By Martin Reilly Smart cards with chips the size of a spec of dust will play an important role in the process of joining up public services and securing access. A consortium of councils are piloting their use with adults, young people and children. The author looks to the way smart card technology may impact on public services.

The Government has accepted new proposals setting out a fast and cost-effective procedure for settling disputes in local government over two-tier workforce issues. The Local Government Minister, Nick Raynsford, welcomed the joint proposal from authorities, trade unions and contractors designed to resolve disputes arising under the Code of Practice on workforce matters in local authority service contracts.He said the proposals met the government’s two commitments that the Code should be effective in securing fair treatment for all staff in local public services and that it should retain the flexibility necessary to improve the quality of those services. He has now asked all the parties involved to take the ideas forward in a way that will meet the criteria for a fast, efficient and cost-effective procedure which can be invoked after normal local procedures have been exhausted.

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Local authorities, central government departments and academic institutions have joined private companies in piloting a Health and Safety Executiveproject designed to tackle stress at work. The blueprint for the scheme,called Management Standards for Stress, is being placed on the HSE’s website to encourage all sizes and all types of companies to deal with the issue.More than one million days a year are lost due to stress at work and although guidance has been available for almost a decade, the Health and Safety Commission wanted an innovative approach which would provide the tools for bosses and workers to tackle the challenge in their own organisations. Any feedback they provide will be incorporated when the system is formally developed for launch next year.

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