Scottish Education Minister Cathy Jamieson has used a local government conference to announce an extra £80m to guarantee full implementation of the McCrone agreement on teachers' workloads....
MPs this week described as 'appalling' the government's delay in informing 6 million people who are expected to retire between 2002 and 2010 of possible cuts to their inherited state pensions.
The...
Private and voluntary sector organisations could apply to become NHS foundation trusts under proposals being put forward by Health Secretary Alan Milburn, it emerged this week.
In a move that will...
The government is in danger of leaving more children in care and custody than ever before, despite its good intentions to tackle anti-social behaviour, the children's charity Barnardo's warned this...
Suspicions among council highways and transport officers that their budgets are being plundered by education and social services colleagues have been reinforced by the Commission for Integrated...
The increased use of an expensive drug has helped a campaign to cut the number of deaths from coronary heart disease, the national heart director said this week.
Launching a progress report on the...
Central and local government must 'give up a bit of power' to tackle social exclusion in partnership with voluntary and community bodies.
That was the message from Office of the Deputy Prime...
Information technology contractor ITNet has been removed from Islington council's housing and council tax benefits contract. The London borough will take the service back in house on May 1....
Unions launched a campaign this week to expand local government's deal to end the two-tier workforce into defence and health.
As the CBI and the Business Services Association savaged last week's...
Councils are failing to detect four-fifths of housing benefit frauds, the National Audit Office said this week. The government has also made the system more complex and prone to fraud, despite...
Child protection agencies have joined forces to try to stop vulnerable children slipping through the net as Lord Laming's damning report on the Victoria Climbié case was published.
Fraud inspectors have slammed Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for failing to rectify long-term problems in its housing and council tax benefits divisions, despite previous warnings about the...
Ministers are gearing themselves for another battle with Tory peers over the controversial Section 28 legislation, which prevents councils from promoting homosexuality.
The prospect of a speedy settlement of the firefighters dispute looked increasingly unlikely this week after both the government and employers confirmed that negotiations would now be limited to the...
New Labour's suggested shake-up of the UK pension system, dubbed the 'work until you drop' package, is merely storing up problems for the future, according to public sector experts, opposition...
A Left-leaning think-tank is calling for greater scrutiny of Private Finance Initiative schemes entered into by central and local government, after it revealed that only 6% of the contracts have had...
Failure to run proper checks on the £4.7bn of tax credits paid out each year is leaving 'significant gaps in the control over public funds', according to the Commons' Public Accounts Committee.
Local authorities will have to stick to the April 2003 deadline for implementing FRS17 the controversial accounting standard under proposals published by CIPFA in a consultation paper last week...
Fraudulent housing benefit claims could be costing taxpayers billions of pounds each year but some councils have done nothing to remedy the problem, the minister in charge of the government's anti-...
NHS trusts that are developing Private Finance Initiative projects should not place 'undue emphasis' on demonstrating savings against a Treasury-funded project, the National Audit Office said this...
England's pensioners missed out on almost £1.9bn last year, largely because the government failed to inform them of the range of benefits available, according to the National Audit Office.
The government does not take the issue of fraud seriously and has failed to introduce even the most basic preventative measures, according to maverick MP Frank Field.
