Audit, Inspection and Safety

Former Westminster council pensions boss found guilty of £1m fraud

16.10.18: A former employee of Westminster City Council has been found guilty of stealing nearly £1m from the council pension fund. Ian Woodall, the former interim head of pensions and investments at the council, was yesterday convicted of one...

State of Care: ‘The tipping point has already been reached’

11.10.18: This year’s CQC State of Care report has found that most people in England receive a good quality of care, but that, much like the situation last year, quality remains inconsistent and access to care is very much dependent on where you liv...

Council and police appeal against compensation for child abuse victim

11.10.18: Leicester's city council and police force are appealing a decision to award compensation to a sex abuse victim after a convicted paedophile was housed near the victim’s home. Martin Todd, a convicted paedophile, was housed “a st...

Deficit-ridden Birmingham council faces £84m shortfall in Commonwealth Games funding

17.09.18: Birmingham City Council is facing a reported £84m hole in funding for the Commonwealth Games as councillors scramble for a solution after being given a section 24 notice. Europe’s largest local authority has burnt through £...

Michael King: Time for Ombudsman reform

06.08.18: Michael King first joined the Local Government Ombudsman service back in 2004 as deputy ombudsman. At the start of 2017, he was appointed as the local government and social care ombudsman (LGSCO). Here, he talks to PSE’s Daniel Broadley to...

One step closer to voter IDs at elections

19.07.18: Chloe Smith MP, Minister for the Constitution, evaluates the outcomes of the voter ID pilots conducted at the last local elections. We are one step closer to strengthening the integrity of our electoral system through requiring electors to...

Buckinghamshire split into two unitaries would be ‘retrograde’ for children’s services

12.07.18: Buckinghamshire County Council will retain its children’s services after a new government report found that, although there is still long a way to go, the services are on the right path to improve. This is a positive step as the repor...

LGO upholds 60% of investigations against councils

12.07.18: Article by Callum Wood of Public Sector Magazine The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) upheld almost 60% of the detailed investigations it dealt with last year, which is up from just over half the previous year. Its annu...

London council ‘negligent and in denial’ over tower blocks at risk of collapse

22.06.18: Two tower blocks in North London are at risk of collapse, with the area’s council announcing it wants to begin re-housing residents “immediately.” The Tangmere and Northolt blocks as part of the Broadwater Farm estate in H...

Family of Glasgow boy killed in cemetery awarded compensation by city council

19.06.18: Glasgow City Council will pay compensation to the family of a boy who died after a headstone fell on him. Ciaran Williamson was aged 8 when he was killed while playing with friends in Craigton Cemetery on Berrysknowe Road on 26 May 2015. ...

Grenfell, one year on

18.06.18: In the year since the Grenfell Tower disaster, the LGA has been working tirelessly to ramp up fire safety regulations and ban ‘desktop’ fire safety tests in order to prevent such a tragedy happening again, writes Lord Porter, chairma...

Tesco fined £1.6m in successful council prosecution

14.05.18: Tesco has pleaded guilty to a successful prosecution by Ealing Council and has now been forced to pay a £1.6m fine. The supermarket chain pleaded guilty to two offences from August 2014 when a Tesco driver reversed into a member of th...

The legacy of Grenfell

30.04.18: PSE’s Seamus McDonnell looks at the reactions of councils and the government to the Grenfell Tower fire, from the immediate aftermath to the most recent developments. In March this year, the Metropolitan Police announced that one of G...

Save 30% on your IT spend with SAM

04.04.18: Being able to optimise the purchase, deployment and maintenance of software within any organisation is already a difficult process. Add to that the utilisation and disposal of the applications across a public sector organisation, and s...

Yorkshire county council panned for ‘confusing and conflicting’ care errors

05.03.18: North Yorkshire County Council has been criticised by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) for communication failures which led to two families being given “confusing and conflicting” information on the care of thei...