Richard Kerley

Queen Margaret University | QMU · Division of Business, Enterprise and Management

Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs) are a mechanism that it is argued will deliver key national and local priorities based on a new relationship between central and local government in Scotland. SOAs are to be developed and implemented through partnership working exercised by Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). A survey of the first (2008) SOA par...

Alford was writing in the context of Australian government, Wholey speaking of the United States and although the opening quotation from the Audit Commission refers to arrangements in England and Wales, similar views hold good for the entire UK.

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the management of urban on street car parking as an example of the dilemmas of understanding and improving the performance of public management. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual paper that assesses empirical practice against different theoretical frameworks and suggests new management and policy direc...

An innovative approach for securing equipment pricing for multiple, multi-phased construction packages was development and implemented in accordance with the County's purchasing guidelines for competitive bidding. Utilizing a Best Value procurement process allowed the County to secure an optimum balance of pricing and performance for critical equip...

J. Stewart, Modernising British Local Government, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2003, 288 pp., £49.50 hbk, ISBN 0333964640 G. Stoker, Transforming Local Governance, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2004, 250 pp., £16.99 pbk, ISBN 0333802497 - - Volume 33 Issue 4 - RICHARD KERLEY

The organisation and control of council finances is central to the management of an authority. Notwithstanding various other aspects of the planning and decision-making process, the budget represents the most concrete and explicit statement of what the organisation hopes to do and achieve in current and future years; it is a quantitative expression...

The pre- and postwar period of growth and development for local government saw a major increase in the variety and volume of services provided by local authorities to the community. The period saw not simply an increase in the size and scale of local government but an increasing tendency to assume that newly developing public services should be pro...

Most of the action in the play On the Ledge by Alan Bleasdale (1993) is set outside the upper floors of a tower block. Various characters are either considering suicide or find themselves trapped there for other reasons. Moey, an exasperated firefighter, is trying to rescue them and gradually loosing his patience with their unwillingness to be resc...

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the performance of local government. The Audit Commission for England and Wales overstated the position when in one publication it claimed that ‘performance review has always been an essential element in the management of a local authority’ (1989b, p. 1). Actually, an examination of practice i...

It is common to find all large organisations, in both the public and private sectors, suggesting their most important asset to be the people who work for the organization. Typical is the claim made by a metropolitan district: ‘Employees are the councils most vital resource in delivering quality. ‘Our Vision for Kirklees’ explains that they must hav...

The previous chapter argued that the increasing interest in how local government is ‘managed’ is not a passing phenomenon, and that the interest will continue to grow and extend its influence across all local authorities, with considerable implications for all who are involved in any way. This concern for more effective management is not the prerog...

One week before the General Election of 1992 an article in The Independent newspaper was headlined ‘A Revolution That Will Go On’ (Hughes, 1992). The ‘revolution’ referred to was the changes in public service management that had occurred over the term of the previous three Conservative governments: ‘Thirteen years of Conservative government have re...

As one study has observed, management in Britain has often been viewed as a lower order activity: To the British, management has always been more of a practical art rather than an applied science. It is a word moreover with a rather lowly pedigree; to ‘manage’ in colloquial English usage means usually to ‘cope’ whilst ‘manager’ was traditionally a...

At some point during any discussion with local government officials at least one person present will either imply — or directly claim — that ‘everything would be much better if it weren’t for the members’. In similar terms, those services now subject to a contractual regime will often see managers express resentment that their service must carry a...

It clear that there will continue to be great deal of uncertainty about the future of local government. In England the Local Government Commission carries on with its rolling programme of review, with the one sure consequence of creating enmity and souring future necessary working relationships at every stopping point. In Wales and Scotland the gov...

Introduction - Public Management Fashion or Fixture? - Local Government Developments and Trends - Managing Services - Managing People - Managing Finance - Managing Competitively - Managing Performance - Users and Consumers - Managing Members or Members Managing? - The Future Management of Local Government

This article reviews the initial experience of Scottish local authorities in accommodating the significant and far‐reaching changes to service provision arising from the Local Government Act 1988. It considers some issues relevant to the changing environment and culture of local government, now operating in a regime of enforced tendering, and consi...