cadence comments about accountability

22 Feb 2010

Local democracy and elected Mayors

The BBC in South Yorkshire has done a survey of 500 people about the mayoral system in troubled Doncaster Council. They have found that 73% of people do not know who the Mayor is and that the majority would not vote for mayoral system in a referendum ... more

21 Dec 2009

Do surveys make any difference? Ask Santa?

Do surveys make any difference? Does making information available to citizens change behaviour? Does sending a letter to Santa work? The government's early Christmas present this year is the announcement of a new Civic Health report ... more

10 Dec 2009

Frodo and localism

This week saw the announcement of the first new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) scores. Previously local authorities were mainly marked on the performance of their own services, via the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). As the Communities department puts it 'Comprehensive Area Assessment is a new tougher test for assessing the performance of local government. It also looks at how well all service providers are working together to deliver improvements across an area from crime reduction, housing and tackling recession, to regeneration, sustainability, and health'. The bit about 'how well all servies providers are working together' is the crucial point. If the CAA marks an area's fellowship then who are the ring holders? Are local authorities charged with the Frodo Baggins role? ... more

25 Nov 2009

Rewarding risk and collaboration?

The Guardian public service awards have been announced today. The whole tone is that innovation is the key to 'coming period of belt-tightening'. The overall winner is a partnerhsip between Birmingham's council and PCT, where they gave out cards offering free use of civic sports facilities, in return for attending four time a month. The aim is to reduce health inequalities and is attracitng interest form those responsible for ensuring a London Olympic legacy of participation in sport ... more

5 Nov 2009

Innovation Charter ?

A joint ippr/RSA event 'After the downturn' took place in Newcastle this week at the The Pukka Pie Arena or whatever St James' Park is called this week. Speakers John Tomaney, Deborah Jenkins, Sir George Russell all had interesting things to say, but it was Matthew Taylor of the RSA who shook things up. He descirbed the final report of the Commission on public sector reform 'a decent bit of work', but that it had a 'if only feel to it' ... more

2 Nov 2009

Public service paradox

ippr north has published the final report of the Commission on public sector reform in the North East. It is called Public service paradox ... more

26 Jun 2009

Public service reform - history and the RSA

The RSA's 2020 Public Services Trust has started to publish papers. One of the first is a Brief history of public service reform and it is a good read. It is one of three papers under the banner of 'scoping the challenges'. It outlines what they call a new settlement ... more

3 Mar 2009

Innovation and recession and the RSA

There are some fears that the recession endangers innovative approaches to public service delivery. Matthew Taylor of the RSA makes the opposing point well this week in his must-read blog ... more

4 Feb 2009

2020 Public Service Trust at the RSA

The RSA now hosts a new think tank called the 2020 Public Services Trust. Cadence Works attended their seminar this week on local partnership working between public bodies, with the recent focus of our work on locality innovation of the Whitehall Innovation Hub in mind. It kicked off with a presentation by the Leader of Nottingham City Council ... more

4 Feb 2009

2020 Public Service Trust at the RSA

The RSA now hosts a new think tank called the 2020 Public Services Trust. Cadence Works attended their seminar this week on local partnership working between public bodies, with the recent focus of our work on locality innovation of the Whitehall Innovation Hub in mind. It kicked off with a presentation by the Leader of Nottingham City Council ... more