Pensions minister James Purnell this week floated a 'radical simplification' of the state second pension and claimed that the cost would not breach the financial 'cap' proposed by the Pensions...
A surge in new medical treatments combined with an ageing population mean the demands on the NHS are set to rise just as it faces a financial squeeze. A co-payments system, with built-in protection...
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.
The administration of London boroughs' pension funds is inefficient and millions of pounds could be saved each year if they streamlined their processes, the Audit Commission said this week.
MPs and campaigners have warned that proposed changes to the way government processes freedom of information requests could seriously weaken the effectiveness of the legislation.
Up to £1bn sitting in schools' bank accounts could be made available for broader non-educational children's services, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
Plans to increase benefit payments to single parents seeking work will have a limited impact because little is being done to keep them in the labour market, a former welfare minister has warned.
The Cabinet Office's voluntary sector unit has set up a research centre to improve levels of charitable donations, as the government strives to provide more public services through such organisations.
The Home Office has undervalued the cost of its controversial ID card scheme, critics have warned, despite ministers' claims this week that it would cost taxpayers £5.4bn over ten years.
Sir Derek Wanless's proposals for funding long-term care for elderly people amount to a 'huge subsidy for the rich' and play into the hands of campaigners concerned with protecting their inheritance...
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...
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.
Whitehall's largest trade union this week raised fears that skilled government IT jobs could shortly be transferred abroad, after a leading contractor announced compulsory redundancies.
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...
Pressure is mounting on the European Commission to publish a legal framework establishing the limits to which public services must abide by its rules on free market competition.
Public sector union Unison has lost its application for a judicial review of the government's decision to increase the earliest retirement age in the Local Government Pension Scheme.
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...
Cabinet Office officials this week admitted that many of Whitehall's human resources functions are inadequate, after it emerged that the four HR directors whose departments were criticised in...
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...
