Nationwide access for travellers to co-ordinated information about all public transport took a major step forward with the first industry-wide Public Transport Information Conference in London.Transport Minister Glenda Jackson said the conference was an excellent example of transport operators, local authorities and technology specialists working in partnership. 

Local councils are calling for more power to help them eliver the Government’s target of 4.4 million new houses by 2011.A report by the Local Government Association calls for a package of financial and planning measures from central government to help councils provide quality housing for all in the future, and stresses in particular the need for a far more flexible approach over building on green or brownfield sites.The ‘Accommodating the Future’ report also says decisions over where to build are best made at the local level and councils should use consumer surveys and capacity studies to inform their local plans. 

New information from the Department of Health has highlighted big differences in spending on social service provision, from one council to another.They also show that children in social service care will experience a different form of care, depending on where they live, with only 47 per cent receiving foster care in some towns and cities, and up to 86 per cent being fostered in others. 

A million pound Innovation Fund has been set up to explore ways of modernising the role of health visitors.Tessa Jowell, Minister for Public Health, said: “Health visitors are absolutely crucial to the delivery of the Government’s public health strategy. We have set ourselves ambitious tasks: to tackle the root causes of ill-health; to narrow the gap between the best off and the worst off; to build a Health Service, not just a health care service. 

The Government says that housing providers, such as councils and housing associations, can play a key role in tackling the crime problems facing local communities.Home Office Minister Alun Michael said that housing providers have local knowledge which can play an important part in addressing local crime problems.The Crime and Disorder Act, which began to be implemented last month, calls on public sector organisations, including the Police, to work together to produce specific action plans to deal with crime as it affects individual areas. 

The government’s attempts to improve quality and reduce variation in the quality of patient care in the NHS has been given a qualified welcome by the Institute of Health Services Management.The attempt to drive up and unify standards follows a handful of well-publicised cases where patients appear to have been failed in the quality of medical care they have received. 

There has been welcome support for the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement of an urban white paper next year.And the Urban Task Force already in place to look for answers to urban problems has responded by stepping up its work in order that its findings and be presented and considered in the white paper.
Task Force Chairman Lord Rogers also announced that a team of local government experts will assist the Task Force in the speeded up process. 

Home Office Minister Alun Michael has urged local authorities to continue backing youthful interest in communities as a way of encouraging positive alternatives to disaffection and social exclusion.And he told delegates at a Local Government Association and National Youth Agency seminar that partnership was key to giving young people the opportunity to make a difference in their communities. 

A new survey shows that partnership working, training and family friendly working practices lead to higher levels of employee commitment and job satisfaction.The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey involved the DTI, ACAS, the Economic and Social Research Council, and Policy Studies Institute. 

The Lord Chancellor’s Department is urging all magistrates’ courts to make use of a model charter for use as a basis for improving public service.Geoff Hoon MP, Minister of State at the Lord Chancellor’s Department, says magistrates should not forget that courts are a public service.
All magistrates courts committees have been asked to revise their local charters in line with the new model by April 1 next year.