Local government needs to be bold if it is to make the most of the opportunities presented by Local Area Agreements, a senior manager in the sector said last week.
Europe's head of audit has initiated urgent discussions with Brussels' financial watchdog over the accounting system used for the European Union, after experts refused to sign off the accounts for...
Implementation of last January's health white paper has been set back because of NHS deficits, the acting permanent secretary of the Department of Health has admitted.
The Treasury will shortly publish strategies for policy and growth that will set it on a collision course with Prime Minister Tony Blair's Whitehall-wide reviews announced last week.
English cities should be empowered to drive forward their own economic plans, with greater control over transport, planning and skills, according to government-commissioned research.
Where there are targets, there must be statistics. Where there are statistics, there must be politics, and where there is politics, there must be public distrust. The ONS must try to find a way out...
As the NHS's financial crisis continues, the Private Finance Initiative has come in for its share of the blame. But this is wrong, argue Phil Lobb and Tom Startup. In fact, with a more flexible...
Some depressed areas of the UK are set to lose out under a shake-up in EU regional aid. But how much of a problem is this? As Sally Gainsbury reports, the grants scheme has been something of a mixed...
You can't put a price on education but you can do a lot to narrow the gap between the best- and worst-off pupils. Tash Shifrin reports on efforts to involve the private sector in raising school...
Delegates to next week's annual social services conference are still reeling from the last round of organisational shake-ups. Now there is more change on the way, with a new children's green paper...
New Audit Commission chair Michael O'Higgins is quietly determined to turn up the heat on his inspectors to ensure they stay in touch. And he is no slouch in the kitchen either, as he tells Joseph...
The payment by results tariff and other information needed to create financial plans for 2007/08 will be published before Christmas, according to Richard Douglas, the Department of Health's director...
Seventy per cent of senior civil servants could develop advanced financial management skills under Treasury proposals to prevent the sort of budget problems experienced by NHS trusts.
Government proposals to allow social workers to operate out of independent, GP-style practices have been greeted with caution by local government leaders, who fear the policy is masking the...
Salaries for Whitehall directors rose by 7.4% last year almost twice the rate as for the rest of the UK's workforce. But some executives have been rewarded despite poor performances, critics have...
Chancellor Gordon Brown's attempts to boost low earners' incomes through benefits have been thwarted because means testing has discouraged some people from staying in work, a study has claimed.
The chancellor and the NHS are on a collision course with unions after suggesting that next year's pay rises should not break the government's 2% inflation target.
The Lyons Inquiry will have to find a way to make council tax fairer without the benefit of a revaluation of English homes. Peter Kenway and Ines Newman go back to basic principles and explain how...
Alan Johnson has vowed to unveil wide-ranging proposals next month to put a stop to the 'chill indifference' of the state to children in care and banish the deep-seated disadvantage that condemns...
Moves to inspect housing associations more rapidly and to give them less advance warning of visits by inspectors could be unfair on the sector, the head of the Audit Commission has warned landlords.
The Scottish Executive has performed well against most of its transport targets but should provide a fuller picture of what is being achieved for a rising, multi-billion pound investment, auditor...
