The scale of the impending cutbacks in public spending have been starkly illustrated this week as independent experts warned that the government will have to choose between cutting child poverty and...
Whitehall health officials this week conceded that they have taken on board the lessons of a failed hospital development after senior MPs slammed the project's management.
'Thinking the unthinkable' is a term synonymous with New Labour's rather self-aggrandising approach to policy reform yet the reality is that some ministers have been marginalised for obliging with...
US-style healthcare schemes are increasingly being imported into the NHS. But do they work on UK soil? Opinion is sharply divided within the medical profession and beyond. Seamus Ward investigates
Public bodies are well versed in EU procurement rules, which require various services to be put out to tender. But recent European Court judgments have muddied the water. Norman Ballantyne explains
Despite record levels of investment, the public sector is seen to be in crisis. This is because services are suffering from having simplistic market models foisted on them, argues Unison's general...
Councils with social care responsibilities are anticipating increasing council tax by an average of just 3.6% in 2007/08 a 1% drop on last year despite claiming a funding 'crisis' for adult care...
Nobody was too surprised by the government's plan to create a new agency to take charge of housing and regeneration in England within the next two years.
Government attempts to tackle child obesity have involved much 'dithering and confusion' and 'little co-ordination', the Commons Public Accounts Committee has found.
The government is considering the introduction of a single benefit payment for people of working age, a move that would initiate the most radical restructuring of welfare income for decades.
Are decades of planning laws about to be reversed in a free-for-all that will carpet England's green belts with out-of-town megastores? Peter Hetherington weighs up the evidence on the Barker review
The Gershon efficiency drive has probably saved billions of pounds. But the government's reluctance to reveal just how this was done might undermine the programme's other aim of regaining public...
Who would have thought it? NHS Resource Accounting and Budgeting has suddenly got the media excited. And there's plenty more fancy footwork where that came from. Andy McKeon explains how the Rab...
The local government white paper promised a bright new future for 'radical and devolutionary reform'. But the process has already been short-circuited, argues Tim Thorogood
Ministers have promised to speed up the payment of equipment grants to help elderly and disabled people who live at home, following an independent review.
The Department for Education and Skills has defended its efficiency claims after a committee of MPs accused the department of obscuring proper debate and scrutiny.
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, the then Audit Commission chair James Strachan was reserved in his praise for councils' financial management. Shortly afterwards, he unexpectedly...
Ministers should reconsider their outsourcing plans, a welfare expert warned this week, amid evidence that many organisations providing employment and training services are failing people with...
A leading council chief has condemned as 'bizarre' the decision to exclude schools from the list of public bodies required to co-operate with Local Area Agreements.
Tony Blair has successfully used market forces to improve public services, but will his successors adopt a more populist approach? This is not the time to change, argues one business leader
A £2bn pay and conditions deal for teachers has failed to deliver significant improvements in pupil achievement, a Scottish education watchdog has declared.
The Scottish Executive's consultation paper on public sector reform is little more than lightweight theorising, a leading public finance academic has said.
Pay attention at the back. Teaching methods are changing. No more crowded ranks of children meekly bending their heads over exercise books, slavishly copying down whichever National Curriculum-honed...
