Measures of success for social care are set by professionals for assessing the performance of professionals. Users of services see things differently and have alternative ways of assessing quality. The ‘Shaping Our Lives’ project has looked in depth at what users really want and what they think are the hallmarks of a quality service.

Delivering council services to the living room of residents through a TV screen is just one of the initiatives of the Community Information Programme developed by Knowsley MBC. All developments have been made possible by installing a broadband network.

By Yasmin Hussein Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. Pathways, the leadership development programme for people with ethnic minority backgrounds, seeks to identify people with the potential to reach the Senior Civil Service. Jasmin Hessein describes how the programme has helped in the development of her career which has taken her to Head of Equality at the Welsh Assembly.

By Rick Groves, Alan Middleton, Alan Murie and Kevin Broughton Much has been written about neighbourhoods that do not work with the focus on failing estates. The continuing success and popularity of Birmingham’s 100-year-old Bournville Village Trust estate, a neighbourhood that does work, holds important lessons for policy makers and practitioners struggling to improve the quality of life for less popular neighbourhoods and estates. The authors outline the factors that make it successful.

By Thomas B Riley, Executive Director and Chair, Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance Reproduced by permission of eGov Monitor Weekly. The Knowledge economy is about how the new technologies have transformed the way we think and act. A typical far reaching effect is a shift away from top-down hierarchical systems to horizontal structures such as networks of semi-autonomous teams. The author outlines some of the structural changes needed to benefit from the knowledge economy and the role government has to play.

A major survey into the nature of leadership in the UK gave the public sector the lowest rating. The Chartered Institute of Management decided to find out why this was so. It launched an in depth survey of managers across the public sector to find out about their experiences attitudes and behaviours. The findings reveal much about the public sector and its managers.

Residents are taking advantage of legislation to develop local councils with limited spending power as a form community self-help. The introduction of local councils, where all residents can attend meetings and vote, is creating tensions and the author examines the issue of how bottom-up and top-down forms of representing communities can be successfully linked and how tensions can be resolved. He also examines the challenge of sustaining interest amongst residents and amongst individuals willing to stand as local councilors.

Technology provides the means to automate processes and cut costs, but much more is needed to get real benefits. Braintree Council, helped by its IT supplier, went through a radical re-think of the way services are delivered. The result was a business model that replaced the traditional structure. This case study sketches the change process and the way technology is supporting the customer centred approach.

By Rick Groves, Alan Middleton, Alan Murie and Kevin Broughton Much has been written about neighbourhoods that do not work with the focus on failing estates. The continuing success and popularity of Birmingham’s 100-year-old Bournville Village Trust estate, a neighbourhood that does work, holds important lessons for policy makers and practitioners struggling to improve the quality of life for less popular neighbourhoods and estates. The authors outline the factors that make it successful.

By Rhion Jones The Audit Commission’s Best Value inspections have rated two thirds of councils below the ‘good service’ level for e-government. The author presents an analysis of a sample of the Commissions ICT reports, draws out the key messages and offers suggestions for the future.