The Strategic Rail Authority must set 'more demanding' targets for improvements when its strategic plan for the railways is published in the autumn, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has demanded...
Nurses and health care assistants involved in pioneering work on aromatherapy, horticultural therapy and coronary care for Asian women have been recognised in the first Prince of Wales Awards for...
The government is to push ahead with plans for school reform despite stalling its much-trailed education white paper because of concerns about privatisation and the contentious issue of single-faith...
The campaign for elected mayors took one leap forward then a large step back this week after residents in Watford voted yes to a US-style boss, only to find that slow work by Parliament will put back...
This week's damning report into the deaths of children at the Bristol Royal Infirmary is the first of four inquiries into the health service's handling of complaints against doctors.
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged to forge a new relationship between central and local government by slashing bureaucracy and giving authorities greater financial freedom.
Risk management can have a major impact on councils' progress in achieving strategic objectives and is not a 'one-off exercise', the Audit Commission has warned.
Birmingham City Council is setting a precedent in housing transfers by asking lenders to underwrite loans worth £1bn before it consults tenants over the move.
Peter Mandelson has outlined a vision of English devolution that puts 'people before structures' and gives communities the tools to bring about their own renaissance.
Hopes that a new GP contract will be agreed soon rose this week after Health Secretary Alan Milburn invited the NHS Confederation to lead the discussions on behalf of health service employers.
An £8.5m capital programme to build 22 new children's homes in Northern Ireland has been announced by the province's Health and Social Services Minister, Bairbre de Brún.
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city riven by divisions. On one side are hip Labour councillors ready to plough as much as £488,000 into a youth culture event, the Love Parade.
The make-or-break date for the government's policy on directly elected mayors looks increasingly like October 18 after Brighton and Hove Council became the latest authority to declare it will hold a...
Fraud Squad officers have been called in to investigate financial irregularities in the Scottish Borders Council (SBC), as the authority's internal inquiry into a near-£4m overspend nears its...
The Northern Ireland Assembly's finance and personnel committee gave a surprise endorsement to the Private Finance Initiative and other forms of public-private partnerships in a report published this...
Whitehall departments are to introduce 'equality audits' of their staff appraisal systems to ensure that ethnic minority, disabled and female staff are being assessed fairly on their workplace...
Pensioners, fishermen and schoolchildren in the Berkshire borough of Bracknell Forest will soon be able to access council services through a single smart card.
Nursing-home owners in Devon are having a crisis meeting with the new leaders of the county council in a last-ditch attempt to solve their bitter dispute over fees.
Sir Andrew Foster will take over as head of the Best Value Inspectorate after Wendy Thomson was poached by 10 Downing Street to head up a new team advising Tony Blair on public service reform.
