Patients attending independent sector treatment centres are safe, but it is impossible to say how their care compares with the NHS as the centres systematically fail to provide the relevant data, the...
The chief medical officer for England and Wales, Sir Liam Donaldson, has used his annual report to call for 'raided' public health funds to be restored.
Councils and other public service leaders rushed to unpick the substance of the government's forthcoming legislative plans as the prime minister broke with tradition and set out much of his programme.
Elderly people in some areas of England are 160 times more likely to receive NHS continuing care than others, startling figures published on July 13 reveal.
Councils and their partners need to make clear who disgruntled citizens should complain to about jointly delivered services, the local government ombudsman said this week.
New Health Secretary Alan Johnson is launching a much-needed charm offensive starting with a clinician-led NHS review. Seamus Ward assesses the chances of tackling the problems stacking up in his...
Sir Simon Milton, the new chair of the Local Government Association, believes that there are local solutions to a range of issues, from health to housing, and he is determined to fight for more...
The new prime minister's plan to give Parliament greater powers sounds good on paper. But, just like his predecessors, he has made major machinery-of-government changes without involving either House
Newly appointed local government minister John Healey has pledged to forge a 'new relationship' between central and local government and to devolve extensive powers to regional and local levels.
Soaring dementia levels are being ignored by health and social services across England: 'swept under the carpet' in the way cancer was in the 1950s, a senior MP and auditors warned this week.
Taking the politics out of the NHS sounds like an attractive idea. But an independent board would be bad for democracy and bad for our health, argue George Jones and John Stewart
It's been a challenging week for Team Gordon, as the new PM and his Cabinet strive to show who's in charge. Peter Riddell assesses what all the ministerial changes mean
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is unlikely to introduce an independent National Health Service board and could instead opt for a constitution covering the sector, say insiders.
Whitehall and wider public sector reorganisation and mergers must be based on clear rationales and not political expediency, public sector leaders have warned.
One in ten people in Britain are shut out of the labour market for reasons that are individual, complex and highly local. The solution is not David Freud's mega-contracts, but drastic devolution of...
Public sector regulators should promote a 'culture of curiosity' among service providers, the Audit Commission's chair, Michael O'Higgins, told delegates.
Computer glitches have been blamed for a substantial drop in council tax collection in 23 local authorities, leading to a loss of more than £26m from town hall budgets last year, Public Finance has...
Consumer satisfaction is one vital area of public services that is not getting the attention it deserves. The solution is to measure improvements against criteria that put users right at the heart of...
The Cabinet Office is preparing a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review that would require Whitehall departments to work together to tackle social exclusion, ministers revealed this week.
An independent inquiry into the funding of free personal care for elderly people in Scotland has been ordered by the SNP minority government at Holyrood.
The government is expected to introduce a narrow Bill giving council-funded care home residents recourse to the Human Rights Act, after three Law Lords ruled that the current legislation excludes...
Proposals to restructure equality legislation need to be seen as an opportunity to tackle entrenched social inequalities, according to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
