A sharp rise in the child prison population has left councils hard pressed to meet their statutory duties to care for vulnerable child ex-offenders, say town hall leaders.
Ahead of this week's TUC conference, the chancellor has made clear there will be a 2% cap on public sector pay rises. And with NHS deficits being widely blamed on inflationary pay deals, he is...
Children's needs involve broader issues than exam results and school performance. A new inspection system assesses the way they are dealt with holistically. Shane Flynn looks at the results
Almost a decade since the Single Status Agreement on equal pay was signed, many councils have yet to put it into practice and others have run into legal challenges and financial hurdles. Now time is...
Charity supremo John Stoker has been appointed the first commissioner designate for the Compact, overseeing relationships between the government and the voluntary sector.
Local government leaders are demanding an urgent meeting with Education Secretary Alan Johnson over claims that authorities wanting to launch capital investment programmes for schools are being...
As many as one in ten local authorities might have population figures that are flawed, the senior government statistician in charge of compiling them has admitted to Public Finance .
Prime Minister Tony Blair will next week launch a new attack on social exclusion, extending help to vulnerable children and adults through existing funding, which could be boosted in this winter's...
Subsidies for privately operated bus services are to be made available in Northern Ireland for the first time through a Passenger Transport Authority, transport minister David Cairns has announced.
Rural youngsters are being denied the education and training opportunities open to their urban counterparts because of accessibility problems, a leading think-tank said this week.
Social care leaders have dismissed the government's claim that there is no need to compensate the sector for the extra responsibilities it has taken on through NHS 'cost shunting'.
Public sector procurement is set to come under attack from trade unions concerned that too many departments, agencies and local authorities still fail to promote workforce development and local job...
The CBI's discussions on public service provision tend to treat the private and voluntary sectors as if they were one and the same. But they are worlds apart in both their motivation and way of...
Contrary to popular opinion, the government has successfully used IT to transform a variety of services, from electronic payment of benefits to the Jobcentre Plus Job Bank. And the transformation...
'Co-production' is the latest big idea buzzing round Whitehall, with the aim of involving citizens more in the design and delivery of local public services. But, as Vivienne Russell discovered, there...
The government wants savings, and e-auctions could help to deliver them. They save time, money and encourage joined-up working, if used in the right context, as Justin Pugsley explains
Up to 30,000 NHS cleaning, portering and facility staff will not receive their promised Agenda for Change pay increases this year as deficit-hit hospitals have reneged on last year's joint agreement...
The Local Government Association has called for an additional £28m in central funding to councils to help them co-ordinate carbon emission reduction commitments, following the government's Energy...
A senior member of the government's Pensions Commission is set to investigate a £350m retirement fund deficit across Britain's railways sector to help prevent national strikes on the network, Public...
The high-level task force charged with slashing town hall red tape will deliver its recommendations for the Department for Communities and Local Government by December, Michael Frater has told...
