Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
Ofsted, the schools' inspectorate, has insisted that it will meet its March deadline to inspect and register all childminders and nurseries, despite a growing backlog of checks.
A spokeswoman told...
Councils and other public sector bodies are beefing up their risk management policies in the face of huge rises in insurance premiums.
They are also being forced to absorb larger excesses a...
Council tax increases in London and the Southeast are set to soar above 25% for the first time, fuelling allegations that the government has shifted significant resources to the Midlands and the...
Local government minister Nick Raynsford has promised to continue paying for an expansion of councils' workforce training programmes providing a £27m pathfinder scheme launched this week is a success...
Unions launched a campaign this week to expand local government's deal to end the two-tier workforce into defence and health.
As the CBI and the Business Services Association savaged last week's...
Charles Clarke's determination to force two councils to 'passport' education funds is nothing short of a unilateral declaration of independence against the rest of Whitehall, the chief executive of...
Local authorities are locked in talks with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister over whether they should slash the discounts on offer to council tenants under the right to buy scheme.
Lower...
The government will propose delaying the imposition of fines on social service departments that delay discharges from hospital, following a crucial defeat in the House of Lords.
On February 17,...
Health Secretary Alan Milburn has overturned more than a decade of NHS thinking by giving small hospitals a new lease of life.
Many local cottage hospitals have closed as the health service sought...
Councils are failing to detect four-fifths of housing benefit frauds, the National Audit Office said this week. The government has also made the system more complex and prone to fraud, despite...
The controller of the Audit Commission has hit out at the government for pressurising the watchdog to penalise certain councils in the Comprehensive Performance Assessments published last December...
Visions of 200,000 new houses, millions of pounds to regenerate declining areas in the Midlands and the North, and at least £1bn for houses for key workers dominated Sustainable Communities, John...
? ??ew Foster, the outgoing controller of the Audit Commission, talks to Mike Thatcher
Vincent Square will be a much quieter place when Sir Andrew Foster finally moves on later this year. The...
The reward for pharmacists in England and Wales informing on benefit fraudsters has gone up sevenfold. Under an initiative announced this week, they will now be able to claim a £70 reward, up from £...
Teachers will leave the profession if the government imposes the 2.9% pay rise recommended by the School Teachers' Review Body last week, the National Union of Teachers has warned.
The union...
A last-minute intervention by Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to avert a public row at Labour's local government conference this weekend after unions were granted substantial concessions to end...
Local authorities were this week puzzling over how to pay for a government plan to put cafés, crèches and web experts in every public library.
Arts minister Tessa Blackstone,...
Westminster City Council warned that it was on a 'collision course' with the Office for National Statistics this week as the row over census data escalated with the publication of the final local...
Councils hoping to pump millions of pounds into rundown housing were dealt a major blow this week when the government closed off one possible route for borrowing money.
Just when we thought we'd seen the back of Mr Blobby, once the stalwart of Saturday night television, his pink head has reared up in Lancaster City Council's Blobbygate scandal.
Employers and the Fire Brigades Union are to meet next week for 'substantive talks' after the apparent intervention of the Deputy Prime Minister as peacemaker this week.
