The prime minister has retained some familiar faces as the next phase of public sector reform gets under way. This will tackle pensions, choice and private provision. Karen Day assesses the tasks...
Dissenting NHS voices claim the drive to improve access times to GPs has compromised other areas of patient choice. Seamus Ward asks if primary care can deliver flexibility as well as speed
Labour's first two terms saw local government marginalised and under ever greater central control. So how can new minister David Miliband improve the central/local relationship? George Jones and John...
Chancellor Gordon Brown has used his first two keynote speeches since the general election to issue a stark warning to public sector workers against excessive wage demands.
Local government employers have proposed a radical overhaul of council sickness management, including reducing the length of time that staff can receive full pay while absent from work.
Ealing council has accepted defeat in its battle to overturn its 'weak' rating in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, after the Audit Commission won a Court of Appeal ruling this week.
English local authorities are targeting adult social services and corporate activities in their drive to meet the £6.45bn efficiency target set by Sir Peter Gershon, a study has found.
NHS organisations must show they are tackling health inequalities or risk receiving a lower performance rating, the Healthcare Commission said this week.
Council leaders met ministers in the new government for the first time this week just one day after a far-reaching programme of legislation was laid out in the Queen's Speech.
Finance Minister Tom McCabe has called on critics of public-private partnership projects in Scotland to leave preconceived ideas behind and start looking for new solutions to project delivery.
Quantifying savings in a meaningful way is going to be one of the toughest challenges of the government's efficiency drive, the man charged with securing more than £1bn in procurement gains has told...
The government's education plans for its third term will threaten working relations between schools and local government, teaching leaders warned this week.
The coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats in Scotland might be in jeopardy following the surprise announcement by LibDem leader Jim Wallace, who is also deputy first minister, that he is...
England's local government elections came and went with hardly a whimper, let alone a bang, but many previously hung councils have now taken on a particular political hue and in 23 it's blue
Proposals to move hundreds of civil service staff out of the Southeast to Wales contradict the government's efficiency agenda and its aim of protecting local economies, Whitehall's largest union has...
The largest teachers' union backed the controversial choice of Andrew Adonis as an education minister despite his appointment having upset several Labour MPs.
Council-owned housing companies are reviewing their contracts with their parent local authorities as part of a drive to achieve better value for money.
Labour must make strenuous efforts during its third term in office to deliver a much better return on the extra billions of pounds being invested in public services, Local Government Association...
