By Philip Taylor The lower birthrate and increased life expectancy are causing a re-think about the employment of older workers. In many countries centrally driven policies to encourage people to work longer are producing very limited results. The author calls for policies to be integrated at the centre of government and for a bottom up approach to implementing change involving local government, employer groups, trade unions and organisations working on age issues.

Schools of the future will provide community services tailored to meet local needs. Initially schools will be targeted in the most disadvantaged areas and then the initiative will be rolled out progressively nationwide. In addition, all local education authorities and schools will get planning support to provide extended services that meet local needs. The extended services will include childcare, health and social care, lifelong learning opportunities, family learning, parenting support, study support, sports and arts, and ICT access. At least one school in every local education authority will provide an extended service by 2006.Extended services will enable schools to focus on their core role of raising standards for pupils. They will help improve children’s motivation, behaviour and achievements by removing barriers to learning and helping teachers focus on their core job of teaching. Children’s learning will be supported by providing services such as speech therapy so that children do not miss half the school day travelling to an appointment. They will help parents balance work and family life by, for example, flexible school based childcare. Communities will benefit, for example, by local residents using schools resources and adult learning opportunities.

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The annual Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the ‘balanced scorecard’ for local government, has now become the focus for improving council services. New guidance to help councils drive up the quality of local services, issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, makes it clear that the CPA process is now the mechanism that will drive improvement. Through the process councils will identify their strengths and weaknesses and plans will seek to build on strengths and counter weaknesses. The CPA plan will be the sole annual plan prepared by all councils and it is here that they will record priorities for improvement and achievements. The first results from the 2002 Comprehensive Performance Assessment of larger councils were published in December 2002. The remaining councils will be brought into the CPA this year.The effect of this guidance is to alter the character of the Best Value regime. It will continue to be the review process to identify what improvements are possible and how they might be delivered. The process will however be steered by the CPA results. The requirement for councils to secure continuous improvement in all their functions remains unchanged.

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