News

In the current economic climate sharing and partnering are obvious ways to reduce costs and maintain services. However, as our clients in local government and health have found out, this is easier said than done. The principal problem is one of governance of the shared activities. Understandably, councils and trusts are reluctant to give up sovereign power to a common body.

As difficult labour market conditions persist into 2011, Jobcentre Plus has an important role to play in helping to meet one of the government’s aspirations to provide ‘help for those who cannot work’ and ‘training and targeted support for those looking for work’. This is particularly the case for ethnic minority groups, who continue to face significant disadvantage in the labour market, both in terms of job entry and career progression. However, a recent study from IES has found that customer satisfaction with Jobcentre Plus services does not appear to be strongly linked to ethnicity. As such, the study suggests that ethnic minorities may benefit from an overall improvement in service delivery, rather than a differentiated approach.

Work-related stress is a major cause of absence from work, and stress levels are likely to be particularly high in the current uncertain economic climate. This is not a problem that is limited to the UK – stress is a concern in workplaces around the rest of Europe. While the extent of the problem varies from country to country, the root causes of stress have largely been similarly identified in most countries. A recent study undertaken by IES looks at stress levels and how stress is managed around the EU.

IES’s policy conference, held in November 2010, brought together experts, stakeholders and interested parties to debate issues relating to the health of our working population. Delegates heard contributions from UK experts, including Dame Carol Black, and speakers who set the UK experience in an international context.

Frequent staff movement in a civil service dominated by a generalist culture, coupled with the ‘policy pendulum’ driven by government changes in a first-past-the-post electoral system, are often held responsible for the chronic lack of institutional memory in the UK policy-making machine. This lack was highlighted by the public administration select committee earlier this year, which also noted that the incoming 1997 Labour Government adopted a ‘year zero mentality’ to policy-making.

Chief executives, amongst other UK leaders, have recently come under sharp criticism for being self-centred and not abashed about awarding themselves bumper bonuses during the economic downturn. However, IES research for NHS Yorkshire and Humber (NHS Y&H) revealed that chief executives in their organisations were clearly driven by wanting to make a difference to others: a welcome antidote to the popular negative press.