Rossendale Borough Council in Lancashire has been given a final warning that it faces government intervention unless it achieves rapid improvement in its services.
Unions and local education authorities are demanding compensation for schools as thousands are closing classrooms and using supply teachers after the Criminal Records Bureau failed to clear its...
Councils will be able to set their own complaints procedures for education and dispose of land at their discretion as the government begins to dismantle its overarching consent regimes.
The leader of Britain's trades union movement this week stepped up the campaign to halt the privatisation of public services, when he warned Tony Blair not to 'charge ahead' with reforms 'assuming he...
Worsening sectarian violence in north and east Belfast is contributing to homelessness in Northern Ireland. More than 14,000 households presented themselves as homeless last year, compared with fewer...
The NHS in England is to get a further £10m to develop intensive care facilities for critically ill children, health minister Jacqui Smith announced this week.
Almost 1,000 complaints have been made against local councillors in the past four months, since the introduction of a new code of conduct under the Local Government Act 2000.
Members judged responsible for their authority's failures could be stripped of decision-making powers and replaced by 'partnership boards' under government plans to deal with poorly performing...
The local government reforms will turn authorities into 'performing dogs', desperate to please ministers in order to win a small measure of freedom, a leading local government figure has warned....
The row over health care rationing escalated this week after opposition MPs said the formation of a 'citizens' council' to inform NHS drug and treatment practices was a 'sham'.
Liberal Democrat...
The Fire Brigades Union is to press ahead with a ballot for its first national strike over pay in 25 years, while employers have been left to make last-ditch attempts at negotiations after the...
Parliamentarians and patients' bodies have blasted NHS managers for failing to make modifications to dangerous anaesthetic machines.
Health minister David Lammy this week announced that 139...
Students who volunteer to help in the community should earn a reduction in the cost of going to university, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
In a report due to be published...
The Liberal Democrats are to unveil a package of criminal justice polices at their annual conference next month, including the creation of a new Ministry of Justice to replace the Lord Chancellor's...
Councils in the capital are facing more strike action after three unions agreed to step up their campaign for an increase in London weighting this week.
At a meeting between Unison, the T...
The Ministry of Defence has done little to reduce the risk of British troops being killed by so-called 'friendly-fire' - a decade after
it was warned about problems with combat identification...
Two of the five biggest awards for unlawful discrimination made by employment tribunals last year were against local authorities, research published this week has shown.
A survey by Equal...
Regional Development Agencies should turn their attention to improving child care, according to the Trades Union Congress.
The organisation claims that Britain's productivity is suffering because...
Government plans to exempt existing care homes from controversial environmental standards could lead to a two-tier system of care for older people, claim social services chiefs.
Under the...
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council is waiting to learn if the inquiry by police and health officials into the outbreak of legionnaires' disease in the Cumbrian town will point the finger of blame at...
Business leaders have expressed reservations about new Treasury guidance stipulating that public sector clients should be able to veto the refinancing of Private Finance Initiative deals.
