Neighbourhood boards are the latest big idea for getting the public to improve the services they use. But will this US invention work here, asks Chris Skelcher
If the forthcoming social care green paper avoids spelling out the cost of long-term care for older people, Sir Derek Wanless's review is likely to be less coy, argues Paul Gosling
Nightmare neighbours who hold communities to ransom with threatening and intimidating behaviour are to be offered a last chance to change their ways before being evicted from their homes.
Finding a blueprint to tackle Britain's looming pensions crisis is one of the major challenges Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson has set himself, he told Public Finance this week.
The Audit Commission is to slash £18m from public bodies' annual inspection bills after a review concluded that significant areas of the regulator's activities do not represent value for money.
The Wanless franchise keeps on growing. Not content with producing two influential reports on future NHS funding and public health, the former NatWest chief executive this week announced he is...
Children from the poorest families are badly served by an education system that fails to cater to their needs, the chief schools inspector said this week.
The creation of a single inspection body for the entire criminal justice system would dilute the effectiveness of the prisons' inspectorate, its head has warned.
Seven more councils could be encouraged to contract out their struggling social services to other local authorities if a groundbreaking £3.6m rescue deal proves successful.
Direct funding would lead to fresh financial turmoil in schools, creating an annual national shortfall of £200m, local government leaders warned this week.
Hopes that the new education secretary would water down controversial government policies were dashed last week when Ruth Kelly nailed her reformist colours firmly to the mast.
Education ministers will consider extending the use of private companies to rescue failing councils' education services after inspectors gave an upbeat report on a flagship scheme in the West...
The shared inspection regime for children's services will not be examining everything from school dinners to swings in exhaustive detail, the inspector leading the programme said this week.
Labour faces the embarrassment of going into next year's general election defending a record of rising homelessness after ministers admitted that numbers will continue increasing for another three...
Comprehensive Performance Assessments will scrutinise councils' financial management much more rigorously from 2005 but the number of inspections will be slashed by two-thirds.
All children's services, from playgroups to prisons, are to be subject to a radical joint inspection regime under proposals announced by Ofsted this week.
Stripping councils of their education funding powers will leave schools isolated and hinder the drive towards more integrated services, local government leaders warned this week.
Doug Smith's resignation as chief executive of the Child Support Agency is not so much a solution to a crisis, more the beginning of a new chapter in an 11-year saga.
Lone parents who rely on state benefits to top up their earnings are more likely to escape poverty than families where the main wage earner is on low pay, says new research.
Local authorities and primary care trusts will be in the vanguard of government plans to transform the NHS from a national sickness service to one that promotes health and wellbeing.
