Newly appointed local government minister John Healey has pledged to forge a 'new relationship' between central and local government and to devolve extensive powers to regional and local levels.
Soaring dementia levels are being ignored by health and social services across England: 'swept under the carpet' in the way cancer was in the 1950s, a senior MP and auditors warned this week.
Taking the politics out of the NHS sounds like an attractive idea. But an independent board would be bad for democracy and bad for our health, argue George Jones and John Stewart
It's been a challenging week for Team Gordon, as the new PM and his Cabinet strive to show who's in charge. Peter Riddell assesses what all the ministerial changes mean
One in ten people in Britain are shut out of the labour market for reasons that are individual, complex and highly local. The solution is not David Freud's mega-contracts, but drastic devolution of...
The new prime minister is an intellectual heavyweight, with strong views of his own on public policy. So where does this leave Britain's burgeoning think-tank industry? Peter Wilby reports on the...
The British Medical Association has called on the new prime minister to listen to doctors' advice, as a poll found limited public support for Labour's NHS reforms.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is unlikely to introduce an independent National Health Service board and could instead opt for a constitution covering the sector, say insiders.
Whitehall and wider public sector reorganisation and mergers must be based on clear rationales and not political expediency, public sector leaders have warned.
Public bodies must slash the time it takes to provide services if the government is to become more responsive to citizens' needs, a minister admitted this week.
Migrant workers contribute more to the British economy than the costs of the public services they receive, according to a study by the Trades Union Congress.
The Cabinet Office is preparing a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review that would require Whitehall departments to work together to tackle social exclusion, ministers revealed this week.
An independent inquiry into the funding of free personal care for elderly people in Scotland has been ordered by the SNP minority government at Holyrood.
The Department for Communities and Local Government this week accused three councils of wasting taxpayers' money over a legal challenge against Ruth Kelly's plans for more unitary authorities.
Town hall leaders have urged ministers to reject a key proposal from David Freud's welfare review, claiming that regional 'mega-contractors' could fail to combat deep-rooted local unemployment...
Public sector regulators should promote a 'culture of curiosity' among service providers, the Audit Commission's chair, Michael O'Higgins, told delegates.
The multibillion pound NHS computerisation project will not be destabilised by the departure of its chief architect, health minister Lord Hunt insisted this week.
Consumer satisfaction is one vital area of public services that is not getting the attention it deserves. The solution is to measure improvements against criteria that put users right at the heart of...
The Private Finance Initiative has had more than a decade to prove its worth for public services. Dave Prentis explains why it has been tested and found wanting by numerous official bodies
Alex Salmond's government might be 'in office, not in power'. But that is not holding the Scottish National Party back from launching a radical public sector shake-up. Iain Macwhirter reports from...
The NHS and local authorities must collaborate over continuing health care but uncertainty about the framework is making this difficult, and the lack of a dispute resolution procedure will not help...
Proposals to restructure equality legislation need to be seen as an opportunity to tackle entrenched social inequalities, according to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
Senior MPs have demanded that ministers redouble efforts to address the 'serious crisis' of the over-representation of black people in the criminal justice system.
