The Local Government Association commission examining the school year has heard that redistributing holidays more evenly and having an increased number of shorter terms could cut absence levels among...
Employment minister Margaret Hodge has revealed that the government is to set up four pilot schemes to examine ways of getting ill and disabled people off sickness benefits and back into work.
The expanded list of companies approved to supply services to failing local education authorities has been criticised by the Local Government Association and the National Union of Teachers.
Leaders of teaching unions voiced their scepticism about proposals to abandon the three-term school year at a hearing of the commission set up to examine the issue.
Politics is a cyclical game. Representatives of the party in power at Westminster are always liable to be told to get on their bikes at mid-term local elections.
The Higher Education Funding Councils are joining forces with universities' representatives to set up an equal opportunities action group to combat racial and sexual discrimination.
Most Whitehall departments have delivered on the myriad targets set out in the Public Service Agreements, despite the fact that Treasury Chief secretary Andrew Smith believed them to be too...
It is a rare Easter in Ireland when the commemoration of the 1916 Rising is overshadowed. But this year, a more modern drama swamped the historical pageants.
More than three-quarters of housing benefit claims made by people living in sheltered and supported accommodation were not reviewed by councils as required, in the run-up to a new funding system.
The NHS should become a public corporation at arm's length from government, with its own board and operational freedom, according to a new commission of independent experts.
Just as the NHS is becoming accustomed to the government's burgeoning reform demands, the National Audit Office decides to roll up its sleeves and join the modernisation melee.
Labour reaffirmed its faith in the Private Finance Initiative this week when local government minister Hilary Armstrong unveiled 14 new schemes, totalling £300m.
The government has opened the multi-million pound schools' IT market to a wider range of private companies, including Internet developers and film-makers, to try to increase competition and raise...
London Transport's chief executive has admitted to MPs that London Underground would still face a 'funding gap' if the proposed £8bn public-private partnership went ahead.
The Ministry of Defence claimed this week it was on target to meet its Public Service Agreement of delivering £700m worth of receipts by 2002 from the sale of its surplus assets.
Scotland's largest public-private partnership scheme to rebuild Glasgow's secondary schools would not have been affordable without additional government funding, the city's finance director told...
The slow and painful negotiations to shore up the ailing Pimlico School PFI deal have been given a new lease of life with a last-minute extension of the credit allocation for the project.
The finance director of the largest local authority in England has questioned the value-for-money justification for public-private partnerships and admitted that she has doubts about the cost...
Housing associations should not overstretch themselves by 'dabbling' in too many new activities, according to the chief executive of one of London's largest registered social landlords.
The government signalled further expansion of the health service telephone helpline NHS Direct this week after a study found it had lifted some of the pressure on out-of-hours GP services.
The government defiantly signalled its increasing commitment to public-private partnerships this week with the announcement that the total value of such projects will almost double to £20bn over the...
