Headlines: February 9th, 2012
Daycare for three and four year olds is a lottery based on income and postcode. Take-up varies and at he bottom end is just 62 per cent. The National Audit Office wants this remedied.
Headlines: February 8th, 2012
The key to securing better outcomes for older people and other vulnerable groups, and to delivering the required efficiency savings for the NHS is joined up services, say MPs on the Health Select Committee.
Headlines: February 7th, 2012
Trials across the country are showing that fraud against public sector bodies and collection of debts can be influenced without the use of law. People can be encouraged, or nudged, to conform. Not only is nudging effective, it comes at a low cost.
Read more on NUDGING PEOPLE AWAY FROM FRAUD AND TOWARDS PAYING DEBTS…
Headlines: February 2nd, 2012
Simply cutting front line services will put services at risk and reduce long term value for money. Departments must look to deliver services in radically more efficient ways to deliver the cuts planned. There must be changes in the way departments operate. This warning comes from Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts.
Headlines: February 1st, 2012
Less than half the councils across the country have responded to the offer of grants to freeze or reduced council tax. The offer was made in November 2011 and there is just over a month to go before budget decisions are taken.
Read more on CONCERN AT POOR RESPONSE TO COUNCIL TAX FREEZE OFFER…
Headlines: January 31st, 2012
Public pensions reforms, now in the final stage of negotiation, are unlikely to save the taxpayer any money. This is the main finding from an IFS study.
The pension reforms just negotiated will make little or no difference to the long-term costs of public service pensions. The savings from higher pension ages are, on average, offset by other elements of the pensions becoming more generous. In general lower earners in the public sector will actually get a more generous pension as a result of the recently announced reforms. That is, they will be able to retire at age 65 with a higher annual pension than they would receive under current arrangements. This results from the move from final salary to career average schemes and the particular changes to accrual and indexation rules.
Read more on PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS DEAL HAS NO BENEFIT TO THE TAXPAYER…
Headlines: January 26th, 2012
Councils in deprived areas have been hardest hit by the cuts according to the first systematic review of the real impact of public spending cuts on councils published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation today. The review also finds conflict within councils over whether the needs of vulnerable people should be prioritised.
The review looked at 25 local authorities and provides an early insight into how local government is coping with the severe contraction in grant income implemented after the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review. It finds a strong likelihood that the contraction of local government service provision will be felt differently across England. Analysis of the patterns of spending cuts show greater cuts in the most deprived authorities, compared with the most affluent.
Headlines: January 25th, 2012
The number of patients mentioning NHS spending levels in NHS feedback has increased over threefold in the past year, according to figures released today by independent feedback website Patient Opinion.
The figures were released in response to the Health Select Committee’s accusations that hospitals are ‘salami slicing’ less headline grabbing services such as physiotherapy for elderly people, in attempts to find £20bn in efficiency savings. See Publicnet
Headlines: January 25th, 2012
-
Plans have been announced for changing the inspection arrangements for about 1000 independent schools, such as childrens’ homes providing education. The changes, proposed for September 2012, are intended to raise expectations for improvement in the performance of these schools, for the benefit of children, parents and carers.
Headlines: January 24th, 2012
The magnitude of the challenge facing the health and social care services has not been fully grasped. Plans to meet the challenge are unlikely to deliver the result. This is the conclusion of the Parliamentary Health Committee in its report published today.
Read more on HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES FAILING TO RESPOND TO EFFICIENCY CHALLENGE…
