Directory now live

Just a quick note to say the directory section of the new Localgov.co.uk is now live. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Chief among the changes is the new detail page, which uses functionality successfully employed elsewhere in the new design.

If you search on a council or individual now you will be taken to a page like this:



Each search now has a 'search overview' panel on the right of the screen which gives an 'at-a-glance' run down of the search results.






Click on one of these headings, and the element of the organisation detail is revealed, in this example principal officers.




Click here for more information on a full subscription to LocalGov.co.uk

The ‘nays’ have it, but at what cost?

Today, I find myself in the minority - the one-in-five minority, in fact. I voted ‘yes’ to congestion charging for Greater Manchester.

Having experienced the benefits in London first hand, I moved to the northwest last year and found myself once more in a major city dealing with this most thorny issue. It has been a divisive one, too, with my partner joining the many and voting a resounding ‘no’.

I was optimistic about the benefits of this more ambitious scheme for Manchester. Congestion charging has made inner London’s streets more civilized, boosted transport provision and made it a city for cyclists. I can attest to the latter, too, as I was a daily commuter from Liverpool Street to my employer’s offices in Pimlico for five years once the charge was introduced.

There was no reason why Greater Manchester, with congestion and its assocation problems extending well into its boroughs, could not benefit too.

Like London, here the campaigning has been intense. In recent weeks, you haven’t had to walk too far in the city before being presented with a pro or anti leaflet. Papers have been full of stories analysing the pros and cons of the scheme, and the pages have been plastered with advertisements placed by both the pro and anti camps.

Even pubs across the conurbation have drawn sides, too, with ‘no’ beer mats on tables in the Whitefield hostelry where I meet friends.

But during my conversations over drinks, it became increasingly clear that those hoping for the yes vote were, like me, optimistic.

My friends have been philosophical about the charge and, at least, have understood the proposals. Others hijacking our conversations have been resolute, though. The mere notion of paying more for motoring 'was fundamentally wrong' and their mistrust of ‘the government’ meant that there would be no real improvements in public transport.

Add to this the looming recession, and the plans did not stand a chance.

So what now? Manchester City Council has vowed to ensure investment in transport remains a priority for the city, but city officials will struggle to secure funding of the magnitude provided via the charge and Transport Innovation Fund bid.

And once the economy turns a corner, some (including the ‘nay sayers’) might just rue the opportunity that has been missed.

Counting on communities

Recently, I was asked to speak at the Policy Network annual conference in Leeds, just a hop over the Pennines for me.

This network serves local government officers with an interest in policy and performance review and I think it’s a useful forum to share ideas, practice and experiences in the interpretation of the central government 'vision' for local communities.

I was asked to read the runes, if you like, and try to predict what challenges would be facing local government over the next twelve months. This was no mean feat, particularly given the shifts in opinion polls and the current volatile economic climate.

After a fair amount of research, though, I tried to piece together a presentation that focused on a number of ‘key topics’. These were:

Regeneration
Efficiency
Local political revitalisation
Citizen engagement
Innovation

However, one thing that I couldn’t shed any light on was what good regeneration and successful communities look like or, perhaps more significantly, feel like. Is it the more predictable café culture pedestrainised streets that seemingly have prefaced every town centre regeneration plan, or something subtler?

This tricky topic has been brought to the fore again today with a study commissioned by the BBC on the feelings of loneliness and social fragmentation among communities in this country.

The measure, or anomie index as it is known, has essentially become worse for all areas of the UK over the last 30 years. There have been shifts in the league table, with the Holyrood area of Edinburgh now scoring the worst. Stoke-on-Trent has consistently performed well in this measure, though.

Such measures should be interpreted with care, of course, but the index might suggest something more fundamental should underpin local authorities’ regeneration efforts. But it also poses the question as to how much influence a council can, or should, exert. Communities need to invest time and effort to generate the social capital or ‘glue’ which binds them together and counteracts the resultant decline in trust between neighbours.

A counter argument might say that this measure is not relevant anymore, though, and that mobility is a good thing in that it allows communities to renew and refresh. The Internet, too, has facilitated this mobility both in terms of work, communication and access to services.

It would be interesting to hear your views.

The new home page: a guide

A key element of the new Localgov.co.uk design is the home page, which serves as a ‘shop window’ for the site at any particular time.



We have tried to reduce the clutter of the former home page and ensure you are able to access the information you require quickly and efficiently.

Consequently, news features prominently on the top left of the new home. This is updated throughout the day so ensure you check back regularly to keep in touch with developing news stories.

A brand news feature of the Localgov.co.uk home page is the promotional panel. This us to highlight particular bits of content that we think you will find of interest. This might be major news stories and analysis articles, or draw your attention to new features of the site and major announcements such as the shortlists for the MJ or LGN awards schemes. It also allows us to promote new video content on the site. Like the news, this is updated regularly.

Click on the headings below the images to view that section or use the play/pause buttons to navigate through.

Moving down the page, we have three more traditional ‘static’ panels that promote the important jobs section (namely job of the week), our analysis section (updated daily) and the directory (subscribers can search the directory from this panel).


Below that, and on the left, we have a new blogs section, which displays the very latest posts filed by our team of bloggers.


And last, but by no means least, is a new e-poll function. This works much more smoothly than the former polling tool and on selecting your response, the results are then displayed as a bar graph. Hover over each bar for more detail on the response.

Previous e-polls will also be archived and can be accessed by clicking on the e-poll link at the top of the section.

So there you have it, a quick run down of the new home page. I hope you like it. Please leave a comment or e-mail me if you have feedback.

Regards,

Matt Hobley.

LocalGov.co.uk’s new design

As you can see, LocalGov.co.uk is looking a little different today.

So why have we changed? Well, the new look is the result of a number of factors.

First, and most important, we have listened to what you liked most about the previous incarnation of the site, and have adjusted the new version accordingly. Our web analytics software has also informed these changes, as they show how our users navigate through the site and which sections they find more useful.

This process has also allowed us to reduce the clutter on the site and improve the signposting to content from our new look home page. There’s a great deal of information on the site, and we wanted to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.

In addition, we wanted to make LocalGov.co.uk more compliant – that is, we wanted the site to work more efficiently in a wider range of Internet browsers. This alone should improve your user experience.

One thing to bear in mind, though… the implementation of the new design will take place in phases (you’ll note this blog post is in the old design, for example).

Therefore, we have concentrated our initial efforts on the top landing pages of the site: home page, our content pages (including news, business and analysis) and the jobs section.

We are making a number of more fundamental changes to the directory section, based on user feedback, and these will come on stream later. Watch this space for updates.

Please take some time to familiarise yourself with the new look. If you have any feedback or comments, please email me. Although we have tested the news pages on a range of browsers and machines, there will inevtiably be glitches so please let me know if you encounter problems.

I will also be posting regularly about new features of the design so keep visiting the blog.

Regards,

Matt Hobley.

Handle with care

October will go down as a tumultuous month for local government, but how deep are the repercussions of the Icelandic bank crisis and the global credit crunch going to be felt by councils?

In some respects this is a rhetorical question and hard to answer with any conviction.

Currently, prime minister Gordon Brown is furiously clocking up the air miles in a bid to find consensus among world leaders to find a way out of the slump.

Back home, his pledges of huge injections of public funds into major infrastructure projects to kick start the economy have prompted attacks from the opposition, but done him the world of good in the opinion polls.

This seemingly gung-ho approach seems far removed from the more parochial concerns of councils seeking to keep local economies invigorated.

Add to this, many chief executives believe their organisations will feel the pinch and consequently have to ‘trim the fat’.

But councils are going to have to handle this squeeze with great care in an effort to ameliorate the effects of the crunch wherever possible.

Many authorities are major employers and the rationalization of service provision resulting in the closure of satellite offices may, in turn, devastate a rural community. Major re-scaling of regeneration projects, on the other hand, may not only underline the sense of gloom for citizens, but also be a retrograde step that has repercussions far beyond any economic upturn.

It is understandable to feel shell shocked in the wake of recent events. Now, though, is the time for calm, rational thought in order for councils to plot the right course for the future.

Localgov tricks tips: Statistics

As publishers of a number of titles serving local government, we get a good number of enquiries from people for statistics on councils.

In light of this, we have compiled some of the data we hold on local authorities in Loclagov.co.uk's statistics section.




The section features drop down menus which allow you to filter the statistics by a number of criteria (including finance, population, staffing) and, depending on the depth of the information we have, by council type and 'country'.

Once you have filtered the data, explanations of the tables are included by clicking on the 'further information about these results' link.

On the right road?

A poll has been issued by the Institution of Civil Engineers this week.

Accompanying the institution’s annual ‘state of the nation’ report, it found that of 3,000 people surveyed, some 60% thought that road user charging was a ‘fairer car’ tax.

Also, 83% of those questioned would leave their cars at home it public transport were improved.

Half felt they would use their cars less is a national system of road user charging was implemented.

It is tempting for the car-bashers (and I would regard myself as a ‘moderate’) to get overly excited about these findings, though.

Small sample aside, presenting road user charging in an environment where vehicle excise duty is reduced or axed is bound to appeal as most people blindly believe that they don’t use their cars that much.

Paying for your behaviour will always be more palatable than the blunt, blanket VED tool.

However, it would be wrong for people to surmise that they will be better off under this kind of regime.

If applied correctly, people who genuinely rely on their cars in more remote rural areas should feel they are getting a better deal. Commuters in congested zones will feel the pinch and either stomach the additional charges or switch to public transport (which should improve in accordance with these ‘demand management’ techniques).

All this is a fanciful notion, though. As ably demonstrated in London and now being tested in Manchester, congestion needs strong political leadership otherwise all the consultation and sound technical reasoning behind schemes will fall on deaf, or unwilling, ears.

And where is this political leadership coming from the at the moment?

The chief executives of tomorrow

I've just returned from this year's SOLACE conference in Belfast.

If I were to sum up the event, two things come to mind. First, how Belfast's regeneration has progressed for the good since my last visit some six years ago and second, how gloomy most chief executives are in the face of the current economic crisis.

The talk in the conference hall and in the bars was dominated by the topic, and the feeling among many senior officers was that their organisations would have to become even leaner as the country moves through this difficult phase. Hard decisions would have to be made.

The topic also featured prominently in a round table debate organised by Localgov.co.uk sister title the MJ and the Improvement and Development Agency. The proposition facing those attending was to consider whether the graduates of the National Graduate Development Programme would ultimately be equipped to lead councils in the future.

It was a fascinating discussion involving gradates of the scheme and chief exectuives and a range of issues were covered... the article will be appearing in the MJ and on Loclagov.co.uk shortly.

One point had a lasting effect on me, though. It became clear that the benefits of the NGDP hinge on the organisations which these candidates work for.

It saddened me to hear of 'bed blocking' senior officers who stymie innovation were seemingly not prepared to value those who challenge the status quo. Another participant suggested that some authorities were only interested in taking the views of consultants (at great expense) rather than their own professional teams.

Now I appreciate that this situation will not apply to all authorities, and that aspiring graduates do need to bolster their credibility with the pragmatic skills and experience gained running a service.

But councils must ensure they have strong career development and performance management practices in place if they are going to attract and nurture the brightest and best candidates in the future.

Credit crunch... some advice

Another day, and more gloomy headlines on the economy.

Although the credit crunch is (rightly) affecting Localgov.co.uk's news agenda at the moment, one contributor has at least taken the opportunity to offer some advice to authorities.

Director of finance at the London Borough of Newham, Richard Ennis, believes that the current economic situation is 'the biggest challenge facing local government'.

However, he says councils are ideally placed to lead the communities they represent. Read Mr Ennis's article here.

Upwardly mobile

I attended a seminar yesterday afternoon organised by the Periodical Publishers Association, the organisation which represents publishers of both consumer and business media.

The subject was mobile, and how this can be incorporated into the media mix for business publishers.

I have to say I was sceptical. Most people are already weary under the weight of e-mails that find their way into in-boxes during the course of the day. This point has been made abundantly clear in surveys of LocalGov.co.uk users. As a result, we only send our registered users a weekly summary of the news on the site and alerts as when the big stories break.

My concern about using the mobile stream deepened on hearing examples from consumer media, including readers of Hello! magazine paying for the latest image of Posh climbing out of a taxi to be beamed to their mobile. I can't find a link to this service on the magazine's website, though.

But parking this scepticism for one moment, there are applications for local government users as long as the terms of engagement are transparent... that is, you only get the information you want.

We have ideas, but I would like to hear from you.

If you have any further thoughts on services your may wish to receive via your Blackberries, PDAs, phones etc please leave a comment using the link below. You can e-mail me direct if you prefer at publisher@localgov.co.uk

Thanks

More video on Localgov.co.uk

Our editorial team has been busy again today getting a video together for our sister title, Surveyor magazine.

The video is a vox pop of public opinion on council winter services - or road gritting, to use its more popular term - and will be shown at Surveyor's leading conference for council officers in this field, Cold Comfort, which is taking place in Cardiff as I write. You can view it here.

The vox pop is a well-used (possibly over-used!) tool in local newspapers and it has its uses for Localgov.co.uk, too, given that councils' public service remit. Accordingly, we will be conducting these from time to time covering a range of service areas and initiatives.

And on the subject of video, MJ editor Michael Burton will be starting a video bulletin covering the major issues of the week. Michael has vast experience of the local government field and has been writing and commenting on the issues affecting the sector for more than 20 years.

We are aiming to have his first video live on Thursday.

Performance pays?

Back at my desk after the predictably soggy Scottish trip and I was interested to read comments on the site with regard to a story on managers’ pay.

The article is concerns the assistant chief executive at Mid Sussex DC defending above inflation pay increases for its top line staff.

Six senior officers are set to get an average of £7,000 extra each, a move the council’s deputy chief executive Kathryn Hall has justified, saying the officers have taken on more responsibilities.

With less fears over the economy and the inevitable effect on the public purse (see MJ editor Michael Burton's blog), this may be fair comment.

But in these uncertain times, and the Prime Minister’s constant calls for restraint in public sector pay, it understandably grates.

Indeed, commentators on this story suggest that more junior officers have had additional burdens but have not had the reward.

Meanwhile, at the Lib Dem conference, Vince Cable, the party’s Treasury spokesman, told delegates that as part of a new tax-cutting pledge, he would force all ‘non-frontline’ public servants earning over £100,000 annually to re-apply for their jobs.

A spokesman later added that the move would be ‘more of a value for money exercise to ensure that people on high public sector salaries provide genuine value to their organisations’.

Pay is always a thorny issue. If you have further views, it’d be good to hear from you. If you have views you'd like to share, please use the link below.

Blog holiday

Just to let you know I won't be posting for a while as I'll be spending a soggy week camping in the Highlands.

Should be back in action on the 19th September.

Kate Barker Interview

Chris Smith, the news editor on The MJ, has secured an interview with economist Kate Barker, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee and author of the Barker Housing Review.

Given the current turbulence in the housing market, it seemed timely to speak to her. Sadly, we didn't manage to get clearance to film it, but we do have a full transcript online.

Mrs Barker has some interesting comments on the role of councils and the developer in the housing mix, and responds to the recent Policy Exchange/London School of Economics report which, for some, appeared to call for the 'abandonment of regeneration in the North'.

You can view the interview here.

Segway video

Our editorial team attended an event in London yesterday.

MPs, led by the ever charismatic Lembit Opik, descended on the Department for Transport to lobby for a change in the law on Segway personal transporters... currently deemed illegal.

Mr Opik and his fellow Segway fans believe that this mode of transport could help fight congestion and pollution.

We've put together a video of the event... and one of our team had a chance to try the 'vehicle' for himself.

Check it out here.

Not a pint-sized problem

As I walked to my local train station for a trip to Manchester on Friday, I was stopped by a teenager who said: ‘Can you get ‘em in for us?’

I thought I’d misheard him.

The request repeated , I cottoned on to the fact that he wanted me to go into the off- licence and buy him ‘eight cans of Stella’. ‘I’ll give you the money,’ he added.

I refused. He looked about thirteen.

His request was timely, if nothing else.

That morning I had heard on the radio that certain radio DJs had come under fire for promoting a booze culture.

Among those in the firing line in the Government-funded research was Chris Moyles, presenter of Radio 1’s breakfast show, who can boast a huge audience, many of them impressionable youngsters.

I then came across the article in Localgov sister title the MJ on NEETs - youngsters ‘not in education, employment or training’. ‘Red’, a hyperactive 18 year-old Liverpool fan, is quoted in the piece.

Despite the buzz surrounding the city’s Capital of Culture celebrations, Red says the city has nothing for him and his friends, ‘so we hang around here during the day and get drunk at night’.

It struck me that these examples highlight the challenges posed by alcohol misuse. On the one hand, you have the affable, social face of excessive drinking, embodied by Moyles. On the other, you have the escapist recourse to alcohol fuelled by boredom and exclusion.

They are two distinct problems in many respects, but the effects can be felt heavily in local communities. Tackling them is far from simple, requiring a complex, multi-agency response allied to a wider sense of responsibility towards alcohol.

On this latter point, the wider media does have a role to play.

Localgov tricks and tips: Search

There's a great deal of information on LocalGov.co.uk. In addition to the 40,000 or so listings in the directory, there are thousands of articles stored in the site, and hundreds of jobs and events.
To help your through the wealth of data, there are a number of search options on the site which I will outline in this post.

Basic or ‘quick search’


First, and most obvious, you can run searches across the whole of LocalGov.co.uk using the search bar which appears on every main page in the site (shown above).

Tap in your keyword or expression and LocalGov.co.uk will provide you with a list of references, categorised by site section. A search tips link has been included on the search bar to assist you.

If you do not want to search the entire site, you can search by section via the search bar too. Simply click on the drop down to reveal the sections in LocalGov.co.uk



Section-based searches

In addition to this main search, LocalGov co.uk offers a range of more tailored searches.

For example, in the news section of the site, you can select a site topics or sectors to refine your search, or select a number of sectors by holding down the ctrl key while clicking on headings.

These screens also allows you to specify a date range for the search, either by searching on a predetermined period (a week, a month for example) or by setting your own date range.

Given the volume of information contained in subscription-protected part of the site, the directory, a number of search options are available, allowing you to search by officer type, organisation type and filter site statistics.

News ‘FASTsearch’

In addition to the quick search, the site also features a fast search function of the news section. This requires you to select a term in a news story with your mouse, double click and the three most recent articles relating to that term are displayed.



It does take a bit of deft mouse work, but this is a useful tool to access more information about a particular project or initiative quickly, without have to run a full site search.

One last trick. To save you having to type expressions into the search bar, your can select the term from an article and LocalGov.co.uk automatically fills the search panel in for you.



If you have further suggestion for improving the search functions on LocalGov.co.uk, please either leave a comment on this post or email me.

Happy searching!

Flexible Fenland

There is an interesting response on the site today from chief executive of Fenland DC Tim Pilsbury.

Writing in Localgov.co.uk sister title The MJ, Mr Pilsbury outlines his surprise at the media coverage after it emerged that one of his council’s officers would be retained on a part-time basis after he had moved to Australia.

It looks like the Cambridgeshire district has fallen victim of the silly season, as Mr Pilsbury says that his council had the ‘world’s media on its doorstep’ last week. What certain elements the popular press did not really want to stomach, though, is the rationale behind this move.

Good succession planning is something all competent organisations should aspire to, and Fenland is doing just that with this move.

The officer in question, Mat Taylor, will work remotely one day a week to maintain continuity through the next service planning cycle.

As Mr Pilsbury points out, the council will also have a coach and mentor for Mr Taylor’s replacement and, due to a reshuffle of the corporate management team, this has all been achieved on a cost-neutral basis.

This story, therefore, says more about media attitudes to local government and, to a lesser extent, flexible working practice.

For some hacks, the image of a council officer working on the beach was too good to ignore… naturally, it would be a great skive too, as that’s all working from home is, right?

You’ll note from my biog that I’m a little biased here. I divide my time between a home office and our London HQ.

The fact is that technology has improved considerably and, with the right management structures in place, working practices as flexible as the Fenland example are possible, however radical they may appear at first.

Safe as houses?

After much speculation ministers have unveiled plans to ease he pain of the ailing housing market.

Amid what the experts have referred to as ‘tinkering’, using tools such a year-long holiday for stamp duty on a fifth of homes currently on the market, a role has also been identified for councils.

These measures are designed to help ‘decent’ people, to use the communities secretary Hazel Blears’ expression, struggling to buy for the first time or struggling to keep hold of their properties.

Indeed, the measures could help some people stay in their homes during these difficult times... first time buyers may continue to think twice, though.

But the Local Government Information Unit thinks more can be done, and urges councils to be ‘imaginative and bold’ in providing support for mortgages.

It cites examples such as Liverpool City Council’s plans to act as a guarantor for mortgages.

Commendable as this may be, one can’t help thinking that there is a worrying sense of the inevitable about all this.

House prices are still over-valued in this country and some commentators have been claiming for a while now that a correction is needed –the full expression of market forces, if you like.

A year or so ago, many were predicting a gentle fall in the market and not a repeat of the 90s crash. A lid would be kept on interest rates and unemployment would remain strong, they said.

What they didn’t account for would be the sub-prime lending crisis and the subsequent shrinking of the mortgage market, and energy and food price hikes. Now, employment in this country looks less certain.

So, with this cocktail of conditions, a correction seems inevitable, particularly when financial institutions have closed their doors to customers to let their burns heal.

One can hope there won’t be a crash, but how much should councils get involved with ameliorating the effects of an ailign housing market that ultimately they cannot control?

Welcome...

... to the start of something that I hope you'll find interesting.

Having worked on Localgov.co.uk for over a year now - and with quite a few exciting developments around the corner - I thought it would be helpful to establish this blog to keep users aware of new site features and, more importantly, to get your feedback.

I've had some interesting and fruitful chats with users over the last 12 months or so and some of the suggestions have already been incorporated into our on-going improvement programme. Others have been factored into further developments.

However, this blog will not just be about the site. It'll give me, and you, an opportunity to comment on issues affecting the local government sector. A good number of you have aired your views directly in response to articles on the site and I was keen to carry this over to the blog.

In common with the site comment, you will have the option to post anonymously if you wish, as I realise that some of you are constrained by your employers. That said, please keep things clean... and legal!