Estelle Morris's political prospects had been looking so promising. Popular with teachers and the public alike, it seemed a certainty that she would be a long-standing and well-liked education...
Over the past year public services have become by default a key issue for the Liberal Democrats. Internal rows and specialist groups have dominated its policy-making.
When Tony Blair steps up to make his vital rallying call at the Labour Party conference in the first week of October, his government will be facing the most concerted challenge yet from public sector...
Resurgent trade union power and support in the public sector is likely to be short-lived unless unions can adapt to rapidly changing workplaces, the influential Fabian Society has declared.
Home Secretary David Blunkett has launched a spirited defence of government asylum policy in the face of attacks which likened planned accommodation centres to the Millennium Dome.
Paul Kirby, the Audit Commission's director of inspection, has resigned from his post just weeks before local authorities are given the results of their Comprehensive Performance Assessments.
The Home Office has parachuted a hit squad into the crisis-hit Criminal Records Bureau amid warnings that the delays in criminal checks could last into next year.
The head of corporate performance at the London Borough of Ealing has criticised the government for its inability to 'join up and join in' and for the contradictory messages sent out by the various...
MPs have delivered a damning indictment of the government's previous attempt to overhaul local government and accused it of failing to meet the objectives of its reforms.
A former chair of the Low Pay Commission is to head the government's independent review into firefighters' pay and conditions as the Fire Brigades Union presses ahead with a ballot for strike action...
Local authority leaders are lobbying to keep child protection services firmly in the grip of local communities and councils, rather than under a centrally controlled child protection agency.
This week's war of words on firefighters' pay is rapidly moving towards action as the Fire Brigades Union prepares to ballot for its first strike in 25 years after rejecting outright the government's...
Rossendale Borough Council in Lancashire has been given a final warning that it faces government intervention unless it achieves rapid improvement in its services.
Unions and local education authorities are demanding compensation for schools as thousands are closing classrooms and using supply teachers after the Criminal Records Bureau failed to clear its...
Councils will be able to set their own complaints procedures for education and dispose of land at their discretion as the government begins to dismantle its overarching consent regimes.
The leader of Britain's trades union movement this week stepped up the campaign to halt the privatisation of public services, when he warned Tony Blair not to 'charge ahead' with reforms 'assuming he...
Members judged responsible for their authority's failures could be stripped of decision-making powers and replaced by 'partnership boards' under government plans to deal with poorly performing...
The local government reforms will turn authorities into 'performing dogs', desperate to please ministers in order to win a small measure of freedom, a leading local government figure has warned....
Two of the five biggest awards for unlawful discrimination made by employment tribunals last year were against local authorities, research published this week has shown.
A survey by Equal...
