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Member policy briefings- Reform of 14-16 Performance Tables from 2014 (date: 13/02/2012)
- A good education for all: Ofsted consultation on amended inspection arrangements (date: 15/02/2012)
- Delivering the free entitlement to education for three- and four-year-olds: NAO report (date: 10/02/2012)
- Education and training – Raising the Participation Age – consultation on policies that will form regulations (date: 07/0...
- Building Engagement, Building Futures : 16-24 year olds in Education, Training and Work (date: 25/01/2012)
- High Speed 2 rail infrastructure project (date: 13/02/2012)
- Health Select Committee report on Social Care (date: 20/02/2012)
- Public car parking and local government: key trends and developments for 2012 (date: 16/01/2012)
Urban autonomy? ‘City deals’ and elected mayors – part 2
Part 2: How much new power is being devolved and what strings are attached? This is part of two of this post on city deals and elected mayors. The first post can be found here. In many ways the ‘city deals’, and the accompanying emphasis on elected mayors, give a solid and welcome geographic focus [...]
Urban autonomy? ‘City deals’ and elected mayors
Part 1: City-regions and Local Enterprise Partnerships Liverpool’s city deal highlights some important questions about how cities’ potential new freedoms will fit with the wider role of cities within a region, including their role in providing jobs to a wider Travel to Work Area (TTWA). Government guidance on city deals recognises that ‘in some areas the lowest appropriate [...]
Localism trumps secularism on council prayers
This article was first published by Total Politics. The recent High Court ruling that councils have no statutory right to hold prayers before meetings has continues to reverberate in local government. The decision follows an action bought against Bideford Town Council in Devon by a former councillor. Media prominence for the case was ensured by the [...]
Mr Pickles will be pleased. Most councils are set to freeze council tax this year
A press release from DCLG yesterday announced that over 200 councils have signalled intentions to freeze council tax over 2012/13. Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said “Freezing council tax is a concrete way councils can support residents in tough times, by keeping bills down for local families. Anything less is [...]
Tags: business rates, council tax, DCLG, Eric Pickles, Local Finance Bill, localism |
High Speed 2 rail infrastructure project
It’s not often that infrastructure planning and pop music charts overlap, but this unlikely marriage happened over Christmas 2011 when Oak Tree Lament by Dirty Mavis – a protest song opposing HS2 – nabbed top spot on HMV’s Christmas singles chart. Justine Greening acknowledged the divisions HS2 has created by conceding that: ‘It is clear [...]
Tags: Birmingham, HS2, infrastructure, Justine Greening, railways, transport |
How much of a risk is localism?
Glyn Gaskarth, a policy manager here at LGiU, took part in a Guardian debate last week on the potential risks involved with localism? A summary of his points can be found below: UK local councils actually run quite a tight fiscal ship: We need to ensure that central government cannot force local government to perform [...]
Twitter UK to present at the Lambeth Social
*NEW SPEAKER ADDED* We are very pleased to announce that Ruby Sharma from Twitter UK will be running a ‘getting to know Twitter’ session at the Lambeth Social. This will give some background to how twitter works, it’s reach and growth. There will also be time for some Q&As too. As part of Social Media Week, LGiU [...]
Tags: Lambeth, Social Media Week |
“The Localism Act – over to you”
Today we’re in Bristol hosting a major one-day policy conference for the south-west and west midlands. The Localism Act – over to you brings together Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell, Cities Advisor Lord Shipley, with a range of local councillors and officers as well as senior officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Speakers include Andrew Stunell [...]
The year local government takes charge
This article was first published by Total Politics. This year, many of the coalition’s localist policies come into effect. What will this mean for how we see local politics? 2012 looks like being a big year for local politics. Strangely, this may turn out to be a mixed blessing for local government. Media attention in this country [...]
A fair crack of the whip to fulfil role
This article was first published in TES Whatever you think about academies, it seems that they are here to stay. Forty per cent of secondary schools have converted, or are in the process of converting to, academy status and, although the rate of conversion has slowed, there is little reason to suppose that this number [...]
Tags: academies, education, local authorities, michael gove, schools |
LGiU and MJ survey on the Local Finance Bill
Ruth Keeling reports on LGC (£) today that “Ministers and councils are in disagreement over who should bear the brunt of a 10% cut in spending when council tax benefits are localised next year”. This squabble is part of the wider debate over the Local Finance Bill – currently making its way through the Commons. Local [...]
Tags: Local Finance Bill |
Community Organisers and Local Government
Earlier this week, we posted an overview of the second session of the Civil Society Innovation Network. To continue the discussion from this session, the Community Organisers programme have provided us with a guest blog, where they outlines how Community Organisers work and why they aren’t a threat to representative democracy. ——– The Community Organisers programme aims [...]
Health screening back on the agenda
Reported cases of diabetes increased by almost fifty per cent from 2005 to 2011. There are now 2.9 million sufferers, up from two million in 2005 when GPs first published diabetes data. Lord Collins of Highbury today called for the promotion of screening services to increase early detection of the condition. This proposal was contained [...]
Tags: diabetes, health, payment by results |
We should welcome the free-WiFi deal between O2 and Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea councils
This article was first published by the Guardian’s Local Government Network. There has been some quiet moaning about the news that O2 Telefonica has struck a deal with Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea councils to bring free Wi-Fi access to residents and visitors to the boroughs. One officer called the scheme “a waste of money”. [...]
Tags: 3G, 4G, gov2.0, Kensington and Chelsea, O2, social media, UKGov, Westminster, wifi |
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