Excess or wasteful commuting assessed by sex and socio-economic group: London, Birmingham and Manchester, England

This research considers the application of an urban zonal travel optimisation model to the actual commuting patterns between residences and workplaces in the three largest English cities in 1981 and 1991. The model produces an estimate of the average commuting distance required if individuals could exchange residences and workplaces to minimise distance travelled. In contrast to previous work published by these authors (Transportation Research) individuals in this paper are classified separately by socio-economic group and by sex. Residences and workplaces can be matched only by persons of the same socio-economic group or sex. The proportion of the actual commuting distance above the optimum is defined as excess or wasteful commuting. The existing literature using this methodology can be criticised on the grounds that individuals of different socio-economic groups (essentially based on employment type) have had their residences and workplaces coupled prior to the excess commuting calculations. This is certainly not how urban labour markets work. This paper is the first example to undertake the matching by separate segments of the labour force and as a consequence achieve a better approximation of reality. The results are surprising and counterintuitive - there appears to greater wasteful commuting (according to this methodology) for individuals travelling shorter distances - most often equated with women and lower socio-economic groups.

Bioinformatics service reconciliation by heterogeneous schema transformation

This paper focuses on the problem of bioinformatics service reconciliation in a generic and scalable manner so as to enhance interoperability in a highly evolving field. Using XML as a common representation format, but also supporting existing flat-file representation formats, we propose an approach for the scalable semi-automatic reconciliation of services, possibly invoked from within a scientific workflows tool. Service reconciliation may use the AutoMed heterogeneous data integration system as an intermediary service, or may use AutoMed to produce services that mediate between services. We discuss the application of our approach for the reconciliation of services in an example bioinformatics workflow. The main contribution of this research is an architecture for the scalable reconciliation of bioinformatics services

Risk and the GP budget holder

For most individuals, the use made of health care in a given year is determined principally by unpredictable random incidents. Of course, some individuals have a predictably higher predisposition to illness than others. However, the general consensus is that only a fraction of individual variability in health care costs can be predicted. The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of this inherent randomness for budget setting for GP purchasers. The paper argues that variability in utilization in the NHS is very high; that no formula will ever completely capture that variability, even for large populations; that the problem of variability is likely to be very acute for a GP practice; and that health authorities and GP budget holders will therefore need to adopt a range of strategies to manage the variability.fundholding

Skills for self employment

This small scale, explorative research study looks at the hitherto relatively under-researched question of the role of skills and training in the development of self employment. It draws on a literature review, data analysis from the Labour Force Survey, and a series of expert interviews. We summarise here the main findings from the research and, where appropriate, we highlight possible policy implications of those findings, although given the small scale, exploratory nature of the study, some of these issues would benefit from further investigation(and the report highlights possible avenues for new research to fill these gaps: see section 6.7). In thinking about policy we do not, for the most part, recommend specific interventions. Rather we highlight the kinds of considerations that policy-makers should be aware of when designing interventions" -- page i (Evidence Report). "This Annex presents an analysis of Labour Force Survey data, to provide descriptive statistics on the nature and extent of self-employment in the UK" -- page 1 (Annex)

The Asian Tsunami: An urgent case for improved government information systems and management

This discussion paper provides a timely consideration of how regional governments in Asia and other national governments around the world collect, manage, and share information in what is becoming an increasingly global community. The paper addresses the socio-technical perspective of government information systems and management, and draws on several public reports, media articles, and expert opinions published in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami of 26 December 2004. On the basis of the published material, the paper observes how critical early warning information was handled by government authorities in the hours before the tsunami wave strike, discusses the availability of technological solutions that can provide earthquake and tsunami warning information, and poses that government bureaucracies and human relations form the weakest link in the information chain. The type of early warning information system that might be created to avoid another loss of life, suggested improvements to inter-government information sharing and communications, and the emerging requirement for earthquake and tsunami information dissemination and education are also discussed. The paper concludes with a research agenda for government warning information systems and management

Protecting Government Information Post 9/11: An Evolving Role for Security Architectures

This paper discusses the results of a research study in the use of architectures in government agencies. The paper uses archival and time line analysis to present the context for securing the vast stores of protected government information, including the actions taken by the Australian government leading into the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (termed 9/11), and the government reactions post 9/11. The results show that at the strategic level, the Australian government commenced a process of examining information security vulnerabilities and establishing a security architecture only to terminate the initiative due to a lack of budgetary funding. Also, a qualitative research method was used to examine the security architecture implemented in a large government agency. Results from the agency case study demonstrate that security architectures form part of the fabric of the agency’s business, not only in terms of information and communications technology infrastructure, but also staff behaviours and attitudes to securing information stores and exchanges

Further evidence on the link between health care spending and health outcomes in England

This report describes results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative. It builds on our earlier report for the Health Foundation – The link between health care spending and health outcomes: evidence from English programme budgeting data – that took advantage of the availability of a major new dataset to examine the relationship between health care expenditure and mortality rates for two disease categories (cancer and circulation problems) across 300 English Primary Care Trusts. Our results are useful from a number of perspectives. Scientifically, they confirm our previous findings that health care has an important impact on health across a range of conditions, suggesting that those results were robust across programmes of care and across years. From a policy perspective, these results can help set priorities by informing resource allocation across a larger number of programmes of care. They also add further evidence to help NICE decide whether its current QALY threshold is at the right level.

The link between health care spending and health outcomes for the new English Primary Care Trusts

English programme budgeting data have yielded major new insights into the link between health care spending and health outcomes. This paper updates two recent studies that have used programme budgeting data for 295 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England to examine the link between spending and outcomes for several programmes of care. We use the same economic model employed in the two previous studies. It focuses on a decision maker who must allocate a fixed budget across programmes of care so as to maximize social welfare given a health production function for each programme. Two equations – a health outcome equation and an expenditure equation – are estimated for each programme (data permitting). The two previous studies employed expenditure data for 2004/05 and 2005/06 for 295 health authorities and found that in several care programmes – cancer, circulation problems, respiratory problems, gastro-intestinal problems, trauma burns and injury, and diabetes – expenditure had the anticipated negative effect on the mortality rate. Each health outcome equation was used to estimate the marginal cost of a life year saved. In 2006/07 the number of PCTs in England was reduced to 152, largely through a series of mergers. In addition, several changes were made to the methods employed to construct the programme budgeting data. This paper employs updated budgeting and mortality data for the new 152 PCTs to re-estimate health production and expenditure functions, and also presents updated estimates of the marginal cost of a life year saved in each programme. Although there are some differences, the results obtained are broadly similar to those presented in our two previous studies.

The Link Between Health Care Spending and Health Outcomes: Evidence from English Programme Budgeting Data

This report describes preliminary results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative.