Scottish local government finance could be heading for a radical change if a move to outcome budgeting is sanctioned by the new Executive, CIPFA delegates heard on June 13.
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...
The need to base public service reforms on market disciplines has been an uphill battle for the Labour government. But there really is no practicable alternative, argues Anthony Browne
Is New Labour's modernisation agenda for public services anywhere near endgame? Tony Travers surveys the progress so far and asks whether a Brown government should slow down or speed up the pace of...
It seems the NHS is now safe in everyone's hands. But while its founding principles remain intact it will have to undergo radical surgery to keep up with twenty-first century demands, argues former...
The NHS will report an official net surplus of around £510m for 2006/07, the Department of Health confirmed on June 6. But the apparent turnaround was created by withholding £1.28bn until balance...
Four out of nine Private Finance Initiative schemes fail to achieve good value for taxpayers with their facility services, the National Audit Office has found.
'It'll never last,' tends to be the not-so-cynical reaction when we read of apparently loved-up celebrities jealously guarding their wealth and status by drawing up complex pre-nuptial agreements....
Spending on temporary nurses in the NHS is continuing to rise in spite of an increase in permanent staff coming onstream, the Commons Public Accounts Committee says.
Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has stood for the Tory leadership three times but his failure has not dampened his political activism, he tells Joseph McHugh
Men living in England and Wales' poorest wards suffer poor health and disability for 5.5 years longer on average than those in the richest wards, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The Northern Ireland Assembly has resolved to introduce free personal care for elderly and disabled people, nine years after a royal commission recommended it.
Public service reform will grind to a halt under Gordon Brown's premiership as the Labour party lurches to the Left, shadow chancellor George Osborne argued in a speech this week.
Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has told council leaders he wants to freeze council tax bills from 2008 prior to introducing a local income tax.
Department of Health officials have indicated that they will enforce their contract with a key IT supplier, despite news that the £13bn NHS computer upgrade could be delayed yet again by a stalled...
Councils should be given more say in the reconfiguration of hospitals, but they must thrash out concerns over hospital sites with neighbouring local authorities, according to the Institute for Public...
A major rethink is needed on the government's reform programme. Central to that is the concept of 'public value' and new ways of getting public sector workers on board. Brendan Barber outlines a...
The recent UK-wide elections have highlighted the fact that there is not one NHS but four. Noel Plumridge examines what binds the different health services and what sets them apart
Pre-school intervention programmes reap huge rewards for society. But the government needs to use the next Comprehensive Spending Review to do some joined-up funding of local initiatives, argues...
Health professionals have reacted angrily to news that the NHS 'underspent' by around £500m last year as it attempted to recover its £547m deficit, claiming patients and staff have suffered as a...
The Department of Health has claimed a legal victory in the row over the new system for recruiting junior doctors, but the future of the scheme remains uncertain following attacks by doctors and...
The top tier of the civil service in Scotland has been radically reorganised to fit the slimmer Cabinet introduced by the new Scottish Nationalist Party minority government.
