Business will not be forced to provide workers in public-private partnerships with the same terms and conditions as those in the public sector, the director-general of the CBI has warned.
Top NHS hospitals will be put off applying for foundation trust status if the proposed new regulator is not truly independent, NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards warned this week.
The Local Government Association has condemned the government's plans to fine councils that delay patients' discharge from hospital as a 'spectacular own goal' that could cost some social services...
The widely anticipated suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly on October 14 was preceded by a flurry of important announcements by ministers before they left their jobs.
Too many social service departments are failing to provide well for their clients, according to a new report from inspectors. Sixteen of the 30 councils that have had their social services reviewed...
The government will fail to meet its recruitment target of 15,000 extra GPs and hospital consultants by 2008 because it is not training enough doctors, a leading health care think-tank said this week...
The salaries of hundreds of thousands of NHS staff must be moved closer to those of teachers and police officers or they will leave the service, health unions warned this week.
Senior health service managers will have a code of conduct written into their employment contracts for the first time under plans unveiled this week by NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp.
Public service unions are hopeful that Tony Blair's speech at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool this week offers a renewed opportunity for debate over the vexed question of the use of the...
Local authorities are questioning the 2001 census data published this week after they showed population drops that could knock millions of pounds off their government grants.
The Liberal Democrats have voted in favour of a wide policy review of public services which sets out plans for radical decentralisation and a health tax to fund the NHS.
Estelle Morris's political prospects had been looking so promising. Popular with teachers and the public alike, it seemed a certainty that she would be a long-standing and well-liked education...
Plans to fine councils deemed responsible for causing bed blocking in hospitals have been attacked as 'costly, unworkable and flawed' by the Local Government Association.
The Home Office has parachuted a hit squad into the crisis-hit Criminal Records Bureau amid warnings that the delays in criminal checks could last into next year.
The head of corporate performance at the London Borough of Ealing has criticised the government for its inability to 'join up and join in' and for the contradictory messages sent out by the various...
MPs have delivered a damning indictment of the government's previous attempt to overhaul local government and accused it of failing to meet the objectives of its reforms.
The NHS in England is to get a further £10m to develop intensive care facilities for critically ill children, health minister Jacqui Smith announced this week.
Local authority leaders are lobbying to keep child protection services firmly in the grip of local communities and councils, rather than under a centrally controlled child protection agency.
