News

Ombudsman’s report has harsh words for Home Office and lessons for all government departments about how to use complaints to improve services

Ombudsman's report highlights poor complaints handling as biggest cause of upheld cases in 2014-15

Health service chief executive says "considerably more progress" needed in Spending Review talks to ensure "genuinely workable NHS funding solution"

Matt Hancock says new team will bring together officials and ministers to focus on digital reform

Cross-government SDSR to be unveiled two days before the Spending Review

LSE Diplomacy Commission warns over lack of joined-up foreign policy strategy – and says Foreign Office must do more to promote "family-friendly" career paths

Chancellor George Osborne confirms that environment, communities and transport departments have struck a deal with the Treasury — as he hints at further changes to public sector pay and terms

With science and research spending already below the OECD average, new report by the Science and Technology Committee calls on the Treasury to "safeguard both the quality and the productivity of our science base"

Combined central and local government outsourcing spend highest since early 2012, according to new research

New "Office for Students" and Teaching Excellence Framework among measures in business department's Green Paper

Garry Graham – taking over from Leslie Manasseh at the union for specialists and managers – calls for "cool appraisal" of performance management by ministers

Decentralisation will not be a "panacea" for improved public services, think tank warns

When Army 2020 was announced in 2012, it represented one of the biggest structural reforms to the British Army in decades. A key plank of the scheme – itself part of the larger Future Force 2020 programme – has been to cut the number of regulars from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2018, and to make up the shortfall with reservists. The programme’s recruitment problems have been well publicised in the past, but, in 2015, is it any closer to ‘mission accomplished’? Colin Marrs reports

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock sets up a new group to help departments to become "intelligent consumers of their own data" – and promises lunchtime coding groups for civil servants. Audience members at the Open Data Institute meanwhile quiz him on the privatisation of the Postcode Address File

Public Accounts Committee criticises HMRC over customer service, compliance and tackling aggressive tax planning – while HMRC says MPs have "overlooked" its achievements

Tech industry group says some initiatives designed to open up markets are poorly understood, but Crown Commercial Service chief Sally Collier insists Whitehall is "changing the way it does business" with smaller firms

Chatham House urges protection of FCO – while officials reportedly say they are "confident" of a good outcome at the Spending Review

Police and Crime Commissioners write to ministers over new funding formula – but Home Office says changes will improve "complex, opaque and out of date" system

Former Cabinet Office perm sec joins top Department for Education official Chris Wormald at hearing on the charity's collapse – and reveals he considered earlier ministerial direction over grant to the organisation

With the ‘low-hanging fruit’ exhausted, the public sector must approach new government saving targets with a radically different attitude, says AECOM

Report by Business in the Community says Social Value Act has had some impact in improving lot of low-paid staff – but backs tougher approach with agencies

National Audit Office asked by MPs to check whether Spending Review cuts are taking account of the environment

Public Accounts Committee says it is surprised DfE "did not take a stronger leadership role" in support for care leavers amid "disappointing service provision"

The Equality and Human Rights Commission today launches ‘Is Britain Fairer?’, a comprehensive assessment of Britain’s progress on equality and human rights in the last five years. But, as the EHRC's Verena Brähler writes, a lack of data is preventing public sector bodies from getting the full picture – and could be leaving some groups invisible