As the new term starts, Michael Gove’s education revolution continues apace. But where’s the evidence that academies and free schools will benefit the majority of pupils?
Councils coped well with the first year of accounting under IFRS – an impressive achievement in harsh times. Now they must get the most out of the changes
Investment in infrastructure is the chancellor’s way of providing a necessary stimulus to the flatlining economy. But how does he intend to find the funds without dipping into the public purse or...
The government now owns billions of pounds worth of banks in the UK, which it will have to restore to the private sector at some point. But when, how and what should the taxpayer get back? PF...
Problems at Mid Staffordshire and Basildon foundation trusts caused an awkward year for outgoing Monitor chair Bill Moyes. But standards are rising, he tells David Williams
A Lords inquiry has issued the latest in a series of official reports calling for the scrapping of the controversial 30-year-old funding mechanism for the UK nations. But replacing it will not be easy
UK Financial Investments is meant to be looking after the taxpayers’ massive stake in the country’s failed banks. But concerns are mounting about the Treasury agency’s ‘hands off’ approach. Paul...
The local government map of England became a lot less complex and varied on April 1 as 43 councils vanished to be replaced by nine giant unitary authorities.
Is April the cruellest month? By the time Alistair Darling finished his 2009 Budget speech, it was looking a lot nastier than November. The litany of figures the chancellor recited revealed just how...
The Learning and Skills Council is being abolished after a series of high-profile disasters, the most damaging of which - the Building Colleges for the Future programme - has left a £5.7bn deficit
Proponents of ‘social insurance’ believe it is an answer to the huge policy challenge of caring for elderly people. But there is a fear that the recession might put an end to such radical...
As councils congratulate themselves on increasing household recycling rates, a House of Lords committee has highlighted a problem that could wreck the drive to cut down on landfill. Of Britain's...
Outsourced public services are big business. DeAnne Julius's landmark review last week valued this relatively young sector at £79bn, with the potential to keep on growing. Business Secretary John...
If Sir Peter Gershon has left one legacy it is that he has made efficiency a major part of public sector discourse. This, at least, is the view of Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper.
The credit crunch scored a first this week, the nationalisation of a bank. But behind the scenes it is also having a serious impact on public sector pension schemes and proposed PFI projects. Paul...
It was inevitable that Professor Martin Cave's recommendation that all providers of social housing should come under a single regulator would fail to please everybody.
No wonder the King's Fund had to take it upon themselves to commission Sir Derek Wanless's review of progress against his 2002 recommendations on funding the NHS.
NHS foundation trusts have been accused of circumventing the cap Parliament imposed on their private patient work by establishing arm's-length bodies whose income does not show up in their accounts.
'Grotesque failure' and 'total farce' were the more polite terms anti-poverty activist Bob Geldof used earlier this month to signal his disenchantment with the aid record of the world's richest...
'It'll never last,' tends to be the not-so-cynical reaction when we read of apparently loved-up celebrities jealously guarding their wealth and status by drawing up complex pre-nuptial agreements....
