The rising cost of primary care drugs and clinical negligence claims has thrown NHS Wales's finances into chaos, it was claimed this week, with overall deficits of £44.1m threatening financial...
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council is failing to meet its statutory duties to vulnerable children, and its services for adults are in need of 'radical overhaul', inspectors have found.
A damning...
The government's vision of NHS care provided by a mix of public and private sector bodies moved a step closer this week.
Private firms, including some from overseas, have been invited to bid to run...
The government has lined up a number of concessions on its foundation trust initiative in an attempt to ensure its safe passage.
Following last week's muted rebellion, the Health and Social Care (...
Chief executives and social services directors must clarify their roles and lines of accountability to ensure there is no repeat of the Anna Climbié case, a report has warned.
Shared...
Councils should be prohibited from placing families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than six weeks, the government said this week.
New proposals on housing homeless people...
Few finance managers feel able to express strongly positive views on the success of e-government plans
Last week's local election results will have given comfort to e-government enthusiasts...
Foundation trusts will increase inequity and lead to wage inflation and aggressive staff poaching, the Commons health select committee said this week.
The committee's report, which was published to...
Rabbi Julia Neuberger has announced she is to leave the King's Fund think-tank after six years as chief executive.
Neuberger, one of the most prominent figures in health service thinking, will...
Local authority employers are demanding sweeping changes to the 'nine-to-five' working culture and a radical overhaul of the national pay bargaining system to modernise town hall working practices...
May 1 was to have been the date when elections occurred in each of the three devolved nations of the United Kingdom Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Except, as is so often the case in the...
Foundation trusts will not be able to opt out of the NHS's Agenda for Change pay deal, Health Secretary Alan Milburn confirmed this week as he launched a concerted campaign to quash opposition to the...
Non-profit-distributing public interest companies have a 'potentially important role' to play in public service delivery, says a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. But it warns...
Primary care t rusts must prepare for an exodus of clinical managers over the next two years, according to a survey by the NHS Alliance.
The body, which represents PCTs, said that half the doctors...
Work will begin in the autumn on a groundbreaking public-private partnership that will revolutionise health services in Greater Manchester, it has been announced.
The £100m Manchester, Salford and...
Local government is still plagued with 'severe' recruitment and retention problems that are placing unmanageable burdens on staff, forcing councils to privatise services because they cannot afford to...
Action must be taken to tackle staff shortages in mental health services, two leading think-tanks said this week.
In separate publications, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH) and the...
The London Borough of Ealing has had its Comprehensive Performance Assessment upgraded from 'weak' to 'fair' after the Audit Commission was forced to admit the authority had been wrongly evaluated.
Plans to create an all-powerful health service inspectorate were in chaos this week following the shock resignation of its chief executive elect.
Peter Homa, who was appointed chief inspector of...
Members of the royal colleges of nursing and midwifery have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new pay system that will raise their salaries by an average of 12.5% over three years.
An attempt by some Unison activists to block the government's overhaul of the NHS pay system failed this week, although rank-and-file members will have the final say on whether the initiative goes...
Weaknesses in the Department for Work and Pensions' computer system hamper efforts to increase the take-up of benefits among elderly people, the Public Accounts Committee has said.
Between £930m...
Thirty finalists have been selected by the judges of the Public Servants of the Year Awards to go forward to the final ceremony in London next month.
The finalists come from all parts of the public...