A statutory duty should be placed on councils that fail to respond to the challenge of climate change, experts said this week as they painted a gloomy picture of progress to date.
The government is to investigate the scale and nature of the private sector's role in delivering public services, as figures revealed that they now provide £44bn worth.
Love it or loathe it, the PFI has been a part of the public sector for more than a decade. But with changes in government policies and in its accounting treatment, what future, if any, does it have...
NHS finance directors are cautiously positive about the future for health service finances but warn that productivity must improve markedly if targets are to be met, according to a survey by the...
The NHS must fund 5,000 new midwife posts, the midwives' professional body has insisted, following the publication of a report that highlighted variations in maternity care.
A senior official in the Department of Health's private finance unit has acknowledged that deficiencies in procurement practices have left the NHS with facilities it does not need.
There are big ambitions for the Comprehensive Area Assessment: for it to judge how well councils are serving their communities, and for it to be a more nimble form of inspection than its predecessor...
The PFI has proved its worth in many projects, large and small, but it is not the only funding game in town particularly when flexibility is needed. Nick Prior explains
Hospitals in England have been given four months and almost £60m to carry out a 'deep clean', which the government hopes will eradicate healthcare-acquired infections such as MRSA.
Star ratings could give way to a traffic-light system of inspection, it emerged this week as public service watchdogs set out proposals for a radical revamp of the local inspection regime.
Whitehall departments are undermining devolution to town halls by attempting to introduce surreptitious targets for local services despite government promises to slash central diktats.
Despite the rhetoric, the public sector is still handcuffed by bureaucracy and targets. A better solution is performance contracting, which has worked in prisons and has the power to bring creativity...
From public sector productivity to migration, official statistics have rarely been so hotly contested. Tony Travers analyses the reasons for the party-political punch-ups
Wales has rejected the Blair-led notion that the private sector should be a major service provider. Andrew Davies, minister for finance and public service delivery, talks to Alex Klaushofer about...
Eradicating hospital infections is not just about intensive cleaning. The ways in which demanding targets have been reached might be a cause of the problem and amount to false economies. Noel...
The timing could hardly have been worse. Job creation is the Northern Ireland Executive's top priority, Finance Minister Peter Robinson announced in his Budget.
Older people face a postcode lottery of follow-up care after falling and fracturing bones, according to a national audit by the Royal College of Physicians.
Delayed discharge from hospital is compromising the health and independence of vulnerable older people and damaging wider health service delivery, according to a hard-hitting report by the Wales...
