The reticence within the coalition government to base public service reform on the adoption of the Total Place approach has been overcome and modest plans to extend Community Budgets have been replaced with additional pilots in 14 areas.
Read more on PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM SCALED UP WITH MORE COMMUNITY BUDGET PILOTS…
Plans to give councils more financial freedom will provide incentives to promote local growth over the long term and reduce dependency on central government. Councils will be able to retain a proportion of business rates which currently are all paid to the Treasury and re-distributed as grants.
The radical reform of the police service, which involves the creation of Police and Crime Commissioners, will be speeded up by the axing of the National Policing Improvement Agency and the creation of a new top body. ‘The reform programme is aimed at securing the most radical change for more than 50 years.
Plans to radically transform the lives of the country’s most troubled families move community budgets into the mainstream. They mark a move away from traditional thinking with silo approaches to service delivery and put multi-agency working to the forefront.
Read more on TROUBLED FAMILIES PLANS BOOST COMMUNITY BUDGETS AND MULTI-AGENCY WORKING…
Ofsted inspectors found that the teaching of ICT in many schools is inadequate. The problem is particularly acute in secondary schools.
The latest Ofsted report has found that achievement in information, communication and technology (ICT) was inadequate in almost a fifth of the secondary schools visited. Inspectors found that how well pupils did in secondary schools was adversely affected by the lack of challenge for more able students and poor coverage of key aspects of the ICT curriculum.
Mary Portas has set out a vision for town centres and called for joint action to put the heart back into the centre of high streets.
The Review makes ambitious recommendations on what can be done by government, councils and business to help high streets deliver something new. The focus is on re-imagining the high streets as exciting social hubs for shopping, learning socialising and having fun.
Collaborations with private sector is expected to double, but almost half of leaders do not believe public-private collaboration will succeed. The risks include potential damage to public service delivery and opposition and resentment towards the trend among public sector leaders.
Read more on PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERS VOICE RISKS IN COLLABORATION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR…
Local government will shrink by a quarter by 2015. Advice on how to manage shrinkage has come from the Audit Commission working with the Local Government Association.
Planned budget cuts mean that councils need to reduce their workforce costs substantially while still providing much needed services. This joint report ‘Work in progress: meeting local needs with lower workforce costs’ is aimed at councils as employers, it shows how local authorities across England are reducing their workforce costs, with some finding creative solutions.
A Mutuals Information Service has been launched to give public sector workers information about mutual models and signpost to help them set up mutuals to deliver public services. It is funded by the Cabinet Office.
The Home Office has set up a metal theft task force to co-ordinate action across departments and law enforcement agencies. It will target metal thieves and scrap metal dealers who trade in stolen goods.
© PublicNet is a KnowShare production | Technology by Jag Singh + Hilton & Hilton Ltd | Admin Log in