REACHING OUT: AN ACTION PLAN ON SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Abstracts: October 9th, 2006

This Action Plan examines the reasons why, despite the progress made, there are still individuals and families who are cut off. About 2.5 per cent of every generation appear to be stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage. Their problems are multiple, entrenched and often passed down through generations.The Plan also concentrates on some key groups. There will be more support for very young children born into vulnerable circumstances. There will also be action to reduce teenage pregnancy because teenage motherhood often leads to reduced opportunities for mother and child alike. A green paper on Children in Care aimed at increasing educational attainment and ensuring greater stability and continuity in care is due to be published today.

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FROM TURNAROUND TO IMPROVEMENT

Abstracts: October 4th, 2006

This report sets out the findings from the evaluation of the Department for Communities and Local Government programme of involvement with councils classified as poorly performing. Most of the fifteen councils have either achieved, or are well on the way to achieving recovery. Those that have been slower to improve are now making progress. Overall the improvement rate of councils in the programme is better than other councils.The main weakness of the poorly performing councils was in corporate performance and greater progress has been made here than in service delivery. The report shows that employees are more positive about the outcomes achieved by the council and report improvements in their perception of capability, and capacity. Confidence in senior managers and councillors has exhibited a marked improvement, although the level of improvement is greater for managers than councillors, possibly reflecting their greater visibility to employees.

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COUNCIL WEBSITES GET MORE VISITS

Abstracts: October 2nd, 2006

The latest council website survey from the Society of IT Management shows that the use of council sites grew by 29%. In the same quarter, Internet usage was up by 2.5%. The survey period coincided with the start of the Government’s take up campaign, but with many other factors influencing the situation, it is impossible to assess the impact the campaign had on usage.The take up campaign targeted local residents, rather than businesses, and there has been a marked increase of 33.8% between the average usage by local residents for the quarter before the campaign, compared to the following quarter when the campaign was in progress.

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LEARNING FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF RECOVERY: A GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE

Abstracts: September 27th, 2006

This Good Practice Guide from the Department for Communities and Local Government sets out lessons about how councils can improve their performance. It draws on evidence gathered from the rapid improvements made by councils designated as poorly performing in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment . Their process has been tracked by INLOGOV at the University of Birmingham.It has been produced to help councils maintain improvements and to prevent performance decline. It also looks at what can be done to bring a council back on course when performance has declined.

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TELEWORKING: TRENDS AND PROSPECTS

Abstracts: September 25th, 2006

This report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development examines the way in which working from home, using a computer or telephone, is contributing to improving the work-life balance. It argues that many studies on teleworking artificially swell the numbers of teleworkers and it quotes the Office for National Statistics estimate that only 4 per cent of UK employees are full time teleworkers.The report claims that though teleworking has many merits and is likely to become more common in the future, it is currently far from as widespread as popularly perceived and unlikely ever to be a realistic prospect for the majority of workers. The likelihood is that any major breakthrough on flexible working will for most people take the form of reduced hours, flexi-time or changes in shift patterns. All features that are good for the work life balance.

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MOBILE COMPUTING IN BRACKNELL

Abstracts: September 20th, 2006

This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It reviews how Bracknell Forest Borough Council is developing its vision to become a digital community by implementing wireless and mobile technologies to serve the community and improve efficiency. The Council is working with Intel Solution Services to help understand how a digital community could function and the benefits achievable for the different stakeholders. It is pursuing a mobile service initiative which allows its staff to spend more time on the front line, increase efficiency and improve customer service.GovTV (www.eGovTV.tv) is a dedicated web-cast television channel for governors of public bodies, council members and senior executives across all public sector organisations and is available free to an unlimited audience at anytime, at any location via the internet.

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PARTNERSHIP IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

Abstracts: September 18th, 2006

This report, ‘Making It Real’ sets out the findings of a pilot initiative between the Improvement and Development Agency and the Aston Centre for Voluntary Action Research as part of the Partnership Improvement Programme. It examines how local authorities and the community sector are building their capacity to make partnership working more effective and developing a model to find better ways for creating sustainable cross-sector relationships.The report highlights important lessons from the pilot for both policy makers and practitioners, including examples of conditions that if met can help foster effective cross sector partnership working. It concludes with an evaluation of the pilot and an outline of the 2006/09 programme that will build on the experience and lessons of the pilot, to continue to develop a collaborative approach to partnership improvement.

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HEALTH OUTCOMES IN LOCAL AREA AGREEMENTS

Abstracts: September 13th, 2006

This paper from the Improvement and Development Agency highlights some of the experiences of a Strategic Health Authority, a Regional Public Health Group and a Government Office working together to support the development of local area agreements in London. The paper stresses that partnerships are essential to achieve health improvement and the reduction of health inequalities and that there is evidence that LAAs are making a difference. Contributions from public health professionals address some common issues from LAA leads in local councils.Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities have been told by the DoH Director of Programmes and Performance that they are expected to provide leadership and contribute to the performance management of local delivery in partnership with the Government Offices.

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WOMEN MANAGERS MOVE UP THE EARNINGS LEAGUE

Abstracts: September 11th, 2006

This survey from the Chartered Management Institute and Remuneration Economics, shows that women managers in local government increased their earnings by 3.4 per cent, against only 3.2 per cent for their male counterparts. This compares with an average national movement in earnings of 6.7 per cent for women and 5.6 per cent for men, in the twelve months to January 2006. It is also the highest movement in earnings for five years.Female managers in the local government arena are second in this year’s earnings league table – a rise of 4 places on 2005. In real terms this means that female managers in local government earned an average of 48,027 pounds in the year to January 2006. With male managers in the sector earning an average of 47,533 pounds it means women are earning 494 pounds more – a 1 per cent difference. The gap at director level in the local government sector is 4,834 pounds, with the average female director earning 124,181 pounds. Across the UK, in organisations with a turnover of less than 25 m pounds, women directors also come out on top, earning 127,369 pounds compared to 116,511 pounds for men.

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BEYOND EXCELLENCE

Abstracts: September 6th, 2006

This pamphlet from the Innovation Forum presents case studies showing how innovative local government can be and how powerfully a council can affect the lives of the people it serves. The studies include Kent County Council’s work to reduce hospital admissions and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s success in bringing together 20 services from 12 different agencies to provide a single infrastructure of support for parents with young children These, and other innovations, were created through local government’s ability to respond to the needs of local people and deliver the services that they want and need.The pamphlet goes beyond ‘best practice’ to ‘next practice’ by providing stories from successful local authorities that others can adapt and use as their own.

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