Ethical standards should be incorporated into the contractual and monitoring arrangements for companies and charities delivering outsourced public services, the Committee on Standards in Public Life...
The management of three local authority-led Private Finance Initiative waste projects has been criticised by government auditors for a lack of clarity.
Comptroller and auditor general Amyas Morse received a knighthood in this year’s Birthday Honours, leading a distinguished list of public servants who were recognised.
The Local Government Association has called on the government to restore ‘stability’ to school governance by returning powers over school intervention to town halls.
Part-time workers in local government and schools are being ‘exploited’ by being made to work unpaid overtime to plug service gaps caused by job cuts, Unison has claimed.
Councils will have to put in place pre-approved planning permissions on brownfield sites deemed suitable for housing in a bid to remove obstacles to development, Chancellor George Osborne has said.
More than half of council leaders believe some local authorities will fail to deliver the essential services residents require within the next year as the impact of government spending cuts increases...
The Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative uncovered £229m of incorrect and dishonestly obtained payments across the UK public sector in the last two years, according to figures published today...
Almost all young people could be either in work or learning by the end of the decade if councils were allowed to lead on youth unemployment schemes, the Local Government Association has claimed.
The National Audit Office has qualified the Whole of Government Accounts for the fourth successive year because of concerns with the quality and consistency of data.
Ofsted’s review of 21 schools and academies in Birmingham has revealed that some academies breached their funding agreements by failing to provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum.
Birmingham City Council is set to provide £200,000 in start-up costs for the municipal bonds agency planned by the Local Government Association, it has announced today.
The Audit Commission has urged councils to ensure they implement a strategic approach to asset and property management after finding £2.5bn of the local government estate could be put to better use.
Ofsted’s revised inspection criteria for children’s services is succeeding in shifting assessments on to the experiences of children, young people and families, according to an independent expert...
Plans to devolve funding for transport projects to local enterprise partnerships could mean that infrastructure in some parts of the England gets left behind, MPs have warned today.
The European Commission has urged the government to reform council tax to remove ‘distortions’ caused by basing the system on property values that are more than two decades old.
An independent commission into the future of council finance has today been launched by CIPFA and the Local Government Association, tasked with developing reforms to address key challenges amid...
Labour has pledged to give local authorities multi-year funding settlements if it wins the next election, in a bid to end short-term spending decisions in public services.
Government plans to integrate public services and spending mean it is vital that reforms are also made to the regime for dealing with complaints about poor provision, the Whitehall ombudsman has said.
It’s no longer just the bottom 20% of society who are anxious about their future. In the new class structure of industrialised countries, where jobs growth is in services, white-collar and...
