English councils outside the capital are set to clash with their London counterparts as local authorities scrabble for resources in a tight fiscal climate.
When the winners of the first phase of the Department for Work and Pensions' Pathways to Work contracts were announced in September, the sense of disappointment among voluntary organisations was...
Councils can drive down costs and improve the quality of their services by increasing their use of competition and market mechanisms, according to the Audit Commission.
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is one half of the most challenging education upheaval yet. Will it provide firm foundations for further and higher education and boost the UK...
A report this month showed that councils are still dragging their feet when it comes to trading and charging. Even the government is getting exasperated at their refusal to make the most of their...
There are big ambitions for the Comprehensive Area Assessment: for it to judge how well councils are serving their communities, and for it to be a more nimble form of inspection than its predecessor...
The PFI has proved its worth in many projects, large and small, but it is not the only funding game in town particularly when flexibility is needed. Nick Prior explains
Despite the rhetoric, the public sector is still handcuffed by bureaucracy and targets. A better solution is performance contracting, which has worked in prisons and has the power to bring creativity...
From public sector productivity to migration, official statistics have rarely been so hotly contested. Tony Travers analyses the reasons for the party-political punch-ups
Local government minister John Healey has revealed 11 areas that will act as 'troubleshooters' for the introduction of new partnerships to improve local services under Whitehall's devolution agenda.
Candidates standing for local elections are still overwhelmingly white, male and over 55, according to a new survey by the Improvement and Development Agency.
The director of finance of the Welsh Assembly Government has come under fire following what council leaders described as an 'appalling' settlement for councils.
A flagship government policy aimed at encouraging GPs to shape local NHS services through a beefed-up commissioning role is struggling to take off, the Audit Commission has found.
Star ratings could give way to a traffic-light system of inspection, it emerged this week as public service watchdogs set out proposals for a radical revamp of the local inspection regime.