The Week

The Week, 25 October 2019

Reformer of the week

Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, for championing an evidence-led focus on harm reduction measures to prevent drug-user deaths. 

Reactionary of the week

The Government, for scrapping the November budget at the last minute, creating further uncertainty and paralysis for UK domestic policy.

Quote of the week

“[T]he fact that 80 per cent of 2030 workers are already in the workforce today…suggests a radical shift in our education and training model will be needed…Vocational training, long the collapsed left lung of the UK’s educational system, needs urgently to be resuscitated.”

Andy Haldane, writing in the Financial Times on Thursday.

Good week for

Cystic fibrosis patients

A deal reached by NHS England for the supply of a life-extending drug in England will benefit an estimated 10,000 people with cystic fibrosis.  

Digitisation in the NHS

Prescriptions will go digital next month, saving an estimated £300 million over the next two years.

Bad week for

The crumbling prison estate

The Ministry of Justice has backtracked on a promise to close “unfit” Victorian prisons in order to house a growing prison population.

SEND education

A damning report by the Education Select Committee has warned that additional funding will be “wasted and makes little difference” to the lives of SEND children unless there is a “culture change” in schools, local authorities, and the Government.  

Reform's  week

On Monday, Reform launched its new report ‘The Price of Poor Procurement: the argument for an independent regulator’. The report was covered in The Financial Times, The IndependentPublic Finance and The Law Gazette.

On Tuesday, Deloitte and Reform published the eighth annual The State of the State report. The report was covered in The Times, The Financial TimesThe i and Econonmia

On Wednesday, Claudia Martinez, Research Manager at Reform, was quoted in The Daily Mail and the Local Government Chronicle, commenting on the increase in requests for social care received by councils. She called for a “long-term” funding solution.

On Wednesday, Charlotte Pickles, Director of Reform, spoke at Independent Health Provider Network's Annual Summit.spoke at the Independent Health Provider Network’s Annual Summit.