Features

  • Deptford High Street Alamy
    21 Jan 15
    It’s emerging as a key election issue, yet the proportion of Britons in low-paid work has changed little in 20 years. So what can be done to tackle the barriers to improving poor pay, in both the...
  • PF Trailblazers
    19 Jan 15
    Throughout 2015, Public Finance will be highlighting the pioneering work done by the profession’s Top 50 Trailblazers
  • p44 cultural
    25 Nov 14
    New year, new recruits? As public sector teams get ever leaner in size, matching individuals to a workplace’s culture becomes even more important. Both employers and prospective employees need to...
  • p37homesless
    25 Nov 14
    The government is talking up welfare cuts, with renewed appeals to ‘hard-working taxpayers’. But rising poverty, and changes to in-work benefits, could make it a reform too far
  • p30 smoking
    25 Nov 14
    Public health is rising up the NHS agenda, and being promoted by local authorities. But the focus is still too much on individual lifestyle changes.
  • 10 Nov 14
    Valerie Pierce suggests ways to take the weight off your shoulders when the competing demands of the job pile up and conflicting priorities threaten your sense of perspective – and the morale of your...
  • Smart thinking October
    26 Sep 14
    There’s a lot of talk about ‘big data’ and what it can do for the public sector. The analytical software is available but making sense of data and acting more intelligently as a result are the big...
  • Leeds rail station - Alamy
    22 Sep 14
    Northern cities are being promised major new infrastructure investment to help rebalance their economies. So will the chancellor make good on his warm words of support for the One North initiative...
  • September Smart thinking
    3 Sep 14
    Online voting, five-minute digital tax returns and births automatically registered in the cloud. The future of e-government services has arrived – and it’s so much cheaper in Tallinn, too
  • August NHS feature
    27 Aug 14
    Bad news stories are keeping the NHS in the headlines, despite the best efforts of ministers to shift the public’s gaze elsewhere before the election. Now two authoritative reports suggest there is a...
  • Social housing - Alamy
    27 Aug 14
    Government policies have put a rocket under over-inflated house prices while social housing’s share of the total stock has steadily fallen. So how do you rebalance the market?
  • Smart thinking July 2014
    7 Jul 14
    Attacks on computer networks of businesses and public bodies are well documented. But hacking is also affecting international relations, causing fears that cyber espionage will provoke military action
  • Prof development July 2014
    4 Jul 14
    Presentations can be terrifying experiences for the unprepared or the unconfident. But careful planning and an ability to ‘face your fears’ can turn a soporific speech into a peak performance. Angela...
  • CIPFA roundtable
    27 Jun 14
    Should public sector finance managers be more open with the public about the effects of cuts in services? Participants at a recent CIPFA roundtable debate on health and social care funding certainly...
  • Firemen-Shutterstock
    23 Jun 14
    Big-data analytics has been making a major impact on cities as far apart as New York and Baghdad, saving lives and money in the process. Now the latest stage in the information revolution looks set...
  • Smart Thinking June 2014
    3 Jun 14
    As local government faces up to a growing funding gap, it should be investing in research into the role that digital technologies can play
  • Prof development June 2014
    3 Jun 14
    Employees need to be motivated and feel engaged in their work. If staff resign without good reason, it’s time to take a look at your employee benefits package and tailor an offer that helps hang on...
  • Going to work
    29 May 14
    It’s no longer just the bottom 20% of society who are anxious about their future. In the new class structure of industrialised countries, where jobs growth is in services, white-collar and...
  • Accountant
    23 May 14
    Stereotypes of men in grey suits poring over spreadsheets are out of date. Finance business partners are organisations ‘new’ critical friends’, helping them take decisions in a tough fiscal world
  • Transparent
    23 May 14
    Headline figures should be treated with care as a measure of living standards. What they leave out can matter just as much
  • How to build your personal brand
    7 May 14
    The personal brand may be more associated with celebrities and business high-fliers than with the public sector. But this need not be the case. Roger Delves examines how public managers can sharpen...
  • George Osborne_May 2014
    24 Apr 14
    As the polls in Scotland’s referendum race narrow, all the parties are offering radical fiscal changes that could have a big impact throughout the UK
  • On Account April 2014
    7 Apr 14
    We need more clarity and brevity in financial statements if they are to meet the needs of users. But too often public bodies play safe and fail to consider the 'materiality' of the information...
  • Smart thinkingApril2014
    4 Apr 14
    After 25 years of the World Wide Web and 15 years of digital government, it’s important to pause for a moment and learn some lessons from the past
  • Treasury building
    27 Mar 14
    Whitehall has already undergone wholesale cutbacks and radical change. But to survive the 2015 Spending Review civil service leaders will have to step out of departmental silos and take...

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