Foundation trusts will not be able to opt out of the NHS's Agenda for Change pay deal, Health Secretary Alan Milburn confirmed this week as he launched a concerted campaign to quash opposition to the...
Failure to cut the number of injuries to staff is costing the NHS millions of pounds a year, the National Audit Office said this week.
The government set national improvement targets in 1999 for...
North Tyneside's elected mayor, Chris Morgan, has resigned after being questioned by police on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.
Morgan, one of 11 US-style executive mayors...
Local government is still plagued with 'severe' recruitment and retention problems that are placing unmanageable burdens on staff, forcing councils to privatise services because they cannot afford to...
A three-year government review of rent restructuring has been criticised by the Chartered Institute of Housing for avoiding major questions.
The review, launched by the Office of the Deputy Prime...
Councils ranked 'excellent' in the Comprehensive Performance Assessments are becoming increasingly frustrated at the government's failure to deliver the promised freedoms and flexibilities.
The 22...
Local authority spending has risen by 26% since 1998, according to a new survey, with education leading the way.
The survey, by market intelligence service Key Note, shows that councils spent £77....
Non-profit-distributing public interest companies have a 'potentially important role' to play in public service delivery, says a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. But it warns...
Just one in five young voters bothered to show up at the polling booth in the 2001 general election, the first major study of first-time voters has shown.
Researchers found that only 21% of 18 and...
Primary care t rusts must prepare for an exodus of clinical managers over the next two years, according to a survey by the NHS Alliance.
The body, which represents PCTs, said that half the doctors...
NHS consultants this week threatened industrial action over their contracts despite the government's abandonment of plans to make them work over weekends and in the evenings.
Last year, consultants...
Home Secretary David Blunkett's plans to open offshore 'processing centres' for asylum seekers coming into Europe will not work unless they are accompanied by an overhaul of migration management, a...
Ministers are poised to create the first urban development corporation in ten years in an attempt to help house-building east of London.
Proposals for a UDC in Thurrock, Essex, were published by...
Local authority housing departments will no longer undergo an annual performance assessment under a new funding regime coming into force next year.
Although regional government offices must be told...
The government may have to impose measures to resolve employment disputes in outsourced council contracts after insiders claimed this week that negotiations between unions and business were fraught...
Work will begin in the autumn on a groundbreaking public-private partnership that will revolutionise health services in Greater Manchester, it has been announced.
The £100m Manchester, Salford and...
Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell has announced an independent inquiry into the soaring cost of the new Holyrood Scottish Parliament building in an apparent attempt to head off election...
Head teachers this week accused ministers of playing a deliberate 'smoke and mirrors' game with education budgets, using 'double or triple counting' tricks to play up bottom-line increases in funding...
Labour launched its local election campaign this week focusing on its improvements to public services, measures to tackle antisocial behaviour and the threat of Tory spending cuts.
Deputy Prime...
Fifteen more councils have told the government they want to create arm's-length management organisations to oversee their housing.
Demand for places on the third round of the Almo programme, which...
Members of the royal colleges of nursing and midwifery have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new pay system that will raise their salaries by an average of 12.5% over three years.
MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes.
The Commons...
Competition for public sector finance jobs is increasing because of the sector's 'recession proof' status, according to research out later this month.
The survey of public sector salaries by...
The government is currently wasting millions of pounds on research commissioned by Whitehall departments because so little of it filters through to policy improvements, auditors have warned on April...
