For better and smarter public services
Find coverage in the press of Reform's latest work below.
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“The 10 per cent increase in the number of households who are homelessness or at risk of homelessness is damning. Although the number of people who have secure accommodation has also risen, it does not meet demand. Too many people are stranded in temporary accommodation, which is insecure and costly to the taxpayer.
“Short-term thinking and funding has blighted homelessness services. While the £54 million increase in funding announced in the Government’s spending round last week is welcome, it will only be a short-term fix to firefight an issue which requires long-term solutions.
“Longer-term funding for councils is needed, which will allow them to offer people support and advice long before they are at risk of homelessness.”
Covered by the Independent, The MJ, The Big Issue and LocalGov.
Commenting on the Office for Students announcement that 31 of 41 top Universities have been put on “enhanced monitoring” following the publication of their access plans, Dr Luke Heselwood, Reform education lead, said:
“It is deeply concerning that three quarters of top Universities have been put on ‘special measures’ due to the commitments outlined in their plans to improve access and support for disadvantaged students.
“The OfS is right to require that elite universities produce and publish access plans, but these figures show a disconnect between ambition and reality.
“Universities cannot argue that this is a money issue. Reform research found that access spending reached £745 million in 2016-17. It is essential that this money is well spent.
“The OfS’ new Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes must also focus on how to achieve value for money, which will require detailed breakdown of how widening participation budgets are spent. Otherwise disadvantaged students and the taxpayer will continue to lose out.”
Covered by the Telegraph and the Independent.
Commenting on education spending pledges in the 2019 spending round, Reform Education lead, Dr Luke Heselwood, said:
“The levelling-up of spend across schools will raise per pupil funding and school spend. But because the money is not targeted, more affluent areas are set to benefit most. This will deepen the already stark attainment gap across the country.
“The salary rise for newly qualified teachers is significant and welcome. However, 20 per cent of current teachers earn less than £30,000, 10 per cent earn just over. Both groups will want a pay rise and the Department for Education needs to think about this.
“The £400 million promised for further education is a good start, but a longer-term funding commitment is needed to bring parity between technical and academic education.”
Commenting on the Government’s Social Care funding announced in the 2019 Spending Round, Reform think tank Health policy lead, Claudia Martinez, said:
“Sadly, the £1.5bn funding injection announced today is not even a ‘sticking plaster’ given the scale of the funding gap.
“Boris Johnson pledged to solve the social care crisis “once and for all” yet the spending round has shown that the Government is stuck on a ‘hamster wheel’ of short-termism.
“The long-term fix is an insurance system in which working-age people contribute part of their salary to a later-life care fund. In the short-term, people should release the equity in their property to pay for their care needs and the Government should reduce overly generous pensioner benefits.”
Commenting on the 2019 Spending Round, Charlotte Pickles, Director of the Reform think tank, said:
“Today’s spending review is an electioneering fudge. The Chancellor committed to ‘keep control’ of public finances while splurging cash and pledging to rewrite the fiscal rules.
“While additional investment in public services is needed, without any analysis by the government’s fiscal watchdog, the Chancellor has no idea whether the £13.8 billion spending increase is sustainable. And the uncertainty around Brexit only heightens this risk.
“Sajid Javid was right to talk about public services as lifelines of opportunity. Increased investment in left-behind communities, FE, bus services and tackling homelessness is overdue. But the huge and unevidenced injections of cash for criminal justice, education and NHS services appear to be more about winning votes rather than transforming lives.”
Imogen Farhan, researcher at Reform, wrote an article for the July/August edition of Public Sector Focus, on why the NHS needs to go back to basics in order to realise the 'digital revolution' in mental health.
You can read the piece here.
Commenting on The Ministry of Justice’s prison population projections, Charlotte Pickles, Director of the Reform think tank, said:
“These lower projections do not ‘green light’ the Government’s criminal justice reforms.
“62 per cent of prisons are currently overcrowded, and we have the highest prison population in Western Europe.
“The Ministry of Justice is also clear that these predictions are likely to change when the Prime Minister’s plans for tougher sentences come into effect.
“It is vital that the right people are being sent to prison, but a return to the days of ‘prison works’ will not cut crime, reduce reoffending or keep the public safe.”
Covered in The Guardian and other various outlets.
Reform think tank Director, Charlotte Pickles, spoke to Public Finance in a Q&A about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's criminal justice reform, the one-year 'spending review' and plans for our future.
Read it here.
“These results are very encouraging, and demonstrate that smart, targeted investment can reduce prison violence.
“These findings must now inform how the £100 million promised last week by the Prime Minister is spent. Violence is a critical issue across the prison estate. The 10 prisons are a small proportion of the estate, and do not include some of the worst in the country, which must now be the focus of attention.
“It is also vital that the Government does not undermine this progress through its ill-conceived sentencing proposals. Locking more people up for longer will create more demand in an already overstretched system, further exacerbating violence. Prison must always be a last resort.”
Covered in The Financial Times, The Yorkshire Post and other regional publications.