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
In many ways, the NHS has never had it so good. But that's not what the public thinks. Public Finance and Deloitte convened a round table of health service policy makers and practitioners to explore...
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.
Local government needs to be bold if it is to make the most of the opportunities presented by Local Area Agreements, a senior manager in the sector said last week.
NHS deficits have been caused by 'systematic flaws' in the way funding is allocated across the country rather than poor local management, the Commons health select committee was told last week.
The Treasury will shortly publish strategies for policy and growth that will set it on a collision course with Prime Minister Tony Blair's Whitehall-wide reviews announced last week.
It's one thing to demand that local authorities prove they have achieved desired outcomes, but quite another to do it. Arthur Midwinter argues for a more realistic approach to performance measurement...
'The LGA's 'root and branch' review of its work needs to urge the association away from its comfort zone in the Whitehall village, argue George Jones and John Stewart. Instead it should prioritise...
Up to £1bn sitting in schools' bank accounts could be made available for broader non-educational children's services, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
Claims that English schools are failing almost 1 million pupils are misleading, damaging and a 'gross simplification' of the reality of education, teaching leaders said this week.
The Cabinet Office's voluntary sector unit has set up a research centre to improve levels of charitable donations, as the government strives to provide more public services through such organisations.
Whitehall's autonomous agency model came under fire this week when auditors blamed a massive failure in European Union payments to farmers on senior civil servants' reluctance to challenge the body...
Where there are targets, there must be statistics. Where there are statistics, there must be politics, and where there is politics, there must be public distrust. The ONS must try to find a way out...
As the NHS's financial crisis continues, the Private Finance Initiative has come in for its share of the blame. But this is wrong, argue Phil Lobb and Tom Startup. In fact, with a more flexible...
Some depressed areas of the UK are set to lose out under a shake-up in EU regional aid. But how much of a problem is this? As Sally Gainsbury reports, the grants scheme has been something of a mixed...
The DoH claims that 'reconfiguration' of NHS services is all about improving clinical care. Critics says it's just to balance the books. Either way there are widespread protests against hospital...
Schemes that offer council tenants more choice over where to live are saving money because families are more likely to stay in their home longer, new research reveals.
Seventy per cent of senior civil servants could develop advanced financial management skills under Treasury proposals to prevent the sort of budget problems experienced by NHS trusts.
Government proposals to allow social workers to operate out of independent, GP-style practices have been greeted with caution by local government leaders, who fear the policy is masking the...
You can't put a price on education but you can do a lot to narrow the gap between the best- and worst-off pupils. Tash Shifrin reports on efforts to involve the private sector in raising school...
Delegates to next week's annual social services conference are still reeling from the last round of organisational shake-ups. Now there is more change on the way, with a new children's green paper...
