One in four councils has been running education and social services so badly that central government has had to intervene, and more cases could be on the way, according to the Audit Commission.
Charles Kennedy is attempting to forge closer ties with the trade unions and exploit widespread disenchantment with the government's management of public services.
Open government inched a step closer this week when the government finally accepted the recommendations of the Sharman report on audit and accountability in central government.
The Association of Police Authorities fears that the Home Office's latest initiative to reduce crime in deprived areas could be undermined by elevating national police priorities at the expense of...
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has urged Home Secretary David Blunkett to launch an independent inquiry into the financial administration of the Cleveland Police Service, after it was revealed that...
Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken his argument for a radical reshaping of the public services direct to frontline staff.
A 30-page pamphlet setting out Labour's vision for a more efficient public...
The spectre of further legal action hung over the London Tube public-private partnership saga this week as Mayor Ken Livingstone complained he was still being fobbed off on his demand for crucial...
Unison this week urged the government to delay the introduction of a controversial accounting standard that it said would cause 'chaos and losses' to pension funds across the public sector after...
Local government representatives have urged the government to tackle the 'grim' state of social care and fill the struggling service's £200m funding gap.
English councils face the prospect of double-digit rises in council tax to fund police services after claims that David Blunkett's national policing plan is incompatible with local forces'...
Home Secretary David Blunkett's plan to beef up police forces in England and Wales by using civilian warden patrols is an impractical 'tinderbox' that will encounter legal difficulties, according to...
An influential group of public sector leaders has thrown down the gauntlet to Tony Blair and demanded that he defend frontline workers from attacks on their professionalism.
The government's attempt to banish disillusionment with Best Value by overhauling the system is 'flawed' and needs more thought, a leading local government moderniser has told Public Finance .
Ken Livingstone has been forced to tone down his ambitious plans for London's transport network, after he reluctantly agreed a deal to save the capital's 2002/03 budget.
The government reiterated its strategy to target Class A drug users as it announced figures which, it claimed, showed early treatment for users was producing big financial savings for the criminal...
Prisoners in jail for non-violent crimes may be allowed out on weekdays to work and to see their families under prison reforms announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett on February 4.
The NHS Counter Fraud Service expects to have recovered £12m paid out in fake claims by the end of the financial year, the Department of Health has said.
The Association of Police Authorities has attacked the government's Police Reform Bill for undermining local policing and threatening 'meaningful modernisation'.
