Despite a doubling of spending on the NHS, the public perception is one of a cash-strapped organisation in crisis. Richard Brooks explains how what should be a good news story for the government has...
A surge in new medical treatments combined with an ageing population mean the demands on the NHS are set to rise just as it faces a financial squeeze. A co-payments system, with built-in protection...
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...
There are still too many examples of poor data-sharing between government and its agencies, argues the social exclusion minister. Vulnerable people should have to give their details to only one arm...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
New nuclear reactors the clean, green answer to the UK's growing energy problems, or expensive, hazardous white elephants? The government appears to have made its mind up, and is rewriting local...
The Lyons Inquiry will have to find a way to make council tax fairer without the benefit of a revaluation of English homes. Peter Kenway and Ines Newman go back to basic principles and explain how...
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...
The Treasury wants to cut costs, and police pay is on the hit list. That means officers could be paid less for doing more. And in these dangerous times, the performance ramifications could be very...
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...
All the main parties are looking to voluntary organisations to deliver more public services. Stuart Etherington warns that the sector will be wanting a lot more in return
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
