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...
What links climate change, transport, planning and health? Answer: they are some of the issues that Chancellor Gordon Brown has outsourced to expert, independent review.
An all-too familiar debate was reignited this week as ministers unveiled the provisional local government grant settlement for 2007/08. Councils were quick to warn that they faced tough choices...
Children's minister Beverley Hughes this week came under fire from MPs concerned that greater independence for schools undermines the chances of children in care.
There's much to please local authorities in the white paper, particularly in terms of deregulation and decentralisation. But real devolution, letting councils decide local priorities, is still a long...
Tolerance for diverse ethnic and religious traditions has long been part of Britain's multicultural society, writes Ann Rossiter. But community cohesion is being seriously undermined and the causes...
Wendy Alexander, who resigned from Jack McConnell's Cabinet four years ago, has returned to Labour's front line as convener of Holyrood's powerful finance committee.
Ministers are prepared to intervene in the 500 English schools deemed 'inadequate' following this week's Ofsted annual report, the country's most senior education official has told Public Finance
Town hall leaders are demanding that devolution must underpin the Bills of the next parliamentary session, as the prime minister used the last Queen's Speech of his tenure to outline a far-reaching...
Health and education took a back seat in the Queen's Speech, but the absence of a Bill merging the health and social care inspectorates drew confused responses.
Launching the report of his inquiry into local government finance in Scotland, Sir Peter Burt the current chair of ITV repeated several times what he saw as a main attraction of his proposed new...
Department of Health plans to limit the demand for hospital care by elderly people by providing better preventative community care will not work, the results of a pilot study suggest.
Far from being on its way out, the Private Finance Initiative has never been in ruder health. As well as strengthening its role in health and education, it is elbowing its way into new areas such as...
Best Value audits in Scotland do not rely on narrow performance indicators nor are they obsessed with processes, contrary to claims in a recent PF article. They are well-rounded aids to help...
Social service leaders are giving their cautious co-operation to a scheme to send vulnerable children to boarding school, but are warning that the project runs counter to the rest of the child...
Government policy to promote school independence and improve the wellbeing of deprived children has created a 'real tension', the Audit Commission has warned.
Wales was always bound to go its own distinctive way on the issue of public service reform. Now, as the Welsh Assembly Government prepares to respond to his review, Sir Jeremy Beecham explains why
Capita, one of the UK's largest government outsourcing companies, is set to stand down from the CBI's influential public services board, Public Finance has learnt.
For years, the NHS has been living off the fat of the land. But now, lean times are almost upon it, and managers need to look for far greater efficiency savings, says Noel Plumridge
