Hospitals could fail the Healthcare Commission's annual health check if they do not treat elderly patients with dignity and give them adequate help with eating.
Unacceptable race inequalities persist in mental health services despite the injection of £16m of public funds committed to tackling the problem, campaigners said this week.
Departmental ministers should have more say over the direction of government policy, while measures must be introduced to improve transparency around planning, an influential committee has reported.
Senior hospital doctors believe that major NHS reforms, such as payment by results and Patient Choice, will fail to improve the service patients receive, according to a British Medical Association...
The government's failure to produce comprehensive estimates of the full cost of London's 2012 Olympics is 'a recipe for an open-ended cheque book', an influential MP has warned.
Public bodies are paying almost three times the market price for IT skills because lengthy supply chains mean that rates are heavily 'marked up' before delivery, recruitment specialists have claimed.
Town hall leaders have backed MPs' calls for more funding and financial powers to be devolved to councils to help strengthen major cities' transport infrastructure.
NHS watchers turning to the service's third-quarter financial report last week were bemused. Despite Department of Health claims that NHS finances were more transparent than ever, no fewer than three...
The government this week promised NHS unions a greater say in the development of policy after months of wrangling over pay, pensions and the influence of the private sector.
The government has shelved controversial plans to produce estimates of public sector productivity as part of an overhaul of national accounting, Public Finance has learnt.
Fire and rescue authorities have responded positively to the reform of the service but there has been no clear reduction in reducing the risks from fire, Audit Scotland has found.
Public services union Unison has attacked the government's decision to approve seven new Private Finance Initiative hospitals with a capital value of £1.5bn.
English universities are to receive a good funding settlement to help them get to grips with the new fee regime, higher education bosses said this week.
Brighton and Hove City Council faces major problems raising at least £100m to improve its homes after tenants voted three to one against transfer to a housing association.
The first signs of a breakthrough in Whitehall's industrial relations dispute emerged this week when the Cabinet Office assumed responsibility for a government-wide assessment of privatisation plans.
Ministers would set the education and community care budgets of every council in Scotland and take responsibility for managing these services under a radical plan drawn up by a leading civil servant.
The emergency use of police cells to tackle prison overcrowding equates to almost half of the Prison Service's spare capacity, the Home Office revealed this week.
Children's services in hospitals are poor because they are underfunded and not given the priority they deserve, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said this week.
Ministers must commit Whitehall departments to new joint Public Service Agreements if they are to tackle the growing gap between unemployment and skills in the North of England compared with the...
Local authorities are offsetting low council tax rises with increases in the fees they charge for care services ranging from 13% to 100%, Public Finance has learnt.
A council heavily criticised in a watchdog report has become the first in Scotland to cut its council tax since local government was reorganised in 1996.
Ministers will this week assure MPs that legislation will be amended to ensure that NHS trusts are required to work with councils to meet locally agreed targets.
