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Archive for July, 2008

NAO report on DWP ‘Handling Customer Complaints’

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

In December 2007 we helped National Audit Office staff to define the scope of what was to be their next project, examining how the governments Department for Work and Pensions handles customer complaints. They have recently published their final report.
There are two points worth highlighting:

Only 1 in 5 complaints are being recorded (280,000 complaints are not [...]

UK Catalyst Awards - and why technology is boring…

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

The Catalyst Awards for Social Technology were presented by PM Gordon Brown this morning. It was an enormously impressive  celebration of ingenuity and creative passion of organisations and individuals who have put “new technology” to use in tackling a range of tricky social issues. All award winners and shortlisted projects are detailed on the Catalyst website - and across the [...]

DWP Welfare Reform - who benefits?

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Yesterday the Secretary for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, introduced the Green Paper on Welfare Reform “No One Written Off”. The contents were previewed at the DWP’s Annual Conference and highlighted what people can do rather than what they cannot do. Ministers talked about enabling the individual and an emphasis on employment was central.
“The Green [...]

On the Fiddle- The riddle of Fraud.

Friday, July 11th, 2008

“Some risk-taking good for young” according to leading entrepreneur, Simon Woodroffe in today’s Metro. He highlights the necessity of ‘a go for it’ attitude in a cotton wool culture that discourages children from being innovative and taking measured risks.
Entrepreneurship is a highly regarded skill in today’s society, Sir Alan Sugar has achieved celebrity status as [...]

G8: whose job to build a better world?

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

So, the leaders of  the G8 have issued their (heavily negotiated) final communiqué  with governments of each country signed-up to agreed positions on climate change, the global economy and tackling international political corruption  – generally setting about the job of building a better world.
But is it their job? …theirs alone?
Previous G8 meetings, notably Genoa, have [...]

Benefit Fraud

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Following the release of a report by the Public Accounts Committee  into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work on benefit fraud, senior MP Edward Leigh  has spoken out against the unacceptable reality that over £2 billion a year is lost due to error.
“The estimated amount of benefit lost each year to error by [...]

Benefits and tax credits - problems and solutions

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

In mid-June Joseph Rowntree Foundation  published ‘Problems in the delivery of benefits, tax credits and employment services’, This work references and complements our own report ‘Interact: benefits, tax credits and moving into work’, which we produced with Child Poverty Action Group and the Low Income Tax Reform Group. The report examined the complexity of peoples lives as they [...]

Think Research

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Nice to see that the Social Exclusion Taskforce, part of the Cabinet Office, recently published ‘Think Research: Using research evidence to inform service development for vulnerable groups’. We were involved in commenting on earlier drafts. I’m quite pleased with the final version, as it’s a useful resource, though it could have done with a bit [...]

We’re starting a Chain Reaction

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Yesterday I went to the 2gether Festival to talk about in public for the first time a new Community Links initiative called Chain Reaction.  Chain Reaction is about connecting people together from around the world – both virtually and in real life - to work together on new ideas for social change. 
The website www.chain-reaction.org went [...]

At last a ‘Minimum Income Standard for Britain’

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

I went along to the original launch announcing this research nearly two years ago, so it’s great to see the final report from Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and the Family Budget Unit at York University.
Download the findings here 
I’ve been really keen on this invaluable project because we now have a [...]