As local authorities square up to the housing and care demands of older people, new public-private partnerships are emerging to enable housing associations to meet their needs. Melinda Phillips...
Halfway through its life, the government's efficiency programme is ahead of its targets. But with a fiscal squeeze on the way and no let-up in spending plans, the public sector is going to feel the...
Services for older people are 'teetering on the brink', Local Government Association chair Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart was due to tell the House of Lords on December 7.
Tackling antisocial behaviour costs taxpayers £3.4bn a year, but half of all antisocial behaviour orders are breached and some towns are dogged by perceived threats of yobbish acts, a study has...
What links climate change, transport, planning and health? Answer: they are some of the issues that Chancellor Gordon Brown has outsourced to expert, independent review.
The transfer of hospital services into the community moved a step further this week as the government told primary care trusts to develop local markets with a range of providers.
An all-too familiar debate was reignited this week as ministers unveiled the provisional local government grant settlement for 2007/08. Councils were quick to warn that they faced tough choices...
Local government faces fresh strike action in the New Year after the government announced pension scheme reforms deemed unacceptable by trade unions, Public Finance has been told.
NHS managers feel like they've been jumping through hoops and juggling priorities for ever. Now the health secretary is about to launch a major new challenge, in the form of a revamped payment by...
One of the proposals in the local government white paper that has attracted little comment is to reform Best Value. The government is putting a renewed emphasis on competition and this time it's...
Children's minister Beverley Hughes this week came under fire from MPs concerned that greater independence for schools undermines the chances of children in care.
The chief executive of the NHS in Wales has called for an end to deficits in the principality's health boards and trusts and challenged finance professionals to exert greater influence and leadership.
There's much to please local authorities in the white paper, particularly in terms of deregulation and decentralisation. But real devolution, letting councils decide local priorities, is still a long...
Tolerance for diverse ethnic and religious traditions has long been part of Britain's multicultural society, writes Ann Rossiter. But community cohesion is being seriously undermined and the causes...
Ministers are prepared to intervene in the 500 English schools deemed 'inadequate' following this week's Ofsted annual report, the country's most senior education official has told Public Finance
Public cash to support regional economic development should be targeted at northern cities, a leading think-tank has claimed, despite new research indicating that the UK's North-South divide is...
Town hall leaders are demanding that devolution must underpin the Bills of the next parliamentary session, as the prime minister used the last Queen's Speech of his tenure to outline a far-reaching...
Health and education took a back seat in the Queen's Speech, but the absence of a Bill merging the health and social care inspectorates drew confused responses.
