Government plans to free only the best NHS trusts from Whitehall control and to penalise councils that fail to tackle bed-blocking have been criticised by health service managers.
Social services are on the verge of collapse, despite the government's promise of a 6% increase in spending in each of the next three years, the King's Fund said this week.
New Labour's obsession with public sector targets has distorted the abilities of the education and health sectors to deliver services the public needs, MPs have heard.
Sir Jeremy Beecham has made a last-ditch plea to the government to scrap plans to fine authorities deemed responsible for bed-blocking, in advance of next week's Queen's Speech.
Incentive payments for consultants who spend most of their time working for the NHS and a scheme to elevate junior doctors to consultant level earlier in their careers could form pillars of the...
The chief medical officer for England has ordered an inquiry into the errors that led to 24 patients in Middlesbrough on Teesside being exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
Sir Liam Donaldson...
John Prescott was this week unveiling long-awaited planning reforms just as his housing minister firmly indicated that Labour had failed to meet its affordable housing objectives.
Schools could soon be hosting health and social services, citizens' advice bureaux and even post offices under a pilot scheme to extend their use in the community.
Schools minister Cathy Ashton...
NHS managers have given a surprisingly strong vote of confidence in the Private Finance Initiative's ability to deliver quality, modern facilities for the health service, according to a survey from...
Top NHS hospitals will be put off applying for foundation trust status if the proposed new regulator is not truly independent, NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards warned this week.
The Local Government Association has condemned the government's plans to fine councils that delay patients' discharge from hospital as a 'spectacular own goal' that could cost some social services...
The widely anticipated suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly on October 14 was preceded by a flurry of important announcements by ministers before they left their jobs.
Too many social service departments are failing to provide well for their clients, according to a new report from inspectors. Sixteen of the 30 councils that have had their social services reviewed...
Senior health service managers will have a code of conduct written into their employment contracts for the first time under plans unveiled this week by NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp.
The government will fail to meet its recruitment target of 15,000 extra GPs and hospital consultants by 2008 because it is not training enough doctors, a leading health care think-tank said this week...
The salaries of hundreds of thousands of NHS staff must be moved closer to those of teachers and police officers or they will leave the service, health unions warned this week.
Estelle Morris's political prospects had been looking so promising. Popular with teachers and the public alike, it seemed a certainty that she would be a long-standing and well-liked education...
The Liberal Democrats have voted in favour of a wide policy review of public services which sets out plans for radical decentralisation and a health tax to fund the NHS.
Plans to fine councils deemed responsible for causing bed blocking in hospitals have been attacked as 'costly, unworkable and flawed' by the Local Government Association.
Over the past year public services have become by default a key issue for the Liberal Democrats. Internal rows and specialist groups have dominated its policy-making.
