Reform The Week

7 March 2008

Reform – The Week

The reform agenda has made further progress this week. Following in the footsteps of James Purnell’s proposals for welfare-to-work, the Conservative Party – in its plans for prison reform – has proposed a mixed economy in prisons and rehabilitation and a new management regime of payment by results. On education, the national discussion of school admissions (which did not happen ten or even five years ago) shows that the education debate is changing. Greater information via league tables and a greater awareness in society of the importance of education have made parental choice a central issue.

Laura Kounine, Editor

Reformer of the week

Nick Herbert, Reform’s former director, this week published his second major set of proposals for public service reform in this Parliament.

Reactionary of the week

Daniel Finkelstein, in a defence of Andrew Lansley, said: “Health reform … won’t cut bills. Any sensible decentralisation of health or education is going to cost more money before it begins to save anything.” The argument here is that a greater range of suppliers costs more. But experience shows that monopolies charge more and supply less and the evidence both here and abroad shows that new providers are cheaper. In addition, any meaningful reform drive will put downward pressure on the (now massive) costs of pay, pensions and capital. A reforming government can make immediate progress.

Good week for

Prison reform

Conservative plans for prison reform this week have shown that there is growing consensus for reform principles. Both Government and Opposition are now in favour of a mixed economy and share a focus on combating reoffending, with proposals for outsourcing rehabilitation to “private and third sector organisations”. Where they differ, however, is on payment by results. The Conservative Green Paper proposed that “all institutions in the system – prisons, the probation service, public, private and voluntary agencies – will have one clear incentive: to stop individuals re-offending once they have left prison. If they are successful, they will be able to earn more money. If they are not, they will still receive payments to cover their costs.” The Government has yet to enter this territory, although it does support the principle for both welfare-to-work and hospital operations.

Scotland

Reform Scotland, a new independent sister organisation to Reform, based in Edinburgh, launched in the Scottish media on Thursday. Ben Thomson, the organisation’s chairman, wrote in The Scotsman: “The ambition of Reform Scotland is to promote new directions for public policy based on the traditional Scottish principles of limited government, diversity and personal responsibility.” The organisation will launch its first report later this month and hold its launch party on 15 April in Edinburgh.

Bad week for

School choice

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, admitted that many parents would feel “let down” by the schools admissions systems in their areas and urged them to appeal “if they feel they have a strong case”. According to a survey of local authorities by The Times, 18 per cent of children did not get their first choice secondary school (a BBC survey puts the figure at 13 per cent). This is misleading: many parents do not list their actual first choice because they have no chance of a successful application.

NHS surplus

News of the NHS surplus – expected to be at £1.8 billion by the close of this year – is not evidence that the services’ finances have turned a corner. As Nigel Hawkes, the Times’ health editor, said: “The impression that the NHS has become more efficient is, alas, an illusion. It has jammed on the brakes, squeezed its staff and denied some patients the care they would take for granted in other countries.” Reform’s latest health report NHS reform: National mantra, not local reality said: “The return of the service to financial surplus does not signify a new settlement in which investment can take place. The surplus is due to a temporary combination of the last years of major funding increases and a pause in centrally-prescribed cost increases, which are already building up again.”

Fair selection

David Cameron announced that he would hand a third of ministerial jobs in his government to women, vowing to end the “scandalous under-representation of women”. Philip Davies, a fellow Conservative MP, said that the idea was “completely unacceptable”, adding, “If you believe in true equality, which I do, then it should be irrelevant what somebody's gender should be.”

Quote of the week

John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform, said: “The idea that we could have a period of no reform is ridiculous. If you enter into that state of mind you’re halfway to the exit door. You’ve got to keep your foot on the reform pedal all the time” (Telegraph, Saturday).

Reform’s week

Reform Scotland’s media launch was widely reported (Scotsman; Telegraph (Scottish edition); Press Association; Times (Scottish Edition).

Jonathan Guthrie trailed Reform’s forthcoming pre-Budget paper in his FT column on Thursday. A Lost Decade: Counting the opportunity cost of public spending 1999-2008 will be published on Monday (FT).

The report will be discussed at the Reform / British Banking Association Budget Breakfast 2008, “New policies for a new era”, on Monday 10 March. To attend, please contact Anna Calvert at Reform on 020 7799 6699 or anna.calvert@reform.co.uk.