Annual budgets, monitored monthly, are inappropriate in many fast-moving parts of the public sector. They could learn from the 'flexible business management' approach recently adopted by the IDA
Gordon Brown's plans to devolve more executive power offer a real chance of opening up debate over government spending, starting with the Comprehensive Spending Review. But Colin Talbot somehow...
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 Office of National Statistics has recalculated public sector net debt to include Private Finance Initiative deals in a move that threatens the chancellor's sustainable investment rule.
The Liberal Democrats successfully shrugged off their image as a high tax-and-spend party after members endorsed radical proposals that shift the focus of taxation from income to wealth and pollution.
Treasury officials this week rejected accusations by trade unions that they dragged their feet over wage deals for 2006 so that they would fall under Chancellor Gordon Brown's strict new 2% pay...
The Treasury insisted this week that it has always intended to conduct a cross-government policy review to identify the major challenges facing the UK over the next ten years.
The Treasury wants to cut costs, and police pay is on the hit list. That means officers could be paid less for doing more. And in these dangerous times, the performance ramifications could be very...
As the Labour Party gathers for a tumultuous annual conference, Madeleine Bunting and Simon Parker ask what almost ten years of Blairism has really meant for public services. And how can New Labour...
Social exclusion minister Hilary Armstrong this week warned local authorities and government departments that they must improve the way they deliver services to Britain's most vulnerable groups or...
Public sector staff are set to intensify their opposition to the government's reform and pay agendas, in defiance of stern warnings from the prime minister and chancellor this week that they will not...
Public sector employment in Scotland has risen by 11% since devolution, with the largest increase in local government, latest statistics have revealed.
All the main parties are looking to voluntary organisations to deliver more public services. Stuart Etherington warns that the sector will be wanting a lot more in return
Local and central government are under intense scrutiny, as a plethora of inquiries and reviews get set to report by the end of the year. But with near-civil war gripping the government, how likely...
Children's needs involve broader issues than exam results and school performance. A new inspection system assesses the way they are dealt with holistically. Shane Flynn looks at the results
The future of more than 50 pan-London community services remains in doubt, as the Association of London Government examines proposals to cut grants to voluntary and community organisations by up to a...
Councils in Scotland are in line for extra funding of around £100m to ease pressure on budgets and limit council tax rises in the year of elections to the Holyrood Parliament and local authorities.
Ahead of this week's TUC conference, the chancellor has made clear there will be a 2% cap on public sector pay rises. And with NHS deficits being widely blamed on inflationary pay deals, he is...
Prime Minister Tony Blair will next week launch a new attack on social exclusion, extending help to vulnerable children and adults through existing funding, which could be boosted in this winter's...
Social care leaders have dismissed the government's claim that there is no need to compensate the sector for the extra responsibilities it has taken on through NHS 'cost shunting'.
