Councils and the police can now impose curfews on children as old as 15 if they deem them anti-social, following new laws that came into effect on August 1.
A report that criticises the first Private Finance Initiative hospital to be opened in England has been labelled a 'whitewash' by public service union Unison.
The head of the body representing Scotland's independent care homes is threatening to demand that local authorities are stripped of their elderly care responsibilities, blaming councils for the...
The government has announced the locations of the first 16 centres of vocational excellence which are designed to boost young people's skills in fields where there are job vacancies.
The government got up to its old spinning tricks this week when Education Secretary Estelle Morris re-announced the creation of 45,000 childcare places for deprived neighbourhoods.
Pilot schemes to test methods of electronic voting will be set up in time for the 2002 local elections in an effort to encourage disenchanted voters to re-engage with politics.
Public sector bodies in Scotland will have to undergo tougher audit assessments from the autumn, following the introduction of a new code of practice by the auditor general and the Accounts...
In what has been described as a 'near revolutionary' step, the government has reopened the debate on the unfunded police and fire pension schemes and raised the possibility of meeting pension costs...
Seven of the leading professional associations in local government have agreed a set of principles in response to Prime Minister Tony Blair's 'reform or bust' speech this week.
The Strategic Rail Authority must set 'more demanding' targets for improvements when its strategic plan for the railways is published in the autumn, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has demanded...
The government is to push ahead with plans for school reform despite stalling its much-trailed education white paper because of concerns about privatisation and the contentious issue of single-faith...
The campaign for elected mayors took one leap forward then a large step back this week after residents in Watford voted yes to a US-style boss, only to find that slow work by Parliament will put back...
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged to forge a new relationship between central and local government by slashing bureaucracy and giving authorities greater financial freedom.
Risk management can have a major impact on councils' progress in achieving strategic objectives and is not a 'one-off exercise', the Audit Commission has warned.
Birmingham City Council is setting a precedent in housing transfers by asking lenders to underwrite loans worth £1bn before it consults tenants over the move.
Peter Mandelson has outlined a vision of English devolution that puts 'people before structures' and gives communities the tools to bring about their own renaissance.
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city riven by divisions. On one side are hip Labour councillors ready to plough as much as £488,000 into a youth culture event, the Love Parade.
The make-or-break date for the government's policy on directly elected mayors looks increasingly like October 18 after Brighton and Hove Council became the latest authority to declare it will hold a...
Fraud Squad officers have been called in to investigate financial irregularities in the Scottish Borders Council (SBC), as the authority's internal inquiry into a near-£4m overspend nears its...
Pensioners, fishermen and schoolchildren in the Berkshire borough of Bracknell Forest will soon be able to access council services through a single smart card.
