Patients are 25% more likely to develop post-operative complications after being treated in one of the new privately run treatment centres than in their NHS equivalents, clinical directors claim.
Town and county hall leaders have accepted they need to work with the funding settlement announced last week but have appealed to ministers not to blame tax rises on high-spending councils.
The Department for Work and Pensions this week released details of the job cuts it has overseen as part of the Gershon review totals that surpass figures in the 2005 Pre-Budget Report.
Fed up with slaving away in the background on your worthy but dull project while others bask in the glory of their ground-breaking, award-winning pathfinders? Well, suffer no longer. Michael Ware has...
Well, the Licensing Act has finally come into effect, and half the nation is still waiting in fear for the other half to go on a drunken rampage. Philip Johnston considers the consequences of the law...
Ministers are being challenged to commit themselves to a major increase in social housing after new figures showed the number of families without permanent homes still exceeds 100,000.
Health minister Lord Warner stunned delegates at the Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference by blaming the health service's financial problems on managers.
The time is ripe for a wide-ranging debate on the case for devolving more powers to councils, Sir Michael Lyons said this week as he issued the interim report of his inquiry into local government.
The government's £1.1bn funding boost for local government, announced alongside the Pre-Budget Report, might have mollified council chiefs, but the goal of making high council tax rises 'a thing of...
Councils' scrutiny committees are likely to be transformed into 'local area select committees' under proposals to place Local Strategic Partnerships at the centre of service delivery, Phil Woolas has...
A senior Whitehall academic this week cast doubt on Gordon Brown's claim that the government is on target to achieve its ambitious £40bn efficiency savings package by 2008.
All local authorities must share the spoils of the proposed Planning Gain Supplement or the gap between areas of economic success and deprivation will widen, Gordon Brown is being warned.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published draft regulations abolishing the so-called '85-year rule', which allowed some local government workers to retire before the age of 65.
Announcing the local government finance settlement at the same time as the Pre-Budget Report might have pushed it into the news background. But the government cannot hide from the issues forever
Westminster is at it again, proposing 'super councils' that will rapidly gobble up smaller ones. George Jones and John Stewart reckon something fishy is going on
The Home Office's finance director has urged caution in Whitehall's drive to professionalise its skills base warning senior staff not to shift roles too quickly simply to meet new training...
CPAs for Whitehall? Don't make me laugh, says Colin Talbot. Sir Gus O'Donnell's Departmental Capability Reviews for central government are far removed from the rigorous external performance...
The Home Office's finance chief is bringing a professional accounting approach to Whitehall at a time when it is under most pressure. She talks to Mark Conrad
The British civil service is rightly admired throughout the world, and yet everyone wants to 'reform' it. Tony Travers considers the skills that are needed for the thoroughly modern mandarin
Big changes are afoot in Whitehall, starting with the role of the traditional civil servant. But will this rush to 'professionalise' have the desired effect? Public Finance and Deloitte invited a...
