Patients who are not satisfied with NHS trusts' handling of complaints will be able to ask the new Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (Chai) to undertake an independent review, health...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke has launched a £435m programme to provide children's centres in the most deprived parts of England.
The centres will offer childcare, nursery education, parenting...
Town hall leaders are to mount a campaign against government plans for foundation hospitals, claiming they could dilute their own democratic mandate.
As Public Finance went to press, the...
Government ministers should not commit themselves to meeting the targets set out in their departments' public service agreements (PSAs) because it is counterproductive, Estelle Morris has warned....
Violence and aggression against staff could be costing the NHS £69m a year, the National Audit Office said this week.
In a report, A safer place to work: protecting NHS hospital and ambulance staff...
Increases in spending on drugs threatens to destabilise primary care trusts and must be brought under control, the Audit Commission warned this week.
The alert came as the Liberal Democrats...
Scottish Education Minister Cathy Jamieson has used a local government conference to announce an extra £80m to guarantee full implementation of the McCrone agreement on teachers' workloads....
Local government leaders hit out at the government this week after Nick Raynsford demanded an explanation from authorities for the 'excessive' council tax increases that some have levied.
Private and voluntary sector organisations could apply to become NHS foundation trusts under proposals being put forward by Health Secretary Alan Milburn, it emerged this week.
In a move that will...
The Welsh Assembly has said it will 'consider in depth' a National Audit Office recommendation to restructure the way its NHS directorate procures medicines, after auditors said it could save £50m a...
The British Medical Association and the NHS Confederation have been forced to revisit the funding formula for GP practices in the proposed new contract amid fears that family doctors could reject the...
The government is in danger of leaving more children in care and custody than ever before, despite its good intentions to tackle anti-social behaviour, the children's charity Barnardo's warned this...
The NHS has reached a pivotal point in its ten-year modernisation programme and faces serious challenges in the next few years, according to a report by an influential group of health care staff and...
Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith has vowed to scrap NHS waiting list targets if the party wins the next election, under plans outlined in a consultation document.
Tapping into the...
Suspicions among council highways and transport officers that their budgets are being plundered by education and social services colleagues have been reinforced by the Commission for Integrated...
The increased use of an expensive drug has helped a campaign to cut the number of deaths from coronary heart disease, the national heart director said this week.
Launching a progress report on the...
The relentless push for public services improvement has provided a burgeoning market for the Improvement and Development Agency, which plans to expand to meet rising demand from local government....
Backbench Labour MPs leading the rebellion against government plans to introduce elite foundation hospitals have indicated they expect significant concessions in the controversial Bill when it is...
It was not the news that Health Secretary Alan Milburn already facing an embarrassing backbench revolt over foundation trusts and accusations of widespread waiting list fiddling by hospitals...
As the fallout from the Audit Commission's damning report on NHS waiting lists gathers pace, health management bodies have called for immediate action by ministers to prevent a 'witch-hunt' that...
The government has given way to protests over the scrapping of the local authority social housing grant (LASHG) and announced an extra £110m in transitional funding to keep affordable housing...
A revised GP contract will put patients at the heart of NHS primary care services by ushering in a radical reform of the way practices are funded.
The proposed contract, published late last week,...
The Liberal Democrats outlined their alternative 'cash-back' Budget this week, pledging free care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition and top-up fees for students, but no increases in public...
Ofsted, the schools' inspectorate, has insisted that it will meet its March deadline to inspect and register all childminders and nurseries, despite a growing backlog of checks.
A spokeswoman told...
Councils and other public sector bodies are beefing up their risk management policies in the face of huge rises in insurance premiums.
They are also being forced to absorb larger excesses a...
