What does the future hold for public sector finance teams in a globalised environment? More shared services, pared down back-office operations and beefed up finance functions are all possibilities,...
Some politicians are pushing for primary care trusts to be more democratically accountable but NHS managers argue that the current reforms should be given more time before making changes. Richard...
CIPFA's president elect talks to Mike Thatcher about her priorities, and the skills she has acquired as the National Audit Office's assistant auditor general
The effects of last summer's floods are still being felt by the hardest-hit regions. Councils planning to minimise the future costs of such events must revisit and update their risk assessments, says...
Ahead of his address to the CIPFA conference, John Prescott talks to Vivienne Russell about the most pressing issues that Labour faces, and what he considers to be his legacy to local government from...
The poorest children are missing out on money earmarked for their education because councils are choosing to spread the funds across all the pupils in their areas, according to economic experts.
The council tax in London should be scrapped and replaced with a local income tax, which would go straight into the coffers of the Greater London Authority, former mayor Ken Livingstone has told...
Regional development agencies have long drawn Conservative fire. But the government's plans to give more powers to city-regions may appear attractive to Tories keen to make inroads into Labour...
Polyclinics are trumpeted as the best way to revolutionise patient care in the UK but bringing together the various services will work only if they are properly integrated, warn Candace Imison and...
The British Medical Association has demanded the government 'dump polyclinics', stop investing in private care and hand control of the NHS back to clinicians.
Do the government's abysmal poll ratings spell New Labour's decline and fall? Tony Travers says the PM's only way back is to trust the people and devolve power particularly in the public services
The Scottish Government's plan for a local income tax has suffered a further setback after claims by a leading professor of law that it 'almost certainly' breaches the European Charter of Local Self-...
Academies have been attacked as the playthings of their sponsors. This is unfair, argues Rod Aldridge, who sponsors two of the schools. They're all about hard work and giving better options to pupils...
The near-revolt over the 10p tax band reveals how Parliament is beginning to exercise its powers to scrutinise government's tax and spending plans a development vital to democracy, argues Colin...
More than two-thirds of Whitehall departments failed to produce asset management plans by a December 2007 deadline, despite the potential for saving £320m on office running costs, MPs have found.
The government pushed ahead with its plans for unitary councils, legalising its actions only after the event and accepting blatantly optimistic savings estimates. This has serious implications for...
Not so long ago, ministers were wild about independent sector treatment centres and their success in bringing down waiting lists. But plans for more seem to have slowed, if not stalled. So is the...
John Healey has signalled a possible major expansion in the role of Local Area Agreements, suggesting they might become the principal mechanism through which central government commissions local...
The way population estimates are compiled should be radically overhauled as the current systems are unreliable and potentially inaccurate, according to a committee of MPs.
