Your begin your first job in ignorant bliss of the pitfalls ahead, then continue to learn the hard way. But it doesn't have to be like this. Michael Ware reveals his need-to-know list
Services for older people are 'teetering on the brink', Local Government Association chair Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart was due to tell the House of Lords on December 7.
Sir Michael Lyons' Inquiry into the future of local government has been delayed once more this time so that he can take into account the recommendations of the Barker, Eddington and Leitch reviews...
Road pricing, cutting congestion, reducing carbon monoxide emissions and improving accessibility to public transport will be at the heart of Scotland's 20-year strategy on transport, Transport...
The demise of university science departments, coupled with a sharp decline in the number of school pupils learning languages, is causing alarm that the UK's competitiveness is at risk, as Stephen...
Halfway through its life, the government's efficiency programme is ahead of its targets. But with a fiscal squeeze on the way and no let-up in spending plans, the public sector is going to feel the...
Ed Balls, the economic secretary to the Treasury, has challenged other European countries to follow the UK's lead and set up robust accounting procedures for the spending of European Union funds.
What links climate change, transport, planning and health? Answer: they are some of the issues that Chancellor Gordon Brown has outsourced to expert, independent review.
An all-too familiar debate was reignited this week as ministers unveiled the provisional local government grant settlement for 2007/08. Councils were quick to warn that they faced tough choices...
NHS budget cuts, tight eligibility criteria and foot-dragging on personalised services have created 'pockets of poor performance' in adult social care, England's inspectorate has found.
Chancellor Gordon Brown is poised to announce cuts to the administrative budgets for all Whitehall departments in his Pre-Budget Report on December 6, Public Finance has been told.
NHS managers feel like they've been jumping through hoops and juggling priorities for ever. Now the health secretary is about to launch a major new challenge, in the form of a revamped payment by...
One of the proposals in the local government white paper that has attracted little comment is to reform Best Value. The government is putting a renewed emphasis on competition and this time it's...
Tolerance for diverse ethnic and religious traditions has long been part of Britain's multicultural society, writes Ann Rossiter. But community cohesion is being seriously undermined and the causes...
Wendy Alexander, who resigned from Jack McConnell's Cabinet four years ago, has returned to Labour's front line as convener of Holyrood's powerful finance committee.
Ministers are prepared to intervene in the 500 English schools deemed 'inadequate' following this week's Ofsted annual report, the country's most senior education official has told Public Finance
The chief executive of the NHS has admitted that the Department of Health did not keep a close enough eye on hospital spending as they rushed to meet targets by 'overshooting' required staffing...
Health and education took a back seat in the Queen's Speech, but the absence of a Bill merging the health and social care inspectorates drew confused responses.
Launching the report of his inquiry into local government finance in Scotland, Sir Peter Burt the current chair of ITV repeated several times what he saw as a main attraction of his proposed new...
