More than a quarter of care homes do not have enough staff and about half do not carry out mandatory security checks on new employees, the Commission for Social Care Inspection revealed this week.
Health minister Lord Warner stunned delegates at the Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference by blaming the health service's financial problems on managers.
The Health & Safety Executive and Environment Agency began a thorough investigation this week into the explosion and fire at Britain's fifth-largest oil depot at Buncefield in Hertfordshire.
Patients are 25% more likely to develop post-operative complications after being treated in one of the new privately run treatment centres than in their NHS equivalents, clinical directors claim.
The NHS has two years to implement the government's radical market and choice reforms or else risk undermining the 'founding values' of a free service based on need, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt...
Some people see regulation as more a matter of accreditation than ensuring improvement, but not the Healthcare Commission. Its system is designed to prompt changes for the better, its chair explains
A senior Whitehall academic this week cast doubt on Gordon Brown's claim that the government is on target to achieve its ambitious £40bn efficiency savings package by 2008.
Scotland's health service is achieving better clinical results and cutting most waiting times but needs to improve its financial and workforce management, a spending watchdog has found.
So the chancellor has managed just to keep within his fiscal rules. But his Pre-Budget Report lays the ground for spending cuts that will leave little funding for services other than the...
Announcing the local government finance settlement at the same time as the Pre-Budget Report might have pushed it into the news background. But the government cannot hide from the issues forever
Anna Simons loves a challenge, whether it is belting out songs in a Japanese karaoke bar or joining the City. That's why the NAO is perfect for her, she tells Vivienne Russell
The Department of Health has given the green light for a 14-week public consultation on reducing the number of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities in England.
It is just as well Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain did not expect a warm welcome for his November 22 announcement of a restructuring of the province's public sector based on the three-year...
Two primary care trusts are hoping to be reimbursed by the Department of Health after paying a private company more than £200,000 for operations and consultations that did not take place.
The new beefed-up version of the Audit Commission should be able to stop other inspectorates from poring over council services if it feels it is unnecessary, ministers are proposing.
Sir Michael Bichard's criticisms of the National Audit Office, published in PF last week, are untrue and unfair. The watchdog's work has actually resulted in lasting improvements and even saved...
CPAs for Whitehall? Don't make me laugh, says Colin Talbot. Sir Gus O'Donnell's Departmental Capability Reviews for central government are far removed from the rigorous external performance...
A single police force covering the whole of Wales could lead to more effective crime-fighting, the chief constable of South Wales told delegates at the CIPFA in Wales annual conference in Cardiff.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is struggling to meet the expectations of British travellers and expatriates because of its unpredictable, shoestring budget, a report from the National Audit...
Deficits in foundation trusts are almost twice as large as those in NHS trusts, the first year's consolidated accounts from the regulator Monitor has revealed.
Government plans to replace Northern Ireland's 26 district councils with seven 'super-councils' have been attacked by local parties for reinforcing sectarian divisions.
