1) Aspiration

The Sutton Trust has found that the numbers of students saying that they were very likely or fairly likely to go to university is now three in four. While I'm sure this response rate is in part dependent on the questions asked and the circumstances of asking them, this is still a significantly larger number than will actually find their way into higher education http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7370869.stm To be optimistic, for once, this would suggest to me that poverty of aspiration, which in the past was seen as a major obstacle to achieving the governments target of 50% young people going into higher education, is now much reduced and that the opportunity exists to build on this aspiration to meet that 50% target or even to exceed it. The detail of that venture must include addressing the widely different rates of participation by social group, especially for that of the least successful group: white working class boys on free school meals. Only 6% of white working class boys on free school meals go onto university, compared to 66% of girls from an Indian background http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2151025/White-working-class-boys-becoming-an-underclass.html . On the other hand, maybe attempts at widening participation are a waste of time, as Newcastle University’s reader in evolutionary psychiatry believes, because ‘fewer working class students at elite universities was the “natural outcome” of class IQ differences’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7414311.stm . For myself, I'm sure that the numbers of working class boys going onto university could be greatly improved without resorting to IQ boosting drugs or genetic engineering but I would advise them against attending a university that appoints readers in evolutionary psychiatry.

2) The living finger writes

I think that when the history of the Brown government is written, the most significant effect of its time in office will be seen to be the increased outsourcing of government services. Not just in the NHS, where outsourcing has been underway for some time but at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2008/jun/drc-082-050608.asp and in local government http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/02/voluntarysector.localgovernment

In a week or so, John Hutton, the enterprise secretary, will publish a review by DeAnne Julius, which is expected to give a further boost to outsourcing, indeed it has been widely trailed that she will recommend a significant expansion, arguing that the contracting out of 100% of government services is theoretically possible. As you all know, I’m not one to gossip, but while you might have guessed from the name that Dr DeAnne Shirley Julius is no horny handed daughter of toil, would you have guessed that she is a former CIA analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeAnne_Julius I wonder what the reaction in the UK would have been if a former KGB functionary was writing Labour government policy. However, enough of such trivia, I think some really important issues are beginning to emerge from outsourcing. Such as the recent conundrum thrown up by ECT Group, one of the UK's most successful and diversified social enterprises, who has sold its recycling business to a private company http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/828078/News-analysis-Whats-price-social-enterprise/4C32FEE7AF154B2D4A8223156D5F0D37/?DCMP=EMC-DailyBulletin We are rapidly moving into an environment where there are no clear boundaries between the private, charity and government sectors. I could see this impinging directly on how third sector organisations, including ourselves at The Brightside Trust, will organise our business and work in the near future.

3) Minimum income

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) made a bit of a press splash with their report discussing what is the minimum income required for an adequate standard of living in the UK today http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/02/welfare full report at http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/2244.asp This is an interesting addition to the more common debate about relative and absolute poverty. Minimum adequate income was calculated on the basis of what goods and services were needed to pay for an "adequate" standard of living as defined by a panel of adjudicators who assessed a range of goods and services that are widely available and deciding if they were a necessity or a luxury. I was interested by their classification of broadband access as being a luxury, except for families with secondary school students. I feel they are a bit behind the times on this one, and I would have included it as a necessity for all citizens wishing to live an adequate life and I would further argue that without it families with children of all ages slip below the threshold of an adequate life into the disadvantaged. For example, if one looks at the type of home/school internet links that will soon be in place http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2288247,00.html these will fundamentally alter interactions between parents and teachers and as the article shows will put those who are not able to engage on a routine basis over the internet at a major disadvantage. I don’t think the existence of public points of access are equivalent to home access.

4) Short and sweet

“By the age of three, children from disadvantaged homes are up to a year behind in their learning than those from more privileged backgrounds.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6740139.stm

This reminded me of a Sutton Trust study that described the way in which children from poorest homes were less equipped to cope with starting school http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2284405,00.html

5) Political correctness gone mad

Well, quite a good idea really http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2288262,00.html I think it is always sensible to offer people learning opportunities that relate closely to their real immediate needs and existence. I could see some of the people who are successful at this then moving onto tackling other qualifications or training, not that the great British public will see it that way.

6) Sciences harder

I think this simple truth has long been understood by students http://education.guardian.co.uk/alevels/story/0,,2288309,00.html and yet another report that highlights the problem of recruiting and keeping specialist physics teachers in state schools http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7478302.stm which will be compounded by problems of future recruitment http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2288115,00.html but wait, a little hope, physics can be made more interesting by the use of games http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/physics.video.games

7) The vision thing

Gordon Brown has announced that there will be a government white paper later in the year that will draw together the government’s plans to increase social mobility in the UK. In a recent speech to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust he gave us a flavour of what will no doubt be in that paper http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page15837.asp The thing I find most puzzling about Gordon’s policy is the way he turns to the USA for ideas and projects to improve social mobility for the UK, when the USA has such a poor record in this matter, as the report by Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin, at the London School of Economics has shown http://cep.lse.ac.uk/about/news/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf To quote from their key findings “International comparisons indicate that intergenerational mobility in Britain is of the same order of magnitude as in the US, but that these countries are substantially less mobile than Canada and the Nordic countries. Germany also looks to be more mobile than the UK and US”.

So, why are we looking for examples of good practice to the USA rather than our near neighbours?