'Choice-based letting' allows social housing applicants to choose where they want to live, rather than have officials decide for them. And soon it will be available in every English council. Neil...
Public Service Agreements were meant to keep track of what departments do with taxpayers' money. The problem is that no-one, least of all MPs, pays them much attention. Colin Talbot and Carole...
The best-rated secondary schools are still recruiting too many of the most able pupils in spite of government efforts to narrow the gap, research for the Department for Education and Skills has found...
The Treasury-commissioned skills report is not radical enough in the solutions it offers to halt the crisis facing Britain, the Conservatives are warning.
The Scottish Executive is on track to achieve 97% of the pledges it made when a partnership agreement was drawn up between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, First Minister Jack McConnell has claimed.
Hardworking and 'heroic' civil servants are being let down by a Whitehall culture that rewards failure and ignores successful individuals, a report by a leading think-tank has claimed.
Well done to all of you who took part your comprehensive knowledge of the news is impressive. Particular congratulations to our winner Sue Alliott at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,...
With a Brown premiership predicted for any time soon, all bets are off as to what it will mean for one of Blair's most cherished 'legacy' issues public service reform. Tony Travers hacks through a...
Chancellor Gordon Brown will host eleventh-hour discussions aimed at preventing a national strike by civil servants later this month, Public Finance has learnt.
Happy New Year. If you are an adult with a disability you now have two years left to receive preventative social care that could stop your condition deteriorating further, the Local Government...
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and a senior adviser to the prime minister this week urged Whitehall to focus on a four-pronged plan to improve public services amid further evidence that...
Foundation trusts' financial performance in the first half of this year was better than expected, but they should be prepared for a tougher second six months, their regulator Monitor said this week.
No sooner had Chancellor Gordon Brown finished adding up his promised £36bn investment in education over the next four years than the economists were asking the inevitable question: 'How much of that...
A government scheme that encourages tenants to buy shares in their homes must be made more flexible if the take-up is going to improve, says a new report.
The chancellor whoever that might be in 2007 will have to conjure up a way of meeting expensive government commitments while implementing a tight public spending squeeze in the years ahead
The government's target is to halve the numbers of UK children living in poverty by 2010. But success rests on adequate funding, and campaigners doubt that enough money will be provided in next year'...
Your begin your first job in ignorant bliss of the pitfalls ahead, then continue to learn the hard way. But it doesn't have to be like this. Michael Ware reveals his need-to-know list
As local authorities square up to the housing and care demands of older people, new public-private partnerships are emerging to enable housing associations to meet their needs. Melinda Phillips...
The demise of university science departments, coupled with a sharp decline in the number of school pupils learning languages, is causing alarm that the UK's competitiveness is at risk, as Stephen...
Halfway through its life, the government's efficiency programme is ahead of its targets. But with a fiscal squeeze on the way and no let-up in spending plans, the public sector is going to feel the...
