Tag Archives: Education and Skills

The Social Market Foundation's response to the 2014 Budget statement.

A new phase of radical education reform is needed to end Britain’s educational divide by opening up independent schools to the most disadvantaged, and by charging affluent parents who want to send their children to popular state schools, says the UK’s most prominent headteacher, Anthony Seldon, in a new report published by the Social Market Foundation today.

This SMF response analyses some of the key announcements in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, noting a remarkable focus on the long-term.

The UK Higher Education system has become ‘so lopsided away from teaching’ that it requires a ‘real cultural change’, Universities Minister David Willetts says today in a new pamphlet for the think tank the Social Market Foundation.

New official figures on the second year of the Government's flagship back-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, demonstrate that while performance is greatly improved on the first year, many providers are still at risk of contract termination due to under-performance against arbitrary DWP criteria, according to the Social Market Foundation.

The Social Market Foundation responds to Spending Review 2013, which was predominantly about departmental spending in the 2015-16 fiscal year. The SMF argues that what it actually tells us most about is how tough politics is about to become.

The Government's new childcare voucher scheme is welcome news for many middle- and high-income parents with children under the age of five struggling with the high costs of childcare: polling by YouGov for the SMF that just as many these parents said they found it difficult to pay for childcare as parents on the lowest incomes.

The Government’s aim to rebalance the economy away from financial services is inconceivable due to a 40,000 per year shortage of home-grown graduates in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) sectors, a think tank reveals today (Monday 18 March).

On 5 February 2013 Michael Gove delivered a speech entitled “The Progressive Betrayal” to the Social Market Foundation. A recording of the event, text from the speech and tweets from...