Knowledge weekly bulletin

The LG Improvement and Development weekly bulletin provides you with links to:

• the latest improvement news from across the public sector
• case studies from councils in England and Wales
• government guidance and research
• feature articles on key issues
• interviews with key figures.

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Latest Knowledge weekly bulletin: 31 August 2010

Help the high street: building sustainable partnerships
Good town centre management is often dependent on strong partnerships. Yet, strong partnerships are not easy to forge. As part of the recently launched ‘100 ways to help the high street’ resource, find out what the key ingredients are for building a sustainable partnership. Explore what town centre managers and councils can do to ensure that competing objectives are resolved with the cooperation of the town’s different stakeholders.

Empowering young employees
As a third of local government staff are set to retire in the next 10 years, the sector is faced with a deficit of future managers. Read how Birmingham City Council is addressing this through Generation Best, its personal and professional development network that focuses on employees in the early stages of their careers.

Challenging anti-social behaviour
Wirral Council, awarded Respect status by the Home Office in 2007, has expanded its pioneering work to challenge anti-social behaviour. Discover how the council's work, together with its partners’, has seen a 23 per cent reduction in anti-social behaviour in 2009/10 compared with the baseline set in 2007/08.

Partnership resource refresh
The partnerships pages on the LG Improvement and Development website have been updated to reflect the change of government, the outlook for local area agreements and the part local strategic partnerships could play in the ‘big society’ agenda. Catch up with the refreshed resource now.

Adult social care: Putting People First
Read a selection of case studies which highlight emerging practice across the Putting People First (PPF) milestone areas as well as other key themes, such as workforce development. The research was compiled by the LGA Analysis and Research team between March and May 2010 and entailed an interview with one  council officer from each case study area. 

Workforce: addressing a dearth of under-25s
When North Yorkshire County Council realised in 2006 that only four per cent of its workforce was under 25, it took immediate action to start addressing the issue. Read how the resulting ‘young person’s recruitment agenda’ and Apprenticeships programme is helping to redress the workforce imbalance.

Stay Well Partnership – Healthy Living Network
The Stay Well Healthy Living Network is a project in Newham running a range of activities, training courses and events for people over the age of 50. Diverse activities, such as Tai Chi and cookery classes, are taking place in various locations in the borough and are based on the theme of healthy living.

See also

Collaborating online

A good place to grow older: learning and innovation from local government

Building relationships with the LGBT community

Social media used to fight obesity

Latest discussions

Communications: community online discussion forums

Deming and systems thinking: LG Improvement and Development Lean Thinking Community of Practice

Best value: procurement flowchart and contracts register

LG Group events 

Healthy communities: creating a people-centred service

Improving services, reducing costs: maximising the potential of Government Connect

Lead member seminars: the councillor's role in promoting personalisation and safeguarding

From LG Improvement and Development

Culture and sport national support offer
LG Improvement and Development maintains a directory of national support for councils and their partners to help improve culture and sport services. Visit the resource, which we have redesigned and updated to make it easier to find the tools, advice and guidance available from us and various non-departmental public bodies.

From the LIA Scheme

Delivering effective front-line innovation
Delivering public services in a diverse and sparsely populated rural county like Northumberland brings real challenges. Northumberland County Council has overcome these challenges by creating impressive partnerships and delivering effective front-line innovation. Find out what the Local Innovation Awards Scheme’s Panel member and Head of Programmes learned on their innovation tour to the north east of England.

Need help?

If you are having problems with any of the above, or you have a query or comment about LG Improvement and Development Knowledge, please:

telephone: 020 7296 6880
email: knowledge@local.gov.uk