Reform's research and commentary is regularly featured in the media. You can find press coverage of Reform's work here.
We are always happy to comment on policy issues relevant to our work. If you would like a quote, an interview, or a background briefing, please email press@reform.uk.
On 28 February 2019, Reform published a report, Proceed with caution: what makes personal budgets work?
The report has received coverage in FE News and Mental Health Today.
Reform is pleased to announce that Charlotte Pickles has been appointed to succeed Andrew Haldenby as its Director with effect from 23 April 2019. Charlie is currently Managing Editor of the comment and current affairs site Unherd.com. She is a former Deputy Director of Reform and was previously an adviser in government. Andrew is leaving at his own request to pursue a number of opportunities in public policy and beyond.
Luke Heselwood, Senior Researcher at Reform, wrote an article for HE at Research Professional about how the UK could learn from Michelle Obama's Better Make Room campaign to improve access to university for disadvantaged students.
Read the full article here.
Commenting on the BMA report, Andrew Haldenby, Director of the independent public services think tank, Reform, said:
“Improving GP surgeries needn’t be too expensive for the taxpayer. Many GPs can make better use of their space, and others can borrow capital funds from the private sector.”
Research by Reform has found that the NHS should identify industry partners/private funding, as well as government borrowing and land sales, to build modern GP surgeries at value for money to the taxpayer.
The think tank has also called for a greater use of technology so that fewer patients need face-to-face consultations, enabling GPs to spend more time with the most serious patients.
ENDS
For more information or to arrange an interview with a Reform spokesperson please contact William Mills, Reform Events and Communications Coordinator, at 020 3327 1189 or 07596 949837 or william.mills@reform.uk
Notes to editors
Welcoming the Lord Chancellor’s speech today, Andrew Haldenby, Director of the independent public services think tank Reform, said:
“The barrier to the greater use of community sentences is, as much as anything, problems in the probation service. For this reason, the review of probation that he promised today is of great importance.”
In the Department of Health and Social Care's publication, Code of Conduct for data-driven health and care technology, Reform's report, Making NHS data work for everyone, was cited.
Andrew Haldenby, Director of Reform, wrote an article in Conservative Home on why maintaining standards in education is so important.
Read the full article here.
On 18 February 2019, the Rt Hon David Gauke MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, spoke for Reform on the issue redefining punishment and sentencing.
The speech received media coverage in the Evening Standard, Financial Times, Sky News, The Telegraph, The Express, The Independent, The Times, Metro, The Sun, Daily Mail, the BBC, The Guardian and The Week.
Reform's response to the publication of the Higher Education Statistics Agency figures on widening participation was covered in The Times (£), The Guardian, FE News and Cherwell Online.
Read the full response below:
Commenting on statistics published this morning by HESA showing little change in participation rates for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, Dr Luke Heselwood, Reform Senior Researcher and author of the report ‘Gaining Access: Increasing the participation of disadvantaged students at elite universities’, said:
“If Ministers want to do better, they should do three things: find a better measure for assessing disadvantage, evaluate universities’ spending on widening participation and campaign to encourage applications from disadvantaged students.”
Research undertaken by Reform in 2018 found considerable discomfort from universities with the current measure used to assess disadvantage, which uses POLAR3 data. The think tank is reiterating it’s call for a new measure for assessing universities progress in improving access, which takes into account key indicators not currently considered, such as Free School Meal status.
Reform is again calling for universities to publish detailed breakdowns of their widening participation spending to the Office for Students, to help understand which programmes are effective and to improve value for money.
The think tank has previously called for a national campaign similar to Better Make Room in the USA, which targets disadvantaged pupils via text and Snap Chat to encourage applications from those with high enough grades.
Andrew Haldenby, Director at Reform, was quoted in a BBC article about the number of operations the NHS could be doing:
Andrew Haldenby, director of the public services think tank Reform, said: "What is striking is that neither the NHS authorities nor hospitals themselves are doing very much to improve the situation.
"It is possible that the way the government runs the NHS, hospitals are still not under enough pressure to strive for value for money every day."
Commenting on statistics published by MHCLG today, Reform Senior Researcher, Dr Luke Heselwood, said:
“Despite making efforts to tackle homelessness, Government departments are at cross purposes with current welfare policy exacerbating the very issue that MHCLG is trying to solve. Eliminating rough sleeping and all forms of homelessness will require a truly multi-agency response.”
Aidan Shilson-Thomas, Researcher at Reform, wrote an article in Public Finance about community sentencing. Despite a lack of sentence confidence, evidence suggests that community sentencing has lower re-offending rates, and is cheaper to implement, than short sentencing.
"Increasing sentencer confidence in community sentences must be the first step to building public confidence in their use."
Read the full article here.
Commenting on the National Audit Office’s annual report on the financial sustainability of the NHS, Andrew Haldenby, Director of the independent public services think tank, Reform, said:
“The NHS has used extra money for day-to-day pressures rather than to change and become more efficient. Ministers hope that their new plan will be different, especially because some money is ringfenced for GPs and cannot be used to finance hospital deficits.”
Commenting on today’s study from the Institute for Government, Dr Luke Heselwood, Senior Researcher at Reform think tank and co-author of the report ‘Smarter Working in Public Services: The HMRC experience so far’, said:
“Retention of staff has consistently been a problem facing the civil service. Recent research from Reform shows that the civil service can offer a better work-life balance, enhance productivity and improve retention by doing things such as promoting flexible working.”