Reform The Week

29 February 2008

Reform – The Week

This week has seen real change in the debates on welfare reform, academies and health. The first two mark positive steps towards reform, with the widening of the welfare system to include more private providers and – following the publication of a new Reform report – the principle of school freedom is gaining increasing political consensus. But on health, the Shadow Health Secretary has suggested that taxpayer-funded health spending will inevitably rise to 11 per cent of GDP (up two percentage points from now). The real task for health policy makers is to gain value from the existing budget and to open up health funding to include sources other than government.

Laura Kounine, Editor

Reformer of the week

James Purnell grasped the nettle of welfare reform this week by pledging to “follow through on David Freud’s groundbreaking report on reforming the welfare system” and “using the best provider, whether they are from the private, public or voluntary sectors”. He announced a four-fold increase in the market for private and voluntary organisations to get the long term unemployed off welfare and into work. This is directly in line with the recommendations from the 2006 Reform paper Reforming Welfare by Nicholas Boys Smith.

Reactionary of the week

Steve Sinnott, the NUT leader, dismissed the Reform report released this week, “Academies: a model education? as “mindless and offensive” and “claptrap”. The report called on the unions to transform their role from a blocker of reform to becoming a positive driver of change.

Good week for

The academy programme

Lord Adonis, Michael Gove and David Laws commented positively on Reform’s “Academies: a model education?”, which recommended rolling out the academy model of management freedom across the state sector. This marks growing political consensus around the academy programme. It is a particular shift for Liberal Democrat policy which had previously been critical of academies.

The Jam Generation

Anne McElvoy, on the Westminster Hour, shows that “The Jam Generation” – David Cameron, Nick Clegg, David Miliband, Yvette Cooper and others – are on the political ascendency. As these politicians have come of age in the 21st Century, will this mean a new approach to the balance between government and individual to reflect social and technological change?

Therapists

New research by Irving Kirsch, at the University of Hull, showed that “drugs don’t work” (anti-depressants work no better than placebos). Nick Clegg used this as an opportunity to repeat his calls for more therapists “rather than pouring millions of pounds into the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry”.

Bad week for

Conservative health policy

Interviewed in The Times, Andrew Lansley said that taxpayer-funded spending on health is “probably” going to reach 11 per cent of GDP “simply through the progress of rising health expenditure and life” (full transcript here). The Shadow Health Secretary was arguing that rising costs require greater productivity. But the task of health improvement should go hand in hand with the task of controlling the tax burden, particularly on younger taxpayers. And the experience of this decade experience is that a loose fiscal grip obstructs rather than supports reform.

NHS reform

A National Audit Office report showed that the new GP contract has cost £1.76 billion more than expected and NHS productivity has fallen. This is further evidence that extra spending does not necessarily lead to increased productivity.

Quote of the week

“It would have been better, concludes the Cambridge University-based Primary Review – an ongoing inquiry into primary education in England – if the Government had done nothing at all” (Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent, Independent).

Reform’s week

Reform published this week Academies: a model education? written by Richard Tice, Chair of Governors of Northampton Academy. It has received widespread coverage (Guardian, Monday, p.12; Independent, Monday, p.4; Telegraph, Monday, p.14; TES, p. 8; BBC Online; Spectator Online; epolitix.com; Metro online; Workers Revolutionary Party). Elizabeth Truss, Reform’s Deputy Director and Laura Kounine, Reform’s Education and Crime Research Officer, have written articles about the paper on Conservative Home and libdemvoice.org.

Steve Webb MP, Liberal Democrat DEFRA Spokesperson addressed a breakfast at Reform on Liberal Democrat policy development. In particular the future of localism and the balance between Government and the individual was debated.