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.
Welcoming the National Audit Office’s investigation into the rescue of Carillion’s PFI hospital contracts, Dr Joshua Pritchard, Reform procurement and outsourcing lead, said:
“Instead of the taxpayer forking up for the failures of badly-run companies like Carillion, Government has finally proven that it is capable of holding its suppliers to account when they don’t perform.
“However, costs were still allowed to spiral out of control, with an additional £687 million added to the total bill since the PFI contracts were signed – an increase of 98 per cent. This is yet another example of the consequences of poor government procurement.
“Outsourcing is essential for delivering public services, but only when it works well. Government needs to be a better customer, and industry needs to be a better client.”
Covered in The Times.
New figures published today by the Higher Education Statistics Authority show that no progress has been made in improving access to universities for students from low participation neighbourhoods since 2014/15.
Commenting, Reform Education Researcher, Imogen Farhan, said:
“These dire statistics should be a serious cause of concern for the Government, which has made clear it wants to ‘level up’ across the country.
“Just 12 per cent of students came from low participation neighbourhoods in 2018/19 – the same proportion as in 2014/15.
“Throwing more money at the problem simply isn’t working - universities have spent millions trying to improve access in recent years. Urgent reform is required which mandates universities to publish how they spend their widening participation budgets and commitment to admissions which consider a student’s background."
Covered by BBC News, The Times, The Financial Times and TES.
Lily Brown, Research Assistant at Reform, wrote an article in Public Finance about the findings of our report, Planning for patients: The role of Section 106 planning contributions.
On Monday 13 January, Reform launched its report Planning for patients: The role of Section 106 planning contributions. It is a part of our Spending Review programme.
The report was covered by The Times, The Independent , iNews and Pulse.
Commenting on the record low A&E figures, health policy lead Claudia Martinez said:
“These are dismally familiar statistics. The NHS has had extra funding and is set for more while performance only gets worse. This is a clear indication that radical reform, not just record sums, are required.
“Over a third of people attended A&E last month with minor illnesses and injuries, which should have been treated in the community, by a GP for example.
“Getting A&E back on track means fixing the social care crisis and reforming our primary care system. With a large majority and a commitment to record investment, the Government has no excuse for inaction.
“Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. More cash without reform is doing just that.”
Covered in the Financial Times, The Sun, Management in Practice and The London Economic. Claudia also appeared on talkRadio to discuss the figures.
Charlotte Pickles, Director of Reform, wrote an op-ed on civil service reform, arguing that if Whitehall wants to meet the challenges of the coming decades, it must hire new talent, but also be prepared to remove poor performers.
Read the article here.
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. Most recently, it was mentioned in the Sunday Times.
The report was referenced in the Department of Health and Social Care's publication, Code of Conduct for data-driven health and care technology. The report is also mentioned in a House of Commons briefing paper, 'Patient health records: access, sharing and confidentiality'.
It has also been covered globally in Russia, Canada and NYU's Living Library.
It was covered in the BMJ Journals, in the article 'From EHR to PHR: let’s get the record straight', by J Symons, H Ashrafian, R Dunscombe and A Darzi. It was also cited in The Lancet, in the article 'Ensuring that the NHS realises fair financial value from its data', by G Fontana, S Ghafur, L Torne, J Goodman and A Darzi.
The latest mention was on the 19th December 2019, where it was cited in the Healthcare Informatics Research journal in an article by Lee D, Park M, Chang S and Ko H, 'Protecting and Utilizing Health and Medical Big Data: Policy Perspectives from Korea'.
It has since been covered in NHSx's Digital Technology Standards, research by Understanding Patient Data, BMJ Open, The Journal of Healthcare informatics research, The Journal of Medical Internet Research, and a May 2020 House of Commons Briefing Paper.
Imogen Farhan, researcher at Reform, wrote an article for the November/December 2019 edition of Public Sector Focus on why Right to Buy is fundamentally unfair and detrimental for the housing crisis.
Read it here.
On 19 December 2019, Reform launched its new report 'More money, fewer problems? The case for targeted education spending'. The report is part of our spending review programme.
The report was covered by BBC News, The Guardian, FE News, Schools Week and Tes.
Commenting on ONS statistics showing Between April and June this year, 68,000 people were homeless or at risk – up over 11 per cent compared to the same time last year, Reform Researcher, Imogen Farhan, said:
“The current approach to preventing homelessness is failing and existing policies are making the problem worse.
“Housing benefit has fallen woefully short of covering the cost of rent; the social housing stock continues to decline due to Right to Buy; and an absence of long-term funds for council services has completely undermined the Homelessness Reduction Act and the Rough Sleeping Strategy.
“Headline-grabbing, one-off funding pots are not the answer. Building more social homes, ensuring housing benefit covers rental costs and investing in prevention are urgently needed.”
Covered by The Mirror.
Eleonora Harwich, Director of Research and Head of Tech Innovation at Reform gave her 'digital health predictions for 2020' in Healthcare IT News.
Read here.
New figures published today by the Department for Education show that the most advantaged pupils were five times more likely to progress to a top university than the most disadvantaged in 2017/18. This shows that minimal progress has been made over the past 8 years – the figure was six times more likely in 2009/10.
Commenting, Reform Education Researcher, Imogen Farhan, said:
“Top universities should be engines of social mobility, but today’s statistics show that this is far from a reality.
“£66 million was spent on access and participation last year. But throwing money at the problem isn’t working.
“Greater transparency about how universities are spending access budgets and admissions which consider a student’s background are required.
“If the Prime Minister is serious about closing the opportunity gap and ‘levelling up’ attainment in the country this must be a priority.”
Claudia Martinez, Research Manager and Health lead at Reform, wrote an op-ed for City AM, arguing that no party manifesto has put forward a credible fix for social care.
You can read the full article here.
Eleonora Harwich, Director of Research and Head of Tech Innovation at Reform, appeared on CNBC Squawk Box to discuss spending announcements in the 2019 General Election.
Commenting on the publication of the Conservative Manifesto, Reform Research Manager and Health Lead, Claudia Martinez, said:
On Social Care reform:
“It is outrageous to see yet another manifesto kicking the social care funding can down the road.
“We desperately need a long-term funding solution that ensures that people can access the care they need. Instead, the Conservatives, like Labour and the Lib Dems, have ducked the biggest public services issues facing the country.
“Any plan relying on political consensus is fantasy - parliament has never been so divided. It’s time for politicians to step up and take the tough decisions, which for social care means introducing an insurance-based system. Everything else is a sticking plaster.”
On the Conservatives pledge to boost the nursing workforce by 50,000:
“This is a welcome announcement.
“It is sensible that the Conservatives have planned to improve training and retention to help boost the number of nurses. The reintroduction of maintenance grants to support trainee nurses is a smart move to encourage more into training. These grants should be means-tested so that taxpayer’s money is spent supporting the disadvantaged.”