The new generation of Public Service Agreements are not old-style performance targets by another name, Andy Burnham insisted to the Treasury select committee this week.
An ageing population presents a series of issues that must be addressed now, if millions of people are to have a decent old age. Rebecca George looks at the challenges ahead
The new chancellor's first Pre-Budget Report forecast a temporary dip in revenue and slowed the growth in spending. Both of these pose risks for the government's grand plans for public services
Local Government and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is under pressure to sign up to an 'accord' to eradicate child poverty, after Chancellor Alistair Darling's Comprehensive Spending Review...
Town hall leaders are warning of cuts to services and jobs after the government's long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review and Pre-Budget Report this week gave them a meagre 0.9% annual funding...
The Equality and Human Rights Commission came into being this month, bringing all equality issues under one roof. Is this a great leap forward in the fight against discrimination or a messy merger of...
The NHS has managed to turn a deficit of £547m into a surplus of £510m in one year. Sally Gainsbury looks at the figures behind this success story, and asks how such a financial turnaround could have...
Several hundred civil service jobs in Scotland would be axed under plans drawn up in advance of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which is expected to impose a tight squeeze on Holyrood's budget.
Social landlords must quickly decide their unique selling points to compete in the increasingly complex house-building market, the new head of the Housing Corporation has said.
Police forces are unable to show whether new systems of managing telephone calls from the public are delivering the intended benefits or providing value for money, Audit Scotland has found.
All nationally set targets should be scrapped under a new covenant between central and local government, the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Brighton agreed this week.
After the fallout from Northern Rock, next month's Comprehensive Spending Review has suddenly become a lot more interesting. Colin Talbot charts the changes ahead for public spending and targets...
No wonder the King's Fund had to take it upon themselves to commission Sir Derek Wanless's review of progress against his 2002 recommendations on funding the NHS.
The local government balance of funding issue is 'irrelevant' and it would be best if all the money were raised centrally and distributed to councils, Sir Peter Burt has told leading revenue...
It seemed a good idea to some at the time but now support for a Planning Gain Supplement is waning. Tim Williams explains why, and suggests alternatives
& nothing gained. Or so say the growing army of private equity investors in public services and assets. Paul Gosling explores the pros and cons of such partnerships for the public sector
Residents' satisfaction with services and value for money should be the yardsticks against which local authorities are measured when Comprehensive Area Assessments are introduced in 2009, according...
There has been one gaping hole in Labour's devolution success: the English regions. RDAs and non-elected assemblies have not lived up to expectations and the new PM is looking to give more powers to...
Should citizens have a direct say in the way councils spend their money? George Jones and John Stewart explore the pros and cons of participatory budgeting an idea whose time might have come
The scaling down of Public Service Agreements has been heralded as emblematic of a less centralist approach to performance management. But details of the new delivery agreements suggest otherwise
Town halls were celebrating a 'victory for common sense' this week after the High Court ruled in their favour in a dispute with Whitehall over the distribution of a special grant designed to reward...
