Senior staff at the Department for Work and Pensions have outlined four key funding streams they expect will pay for the radical welfare reform proposals due to be unveiled by Work and Pensions...
Police forces that volunteer to merge early will have some of their set-up costs met by central government, policing minister Hazel Blears said this week. But she stressed that forces themselves had...
The government faces renewed pressure to improve security procedures in care homes in the wake of the furore over sex offenders found to be working in schools.
Senior staff responsible for IT at Whitehall's largest department have claimed that the days of introducing risky 'big bang' technologies are over, but say that they are on course to provide complex...
Forget the current headlines about schools, one of their biggest difficulties is attracting a head teacher. Phil Revell reports on a recruitment crisis that is threatening the reforms
Standing up for NHS managers is a tough assignment, but a new union leader is tackling the challenge in a determined yet relaxed way. Seamus Ward reports
The Local Government Association has warned ministers of 'potentially substantial' hidden costs of proposals to combat antisocial behaviour, outlined in the prime minister's 'respect' action plan...
Hospitals, schools and councils are all facing radical reform, but the funding systems imposed to achieve this are far from joined up. Tony Travers points out the contrasting philosophies and calls...
The detox diets and gym memberships will soon be history. But for Public Finance 's panel of public sector experts, the New Year challenges have only just begun.
What goes around comes around. For decades, small-scale government was all the rage. Now large centralised public agencies are back in fashion. Colin Talbot and Carole Johnson investigate the merger...
Local authorities remain on course to meet their Gershon efficiency targets for 2005/06 with just three months of this financial year remaining, the latest analysis from the Office of the Deputy...
More than a quarter of care homes do not have enough staff and about half do not carry out mandatory security checks on new employees, the Commission for Social Care Inspection revealed this week.
The chair of the Revenue and Customs department this week revealed he has no idea how much fraud has occurred in the government's flagship tax credits system but estimates suggest that hundreds of...
The time is ripe for a wide-ranging debate on the case for devolving more powers to councils, Sir Michael Lyons said this week as he issued the interim report of his inquiry into local government.
The Department for Work and Pensions this week released details of the job cuts it has overseen as part of the Gershon review totals that surpass figures in the 2005 Pre-Budget Report.
Fed up with slaving away in the background on your worthy but dull project while others bask in the glory of their ground-breaking, award-winning pathfinders? Well, suffer no longer. Michael Ware has...
Well, the Licensing Act has finally come into effect, and half the nation is still waiting in fear for the other half to go on a drunken rampage. Philip Johnston considers the consequences of the law...
All local authorities must share the spoils of the proposed Planning Gain Supplement or the gap between areas of economic success and deprivation will widen, Gordon Brown is being warned.
Westminster is at it again, proposing 'super councils' that will rapidly gobble up smaller ones. George Jones and John Stewart reckon something fishy is going on
The new beefed-up version of the Audit Commission should be able to stop other inspectorates from poring over council services if it feels it is unnecessary, ministers are proposing.
The Home Office's finance director has urged caution in Whitehall's drive to professionalise its skills base warning senior staff not to shift roles too quickly simply to meet new training...
The Home Office's finance chief is bringing a professional accounting approach to Whitehall at a time when it is under most pressure. She talks to Mark Conrad
The Metropolitan Police Authority has submitted its draft budget to London Mayor Ken Livingstone at the start of the Met's most difficult funding round for years.
The prospect of a strike by 2 million staff moved a step closer this week after unions and the Employers' Organisation failed to reach an agreement over the pension age for the local government...
