The proposed integration of CIPFA and the ICAEW fell by the tiniest of margins last week. Steve Freer examines what we can all learn from the experience
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Des Browne has the unenviable task of matching public expenditure to delivery. In his first major interview, he tells Joseph McHugh how he is tackling the brief
Health professionals fear that primary care trusts will still lose their function as providers, despite Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's apparent concession on the issue this week.
Never one to shrink from a challenge, David Blunkett has taken the incapacity benefit bit between his teeth. Judy Hirst reports on the work and pensions secretary's controversial measures to get...
The London Borough of Merton was dreading the new-look CPA, which appeared to threaten all the improvements it had made. But it was pleasantly surprised when the final changes were revealed
Chief inspector of schools David Bell has backed plans for greater autonomy for head teachers, which are widely expected to be included in the education white paper due to be published next week.
Managers in the public sector came under fire from a leading economist at the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers annual conference this week.
A union representing NHS managers has called for guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies as ambulance trusts, strategic health authorities and primary care trusts are reorganised.
The Local Government Association has called for health and care funding to be merged into single pots to help pay for joined-up services between primary care trusts and local authorities.
Care commissioners and providers need to do more to stop the abuse of elderly people rather than blaming its occurrence on lack of resources, a conference organised by the Commission for Social Care...
The government failed to act on warnings that payment by results could plunge NHS trusts into financial chaos, despite being told of the risks by the Audit Commission more than a year ago.
The private sector will carry out more than 18% of operations to NHS patients by 2008, a report by the authoritative health market analysts Laing & Buisson has estimated.
Civil servants need to get out more and they are. Now middle managers are going to the private sector while its high flyers join Whitehall. Maria McHale meets the change-makers
It's the biggest shake-up in social care for 30 years, with seamless children's services at its core. But already boundary disputes and rows about funding are spoiling the party
Becoming more efficient isn't an end in itself for local authorities. By improving the way they do things, councils can concentrate more on their main job managing resources and services in the...
The health service can afford pay rises of no more than 2.5% next year, NHS Employers said this week as concern grew over NHS organisations' ability to balance their books.
Despite record sums of money being injected into the NHS, trusts are still struggling to balance the books, with deficits running into millions of pounds. So what is going on? Seamus Ward tries to...
At first sight, the plan to cut down the public sector inspectorates from 11 to four seems sensible. But a closer look shows there is method in the seeming madness of the current messy, overlapping...
Local Improvement Finance Trusts can make a big difference to health services, but issues need to be resolved around value-for-money comparisons, resourcing and the rationalisation of primary care...
The council tax issue is not going to go away, says Tony Travers. The government might have postponed the revaluation but this won't stop the annual rises and accompanying protests. It's time to take...
