Public sector trade unions this week attacked Chancellor Gordon Brown's proposed four-year pay freeze for 6 million staff, claiming that many people could face real-term cuts until 2011.
Whitehall officials must improve the design and operation of the administrative systems underpinning UK services if targeted public sector improvements are to be achieved, influential MPs have warned.
This week's call for means-tested charges for NHS services is wrong-headed. Such a move would raise few funds, deter the wrong people from using health care, and undermine the consensus that backs...
It seems that time is running out for the big regeneration programmes. But, despite government rhetoric about 'mainstreaming', practitioners fear that their resources might not transfer into the...
Ministers are poised to devolve new welfare powers to cities aimed at combating poverty, raising employment and improving conditions for people with disabilities.
The Treasury is to launch a root-and-branch review of procurement throughout the public sector, amid ministers' mounting frustration that many organisations are still not using their buying power to...
Every household in Britain is losing around £180 per year because of fraud and error in the government's benefit and tax credits systems, figures released by Opposition MPs this week suggest.
Sure Start, tax credits, baby bonds. Gordon Brown has not been idle on the social policy front while he waits for his chance at the premiership. But what kind of legacy will the longest-serving...
Scotland would lose many of the benefits of economic and financial integration with the rest of the UK if the Holyrood Parliament had powers to raise and spend its own taxes, the authors of a report...
Ministers expect to save £7bn from the overhaul of welfare systems announced this week cash that they believe could be reinvested directly back into services.
The government is on a new charm offensive with the voluntary sector. But will all the reviews and initiatives allay charities' suspicions that ministers are looking for public services on the cheap...
Disagreement between local authorities over employee benefits in the Local Government Pension Scheme risks fragmenting and ultimately undermining it, unions have told Public Finance .
The government's impending Welfare Reform Bill will be scrutinised by disability rights experts to assess its impact on child poverty targets, a leading practitioner revealed this week.
There is a lull in Westminster, as if everything is waiting for the next PM. For many in the public sector, this represents a welcome rest from a breakneck whirl of reform but not for local...
The government has poured money into public sector pay, but taxpayers can't see any service improvement, the unions are far from grateful and now the chancellor is pulling the plug. It's time to...
The promised summer report on next year's Comprehensive Spending Review has yet to materialise, making it unlikely that MPs will be able to discuss it before the recess. But that's par for the...
The public sector in Scotland is facing an increasing pension fund shortfall, which now stands at more than £53bn, a study by Audit Scotland has found.
The US comptroller general, David Walker, has praised the UK's system of permanent secretaries running Whitehall departments and wants a similar system introduced in US government departments.
A senior backbench MP has cast doubt on the private and voluntary sector's ability to deliver the improved access to mental health services demanded by leading academics this week.
Prime Minister Tony Blair this week initiated a crucial phase of his third-term public services reforms a wide-ranging review of private and voluntary sector capabilities across health, social care...
