There has been one gaping hole in Labour's devolution success: the English regions. RDAs and non-elected assemblies have not lived up to expectations and the new PM is looking to give more powers to...
The standard of maths and English achieved by 14-year-olds has fallen well short of government targets, prompting calls for a thorough review of the assessment system.
Former enterprise minister Wendy Alexander is in pole position to take the Scottish Labour Party leadership after former First Minister Jack McConnell resigned on August 15.
The scaling down of Public Service Agreements has been heralded as emblematic of a less centralist approach to performance management. But details of the new delivery agreements suggest otherwise
New Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has thrown down the gauntlet in a green paper designed to get the long-term unemployed into jobs. But, as Mark Conrad reports, there are some tricky battles...
Communities in the Thames Valley were bracing themselves for more flooding as operations continued to restore tap water supplies to 350,000 people in western England after thousands of hectares were...
When Gordon Brown first got his feet under the table at the Treasury way back in 1997 he promised to hit the ground running. Ten years on and his protégé Ed Balls has wasted no time in...
Sure Start children's centres came under fire again this week after senior MPs criticised them for not doing enough to help the most disadvantaged families.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week outlined plans to force benefit claimants into work axing some payments and asking people to take jobs outside their locality.
It's time to step up the fight against global warming. Local government has been leading the way but now it must help an increasingly concerned public to do its bit. The best way is through...
Councils and other public service leaders rushed to unpick the substance of the government's forthcoming legislative plans as the prime minister broke with tradition and set out much of his programme.
New Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has vowed to make 'localism and devolution' the watchwords of her tenure, she said in her first major speech since her appointment.
Public bodies are undermining Prime Minister Gordon Brown's efficiency drive by paying up to two-thirds above the market rate for equipment and services, a study of the sector's procurement habits...
The government's Sure Start project has failed to help deprived black and ethnic minority families, according to a report for the new Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The delivery of flagship skills programmes remains on track despite the decision to split the former Department for Education and Skills in two, a senior education official claimed this week.
It's been a challenging week for Team Gordon, as the new PM and his Cabinet strive to show who's in charge. Peter Riddell assesses what all the ministerial changes mean
Schools in England should be set a target of 80% of pupils achieving five good GCSEs by 2020 to improve social mobility rates, a minister claimed this week.
The number of pupils suspended from school rose by 4% in 2006 while the numbers of special needs children educated outside of mainstream education increased by 3%, government statistics show.
One in ten people in Britain are shut out of the labour market for reasons that are individual, complex and highly local. The solution is not David Freud's mega-contracts, but drastic devolution of...
The new prime minister is an intellectual heavyweight, with strong views of his own on public policy. So where does this leave Britain's burgeoning think-tank industry? Peter Wilby reports on the...