A new dawn of co-operation between central and local government broke this week as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly indicated her willingness to work closely with councils on her planned education...
Business rates in Scotland are to be cut and brought into line with bills paid in England, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell announced this week.
Former Labour minister Chris Leslie took over as the director of the New Local Government Network this week, promising to give local government a bigger say in the national policy debate.
Political parties that do not comply with the Electoral Commission's financial regulations could be barred from campaigning in future elections, Public Finance has learned.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has challenged the government to make good its pledge to improve employment terms and conditions for hundreds of thousands of public sector agency staff.
Schools are improving, but some are still performing well below their best. Ofsted chief David Bell explains how a lean, mean, new inspection regime will sweep up these laggards and help them to...
As the TUC and government square up for their annual seaside contest, ministers face a movement riven with divisions and agonising about its future. Judy Hirst predicts tough times ahead for public...
It's difficult to see local government as the stuff of good theatre. But David Edgar's play uses infighting at a failing council to make some trenchant points about democracy. Joseph McHugh reports
The IRA's decision to end armed conflict finally gives Northern Ireland's citizens the chance of a normal life. But this means setting up democratic systems to replace political structures built...
It seems the 'Berlin Wall' dividing health and social care might finally be coming down, as ministers finalise a combined white paper. But will this lead to a merger of social services departments...
A deal between unions and contractors is 'imminent' in the long-running row over private firms' refusal to offer the Agenda for Change pay and conditions deal to staff working in the NHS, Public...
Public sector trades unions held pre-emptive talks this week over the thorny issue of pensions amid growing fears that they could fail to agree reform principles with ministers in advance of more...
Sixty years of the welfare state have failed to ensure that those in most need of public services have adequate access to them, leading to 'wide and persisting inequality', research has found.
As soon as the A-level results are announced, the arguments start, as the qualification is denounced and celebrated in turn. But in the furore, the practical questions about the exam tend to be...
As students celebrated record high grades in their A-level exam results this week, schools minister Lord Adonis denied that the examination system was being dumbed down.
Internet-based information about public services could encourage social exclusion and segregation, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found.
Britain still dumps most of its rubbish in landfill sites, instead of recycling it. But tough new European Union regulations are set to change all that. David Meilton reports on how councils are...
Many of Bexley council's school pupils were being educated in huts, with winds raging through broken windows. Then the chance of a £30m PFI refurbishment programme came along. Mike Ellsmore explains...
Local authorities are vulnerable to a legal challenge that their outsourced services breach new European Union rules designed to avoid the overpayment of contractors, Public Finance has learnt.
The joint government/trade union body the Public Services Forum has swung into action to set up two panels to assess problematic sickness absence and diversity issues.
A democracy needs to be sure that the figures on which decisions are made are accurate and do not mask a hidden agenda. The Statistics Commission chair would like to see safeguards enshrined in law
