The National Union of Teachers has accused Education Secretary Charles Clarke of 'bully-boy' tactics after he declined an invitation to speak at its annual conference.
Clarke said the education...
Ofsted, the schools' inspectorate, has insisted that it will meet its March deadline to inspect and register all childminders and nurseries, despite a growing backlog of checks.
A spokeswoman told...
Councils and other public sector bodies are beefing up their risk management policies in the face of huge rises in insurance premiums.
They are also being forced to absorb larger excesses a...
Council tax increases in London and the Southeast are set to soar above 25% for the first time, fuelling allegations that the government has shifted significant resources to the Midlands and the...
Paul Boateng, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been confirmed as the closing speaker at this year's CIPFA conference.
Other high-profile contributors include Charles Kennedy, the leader of...
Local government minister Nick Raynsford has promised to continue paying for an expansion of councils' workforce training programmes providing a £27m pathfinder scheme launched this week is a success...
Unions launched a campaign this week to expand local government's deal to end the two-tier workforce into defence and health.
As the CBI and the Business Services Association savaged last week's...
The government has backed down from its plans to introduce a category of advanced schools.
Education Secretary Charles Clarke said a new specialist system would be created instead, with all schools...
Social services directors this week urged the government to delay the introduction of council fines for hospital 'bed-blocking', as a critical report by the National Audit Office exposed the extent...
Councils are failing to detect four-fifths of housing benefit frauds, the National Audit Office said this week. The government has also made the system more complex and prone to fraud, despite...
The controller of the Audit Commission has hit out at the government for pressurising the watchdog to penalise certain councils in the Comprehensive Performance Assessments published last December...
Visions of 200,000 new houses, millions of pounds to regenerate declining areas in the Midlands and the North, and at least £1bn for houses for key workers dominated Sustainable Communities, John...
Jokes about hospital food could soon be as stale as the infamous British Rail sandwich after NHS meals were given a cautious thumbs-up by the Consumers' Association.
The watchdog has surveyed...
A deal struck by mayor Ken Livingstone with Labour at the Greater London Authority will mean a £51 hike in his share of Londoners' council tax this year.
Under the mayor's 2003/04 spending plans,...
The chair of a powerful Commons committee has slammed the Inland Revenue for entering into a £220m Private Finance Initiative deal that transferred public buildings to a financially troubled company...
? ??ew Foster, the outgoing controller of the Audit Commission, talks to Mike Thatcher
Vincent Square will be a much quieter place when Sir Andrew Foster finally moves on later this year. The...
New freedoms to enable patients to get speedier treatment must be backed up with extra support for elderly and vulnerable patients, according to Help the Aged.
This week Health Secretary Alan...
The reward for pharmacists in England and Wales informing on benefit fraudsters has gone up sevenfold. Under an initiative announced this week, they will now be able to claim a £70 reward, up from £...
Teachers will leave the profession if the government imposes the 2.9% pay rise recommended by the School Teachers' Review Body last week, the National Union of Teachers has warned.
The union...
The permanent secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department was forced to apologise to MPs this week after admitting that he misled them over the progress of the Libra IT project.
Sir Hayden...
A last-minute intervention by Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to avert a public row at Labour's local government conference this weekend after unions were granted substantial concessions to end...
Local authorities were this week puzzling over how to pay for a government plan to put cafés, crèches and web experts in every public library.
Arts minister Tessa Blackstone,...
The government faces a 'significant obstacle' to its aim of achieving a world-class education system because too many young people are still being failed by poor schools.
