Archives for January 30th, 2002

HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES MOVE CLOSER TOGETHER

Headlines, PublicNet: 30 January, 2002

Health care delivered through the health service and other types of care delivered by some 150 local councils are continuing to merge at the point of delivery. Older people who need help with some of the activities of daily living, or who live in residential or nursing homes are among the 1.5 million people in England who receive help from social services. They will benefit from a new ‘single assessment’ process that will allow different professionals to share information across organizational boundaries. This will remove the need for them to repeat their personal details and needs when they enter nursing care. The ‘single assessment’ arrangements will be introduced over the next two years.Closer working between health and social services is also be fostered by the proposal to strengthen the powers of councils to scrutinize health services bodies within their areas. A number of councils are already undertaking health scrutiny, which involves working across local government and other boundaries such as a hospital or other NHS care provider. The new powers are unlikely to come into effect until April 2003.

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PAIN OF POLICE REFORM RELIEVED BY CASH INJECTION

Headlines, PublicNet: 30 January, 2002

Home Secretary David Blunkett has raised the pay and allowance increases agreed by the Police Negotiating Board in December last year as part of the reform package. Rank and file police offers will vote on the reform package on 7th February and it was thought that the decision was finely balanced. The new cash is likely to swing the majority to vote ‘yes’.The increases include a 400 pounds across the board addition to all pay points and a shortening of pay scales from April 2003. A competence-related payment of 1,002 pounds a year will be paid to officers at the top of the pay scales and it is expected that some 75% of officers will meet the qualifying criteria.. Special priority payments will be made where posts involve arduous and onerous duties involving permanently long hours of overtime such as surveillance work and kidnap cases. Payments will vary from 500 to 5000 pounds. The starting salary of older recruits will rise from the current 17,733 pounds to 20,244 pounds in April 2003. Proposed reductions in premium payments for overtime working will now be phased in over two years and some of the reductions for bank holiday working have been restored.

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CUSTOMER FOCUS

Abstracts, PublicNet: 30 January, 2002

By Linton Barker, PricewaterhouseCoopersThis report commission by HM Treasury asks politicians and civil servants to base their policies and operations around the needs of customers, informed by customers wherever possible. The ‘user as customer’ is familiar in government reforms, but the concept has been limited in scope and focused on front line service delivery, with little consideration of the role of policy making. Without a change in attitudes, sustained improvement to meet public demand is unlikely. To achieve lasting results organizations need to embed customer focus throughout the system. Implementation must start by understanding the needs, expectations and behaviours of the public and then by adjusting every aspect of the organization to align with customer values. This includes the entire delivery chain from policy through to front line services, including strategy, performance measures, information systems and support processes.

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