Councils could be forced to delve into billions of pounds of vital cash reserves following a tough 2006/07 finance settlement, ministers have warned town hall officials.
Further demanding targets for efficiency savings beyond the Gershon programme will be at the heart of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, the Cabinet minister masterminding it has told Public...
The national statistician should have the power to audit and, if necessary, qualify all statistics produced by government departments to help overcome public distrust of official data, an independent...
Partnerships between public sector organisations risk wasting money unless there is a clear sense of what they are hoping to achieve and who is in charge, the Audit Commission warned this week.
Sixty-six MPs have signed a parliamentary motion urging Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to extend last week's surprise deal on unfunded public sector pensions to local government.
Health professionals fear that primary care trusts will still lose their function as providers, despite Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's apparent concession on the issue this week.
Efforts to convince public sector organisations to contract more with the voluntary sector are to be stepped up after a study showed continuing widespread ignorance of the benefits of doing so.
The creation of 'super-councils' to run all public services is among radical options being considered by the Scottish Executive's review of governance.
Government departments could still be forced to reduce entitlements for new public sector staff to meet its £13bn savings target across the sector despite this week's surprise deal on the pension...
A union representing NHS managers has called for guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies as ambulance trusts, strategic health authorities and primary care trusts are reorganised.
Whitehall departments are teaming up with government agencies and the private sector to launch a huge data-matching exercise designed to identify benefit fraudsters, tax cheats and absent parents.
Pay rises of at least 4.5% are needed next April or the NHS will haemorrhage doctors and fail to attract new recruits, the British Medical Association argued this week.
Controversial proposals to overhaul the probation service by opening it up to competition met with fierce criticism this week from employers and unions alike.
The Local Government Association has called for health and care funding to be merged into single pots to help pay for joined-up services between primary care trusts and local authorities.
Star ratings for councils coupled with 'direction of travel' statements are to replace descriptive labels when the new Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime is rolled out later this year.
Northern Ireland is to follow the example of the Republic of Ireland and Scotland by banning smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces from April 2007.
Chief inspector of schools David Bell has backed plans for greater autonomy for head teachers, which are widely expected to be included in the education white paper due to be published next week.