Apprenticeships used to be seen as old hat. But now they've had a ministerial makeover and are viewed as vital in helping to rejuvenate an increasingly ageing public sector workforce. Vivienne...
The creation of an adult social services organisation a year ago opened up an opportunity to transform the quality of care for older and disabled people and the infant Adass is rising to the...
A dispute has broken out between the Scottish government and the Treasury over whether ministers in Edinburgh have the power to levy a nationally set local income tax.
Critics of George Bush have accused him of many things, from trampling on civil liberties to playing the dictator, but greatly reduced powers actually mean the presidency is more constrained than...
Twenty-five years on from the birth of the Audit Commission, is it time for a radical rethink on public sector inspection and regulation, asks David Walker
Town hall leaders have hit back angrily after ministers pledged this week to 'bust red tape' and 'weed out bureaucracy' to speed up the sluggish planning regime.
The government wants us to have a big conversation about Britishness. But its proposals for probationary citizenship and symbolic ceremonies are deeply controversial with major implications for...
The Learning and Skills Council will be dissolved and town halls will take control of the £7bn spent each year in colleges and sixth forms, ministers confirmed this week.
Peter Robinson is happy to talk about his work as Northern Ireland finance minister. But Ian Paisley's resignation means he's going to have to face up to that succession question very soon, says Paul...
Next week's statement will be a severe test for the chancellor. There's a squeeze on spending and no appetite for tax rises, so what are Alistair Darling's options? PF convened a round table of...
The Treasury's expert accountancy advisers have backed delaying central government's implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards by a year, because two key departments cannot meet...
An economic downturn is coming, that much almost everyone is agreed on. But its depth, width and length are still uncertain. As the Budget looms, Priyen Patel looks at the options
The NHS is approaching 60 and as deficits turn into surpluses it's not looking bad for its age. But now everyone is anticipating the health minister's final report, and asking how much his...
Accountants have been 'part of the problem' in contributing to climate change and now need to become part of the solution, Sir Michael Peat, the Prince of Wales' private secretary has warned.
The Jobcentre Plus agency has won praise from the National Audit Office, after establishing more than 850 offices around the country in a project that was completed for £314m less than the original £...
Six central government departments, spending a total of more than £45bn, do not have a professionally qualified finance director on the board, more than a year after a Treasury deadline.
The Home Office's failure to have its accounts in good working order was 'inexcusable', its permanent secretary told a Treasury and CIPFA-hosted symposium on financial management in London on...
The 1997 Single Status Agreement was supposed to end unequal pay in local government. But a decade on, women are still underpaid, thousands of cases are clogged up in tribunals and workers are on the...
Local authorities will ignore centrally imposed house-building targets unless they have financial incentives to approve developers' plans, according to a senior government adviser.
An uncomfortable truth lurked amid all the congratulations that greeted last week's publication of the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessments, lauded as the best ever by ministers,...