The Government has launched a consultation process ahead of the referenda on the creation of elected regional assemblies. The exercise will cover campaign spending limits, the registration of permitted campaign groups and the running of a local referendum by all-postal ballot.The consultation comes before the votes on regional assemblies in the North West, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, which are expected to take place next autumn. Because the referenda will take place at the same time, the consultation paper proposes that they should be operated under the same set of rules.

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The Improvement and Development Agency is creating two new units to support local authorities with the implementation of e-government. IDeA is working with the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office and the Local Government Association to help councils with e-government and it has been asked to expand this work through the creation of specialist and complementary teams that are funded through the Local Government Online programme.The first is the e-Government Strategic Support Unit which will be an advisory service on local e-government and which will be available free of charge to support authorities by sharing good practice and by responding to enquiries and problems. The plan is for it to work on a ‘research once and share many times’ basis to reduce both the costs and risks of implementation.

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By Charlotte Revely. Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. The future for public services is radical change. The reading on the change ‘Richter’ scale is set to rise. For the people concerned in the upheavals this is the time to take stock. The author describes the way the issue is being tackled in the Civil Service and how people are being helped to establish what they want to do, and work out how to get it. This can convert threat to opportunity.

By Halima BegumThe report looks at the emerging importance of social capital and both the voluntary sector and government’s role in developing it. Social capital is defined as ‘the norms and networks enabling people to share resources and work together’. Social networks are an important asset for individuals and communities: those with a rich stock of social capital will be in a stronger position to confront poverty and take advantage of new opportunities. The authors explore how government policy and programmes can affect the relationship between social capital and the voluntary sector. The report is based on two community case studies in London’s east end, both of which have different levels of social capital. Included in the report’s recommendations is a proposal that social capital should stand as a policy objective in its own right alongside community development, civil renewal and participation and should be funded accordingly.

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Social workers from Blackburn with Darwen Council have broken new ground to become the first to advertise in the agricultural press to find foster carers.They thought the magazine ‘Farmers’ Weekly’ more usually associated with advertisements for farm machinery or fertilizer could be the perfect place to advertise for a foster family for a boy in the council’s care.Senior Social Worker Karen Wardle said staff believed the 11-year-old would be happiest living on a farm. He had found living in residential care very confining and it was important that he was found a foster placement that would give him the best opportunities to develop.

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More than half of England’s largest councils are now rated as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ and there has been a marked overall improvement in the performance of authorities, according to the second year of the Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment, which is published today.For the first time the Commission has been able to measure improvement in councils’ overall performance. Key findings in its report show twenty-six councils have risen at least one performance category compared with only nine that have dropped. It reveals that progress has been fastest among the worst councils, with 14 of the 34 that were ranked as ‘poor’ or ‘weak’ in 2002 moving up a category. Improvements have been concentrated in services for the young, and older and vulnerable people.

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More of the money which road users pay in taxation should go only to those authorities providing a safe and well-maintained road network, according to a leading motoring organisation. The call has come from the AA Motoring Trust, which has criticised Britain’s roads and the fact that highway authorities are not properly accountable to road users with councillors elected for short terms making decisions about long term road safety.The Trust says the lack of accountability means hundreds of lives are lost annually and a backlog of billions in road repairs has been built up. It cited figures which showed that Britain’s A-road network has skid resistance standards so poor that one mile in every five fails initial safety checks. Minor roads, it claims, where no independent safety review is carried out, are worse.

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Two thirds of English local councils expect to be e-enabled by March next year and most authorities are making good progress towards the 2005 target date for electronic enabling of services. Those are the key results of the IEG – Implementing e-Government – Round 3 statements, announced by the Government.Only 35 of the 399 local authorities asked to submit statements, were judged to have made unsatisfactory returns. They are being asked to re-submit by early February. The figures were welcomed by Local e-Government Minister Phil Hope, who said they showed councils were on track to meet the 2005 target. Recent months had seen the real benefits e-government could bring with Pathfinders and Partnerships transforming services across local government.

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The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) programme is being extended from Central Government to councils, NHS Trusts and other public bodies. WGA, which mirrors commercial accounting, will increase the completeness of public sector financial data by providing information on items not currently in existing measures of public finance such as provisions, contingent liabilities and future contract expenditure. The WGA programme aims to progressively increase the amount of audited data included directly in the UK National Accounts. Benefits include providing a source of robust audited financial data for central government to support policy analysis and resource allocation.The data required will be drawn from the information in published accounts, but there will also be a need to collect information on major transaction streams and balances. Dry running of the new style accounts will start in 2004/05 and full implementation will take place in 2006/07.

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By Jessica Mugaseth. Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. Life expectancy in Wales is some three years less than the best in Europe and figures for the long-term sick are disproportionately high. Hospital waiting lists are longer than in England, despite much higher spending. Derek Wanless, author of the comprehensive report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the future of the NHS has advised the Welsh Assembly that the current position of the NHS in Wales is not sustainable. The author summaries the report findings and looks at likely changes.