Last week's row over which party would offer patients genuine choice of where and when they are treated in hospital left NHS managers bemused. Few believe the mantra of choice is the key to...
The accounts of seven of Northern Ireland's 17 departments and major public bodies have been qualified for 2002/03 in the second year of resource accounting.
Council budgets for 2005/06 will be thrown into turmoil next week when the Office for National Statistics finally accepts that its 2001 Census was flawed.
Primary care organisations are timid and lack the strategic vision to make the most of the new doctors' contract, according to GPs' leader John Chisholm.
Local plans to improve communities are being undermined by the myriad of confusing and complex funding streams, targets and new initiatives emerging from Whitehall, the Audit Commission has reported.
Ministers have given cautious approval to the Local Government Association's proposal to take over the Employers Organisation as a way of improving the handling of pay negotiations.
Hopes that council-owned housing companies might be able to borrow money privately in the same way as registered social landlords have been dashed by a key government adviser.
Patients' power to choose where and when they are treated will be expanded, no matter which party wins the next general election. Both Labour and the Conservatives put patient choice at the heart of...
Communities may take it on themselves to choose which providers clean their streets or empty their bins under a vision of public service delivery set out by the local government minister this week.
Unison maintained its official support for Labour this week in the face of heightened hostility from members, and despite its leaders' private anger at the government's last-minute withdrawal from a...
English local authorities collected an extra £15m in council tax last year, but the rate of improvement slowed, leading to claims from private sector analysts that the government has adopted a '...
Liverpool City Council chief executive David Henshaw leads an array of public sector figures in the Queen's birthday honours list. He was awarded a knighthood for services to local government. He won...
More than a third of councils could face court action and fines unless they take steps to prepare for the impact of new equality legislation, the Disability Rights Commission has warned.
Nearly 75% of finance professionals rate a 'valuable' pension scheme as one of the main benefits of working in the public sector, a survey revealed this week.
The Healthcare Commission is to overhaul its approach to inspection and is examining the Comprehensive Performance Assessment model used in local government.
CBI director general Digby Jones has demanded that all savings achieved by Sir Peter Gershon's efficiency review are independently audited so that ministers' claims of success can be verified.
NHS trusts that fail to implement National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on anti-cancer drugs and other treatments will receive lower star ratings, the Healthcare Commission and
the...
Government plans to end the exclusion of people with mental health problems from opportunities in employment, education and housing should become a 'watershed', a leading charity said this week.
The auditor general for Scotland, Bob Black, has called for improvements in the management of Scottish Enterprise's business support service to achieve value for money from its £40m funding.
The government is to draw up a ten-year strategy for local government that will herald a 'new settlement' of the relationship between town halls and Whitehall.
All local public services should be scrutinised by 'select committees' of councillors to ensure that unelected bodies are held accountable to the public, a think-tank has recommended.