If approached in the right way, citizens are willing to change their behaviour and do more to help themselves and others, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
This publication describes the support available to councils to develop effective Healthwatch organisations.
Healthwatch is the new independent consumer champion for both health and social care. It will exist in two distinct forms – local Healthwatch, at local level, and Healthwatch England, at national level. The aim of local Healthwatch will be to give citizens and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality. Local Healthwatch will also provide or signpost people to information to help them make choices about health and care services.
Colin Barrow views localism as the means to empower communities and address local issues. It has the potential to increase individual and social responsibility and to create self-sustaining models of service delivery.
This report from the Public Management and Policy Association focuses on identifying the new skills that policy-making will require across all public services in an age of austerity under a coalition government whose agenda requires a paradigm shift in the roles and relationships of central and local government, communities and citizens.
This analysis of the services and support for young people, published by the Centre for Social and Economic Inclusion, reveals substantial fragmentation with 33 funding streams.
The fragmentation is compounded by complexity, confusion and duplication across funding streams. The learning and skills provision spans all ages from 13-24. There are learning grants for those aged 16 or over, but employment support and benefits tend to be focused on those aged over 18.
This document calls for the adoption of a tougher approach to tackle fraud against local councils organised around the three themes of Acknowledge, Prevent and Pursue. The approach demands a new partnership between central and local government. Local government must recognise the cross boundary nature of fraud and adopt the best practice identified throughout this document to tackle the highest fraud risks by sharing data and by conducting a review of the use of powers by councils.
In this article Simon Collinson reckons that central government departments are 30 per cent more complex than private companies. He has developed a methodology to measure the level of complexity in an organisation and has come up with the Global Simplicity Index. A certain amount of complexity is inevitable and as an organisation grows it needs systems and procedures to hold it together. But there can come a time when things just get too complicated and over-engineered.
This report from the Public Management and Policy Association is made up from papers by academics and practitioners which set out visions of where public services are going and how they might get there.
Research commissioned by BIS showed that regular one-to-one sessions with a business adviser are a key component of support to enter self-employment. There should be a single point of contact to build a relationship based on trust.
This toolkit supports community led re-generation. It provides local communities, councils, business and social enterprises with information to help them come together to agree priorities for their area, and work in partnership to drive forward their plans for regeneration. It is based on all stakeholders working collaboratively with local service providers to improve the lives and opportunities of local people and unlock growth.