Scotland's largest local authority is to shed more than 400 posts following its decision to freeze council tax in line with the policy of the Scottish government.
Next month's decision on seven planned NHS independent sector treatment centres will show whether the government is committed to reforming the service, the CBI said this week.
An uncomfortable truth lurked amid all the congratulations that greeted last week's publication of the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessments, lauded as the best ever by ministers,...
A single Regional Health and Social Care Board is to be established in Northern Ireland, replacing four existing boards, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has announced.
New housing minister Caroline Flint provoked controversy this week by proposing that council and housing association tenants should be required to sign 'commitment contracts', showing they intend to...
Not only can the Local Government Information Unit's new executive director juggle family and work but he's handy with the knives, too, writes Joseph McHugh
The new Department for Children, Schools and Families, headed by secretary of state Ed Balls, is nothing if not ambitious, with a ten-year plan that encompasses all aspects of children's lives. But...
Scotland's groundbreaking policy of providing free personal and nursing care for elderly people was introduced without sufficient clarity about whether it was a universal entitlement or one dependent...
The government has ordered a review of the eligibility criteria for adult social care services, after a report by the Commission for Social Care Inspection warned that hundreds of thousands of...
As Peter Hain reflects on the end of his ministerial career, he can at least console himself that he oversaw the re-establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
NHS productivity is still falling by an average of 2% a year, despite the extra billions of pounds that have been pumped into the health service in recent years, official statistics have revealed.
Extra money for health, housing and higher education was announced by the Northern Ireland finance minister, the Democratic Unionists' Peter Robinson, as he finalises his Budget for 2008/09.
The IDA showed it was taking equality issues seriously when it hired big hitter Angela Mason as adviser to local government. She tells Joseph McHugh her plans
Local authorities' health overview and scrutiny committees' powers should be strengthened but councillors and MPs should not decide which treatments are funded by the health service, the NHS...
Senior MPs have called for dementia to be afforded the same status in the NHS as cancer and coronary heart disease, to improve the poor rates of diagnosis, treatment and care.
A Department of Health survey has revealed widespread doubts among GPs that the government's flagship practice-based commissioning policy is making any difference to the way they work.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Effectiveness has been criticised for failing to evaluate older medicines that might not be providing value for money.
Prevention is the government's big idea for the NHS in 2008, with an ambitious screening programme, personal health and social care budgets and a push against obesity and binge-drinking. Noel...
Trade union Unison has warned Birmingham City Council to 'pull back from the brink' as more than 20,000 staff ballot for strike action over the imposition of new contracts.
