Chief executives of the unitary councils to be set up in April 2009 will face severe challenges and heightened expectations of the people who live in Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Durham, Northumberland, Shropshire, and Wiltshire. Local Government Minister John Healey has called for these councils to take advantage of their new start to bring in fresh blood to the senior management teams. 

The NHS has signed up to framework agreements with Eduserv, the not-for-profit IT services group, to supply IT products and services.
The framework agreements will allow GPs, nurses, and health managers to share with their peers the latest developments in their fields and to buy web services and consultancy on how they can improve the way they can communicate better with the public.
Eduserv is a professional organisation with a charitable mission. 

Today’s average age for a councillor has increased to 58.3 from 55.4 ten years ago, councillors are not representative of the electorate and many are retired. The Councillor’s Commission, which reported at the end of 2007, spelt out ways to change who is nominated for election. The Local Government Association and the Improvement and Development Agency have now voiced opposition to these recommendations, but given support to other proposals. 

Insurance companies are increasingly using technology to monitor voice patterns and provide clues to possible fraudulent claims. A pilot project involving seven councils has now concluded that the technology is also effective in picking out callers who make potentially false benefit claims.
The voice risk analysis technology spots changes in a caller’s voice enabling trained operators to decide whether a call is high or low risk and what further action to take. 

Strategic Health Authorities and their partners are being encouraged to find collaborative solutions to health and social care needs through social enterprise with the launch of the ‘Innovation for Life Challenge Fund’. In a parallel move, the second round of the Department of Health Social Enterprise Investment Fund has been opened today. 

Vulnerable children and families often have to cope with multiple challenges which do not fit the structures of children’s and adult services. In a move to focus action on those in need and bring a joined-up response, a ‘Family Pathfinder’ programme has been launched.
Children from the most vulnerable families are five times more likely to struggle with reading and writing, eight times more likely to be suspended, and ten times more likely to get into trouble with the law. 

The Department for Health has issued Common Core Principles to health and social care staff who support people to live independently, stay healthy and make the most of their lives by managing their conditions. Employers and managers are urged to ensure that the Principles are put into practice so that service users can get the most out of their care.
The principles are designed to move the focus of care on to the user and to challenge current culture and practices. 

Arriving first and being the last to leave is the aim of an increasing number of people in the public sector. Presenteeism, feeling obliged to work longer hours than are necessary to impress the management, is becoming almost as serious as absenteeism. These findings come from a survey by employee wellbeing specialist Right Corecare.
The research findings reveal that 39 per cent of employees working in the public sector frequently stay in the office longer than necessary. 

Local authorities have been set 10 requirements that campaigners believe they need to meet to make communities better for older people. The list has been produced by Help the Aged, which has published a survey showing that a quarter of older people believe the places where they live have changed for the worse in the last 10 years.
The findings reveal that the equivalent of almost three million pensioners are prevented from going out because of a lack of facilities in their local area. 

From today small and medium sized businesses will get free access to thousands of opportunities to win contacts from the public sector. Until the end of July businesses can register for contracts that are individually valued at under 100,000 pounds.
The free trial via the site http://www.supply2.gov.uk is part of the Department for Business’s Enterprise Strategy which was launched in March and set out measures to increase the amount of government business placed with smaller companies.