By Steve Bradford and Rod MorganOf the ten pledges offered by New Labour in their 1997 Election Manifesto, one concerned crime. It contained a specific youth justice commitment: ‘We will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, and halve the time it takes persistent juvenile offenders to come to court’. In the 2001 Manifesto, Labour reported that they had substantially achieved this pledge: crime was falling and ‘The time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders is down from 142 days to 89 days-on track to halve the time within the five years promised in 1997’. Youth justice had been reformed and the Government would move on: it would build on the youth justice reforms by tackling provision for 18- to 20-year-olds. This article addresses four issues: why did youth justice reform figure prominently in New Labour’s 1997 plans; in what respects has the system of youth justice been reformed; have the reforms been a success; and what does the immediate future for youth justice hold?
Strategic Regulation was pioneered by the Audit Commission and is the heart of the current Strategic Plan. The Commission is now seeking views so it can set a clear vision of how, as an independent watchdog, it can help improve local services by focusing on value for money, and by addressing the interests of both the taxpayer and the service user. In order to get the focus right, the Commission wants to know what others think should be its top three priorities for the coming year.The consultation documents sets out the Commission’s view of the changes that will affect the public sector scene in the medium term and it wants feedback on the scenarios it presents. Among the factors which it sees as driving change are advances in technology which are raising people’s expectations of both public and private sector services, as well as providing solutions that meet their aspirations. It sees an older, more consumerist population demanding a wider range of bespoke services delivered in more user-friendly ways. The growing investment in public services, especially the NHS, is coming to an end. There will be downward pressure on public spending as the proportion of the population of working age decreases. Public services will be required to deliver more efficient, user-focused, sustainable services with greater transparency and accountability.
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This survey by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy reveals that although external funding is a valuable source of alternative income for local authorities, not all are making the most of the opportunities available to them. External Funding is money paid to local authorities not accounted for within the Formula Spending Share and distributed by various UK and EU agencies.The survey indicates that many local authorities do not know how many bids they submit annually and, of those, how many are successful. Feedback from local authorities indicates the need for effective performance management data on external funding. The vast majority of local authorities recognise the importance of this and welcome the benefits of such an approach. However, there is clearly room for improvement , particularly as external pressures are forcing them to take tough spending and funding decisions.
This survey from the Society of IT Management confirms progress on e-government but highlights concerns about councils’ future commitment to ICT-facilitated transformation.The survey sheds light on the cost and the benefit of the e-government initiative. Councils have spent in excess of 13bn pounds on ICT over the past five years, an increase in resources of 2bn pounds. Almost half of the new money has come from Central Government the balance has been found from Council budgets. Spending on ICT systems, services and staff in 2005/6 has risen by 23% to 3.3bn pounds pa, but this spending is well below that of organisations that use ICT aggressively to deliver their business. This leads to a concern about local authorities’ commitment to transformation.
This consultation document from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister describes the critical role for Local Strategic Partnerships and seeks views on the way forward. Collaboration is seen as essential to achieve efficient and coherent service delivery, rather than simply being ‘an addition to the day job’. Partnerships are crucial to the development of Local Area Agreements and the development of strong local leadership and devolved decision-making. In the last five years Partnerships have demonstrated that they are an effective vehicle for coordinating this way of working.The challenge is to develop LSPs, and ensure that they are well equipped with the right framework and the right powers to be able to realise their significant potential. The consultation focuses on a number of challenges including the need to develop and drive delivery of Local Area Agreements as well as the need to reshape community strategies. It also seeks views on the role of LSPs, their status and governance.
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This draft paper from the Association of Chief Police Officers seeks views on the way forward for neighbourhood policing. The aim is to produce national guidance to underpin an approach to neighbourhood policing across the Police Service. When the guidance has been finalized a neighbourhood policing programme will be set up to oversee development and implementation.Neighbourhood policing has been described as delivering control in response to public priorities. This requires an organised approach to tackling public concerns within the mainstream of police activity, while maintaining the consistent standards of responsiveness and quality of service. A commitment to neighbourhood policing requires consideration of structures and evidenced based deployment of resources and tactics. It also means maximising the opportunities for police support staff, collaborative partnerships and public support in order to increase the collective influence for resolving public concerns.
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This paper reviews the relevance of the principles of local public service boards, examines the issues and sets out a way forward. Proposals for boards were put forward last year by the Innovation Forum, which brings together top performing councils. The paper acknowledges that little progress on developing local public service boards has been made in the last year, but argues that the need for closer collaboration between local organisations will increase over the next ten years.Local area agreements, which have the weight of government behind them, are fostering joined-up working across organisational boundaries. Experience with the agreements has re-enforced the importance of improving the effectiveness of local partnership working. For details of conference on local area agreements go to http://www.publicnet.co.uk/publicnet/fevents.htm
This programme from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has been devised to help local authorities to develop their approaches to improved partnership working, implementing successful Local Area Agreements and rising to the challenge of the efficiency agenda. It consists of a package of tailored support and active learning to meet the individual needs of organisations. It provides guidance for the in-house team to identify specific needs and agree a performance pact setting out joint objectives and responsibilities. It also contains an action plan focused on tackling a real performance issue within the authority.The tailored support available could include help in identifying improvement routemaps; facilitated workshops and coaching and mentoring for top teams, members, heads of service, partners; service reviews and support for organisational development.
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By Barry LovedayAs a recent Home Office White Paper ‘Building Communities, Beating Crime’ demonstrates, radical change now confronts the police service. Policing responsibilities and police budgets are being devolved to Basic Command Units. There will be radical internal changes in the make up and role of police and civilian staff in the service.
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By Nick TilleyCrime prevention emerged as a separate policy issue in the late 1970s, with rising crime rates, disillusionment with traditional crime control methods and evidence that situational methods could be effective. There have since then been changes in language and approach. Situational crime prevention no longer dominates. The language is of community safety and crime reduction. The focus is on fear of crime and incivilities, as well as crime. Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships now have statutory responsibilities at a local level. While in some ways the circumstances are auspicious for improved, evidence-based policy and practice, they face substantial obstacles.