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The Information for All Project, based at the Norah Fry Research Centre, is investigating the current evidence on accessible information. As well as conducting a systematic review of the research literature, we have interviewed information providers (including service user‐led groups) about their practical experience of making information easier to understand. Data analysis is ongoing, and this article summarises the main emerging themes. Key messages include the importance of defining the target audience and their information needs and involving this audience through direct consultation and evaluation. It is essential that information that is made easier to understand is also made easier to access, and that careful attention is given to how the information will reach the end user.

Psychotropic medications are a treatment commonly used for people with learning disabilities. Legislation and guidance suggest that, for a person to give informed consent to treatment, they must have knowledge of the potential treatment. This study of 21 people with learning disabilities, and their carers and prescribers, living in four different regions of England, suggests that few of the people with learning disabilities were fully informed about their treatment. Many of their carers said that although they knew how to administer the medication, they knew little about why the person was taking it and what the implications might be. Despite this, people with learning disabilities made the general assumption that carers would, or should, know everything about their medication. The current provision of information to people with learning disabilities and carers was found to be poor. Four key strategies identified in supporting people with learning disabilities in obtaining information about medication were spending more time providing and reiterating key information, providing accurate, up‐to‐date, accessible information about medications, providing training for carers in wider aspects of medication usage, and tailoring information to each person's individual needs.

Organisations need to think about how to share information with people with learning difficulties. This paper draws on findings from a recent research project to inform the commissioning of easier information. Its aim is to promote more effective information provision and the best possible value for money.

This paper aims to explore the use of best practice benchmarking in civil aviation.

Evidence was gathered from two international questionnaire surveys of the top 200 airlines and the top 200 airports. Supplementary evidence included interviews with airline and airport managers.

The profile of responses was a good match to the samples. Benchmarking was identified as the most used performance improvement technique for both airlines and airports. Larger airlines were more likely to engage in benchmarking. Ease of usage and the cost relative to other performance improvement techniques were important factors in determining benchmarking uptake. Problems of data comparability and competitive sensitivity were raised. Airports had a greater tendency to concentrate on benchmarking with similar organisations and placed a relatively greater emphasis on its use for performance measurement over process improvement.

Further research should include a sample of detailed case studies to investigate exactly how different airlines and airports are using benchmarking.

Performance measurement has become increasingly important in aviation as markets become more competitive and the number of asymmetric shocks seems to increase.

The surveys revealed a very high utilisation of benchmarking, although a range of activities were actually being undertaken under the banner of benchmarking. The high uptake of benchmarking is probably due, to the turbulent nature of civil aviation that has placed significant economic pressures on managers.

Explores issues surrounding the recent evolution of benchmarking in the UK public sector with particular regard to local authorities. Argues that what is being done in the name of benchmarking in UK local authorities is fundamentally different to the current understanding of benchmarking practice in the private sector. Despite these differences, and somewhat ironically, the development of benchmarking in the public sector pre‐dates its popularity in the private sector. In the public sector, benchmarking is frequently in response to central government requirements, or is used for defensive reasons rather than striving for performance gains. These themes are captured in two new benchmarking typologies: compulsory and voluntary models of benchmarking. Concludes that: the reasons for benchmarking in the public sector are confused; pressures for accountability in the public sector may militate against real performance improvement; and an appropriate balance between the use of benchmarking for control and improvement purposes is yet to be achieved.

This paper surveys the population of independent breweries in the UK to ascertain their Web site usage and accessibility via the Internet. It finds independent breweries have tended to lag similarly sized business in other sectors in the provision or abandonment of company Web sites. Most of their Web sites have intuitively easy URLs and are readily accessible via brewery directories, but are less accessible via popular search engines. Most are corporate Web sites rather than marketing or selling tools. The paper concludes with a discussion of business and policy implications for small businesses and the Internet.

The motivation for this paper is to better understand the strengths and limitations of quantitative performance measures in a changing environment. The context is one of organisational change and innovative management. Using a case study approach, the paper presents a history of organisational change and focuses on attempts to drive and assess efficiency through performance measures in a public hospital‐based pathology laboratory. The various financial and non‐financial performance measures used in the laboratory are presented. A discrepancy between accounting reports and laboratory management analyses of costs is reported. The notorious difficulties of costing health services are examined through the dispute that arose about whether the mean cost‐per‐test was increasing or decreasing over a three‐year period. Competing representations of performance are analysed. Whilst the case study looks at a New Zealand example, many of the pressures facing pathology services are typical of medical laboratories worldwide. General issues of performance measurement are discussed.

Library management is struggling to improve productivity without reducing the quality of service to its users. With downsizing continuing to be a trend, the implementation of self‐checkout circulation systems may be an important technological investment for libraries to consider. In most large academic institutions, such circulation functions as checking out and renewing library materials have traditionally been performed by staff members. The climate may, however, be right to rethink the mode of service delivery systems and shift from providing full‐service to self‐service models, whereby the patron takes responsibility for checking out his or her own library materials.