Reform Media Summary

25 March 2008

In today’s Media Summary, the Conservatives will today unveil plans to remove hundreds of failing schools from local authority control in some of the worst areas of deprivation, the Confederation of British Industry, the employers’ organisation, has reduced its growth forecast in 2008 from 2 per cent to 1.8 per cent and figures, reported in the Telegraph, illustrate the worst hospital trust mortality rates.

Education

The Conservatives will today unveil plans to remove hundreds of failing schools from local authority control in some of the worst areas of deprivation. Control of the schools would be switched to academies, charitable trusts, and parent co-operatives (Telegraph, p.1, p.23 [leader]; Times, p.21; Express, p.7).

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) claimed yesterday that academies are expelling badly behaved children to improve their position in school league tables (Telegraph, p.2).

Steve Sinnott, the NUT’s General Secretary on methods of teaching children how to read: “Teachers want a return to a system which is liberal and flexible and not top-down [and] imposed by government” (Telegraph, p.6; Guardian, Monday, p.2; Independent, p.30).

According to the NASUWT teachers’ union, teachers are being undermined by their pupils, oppressed by their heads and left unsupported by their school governors (FT, p.2).

A study by the Institute of Education suggests that large class sizes have the worst impact on children already struggling at school, with the addition of five new pupils to a class cutting their learning by 40 per cent (Guardian, Monday, p.8; Independent, Monday, p.5; Mirror, Monday, p.4).

The latest survey by the Prince’s Trust finds that the majority of young people can see the benefits of encouraging continued education but resent the removal of choice, implied in the Government’s proposal to raise the leaving age to 18 (Guardian, Education, p.8).

NUT has pledged its support for strike action next month over pay (Independent, Sunday, p.32; Sunday Mirror, p.4).

A Financial Times survey suggests leading universities in England are sceptical about having longer academic terms under government plans for intensive business-friendly degrees lasting 48 weeks a year (FT, Monday, p.1; Telegraph, p.2).

A report for Universities UK predicts a decline of more than 16 per cent in the number of British 18-year-olds between now and 2020 resulting in 70,000 empty places. As this demographic fluctuation is assumed to centre on working-class families, it is likely to cause problems for the Government in meeting its goal of wider access (Guardian, Education, p.2).

Economy

The Confederation of British Industry, the employers’ organisation, has reduced its growth forecast in 2008 from 2 per cent to 1.8 per cent (FT, p.2; Times, p.44; Independent, p.37; Guardian, p.26 [Leader] p.32; Telegraph, B.1; Mail, p.1; Express, p.46).

The National Audit Office has warned that the Prime Minister’s pledge to cut the red tape burden imposed on businesses by £4 billion, and increase productivity by up to £16 billion, is based on numbers that are probably “overcooked” (FT, p.1).

A report commissioned by the Conservatives called “The Cost of Living Under Labour” illustrates how costs have increased over recent years (Telegraph, p.1, p.23 [leader]; FT, Monday, p.3; Mail, p.1; Express, p.4).

According to the British Safety Council, employers’ failure to provide adequate safety training for millions of workers is costing the economy more than £30 billion a year (FT, p.3).

Commenting on the new Government plan “to wean 2.6 million people off incapacity benefit and back into work”, a leader in the FT says that “despite the years of wasted opportunity and misdirected efforts to cut the numbers claiming [the incapacity] benefit, the Government should be applauded for finally dealing with the problem in the correct way” (FT, p.10).

Health

Figures, reported in the Telegraph, illustrate the worst hospital trust mortality rates. Dr Anthony Halperin, the Chairman of the Patients Association, said: “Getting treatment in an NHS hospital has become a postcode lottery, mortality should not be a postcode lottery as well” (Telegraph, p.14).

The Telegraph reports that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has released appraisal recommendations to withdraw drugs used to treat pulmonary hypertension because they are too expensive (Mail, p.22).

Home Affairs

New Strategy Unit report finds that last decade of policy change has not increased public satisfaction with the criminal justice system (Times, Monday, p.13; Guardian, Monday, p.12).

Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, told the Times that the fight against gun crime is being undermined by judges who fail to ensure that tough penalties set down in law are imposed in the courts (Times, p.1, p.14 [leader]).

Politics

A Labour poll warns that Gordon Brown is in danger of losing southern England (FT, Monday, p.2).

The Conservatives yesterday accused Labour of wanting to move the electoral goal-posts to rig the next General Election, after it emerged ministers are considering a change to the UK’s first-past-the-post voting system (FT, p.2).