There are big ambitions for the Comprehensive Area Assessment: for it to judge how well councils are serving their communities, and for it to be a more nimble form of inspection than its predecessor...
The PFI has proved its worth in many projects, large and small, but it is not the only funding game in town particularly when flexibility is needed. Nick Prior explains
The NHS must fund 5,000 new midwife posts, the midwives' professional body has insisted, following the publication of a report that highlighted variations in maternity care.
When the winners of the first phase of the Department for Work and Pensions' Pathways to Work contracts were announced in September, the sense of disappointment among voluntary organisations was...
The Private Finance Initiative has come under fire for chronic delays in tendering times, lack of business and negotiating skills among public sector teams and a shortage of bidders.
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is one half of the most challenging education upheaval yet. Will it provide firm foundations for further and higher education and boost the UK...
The director of finance of the Welsh Assembly Government has come under fire following what council leaders described as an 'appalling' settlement for councils.
Star ratings could give way to a traffic-light system of inspection, it emerged this week as public service watchdogs set out proposals for a radical revamp of the local inspection regime.
Whitehall departments are undermining devolution to town halls by attempting to introduce surreptitious targets for local services despite government promises to slash central diktats.
Many homes in Hull would have escaped flooding in June if Yorkshire Water had acted on a series of warnings about the poor condition of its pumping stations, an independent report has found.
Despite the rhetoric, the public sector is still handcuffed by bureaucracy and targets. A better solution is performance contracting, which has worked in prisons and has the power to bring creativity...
From public sector productivity to migration, official statistics have rarely been so hotly contested. Tony Travers analyses the reasons for the party-political punch-ups
Housing associations have leapt to the defence of a major government regeneration scheme after the National Audit Office questioned whether it represented value for money.
Private contractors providing welfare services could be subjected to a ratings system similar to that used for councils and NHS trusts, under government plans to tackle unemployment and poverty.
