Council leaders have published their own plans for a rebalancing of democracy in favour of voters. The Local Government Association published its manifesto for a new politics as hundreds of ...

Mr Blunkett, a former council leader, said: “We are at the edge of constitutional change. It’s a challenging and insecure time for everybody involved. The best way of taking on this challenge is for ...

In “It’s ours: why we, not government, must own our data”, Liam Maxwell says improving Government use of IT is not just a question of effective project management but also of changing the assumptions ...

The number of people casting a vote in this year’s local elections in areas trying out new forms of balloting went down in most cases. A study by the Electoral Reform Society shows that in only one ...

The Government says its own departments and local government must work harder to make life easier for small businesses. Small Firms Minister Barbara Roche says she wants regulatory systems more ...

Councils could deliver £10b efficiency saving annually by adopting new procurement processes and making better use of spending analysis. But to make the savings, the procurement expertise of council ...

The Scottish Criminal Record Office and the Scottish Executive have gone into partnership with BT to develop a major new service which will tell employers whether new recruits have a criminal past.The ...

The debate about improving public services has now moved on from whether to involve the third sector to how to best engage with providers. John Hutton, secretary of state for work and pensions, ...

I’ll admit, initially the idea of consulting directly with children and young people was daunting for many of the people involved. There are around 73,000 under-19s in Newham. The sheer number of ...

The standard of initial teacher training has improved, but the training providers could do better. This is the conclusion of the education watchdog, Ofsted, after analyzing inspectors’ reports for the ...

Lord Carter is correct to conclude that optimising the cost of supplies is a key part of determining where savings can be made in procurement. However, this is just one outcome of managing the quality ...

Some councils are on top of their property portfolios, but only one in 14 councils is an exemplary manager of its assets. In 2007/08, while 65 improved, the performance of 46 councils on asset ...