New Audit Commission chair Michael O'Higgins is quietly determined to turn up the heat on his inspectors to ensure they stay in touch. And he is no slouch in the kitchen either, as he tells Joseph...
The chancellor and the NHS are on a collision course with unions after suggesting that next year's pay rises should not break the government's 2% inflation target.
Northern Ireland's finance department has begun procurement for the supply of 'Network NI' a managed, wide-area network that ministers say is central to the modernisation of public services.
Many public sector managers believe they are being prevented from doing their jobs effectively because of red tape, a lack of resources and poor support from employers, according to the Chartered...
Just when everyone thought that Tomlinson's 14 19 diploma idea was over, key elements of it are being revived via a range of new vocational courses. But there are many financial and other challenges...
A future Conservative government should curtail school selection and establish a 'very different agenda' to the vouchers policy on which the party fought the last election, shadow education secretary...
Government guidelines to ensure no child misses out on an education are being ignored by up to 84% of local authorities, research for the Department for Education and Skills has found.
Whitehall departments should look upon their fledgling inspection regime as an opportunity to learn and improve, the new finance chief at the Department for Education and Skills said this week.
Fears over job security might prompt community nurses to leave the NHS following this week's rationalisation of primary care trusts, according to the Royal College of Nursing.
Alan Johnson has vowed to unveil wide-ranging proposals next month to put a stop to the 'chill indifference' of the state to children in care and banish the deep-seated disadvantage that condemns...
The city of Manchester has earned the right to take on greater self-government, economic researchers said this week in a report that gives a boost to the city-region agenda.
Annual budgets, monitored monthly, are inappropriate in many fast-moving parts of the public sector. They could learn from the 'flexible business management' approach recently adopted by the IDA
The Conservatives have not just got a new logo but a brand new set of policies. Both might be a bit sketchy, but have they got the potential to grow into something more meaningful? Alex Klaushofer...
Gordon Brown's plans to devolve more executive power offer a real chance of opening up debate over government spending, starting with the Comprehensive Spending Review. But Colin Talbot somehow...
A leading public finance expert has poured scorn on the latest attempt to establish a methodology for measuring service outcomes that will enjoy public trust, warning that official statistics are...
Cabinet Office officials this week admitted that many of Whitehall's human resources functions are inadequate, after it emerged that the four HR directors whose departments were criticised in...
As the Labour Party gathers for a tumultuous annual conference, Madeleine Bunting and Simon Parker ask what almost ten years of Blairism has really meant for public services. And how can New Labour...
Local and central government are under intense scrutiny, as a plethora of inquiries and reviews get set to report by the end of the year. But with near-civil war gripping the government, how likely...
Housing finance is all at sixes and sevens, what with the new DCLG secretary reassessing policies, a range of reviews and reform pilots on the go and the Comprehensive Spending Review just around...
Certain services and lower-value contracts have always been exempt from the European Union's procurement directive. But fresh guidance now requires even these to be publicly advertised
The new head of the Local Government Information Unit aims to ensure that the think-tank plays a leading role in reform of the sector, he tells Joseph McHugh
The largest teaching union has published an independent study into academy schools amid what it calls 'considerable public and political anxiety' about the programme.
Social exclusion minister Hilary Armstrong this week warned local authorities and government departments that they must improve the way they deliver services to Britain's most vulnerable groups or...
Public sector staff are set to intensify their opposition to the government's reform and pay agendas, in defiance of stern warnings from the prime minister and chancellor this week that they will not...
