Social care is often described as the Cinderella service. So will Ivan Lewis, the fourth to wear the ministerial shoes in just five years, turn out to be its Prince Charming? Sally Gainsbury went to...
Older people are being 'deprived of the care they deserve' because of the worsening £600m shortfall between what councils have available to fund care services and the minimum they need to spend, the...
Families with disabled children, professional carers and MPs have joined forces to influence the Treasury's policy review on children and young people.
Scotland would lose many of the benefits of economic and financial integration with the rest of the UK if the Holyrood Parliament had powers to raise and spend its own taxes, the authors of a report...
There is a crisis in democracy, as more and more citizens lose interest in politics. The reasons are complex and varied but globalisation and professionalisation are prime culprits. It's time to...
The government is on a new charm offensive with the voluntary sector. But will all the reviews and initiatives allay charities' suspicions that ministers are looking for public services on the cheap...
The government has poured money into public sector pay, but taxpayers can't see any service improvement, the unions are far from grateful and now the chancellor is pulling the plug. It's time to...
England's core cities are poised to receive new powers mirroring those already enjoyed by London's mayor in the drive to reinvigorate 'democratic decision-making', Ruth Kelly has indicated.
The National Audit Office has denied accusations that it was unduly pressured by the Department of Health into producing a positive report on its £12.4bn procurement of a national IT programme for...
For the Labour government, charity began and ended at home. Or the Home Office, at least, where its charitable and voluntary sector policy largely gathered dust after 1997.
The Scottish Executive and other public sector bodies failed to spend £235m of their budgeted expenditure last year, according to figures released this week.
The government's impending Welfare Reform Bill will be scrutinised by disability rights experts to assess its impact on child poverty targets, a leading practitioner revealed this week.
There is a lull in Westminster, as if everything is waiting for the next PM. For many in the public sector, this represents a welcome rest from a breakneck whirl of reform but not for local...
The US comptroller general, David Walker, has praised the UK's system of permanent secretaries running Whitehall departments and wants a similar system introduced in US government departments.
A senior backbench MP has cast doubt on the private and voluntary sector's ability to deliver the improved access to mental health services demanded by leading academics this week.
Resource accounting and budgeting exaggerated the NHS's net overspend last year by £117m, according to Department of Health finance director Richard Douglas.
The promised summer report on next year's Comprehensive Spending Review has yet to materialise, making it unlikely that MPs will be able to discuss it before the recess. But that's par for the...
Almost 5 million families are missing out on state-assisted childcare because of current tax credit arrangements, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
The NHS in Scotland has made progress in reducing waiting times but might not be able to meet tough new targets, an influential parliamentary committee has warned.
Connecting for Health the NHS's huge National Programme for IT has been dogged by 'scope creep' and core 'spine' problems. But as its chief, Richard Granger, tells PF , plenty has gone right,...
