Regional Governance in England: A Changing Role for the Government's Regional Offices?

Debates about the appropriate territorial scales of government to meet the challenges of economic, political and social change have gained momentum in Western Europe in recent years. In the UK, political mobilization has transformed constitutional arrangements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. By contrast, in the English regions, a less radical approach has been adopted, but the outcome has been a strengthening of the institutions of regional governance. A key feature has been the enhanced responsibilities of the Government Offices for the Regions, which have been encouraged to build on their traditional administrative functions and adopt a more strategic role. This article explores the Offices' contribution to regional and local governance. Our central argument is that although increasingly expected to act as a bridgehead between national and sub-national government and a focus for regional policy coordination, their potential role in filling the missing gap in English regional governance has not yet been fully grasped

'They know where to find us ….' Service providers' views on Early Support and minority ethnic communities

In this article we examine the views of multi‐professional service providers on the provision of Early Support for disabled children 0–3 years old from minority ethnic communities. We begin with a description of national policies relevant to this field and of Early Support before describing a national evaluation of its impact. We discuss findings from a sample of service providers. The range of views on provision for disabled children from diverse backgrounds is examined under three approaches. These are related to policy and research on access to services for minority ethnic communities. We argue that some of the views expressed are of concern, particularly in relation to assumptions made about service provider responsibilities. We also point out that the views of users from communities should not be assumed and consultation with communities and organizations representing them should be wide ranging and inclusive and built in from the outset of service provision

Taking City Regions Seriously? Response to Debate on 'City-Regions: New Geographies of Governance, Democracy and Social Reproduction'

This article takes up the invitation extended by the co-editors of the recent IJURR debate on city-regions for others to join them in 'a wider dialogue over the constitutive role of politics in the brave new world of 'city-regions'. It begins by considering the extent to which the collection was successful in describing this 'brave new world' and in populating it with the variety of social and environmental concerns which, the co-editors claimed, have so far been neglected in recent debates about the significance of city-regions. Adjudging the debate to have been only partially successful in these respects, the article goes on to argue that the goal the co-editors strove for - effectively to liberate 'city-regionalism' from its ostensible captors - is unlikely to be achieved unless and until its critics (1) engage more explicitly and seriously with claims that are made for the significance of changes in the material circumstances of city-regions, and (2) recognize that there is nothing inherently 'neoliberal' or regressive about the concept of the city-region or the way it is used. These arguments are illustrated with reference to the economics of city-regions and the politics of city-regionalism in England. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2007 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Recasting the city into city-regions: place promotion, competitiveness benchmarking and the quest for urban supremacy

This essay critically examines twenty-two studies designed to measure the competitiveness of cities and city-regions. We suggest that while this research may show statistical correlations between different dimensions of competitiveness, there is little in the way of causation. More fundamentally, our main point is to question the utility of such studies. Regional disparities in terms of wealth and living standards are well known; simply recasting the spatial scale to the city or the city-region does not change the underlying fundamentals of regional performance