Threatening to prosecute parents has caused a marked reduction in classroom truancy, the government claimed this week.
Figures from the Department for Education and Skills on July 2 showed that...
Fire authority employers have warned of further industrial strife in the wake of the plans to overhaul firefighters' working practices and service structures.
The Audit Commission has given in to pressure from council leaders and scaled back plans to increase the thresholds between performance categories when the Comprehensive Performance Assessments are...
Local authorities should have the power to decide whether their tenants have the right to buy their homes in any part of their area, the Local Government Association has told MPs scrutinising the...
Struggling housing departments should be offered a cash incentive to improve their performance, according to the president of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Andrew Gray, director of housing...
A government blueprint for bringing all social housing up to scratch may need to be rewritten because of opposition from new regional boards.
Some shadow boards have already indicated that the...
CIPFA has described as 'significant' the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's intention to publish draft regulations for the prudential borrowing code next month.
Maureen Wellen, the institute'...
The way that public money has been given to homeowners to improve dilapidated properties in Wales has proved susceptible to fraud, and changes to be introduced next month could escalate problems,...
GPs are pushing for changes to the new contract they accepted overwhelmingly last week.
Though 79.4% of GPs voted in favour of the new contract, British Medical Association GP leader Dr John...
Ministers seriously underestimated the complexity of setting up housing Private Finance Initiative schemes, an independent report has found.
The review, carried out for the Office of the Deputy...
MPs this week called for a radical overhaul of regional grant distribution in England following fierce criticism of the current system.
Members of the Commons' Public Accounts Committee have...
The government and Unison were back on a collision course this week after the prime minister announced that more services would be 'opened up' to the private sector and the union warned of strike...
The government has accepted union, industry and local government proposals to settle disputes over the two-tier workforce this week.
The announcement by local government minister Nick Raynsford...
Town hall leaders are demanding a thorough analysis of the costs of reorganising local government if next year's referendums lead to elected regional assemblies being set up.
Education employers are to push for the abolition of the School Teachers' Review Body in an attempt to wrest back control over pay negotiations from Whitehall.
The chair of the National Employers'...
Asylum seekers are to be diverted away from private landlords into homes owned by councils and housing associations.
The Home Office is appealing to more social landlords to offer accommodation...
The rise of reality television offers 'important lessons' in the battle to re-engage the public with politics and encourage people to vote, Nick Raynsford said this week.
The local government...
The Audit Commission will take a more 'risk-sensitive' approach to inspections while Comprehensive Performance Assessments will 'focus on things that really matter', its new chief executive said this...
In the hothouse atmosphere of Whitehall, secrets have a habit of leaking out. Not so Alan Milburn's resignation as health secretary last week. Even his old sparring partner Gordon Brown was said to...
Critical inspection reports can undermine local government's attempts to improve services, the outspoken director of finance at the London Borough of Hackney said at the CIPFA conference at Harrogate...
|;¼ ?y criticised Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would be ranked as 'weak' if it were to undergo the same Audit Commission assessment process as local authorities, a...
Whitehall officials have held out an olive branch to local education authorities in an effort to quell the damaging row over schools funding that has been dogging the government for weeks.
Stephen...
It is inevitable that local government's code on the two-tier workforce will be now rolled out across the public sector, business leaders conceded this week, as final negotiations ended with an...
