Press coverage

Commenting on the renationalisation of Government probation services, Reform researcher Dr Joshua Pritchard said:

"Probation is in crisis, but renationalisation isn't some magic wand you can wave to solve it. The issue isn’t who delivers probation, but that the current design of the service isn’t fit for purpose. The contracting was rushed, which has led to the problems we now see - another knee-jerk decision won’t help.”

In 2019, Reform published a report on outsourcing arguing that the process should be improved but should not banned as was called for at the time. 

This statement was covered in Public Finance. 

Dr. Joshua Pritchard, Researcher at Reform, was quoted in a Financial Times story on the decision to renationalise the probation service. He said:

"It's not going to solve anything if people are overworked and underpaid," and called on the government to devise a "whole new model" for the service.

Read the full piece here (£).

Edge Health wrote a write-up for their event, 'Taking the pAIn out of AI', which featured contributions from Reform Director of Research Eleonora Harwich.

You can read it here.

Dr. Joshua Pritchard, Researcher at Reform, appeared on talkRADIO to speak with Mike Graham about the decision to renationalise the probation service.

He spoke about how failures in the outsourcing process, including poorly designed contracts, led to poor service provision. He also emphasised the fact that the probation service has struggled with core issues such as under-staffing and reoffending for years, and that renationalisation alone cannot fix these. He concluded by saying that renationalisation represents an important opportunity to reform the probation service, and that the MoJ must use this opportunity to develop a system that effectively meets the needs of offenders.

You can listen back to the interview here.

On 14 May 2019, Reform published 'Preventing youth homelessness: an assessment of local approaches'. The report was covered in a range of publications including: The Independent, The Big Issue, Huffington Post, The MJ, Local Gov and Inside Housing. 

Dr Luke Heselwood, Senior Researcher at Reform, appeared on BBC Radio London to discuss findings of Reform's latest report on preventing youth homelessness.

He spoke about variation across England in terms of how homelessness is tackled, which creates a postcode lottery. This is because the issue has often been left to be dealt with at a local, rather than national, level. The warning signs for those at risk of homelessness can be predictable, and include factors like domestic issues, truancy and mental health problems, which are dealt with by a range of different services. Therefore, it is important for better joint working between councils and these other services to combat the issue of homelessness. 

Listen to Luke's interview here (found from 2:53: 40).

On Tuesday 11 December, Reform launched its report, Making NHS data work for everyone. The report was covered by The Times, PharmaTimes, Health Service Journal, Public Technology, OnMedica, Practice Business, Hapia, The Kings Fund, Healthcare Leader, Healthwatch York, UK Authority, Future Care Capital, and the BMJ.

The report was referenced in the Department of Health and Social Care's publication, Code of Conduct for data-driven health and care technology. 

It has also been covered globally in Russia, Canada and NYU's Living Library. 

Dr Joshua Pritchard, Researcher at Reform, wrote an article for Care Talk, addressing the importance of ensuring sufficient support for personal budget holders.

"There is an urgent need to understand how to make personal budgets work for everyone - not just recipients of personal budgets, but the staff and providers tasked with supporting them."

Read the full piece here.

Dr. Joshua Pritchard, Researcher at Reform, wrote an op-ed for Local Government Chronicle, addressing outsourcing and Reform's recent report, 'Please procure responsibly'.

Read it here (£).