Department for Work and Pensions minister James Plaskitt has launched a comprehensive initiative designed to save the benefits system £1 billion over the next six years.

Entitled ‘Getting Welfare Right: Tackling Error in the Benefits System’, it is the first such strategy of its scope and outlines plans to identify and correct extant flaws in the system, prevent new problems arising and reduce the number of incorrect benefit payments.

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An inquiry is being launched into the growing importance of charity and voluntary organisations in terms of providing public services.

Non-governmental third sector organisations are playing an increasingly important societal role, providing stiff competition for traditional private sector contractors and receiving more and more public commissions from the government.

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Communities and Local Government has awarded the London Borough of Redbridge the sum of £2.3 million to help realise a transformation of the area.

Awarded via the Growth Area Funding (GAF) initiative, the sum will be used to acquire land as part of a broader project to overhaul local planning, with a new landmark public square and improved street design.

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Risk management plays an integral role in financial planning for 81 per cent of local authorities, a new survey reveals.

The National Forum for Risk Management in the Public Sector (Alarm) also found that risk management is closely tied to strategic planning at 78 per cent of councils.

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Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have voted decisively in favour of industrial action in an ongoing dispute over pay, job security and civil service privatisation.

Objecting to the approach adopted by the government in its drive to improve efficiency and reduce costs by cutting 84,000 civil and public service jobs, 61.3 per cent of civil servants in the poll voted for a strike, while 77.9 per cent called for action of some form.

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