An NHS trust this week denied it will have to close a celebrated teaching hospital because of a Private Finance Initiative 'blunder'.
St Mary's Trust said it favoured keeping its Western Eye...
Prisons have suffered a huge turnover of governors and record sickness levels among staff, the Prison Reform Trust has claimed.
In research published this week, the pressure group said that just...
The Department for Education and Skills has accused the London Borough of Croydon of needlessly withholding money from schools.
In a funding row that shows no signs of abating, Croydon and...
Auditor general Bob Black has found that almost a quarter of the £18.8m claimed in Scotland by providers under the Individual Learning Accounts scheme was probably fraudulent.
The much-criticised...
As the British armed forces gear themselves for a seemingly inevitable conflict in the Gulf, MPs have warned the Ministry of Defence it must equip soldiers properly for extreme conditions following a...
Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith has vowed to scrap NHS waiting list targets if the party wins the next election, under plans outlined in a consultation document.
Tapping into the...
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 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...
Councils are to press local government minister Nick Raynsford for extra cash to meet the costs of ending the two-tier workforce in outsourced contracts.
The Local Government Association executive...
The head of the NHS's newly beefed-up counter fraud and security agency has vowed to clamp down on violent assaults against staff in the sector after union claims that the number of incidents is on...
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...
The relentless push for public services improvement has provided a burgeoning market for the Improvement and Development Agency, which plans to expand to meet rising demand from local government....
Backbench Labour MPs leading the rebellion against government plans to introduce elite foundation hospitals have indicated they expect significant concessions in the controversial Bill when it is...
It was not the news that Health Secretary Alan Milburn already facing an embarrassing backbench revolt over foundation trusts and accusations of widespread waiting list fiddling by hospitals...
As the fallout from the Audit Commission's damning report on NHS waiting lists gathers pace, health management bodies have called for immediate action by ministers to prevent a 'witch-hunt' that...
Councils hoping to transfer their housing have been warned against creating a single new landlord for the entire stock.
New guidance on large-scale voluntary transfers, published this week by the...
Authorities rated 'excellent' will not have their council tax increases capped, despite rises of up to 45%, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed this week, with ministers apparently...
The next 12 months could make or break the government's public services reform agenda, the new leader of the union movement has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Brendan Barber, who...
Troubled support services firm Amey has put together an emergency refinancing deal which may enable it to buy back into the London Tube's public-private partnership.
The arrangement with Barclays...
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...
The government has given way to protests over the scrapping of the local authority social housing grant (LASHG) and announced an extra £110m in transitional funding to keep affordable housing...
Almost 1,000 teaching assistants made legal history this week when their union lodged the biggest equal pay claim to be made in Europe.
Unison has lodged the claim with an employment tribunal in...
Housing associations must recruit a new breed of leader if they are to thrive as effective businesses in the twenty-first century, their regulator has warned.
Baroness Dean, chair of the Housing...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke has admitted that the national curriculum is suffering, particularly in sports and modern languages, because teachers are too focused on targets.
Speaking on...
The government is to delegate responsibility for checking potential workers' identities to 'registered bodies' such as local authorities in an attempt to overhaul the beleaguered Criminal Records...
