English local authorities are targeting adult social services and corporate activities in their drive to meet the £6.45bn efficiency target set by Sir Peter Gershon, a study has found.
NHS managers have hit back at suggestions that they should be held responsible for lapses in hospital hygiene that lead to higher rates of infections such as MRSA.
NHS organisations must show they are tackling health inequalities or risk receiving a lower performance rating, the Healthcare Commission said this week.
Council leaders met ministers in the new government for the first time this week just one day after a far-reaching programme of legislation was laid out in the Queen's Speech.
Senior civil servants will shortly take legal advice over the Cabinet Office's plan to reform Whitehall pensions, amid growing concerns that proposed changes could breach human rights or sex...
The prime minister has retained some familiar faces as the next phase of public sector reform gets under way. This will tackle pensions, choice and private provision. Karen Day assesses the tasks...
Dissenting NHS voices claim the drive to improve access times to GPs has compromised other areas of patient choice. Seamus Ward asks if primary care can deliver flexibility as well as speed
One of Scotland's biggest and most controversial Private Finance Initiative projects, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, is embroiled in a row over £30m in extra payments demanded by the operating...
New Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is already under pressure from health service managers to maintain the record levels of NHS funding up to and beyond 2008.
The coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats in Scotland might be in jeopardy following the surprise announcement by LibDem leader Jim Wallace, who is also deputy first minister, that he is...
Continuing problems with data management at the Department for Work and Pensions have left hundreds of millions of pounds in vital benefits unpaid, a new report has revealed.
The cost of employing agency nurses and other temporary staff has fallen for the first time in recent years, according to a leading independent health care analyst.
It's not just politicians who have a problem with trust. There's also declining confidence in public services. Alex Klaushofer asks whether reputation management is the answer
The most august Whitehall department has a long history of failing to perform and is clearly out of its depth on major issues, argues this former government adviser. Would we not be better off...
Politicians have been doing battle over the need for public sector efficiency savings. But councils are already teaming up with their neighbours and other public bodies to make major economies of...
Whatever the election outcome, the fate of the deputy prime minister's department hangs in the balance. Peter Hetherington predicts some delicate times ahead for the office running Whitehall-town...
The political parties are all talking up the importance of education in the election debate. But, asks Vidhya Alakeson, is spending going where it is most effective?
Ken Hunter is a firefighter with a difference, as he also helps steer children and young offenders away from a life of car crime and arson. After 26 years in the fire service, he has just picked up...
Improvements in high-profile NHS treatment areas such as cancer and heart disease are masking patient satisfaction problems elsewhere, according to patient research specialist the Picker Institute.
