James Richards

is a freelance journalist

Recent articles

Councils urged to be more open to outsourcing children’s services

Local authorities’ “opaque and often ideological” resistance to outsourcing... Read more
DVLA rebuffs ombudsman’s compensation call

The DVLA has rejected an ombudsman’s suggestion that it financially compensate people who... Read more
Leadership and governance failures jeopardise shared services scheme, PAC finds

Ongoing failures of leadership and governance must be urgently addressed if shared service centres... Read more
Watchdog puts three more NHS trusts into financial special measures

Three more hospital trusts are to enter a financial special measures programme run by NHS... Read more
Cabinet Office hails progress on open government action plan

The government has reported significant progress towards meeting transparency targets laid out in... Read more
Welsh NHS ‘faces £700m funding gap by end of decade’

The NHS in Wales is likely to face a funding gap of around £700m by 2019/20, according to new... Read more
PF Perspectives: experts say health and social care needs urgent and radical reform

Experts brought together by PF and CIPFA as part of the Public Finance Perspectives series... Read more
Ministers accused of ‘creative accounting’ in efforts to cut business regulation

The government has made only limited progress in cutting the cost of regulation to businesses,... Read more
Auditors highlight “extremely disappointing” progress on child protection

Actions taken by the Department for Education since 2010 to improve the quality of local child... Read more
Scrapping London’s garden bridge could cost DfT over £22m, says NAO

The Department for Transport stands to lose around £22.5m, should the proposed Thames Garden... Read more

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