of how local services are currently delivered. They also warn of the serious downsides if the imminent reforms to local government don’t make clear that any new public service organisation must fulfil its basic obligation to protect and enhance quality of life for communities. Responses to the author’s findings are included in the feature.