Schools in the state sector in Sweden can offer the acclaimed International GCSE (IGCSE) science qualifications that have been denied to British state school pupils by the government, according to Swedish Lessons, a report published today by independent think-tank Civitas.
Education secretary Ed Balls announced this week that the lowest performing secondary schools, as judged by the number of A*-Cs at GCSE, will be closed or replaced if they do not demonstrate an imminent ‘turnaround’. The National Challenge, as the proposed strategy for aiding these turnarounds has been termed, is modelled on the London Challenge… [Read More]
The press is littered today with references to a new report on system reform in the NHS produced jointly by the Audit Commission and the Healthcare Commission – two well respected watchdogs. It concludes ‘the [competitive] reforms [in the NHS] have not yet delivered the desired change’, adding that ‘there is no evidence from our… [Read More]
Lord Darzi’s Healthcare for London report, published last July, outlined ambitious proposals to introduce a series of polyclinics in the capital. While the national Next Stage Review currently being conducted may not take the London report as a template, it is likely that polyclinics are to form a part of Lord Darzi’s conclusions once again.… [Read More]
This year’s annual Hay-on-Wye Festival has just ended. In his column in last week’s Sunday Times, Jeremy Clarkson wrote this about the annual twelve-day jamboree: ‘You might imagine that Hay is a lovely day out for all the family, a chance for children to meet all the authors they love… Of course, it’s no such… [Read More]
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), New Labour’s most relied-on think tank, has proposed that the ‘long’ summer holidays (shorter than in most of Europe) be abolished in a bid to curb what has been referred to as the ‘summer learning loss’ amongst pupils from deprived backgrounds. The report, ‘Thursday’s Child’, co-authored by Sonya… [Read More]
Perhaps one of the biggest misnomers in the NHS at present is payment by results, quite simply because it isn’t payment by results at all. It’s payment by caseload. For an operation from the same health resource group, whether you bungle it and leave the patient ridden with MRSA and disabled for life or whether… [Read More]
After Brown’s £2.7 billion bailout over the 10p tax debacle, the multiple taxes on motorists are now coming under greater scrutiny. In the early years, the majority of attacks directed against the Labour Government were the introduction of stealth taxes. That criticism no longer applies. A doubling in vehicle excise duty on ordinary family cars… [Read More]
The tragic discovery last week in her Handsworth home of the emaciated corpse of seven year old Khyra Ishaq raises several disturbing questions. continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
‘The potential for social enterprise and not-for-profit organisations to contribute to health and well-being remains almost completely unrealised’, surmised Harry Cayton, at a debate hosted by Civitas in the House of Commons last week. The question is why? Social enterprise – as shown in personal examples such as SELDOC and Stahcom, led by Mo Girach,… [Read More]