With demand for social care at an all-time high, thanks to our ageing society and the impact of recession on families, the system finds itself under unprecedented pressure through severe cuts.
Councils should be given new powers to tackle land banking by developers including ‘use it or lose it’ planning powers, according to think tank Localis.
A new report from government think-tank Localis has revealed that innovation is vital in improving public services, according to respondents.
The pace of change in local government is beginning to increase rapidly. Most dramatically, there is strong support for a quantum shift towards real localism.
There are local authorities who are savvy and brimming with ideas who do want and deserve more control over policymaking, such as Manchester. Manchester has caught the eye of Chancellor George Osborne for being an experimental authority, and I look at its worker bee ethic in my Telegraph column today.
Localis’s Steven Howell took part in a Guardian Local Leaders live discussion on where next for public health?
There are many questions still to be answered about the reforms to the healthcare system. Fully integrated healthcare is a game successive governments have tried and failed to win. In order to achieve more effective integration, Localis’ report recommends a presumption in favour of data sharing, and a review of the Health and Wellbeing Boards to give them greater clout.
At first glance, the findings of the latest report from thinktank Localis could be dismissed as head-smackingly obvious. According to analysis of the transition of public health from NHS to council control, 96% of local authorities believe they will be able to improve the health of local residents. In short: councils think they do a good job. Well I never.
Using the form, councils can benchmark their boards against what it describes as four stages of board development: the ?young?, ?established?, ?mature? and ?exemplar? health and wellbeing board.
A change to freedom of information laws could present a significant revenue opportunity for councils, a former adviser to the Information Commissioner’s Office has claimed.