Teaching unions have reacted with scepticism to Conservative leader David Cameron's pledge that there would be no return to the 11-plus if his party won power.
Local authorities remain on course to meet their Gershon efficiency targets for 2005/06 with just three months of this financial year remaining, the latest analysis from the Office of the Deputy...
Public sector managers have been urged to make a New Year's resolution to work towards a better future for mental health, one in which services are better integrated and people are supported in the...
The detox diets and gym memberships will soon be history. But for Public Finance 's panel of public sector experts, the New Year challenges have only just begun.
What goes around comes around. For decades, small-scale government was all the rage. Now large centralised public agencies are back in fashion. Colin Talbot and Carole Johnson investigate the merger...
Are Comprehensive Performance Assessments local government's very own I'm a celebrity contest a desperate scrabble for stars and praise or a helpful catalyst for improvement? Phil Swann...
With the NHS running an unhealthily large deficit, the government is sending in hit squads to sort out the problems. But do they have the right prescription? Seamus Ward investigates
Well, the Licensing Act has finally come into effect, and half the nation is still waiting in fear for the other half to go on a drunken rampage. Philip Johnston considers the consequences of the law...
More than a quarter of care homes do not have enough staff and about half do not carry out mandatory security checks on new employees, the Commission for Social Care Inspection revealed this week.
The Health & Safety Executive and Environment Agency began a thorough investigation this week into the explosion and fire at Britain's fifth-largest oil depot at Buncefield in Hertfordshire.
The time is ripe for a wide-ranging debate on the case for devolving more powers to councils, Sir Michael Lyons said this week as he issued the interim report of his inquiry into local government.
The Ministry of Defence plans to reduce the number of performance indicators that determine payments made to Private Finance Initiative contractors, Public Finance has learnt.
The NHS has two years to implement the government's radical market and choice reforms or else risk undermining the 'founding values' of a free service based on need, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt...
Fed up with slaving away in the background on your worthy but dull project while others bask in the glory of their ground-breaking, award-winning pathfinders? Well, suffer no longer. Michael Ware has...
Children who are dropped off at nurseries early in the morning are being left alone because of staff shortages and poor planning, a senior education inspector said this week.
All local authorities must share the spoils of the proposed Planning Gain Supplement or the gap between areas of economic success and deprivation will widen, Gordon Brown is being warned.
The Treasury is likely to place a strict cap on the money retained by public bodies if they sell parts of their radiowave spectrums, Public Finance has been told.
So the chancellor has managed just to keep within his fiscal rules. But his Pre-Budget Report lays the ground for spending cuts that will leave little funding for services other than the...
