The Learning Exchange Library
A guide to pathfinder mutuals Public services may be increasingly run by the council employees being encouraged to set up mutuals. Here's what you need to know.
DCLG Structural Reform Plan Set out in July 2010, this is the government's plan to free local councils and communities from centralised governance.
'Logic will get you from A to B but imagination will get you everywhere' This is a quote from the Kent Council's Total Place Final Report. Here's another, from page 39: 'As part of the Asset Management Strategy it is essential to undertake an in depth evaluation of the current usage of the school facilities across Kent. This will include looking at the option for establishing a commercial vehicle, possibly including private sector partners, to manage and operate the school estate outside of school hours (including weekends and holidays) through a consultative arrangement with the governance of the current schools estate (i.e. Governors and Head Teachers). It is important that the Extended Schools and Building Schools for the Future programme continue as new providers of community assets as well as drivers of educational change.'
Poverty and 'place': does locality make a difference? (From Poverty 128 Autumn 2007) Does locality matter when we are attempting to work out the level of poverty or disadvantage in an area? This surprising research reports states: 'Professionals wishing to develop services tailored to low-income families in the affluent contexts had often been frustrated by lack of funding, political will or community support. At the same time, professionals working in highly deprived areas talked of the risk of over-familiarity with poverty, of becoming immune and not noticing it any more, and may sometimes fail to give due recognition to the challenges it poses as a result.' The report says that the issues poor families living in relatively affluent areas with greater local inequality can face issues that have not been much explored so far. (By Carol-Ann Hooper (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York; Sarah Gorin and Claire Dyson (Researchers at NSPCC); and Christie Cabral (Researcher at ALSPAC, University of Bristol).
Total Place is a way for councils to ‘do more with less’. In Coventry Total Place aims to improve outcomes for young people by reshaping services, particularly through extended schoolsRead Lauren Higgs' report in Children and Young People Now.
Total Place: Better for less The official website for the initiative led by the Leadership Centre for Local Government and supported by Communities and Local Government, the Local Government Association and the IDeA.
The cost-cutting council merger A look at how Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham councils plan to combine their education services to save money.