By Andrew Price Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. Despite the ever growing number of books and courses about leadership, the Cabinet Office suggests that good leadership is scarce in the public sector. The writer argues that what is needed is learning that changes thinking and challenges beliefs and practices. He calls for a learning revolution where leaders learn and learners lead.

By Lynn Watson, Maryrose Tarpey, Kate Alexander and Caroline Humphreys. Supporting People, the national initiative to assist people who need help to settle into suitable housing and develop daily living skills, aims to promote more flexible and inclusive services. Local authorities and their partners in probation and health services are now putting the theory into practice. The authors look at the ways in which new ground is being broken and the unforeseen problems that are starting to appear.

By Steve Windsor It was recently suggested that at least half the budget of an IT implementation should be devoted to change management and this indicates increasing recognition of its importance in bringing success. The author sets out his view of the principles of change management and illustrates how he put them into practice in supporting the Forensic Science Service in a change programme.

By Tom Sefton Health care and education make up the largest components of the social wage, which on average is worth 4000 pounds annually to every UK household. These benefits in kind have a particular relevance to polices for tackling social exclusion. This analysis of recent trends reveals that there has been an incremental shift in favour of lower income groups across all the major services, but tax and benefit policies overall have not prevented inequality from rising.

By Brian Ellis In recent years Customer Rrelationship Management in the private sector has become synonymous with expensive failure. The author argues that the public sector should take advantage of hindsight and avoid the pitfalls. He sets out the key lessons which will contribute to successful change programmes.

By Sue Yeandle, Andrea Wigfield, Louise Ritchie, Rosemary Crompton and Jane Dennett. Increasingly more employees also have caring responsibilities. The authors looked at how work and family lives were managed in local government, banking and supermarkets. They found a lack of awareness of family friendly policies among managers and carers and set out what employers and government could do to promote a better work life balance.

By Howard Davis and Steve Martin Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. External inspection of local government is one of main planks of the Government’s drive for public service improvement. The authors chart the developments that have led to the Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime. They call for a greater clarity about the purpose of inspection and for a better understanding of the ways in which it is seeking to help promote change.

By Steve Pearce Information is the basic material of public services and creating and moving documents is a core activity. When Fareham Borough Council analysed their document processes they found a patchwork quilt of systems and technology. Steve Pearce describes how they developed a strategy to bring dividends including the electronic transfer of documents.

Reproduced by permission of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development The Institute, with funding from central and local government, has completed a research programme on implementation of the government’s modernization agenda. The briefing sets out the research findings. It summarizes case studies of organisations that have found ways to improve significantly the delivery and quality of the different services they provide. It found that the key factors are engaging, empowering and energising their people to achieve a step-change improvement in performance.

By Richard Berthoud The risk of unemployment for individuals without any disadvantage is about 4%. For the disadvantaged it varies between 50 and 90%. The author looks at the sources of disadvantage, outlines ways in which the risk of unemployment can be predicted and highlights the scope for policy initiatives.