The Audit Commission has launched a pilot scheme to help UK banks and credit providers identify fraudulent applications by immigration offenders.

The Commission and the UK Border Agency will share information in ‘real time’ with financial institutions. Each year the UK Border Agency processes around 3.5 million applications to visit, live, work or study in the UK. The aim is to prevent those with no right to stay or work in the UK from accessing financial services. In return, financial institutions will provide the Agency with information on where illegal working and employment is taking place, supporting the Agency’s work in tackling immigration crime.

Read more on CRACKDOWN ON IMMIGRANT FRAUD…

Engagement with communities at the moment is only marginal to the organisation, funding, management and strategic control of universities. More should be done to promote engagement and make university knowledge readily accessible for the benefit of excluded communities. This is the main finding from research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Current policy pressures on universities to focus on improving their research excellence and to widen participation make it hard for them to engage meaningfully with excluded communities. This reduces their benefits for excluded communities.

Read more on UNIVERSITIES URGED TO ENGAGE WITH THEIR COMMUNITIES…

The Government has revealed plans to turn Post Office Ltd into a mutual organisation. This would allow communities, subpostmasters and customers to have a say in how they are managed. There would be a major investment programme which would seek to make the Post Office the ‘Front Office for Government with a new commercial focus and a strong community purpose.

Read more on COMMUNTIES TO HAVE A SAY IN RUNNING POST OFFICES…

Liverpool City Council is to use a new design concept to halve the cost of building schools. They will be built under a structure similar to a modern airport terminal building. This will reduce the cost of a traditional build by about half. The concept also offers more flexibility as the internal layout and even the entire use of the site can be changed in the future.

Read more on AIRPORT TERMINMAL BUILDING TECHNIQUE TO CUT COST OF SCHOOLS…

PayByPhone has launched a new smartphone app for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones which could spell the end of digging around for the right parking change. The free PayByPhone app lets motorists parking their cars in PayByPhone parking areas pay via their phones, and find their way back to their car when it’s time to go home.

Read more on CAR PARKING GETS EASIER…

At least 90 per cent of organisations involved in delivering the Government’s flagship back to work scheme, the Work Programme, risk having their contracts terminated because of unreachable performance targets set by the Department for Work and Pensions. The Social Market Foundation, the think tank originally behind the idea for the Work Programme and responsible for the analysis, said that without an urgent rethink of the performance criteria this could lead to the failure of the entire scheme with potentially dire consequences for the 2.4 million long term unemployed it is designed to help.

Read more on BACK TO WORK PROGRAMME FAILING TO DELIVER…

Central and local government are failing to benefit from the growing power of social media. During the recent riots, rioters and the public used social media extensively, but public bodies made little use of it to get their messages across.

Read more on PUBLIC SECTOR FAILING TO EXPLOIT SOCIAL MEDIA POWER…

IBM has launched a system designed to help councils to reduce the unintended negative consequences of decisions on citizens and to uncover hidden beneficial relationships among council decisions. The new analytics software is now providing the service to the City of Portland in the US.

Read more on IBM LAUNCHES DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR COUNCILS…

The Big Society Bank has been launched under the name of the Big Society Capital Group. It will help social enterprises and other groups to grow and expand their work. The Group has already made its first investment.

Read more on BIG SOCIETY BANK GOES LIVE…

Job satisfaction in the public sector has fallen, compared to last year and the employee engagement measure shows that public sector workers are by far the most disengaged. These findings come from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Employee Outlook survey

Read more on PUBLIC SECTOR BOTTOM OF ENGAGEMENT LEAGUE TABLE AS JOB SATISFACTION FALLS…