Charities’ critics want to curb their campaigning and make the sector pick up the pieces as the state withdraws from service provision. Not quite the Big Society vision it had in mind
The digital revolution means the ways we communicate are fragmenting. So how do employers and staff talk to each other, and how should we use social media to tell the outside world about what we...
Every year the Treasury gathers financial data from nearly 4,000 public bodies – from Whitehall departments to academy schools – to publish the Whole of Government Accounts. This ambitious exercise...
As NHS staff ballot on industrial action – and discontent rises over pay and salary progression throughout the public sector – years of severe pay restraint are taking their toll
There are now 4,000 academies but, as the education baton passes to Nicky Morgan, it may turn out that Michael Gove’s real legacy is in curriculum and teaching reforms
The health reforms were meant to create a fast-track, patient-centred service. Rising waiting times and A&E admissions – and confusion over GP commissioning and care funding – suggest...
The Treasury has seriously mishandled the new fee regime for universities, resulting in zero expected savings for the public coffers. And the chancellor’s scrapping of controls on student...
The regulator is getting tough with charities in England and Wales that file their accounts late. John Maddocks looks at the importance of transparency and new best practice for trustees due this year
When David Cameron and Nick Clegg crossed the Severn to hand over new fiscal powers to the Welsh Assembly, they kept a ‘lockstep’ on income tax. But there’s no turning back from the...
Management decisions based on hunches and intuition resemble 17th century medicine – witchcraft with added leeches. So, asks Alasdair Robertson, how do you assemble a business case that appeals to...
Outsourcing hit the news for all the wrong reasons last year, putting traditional contracts under scrutiny. So what does the future hold? As the public sector grapples with huge cuts, expect new...
Sir John Gieve has been there, done that, seen the blood on the carpet. The former Bank of England deputy governor talks to Judy Hirst about lessons from the last financial crash, the eurozone crisis...
Reports of the Olympics organisers dropping the baton have been greatly exaggerated, finance director David Goldstone tells PF. In fact, public sector teamwork has helped the Games clear the hurdles...
A deal might not have come out of Copenhagen, but the public sector still faces scrutiny of its CO2 emissions. Many larger public bodies are covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which comes...
A year and a half into the recession, how close are the public finances to Treasury forecasts and what does the future hold? In the run-up to the Pre-Budget Report, the IFS’s Carl Emmerson and Gemma...
Police forces are under pressure to merge and modernise and they're not coming quietly. Vivienne Russell weighs up the evidence in the debate over how to make twenty-first century policing fit...
