Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy



Public Money & Management

Volume 27, Number 3

June 2007

Contents

THEME: REGENERATION MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Editorial
John Diamond, Joyce Liddle, Mike Rowe and Alan Southern

Interpersonal Skills and Reflection in Regeneration Practice
Carolyn Kagan discusses some of the ways that practitioners can develop their interpersonal skills.

Delivering Regeneration Skills for Housing Professionals
Traditional ways of delivering public services are being challenged and public sector organizations are seeking people with new skill sets to deliver and sustain change. Veronica Coatham shows how higher education can assist in the transformation process.

Skills Training for Regeneration ‘Recipients’
Alongside efforts to improve practitioners' skills to deliver regeneration policy in the UK, the government has been actively encouraging members of 'target' communities to participate in such activities. Less attention has been paid to the impact of skills training for regeneration 'recipients'. Simon Pemberton explores the degree to which the Housing Market Renewal Initiative Pathfinder programme has offered 'flexibility' in respect of promoting and utilizing knowledge and skills acquisition.

Reflections on Regeneration Management Skills Research
Gaps in regeneration management skills include leadership, especially in the context of the multi agency and community working necessarily involved in regeneration. Joyce Liddle and John Diamond explain why there is also a need to nurture the developing links between practitioners and academics in delivering the required research.

NON-THEME ARTICLES

If You Can’t Measure It, How Can You Manage It? Management and Governance in Higher Educational Institutions
The oft-promoted wisdom that says 'if you can't measure it, you can't manage it' has mutated into a nostrum of the airport management manuals that suggest 'you have to measure it to manage it'. This has manifested itself in numerous ways and has intertwined with a host of other concerns and neuroses that affect present-day life. Jane Broadbent considers management and governance in higher educational institutions.

Chaos, Complexity and Transformations in Social Care Policy in England
The concepts of chaos and complexity theory can be used to describe change in policy systems. Philip Haynes does so for social care policy in England from 1981. He shows the imprecise nature of policy action and the instabilities and fluctuations of social care markets.

Collaborative Commissioning of Secondary Care Services by Primary Care Trusts
Kate Baxter, Marjorie Weiss and Julian Le Grand examine collaborations between primary care trusts in the commissioning of secondary care services in England. They apply principal-agent theory qualitatively to two case studies. Sharing information was not an issue for these case studies, but agreeing joint objectives was a major problem.

‘Weighting and Scoring’ in Theory and in Practice
Starting with the Treasury's Green Book definition of the 'weighting and scoring' technique in option appraisal, Mervyn Stone and Joan Davis resolve a challenging theoretical paradox and then look at the strength of the current bridge between theory and its practical implementation. Two case studies in which the technique is treated as 'standard NHS practice' are critically evaluated. The article concludes with suggestions for better implementation of such easily abused quantitative methods.

NEW DEVELOPMENT

Performance Measurement and the English Ambulance Service
Performance indicators used in the ambulance service in England are one-dimensional and do not reflect the widening role of the ambulance paramedic. The development of a broader range of indicators is thus to be encouraged. Geoffrey Heath and James Radcliffe present a case study that shows the consequences of simplistic indicators, and important implications for our understanding of NPM.