The government has moved to tackle bed-blocking with a series of measures designed to make social services more responsive, increase the number of available care home beds and allow more old people...
Local government minister Nick Raynsford faces new arguments over the government's code of practice on the two-tier workforce after the long-awaited draft was published this week.
Iain Duncan Smith's reshuffle of the Conservative front bench heralds 'good news' for the party in local government, according to a senior Local Government Association Tory.
A £15m rescue fund is being set up to help black and minority ethnic (BME) housing associations that face serious financial problems because of rent restructuring.
The right to buy should be phased out as council and housing association tenants are encouraged to gain a financial stake in their home, a report suggested this week.
For all its words about devolution of control, the government effectively tightened its grip on education in the Spending Review, outlining a new blueprint for secondary schools that will explicitly...
The ground-breaking public-private partnership between Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire County Council was hanging in the balance this week after fears over the long-term future of one of the...
Local authorities are in line for an average increase of 4.2% in central grant over the next three years, prompting accusations that local services are being pushed to the back of the spending queue.
Local government unions were this week set to unveil plans for a 'widespread escalation of industrial action' after being given the cold shoulder by employers in the wake of the first national strike...
Nick Raynsford has revealed a talent for nifty conjuring tricks in his proposals for reforming the notoriously complex Standard Spending Assessment, the method by which authorities receive their...
The Department of Health has for the first time agreed to improve the quality of care offered by the NHS in return for the billions of pounds being poured in by the Treasury over the next five years...
The Spending Review has confirmed what many expected: large increases in resources for many public services. The Budget had already told us how far the overall spending envelope would grow, and laid...
Walsall Council averted the threat of government intervention this week after agreeing to remove its entire top management team and appoint an interim chief executive.
Westminster City Council this week granted the biggest-ever outsourcing contract in local government history but failed to ease staff fears that they could be relocated outside London as part of...
Home Secretary David Blunkett has admitted that the Home Office lacks the funds to implement fully all the measures contained in this week's ambitious criminal justice white paper.
District Audit and Inspection Service functions are to be integrated for the first time under a shake-up of internal structures unveiled by the Audit Commission this week.
Whitehall departments that benefited from Gordon Brown's largesse in Monday's long-awaited Spending Review will be expected to meet 'demanding' national targets.
Dan Corry, the former special adviser to local government secretary Stephen Byers, is to take over as executive director of the New Local Government Network.
Just one in four local authorities believes that it will be granted greater financial freedoms as a result of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment framework, research has revealed.
It is highly unlikely that a Civil Service Bill would seek to cap the number of special advisers in government, the new head of the civil service has said.
Keith Hellawell, the government's former 'drugs czar', has resigned from his role as a part-time government adviser over plans to downgrade the classification of cannabis.
