Contact me: A plodding response to police commissioners 27 January 2012 08.00 The government announcement this week that "super Thursday" – 15 November – will be the election date for both police commissioners and cities that opt for directly elected mayors comes as interest in the new policing system is growing. Police accountability is a messy issue in Britain. Polling data from organisations such as Ipsos Mori shows public satisfaction with the police force is weak; it generally hovers around the 50% mark or lower (similar to the average for local government). The police are often seen as unresponsive to local concerns about crime, as public anger at the handling of last summer's riots demonstrated. Much of the British public – and many politicians – believe crime and public safety lend themselves to simplistic, heavy-handed solutions and are frustrated that "policing by consent" dominates current police thinking. Elected police commissioners are intended to bridge this divide by making policing more responsive to local concerns. Read the full article on the Guardian local government network… Why doctors and NHS managers drifted apart 24 January 2012 08.00 The need for doctors to be working in concert with managers has never been greater, as the NHS tries to secure productivity gains which no healthcare system in the world has achieved. But why are medics so distant from managers, and are attitudes changing? The so-called Nicholson challenge to find £20bn of extra productivity by 2014-15 – equivalent to about 4% a year – is impossible without the commitment and expertise of doctors. The programme intended to deliver it, known as QIPP – quality, innovation, productivity and prevention – means changes to the way doctors work on an industrial scale. Yet, for many years they have been disengaged from, and often disenchanted with the managers wanting reform. Read the full article on the Guardian health network… Localist ministers undermine local democracy 20 January 2012 08.00 IThey just don't get it. Week after week the government that claims to be the champion of localism tramples on local government autonomy. In the past month there have been four occasions when Whitehall departments have micromanaged local affairs on major issues – local taxation, broadband, waste and troubled families. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced just before Christmas what even he admitted was a "challenging" timetable for councils to bid for £530m to fund the extension of superfast broadband (or as a South Korean would see it, incredibly slow broadband). They have until the end of February to submit a plan to get broadband to areas currently excluded, known as "notspots". Read the full article on the Guardian local government network… A fractious start to 2012 for council finance 13 January 2012 08.00 It has been a fractious start to the year for local government finance, with both the pension negotiations and government reforms to the council funding system under attack. Eric Pickles was at the scene of both crimes. The communities secretary's attempt to reform local government finance is winning few friends. In the second reading debate on the Local Government Finance Bill in the Commons on Tuesday, he complained about "grumblers" – and there are many. His plans to reward economic growth by allowing councils to retain part of any new business rates, and to allow borrowing against future business rate revenues through tax increment financing, are not living up to their earlier promise. Read the full article on the Guardian local government network… How does the DH offload £300m in a hurry? 12 January 2012 08.00 The Department of Health is sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds it doesn’t know how to spend. As the Health Service Journal revealed last week (£), the DH has suddenly started scrabbling around for ways to use £300 million of capital budget. Some trusts have been given only seven working days to apply, others don’t even know about it. The DH told the BMJ that “thanks to good management of central capital budgets, we have identified capital funding which could be made available to the NHS. We are now in discussions with the NHS to see how it could best be spent.” This is a counter-intuitive use of the term “best,” as cobbling multi-million pound bids together in barely a week is not usually regarded as financial best practice. Read the full article at the British Medical Journal… Social care and education are the issues for 2012 6 January 2012 08.00 As well as trying to exploit the somewhat miserly opportunities presented by the Localism Act and continuing to both cut and innovate their way through the budget crisis, councils will have another big priority in 2012 – to reposition themselves in relation to both social care and education. After a stumbling start as education secretary, Michael Gove is leading an ambitious schools policy to which councils are struggling to provide a coherent response. The first flakes of the free schools movement and the avalanche of new academies are now being joined by concerted moves to allow schools to select pupils on ability. Read the full article on the Guardian local government network…