Paul Kirby, the Audit Commission's director of inspection, has resigned from his post just weeks before local authorities are given the results of their Comprehensive Performance Assessments.
The Home Office has parachuted a hit squad into the crisis-hit Criminal Records Bureau amid warnings that the delays in criminal checks could last into next year.
Local authority leaders are lobbying to keep child protection services firmly in the grip of local communities and councils, rather than under a centrally controlled child protection agency.
This week's war of words on firefighters' pay is rapidly moving towards action as the Fire Brigades Union prepares to ballot for its first strike in 25 years after rejecting outright the government's...
Rossendale Borough Council in Lancashire has been given a final warning that it faces government intervention unless it achieves rapid improvement in its services.
Unions and local education authorities are demanding compensation for schools as thousands are closing classrooms and using supply teachers after the Criminal Records Bureau failed to clear its...
Councils will be able to set their own complaints procedures for education and dispose of land at their discretion as the government begins to dismantle its overarching consent regimes.
The leader of Britain's trades union movement this week stepped up the campaign to halt the privatisation of public services, when he warned Tony Blair not to 'charge ahead' with reforms 'assuming he...
Members judged responsible for their authority's failures could be stripped of decision-making powers and replaced by 'partnership boards' under government plans to deal with poorly performing...
The local government reforms will turn authorities into 'performing dogs', desperate to please ministers in order to win a small measure of freedom, a leading local government figure has warned....
Two of the five biggest awards for unlawful discrimination made by employment tribunals last year were against local authorities, research published this week has shown.
A survey by Equal...
A senior figure at the Equal Opportunities Commission could head the inquiry into local government pay - an investigation that will be undertaken in the wake of this week's historic wage deal for...
The 4Ps, the agency set up to help local authorities deliver public-private partnerships, is to expand into all avenues of procurement under a new executive director, it was announced this week.
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council is waiting to learn if the inquiry by police and health officials into the outbreak of legionnaires' disease in the Cumbrian town will point the finger of blame at...
The Association of London Government maintained that it was 'business as usual' this week after the sudden departure of its director of local government finance, Stephen Fitzgerald.
Further education colleges are claiming they could face serious budget problems in the coming year because of changes in the way that money is allocated from the standards fund.
Local authorities should push ahead with rapid adoption of the controversial accounting rule FRS17 or face a separate standard that could unveil £2bn of pension fund liabilities across the UK,...
The Criminal Records Bureau will continue outsourcing work to a call centre in India for the 'foreseeable future', despite clearing its 50,000 backlog in criminal record checks.
The local government pay dispute edged tentatively towards a resolution this week, after the employers indicated they may raise their 3% offer to 4.1% - but only for some staff.
Nick Raynsford has overridden the Audit Commission's advice and given Kingston upon Hull City Council one final chance to tackle its problems before intervening in the crisis-hit authority.
