News & Views New Risks Special edition

Local Government in particular and public services in general face the biggest changes in 50 years and will need to adapt and evolve to succeed.  The focus on achieving significant cost savings, delivering outcomes rather than just services, the need to achieve challenging efficiency targets, working in partnership, structural change and the increasing reliance on technology all create a new world of risk.

In this special edition of News & Views we put the spotlight on this new world of risk and provide part two of our special report on the emerging supply chain risk as well as other, thought-provoking, informative articles filled with insight and solutions including:

• A focus on reputation risk – an increasingly important issue for public service organisations.  We look at why reputations are more vulnerable than ever.
• Part two of the News & Views report on supply chain management in public services is a guide to the first actions to manage to this developing risk.
• Major Incident Response – This control for responding to major incidents may be outsourced, but the responsibility still remains with local authorities and NHS trusts.  We explore what the responsibility for responding to major incidents is and how risks can be identified and managed – especially when control may have been outsourced.
• New challenges facing the third sector – In this article we discuss how community and social organisations (the third sector) must incorporate stronger risk practices.
• Industry experts, including Dave Prentis General Secretary of UNISON and Steve Bundred Chief Executive of the Audit Commission, give their view on the shape of local authorities to come.
• Local Strategic Partnerships have a role to create sustainable communities.  News & Views presents a guide to community resilience.
• The role of social housing in place shaping – Many organisations are responsible for community wellbeing and development, but none more so than social housing providers.  We look at the role, responsibilities and risks for social landlords.
• Climate change and environmental legislation force public sector organisations to face new risks.  We present a guide to these emerging risks.
• Staffing is the single largest spend for councils, but they rarely plan or manage their workforce recruitment, development and retention strategically.   We discuss how to plan a workforce.
• As higher education establishments face major changes to meet modern demands we look at why they must act more like businesses in the way they manage risks.
• Consortia have a place in the drive for best value.  We focus on the potential for long-term sustainable cost savings and effective risk management offered by the consortia approach and what it takes to achieve this potential.
• Derek Myers, Chair of the Programme Board of Capital Ambition, the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership for London steps onto the Soapbox and gives his views on local authority consortia.

Look out for News & Views arriving on customers’ desks in the next few days – or view it online in the member area.

From November customers will be able to view and search through archive copies of News & Views and Court Circular, also in the member area.  If you are a customer, click here to register for the member area