links for 2010-11-22

• Ed Miliband sets out 'profound' changes to Labour party
  ""I think David Cameron didn't win the last general election because he didn't undertake the profound change that I'm talking about for our party.""
  (tags: edmiliband davidcameron labour politics guardian)
• Mobility aid market comes under OFT scrutiny
  "The mobility aid sector – which sells items such as wheelchairs, and stair lifts – attracted 5,000 calls to the OFT last year. Mobility aids will be scrutinised by the Office of Fair Trading to determine whether consumers are well informed and treated fairly. The study, due to start early next year, will also consider whether the industry, which was worth £500m in 2008, is competitive."
  (tags: disability equality)
• Government spending over £25,000: download the data and help analyse it with our new app
  "The Government has released an enormous amount of data – some 157 spreadsheets containing every transaction by each one of 24 core departments detailing every item of spending over £25,000." Pretty incredible.
  (tags: opendata data government guardian technology transparency)
• Mutual decision: better healthcare or the end of the NHS?
  Fascinating article on employee-owned organisations and some major successes (and failures) of the last few years.
  (tags: cooperatives socialenterprise mutuals guardian nhs health)
• David Cameron – you're undoing the 'big society' we were making
  Beneath the headline are a number of good points about the challenges facing the voluntary sector.
  (tags: voluntarysector cuts volunteering reform bigsociety)
• Pressing ahead with personal budgets is a risk worth taking
  Great article from David Brindle exploring some of the complex (but ultimately overcomable) issues associated with Personal Budgets.
  (tags: personalisation personalbudgets socialcare reform work)
• NHS Proms have proved effective in assessing patient care
  Patient-recorded outcome measures were started by Bupa – who knew?
  (tags: health reform privatesector publicsector nhs)
• Community services can help improve patient care
  (tags: toread work health socialcare nhs)
• The public sector employment map of Britain
  Awesome beans.
  (tags: publicsector data gov2.0)
• Legal aid spending cuts to total £350m
  "Justice secretary unveils cuts to reduce £2bn annual bill with green paper to build 'more targeted' legal aid system. Plans to slash £350m a year from the legal aid budget were unveiled by the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, today."
  (tags: cuts coalition government)
• Manchester police to cut nearly 3,000 jobs over four years
  "Force's size to be reduced by nearly a quarter in changes aimed at saving £134m."
  (tags: cuts police)
• How to Get Your Idea Approved
  (tags: management)
• Government services to be online-only
  "Britons will be forced to apply online for government services such as student loans, driving licences, passports and benefits under cost-cutting plans to be unveiled this week. Officials say getting rid of all paper applications could save billions of pounds. They insist that vulnerable groups will be able to fill in forms digitally at their local post offices. The plans are likely to infuriate millions of people. Around 27% of households still have no internet connection at home and six million people aged over 65 have never used the web."
  (tags: gov2.0 coalition cuts equality theobserver)

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