1) A bit of good news (after a gloomy start)

A consistent strand to British culture is the dislike of children and the fear of adolescents. I think it is part of a deep pessimism of the soul that Polly Toynbee discussed on her recent visit to Daily Mail island http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/20/mydailyhell While much of the reporting in the Daily Mail is simply laughable, Polly reminds us that it has a chilling appeal to it ‘"The ideal Daily Mail story," a former Mail journalist told me, "should leave you hating someone or something"’ These journalists seem to speak directly to the barely controlled unconscious of middle England, which longs to find the cause of its frustration and failure. Unfortunately, they will never look in the mirror – the cause of their misery must be someone else and once found they must be severely punished. One of the easiest of targets, and always one of the first, is ‘young people today’. However, despite their volcanic unconscious and limited intellectual toolbox, there is more to the consciousness of middle England than this; there is also a benign conscious, which includes a receptiveness to humour, and through it, occasional self-parody. In the end, with their obvious frustration, they are more Rigsby than ripper and like Rigsby will make common cause with the youngsters when it is clearly a matter of natural justice. Which is why I think this initiative is timely http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/youthmanifesto “The Youth Manifesto has been set up by the Talented Young People organisation to address the current situation regarding young people in this country and as a way to combat the current problems.” Yes, lets have a few celebrations of success but lets not be too worthy guys, lets go for the humour and the fun, and as a miserable old git may I advise that when dealing with your detractors always go for the low blow, middle England would expect nothing less.

2) Where are they now?

“One in 10 state school pupils will drop out of education before university despite having once been among the brightest in their class...” More Sutton Trust research http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/tenth-of-brightest-pupils-opt-out-of-higher-education-846241.html the problem seems to be keeping disadvantaged students actively engaged in the education process, especially up to and beyond GCSEs. This is going to become even more problematic when the education leaving age is raised to 18. Possibly shedding some light on this problem, an article from the Guardian, which is effectively a detailed case study of a disadvantaged student who made it,
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2290865,00.html the analysis seems tough on parents but this is a recurring theme.

3) Absence makes the heart ….

As you may have noticed, the same old social issues and problems come round every few years; they get chewed over and when they no longer seem to be worth the jaw ache are spat out and left on the carpet in favour of something else. Then one day, for some reason, they are taken up again and once more become the touchstone issue of the day, a harbinger, a proof that we are all going to hell. So, I thought I’d get ahead of the pack and lock my nashers onto the temporarily deserted bone of school truancy. Even in terms of the official figures there are a lot of pupils not going to school http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7385275.stm however; I don’t think that these students should be seen as a discreet subset of the school population who have cut themselves off from their peers, rather they should be seen as a subset of a larger group: the disengaged. By the age of 15, many of these little lovelies can be found floating around school, some having registered, some not. Did you know that one of the recurring problems with students who have been excluded from school is keeping them away from the premises? When we discuss students who leave school without 5 GCSEs http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7348088.stm , I think we should be thinking of a group of children who have been in the process of gradually disengaging since they were 12 or 13. They slowly become unglued from the school routine and their reaction can then take the form of absence, disruption or even sometimes bursts of enthusiasm. People have tried many ways to re-engage these types of pupils. At the moment, peer mentoring seems quite fashionable, however this wouldn’t be my first choice, I think that having a significant sympathetic adult is what is needed. Anyone fancy starting an e-mentoring/mentoring scheme for occasional truanting/mildly disengaged 13 year olds? Your reward: when truancy next becomes the subject of national alarm you will be running the best stall on the market.

4) Firm but fair

“She gives away lots of - other people's - money to charities, but they have to meet tough business targets and prove they can rise to the challenge.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/09/voluntarysector proving efficiency and effectiveness when seeking monies is only going to get harder in the new philanthropic capitalism.

5) Knifes are us

There has been much panic and alarm about teenage knife carrying and murders but I wonder if this is a single or even a new phenomena. I was surprised to find the Sun newspaper contributing something worthwhile to the debate
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/article1418367.ece I think it important to note that it was the cutting, the slashing, that was the purpose for these gangsters, not murder. The cultural and social context of knife use is important and not just in London, for decades Glasgow has had a much higher level of knife crime than the rest of the UK but as I understand it, once again the aim is to slash, hurt, humiliate but not kill. Silly boys carrying knives does not automatically lead to murder.

Are we even dealing with a single phenomenon? Details of these murders are hard to find but in at least one instance, murder followed a perceived slight in a bar where the attacker then went home, armed themselves with a knife and returned to kill the victim. This would seem very different to the theme of government and popular commentary where it is assumed that these fatal stabbings are the result of ‘situations get out of hand’ where young men carrying knifes find themselves using the knives, spontaneously and unplanned, resulting in an unintended death. The gangster slasher, the revenge stabbing, the panic wounding are all very different and I worry that they are being grouped together as a simple single phenomenon. If there are these differences then solutions might have to be both specific and different, depending on the detail of what is really happening.

6) Not that difficult

There has been discussion that some unfashionable universities may face closure due to falling numbers of undergraduates http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2289878,00.html or maybe universities need to recruit more effectively from the less represented sections of society through their widening participation programs. They could also alter the types of courses on offer with universities becoming primary providers of foundation degrees and advanced apprenticeships. Especially as apprenticeships are about to get a major increase in funding and support http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/13/youngpeople.workandcareers
In short, I would suggest that those universities who fear that they will be disproportionately hit by a diminishing student population should act now to develop a more overtly vocational slant to their courses and move away from an obsessive focus on traditional honours degrees. Indeed, perhaps we should give these new style universities a special name – how about polytechnics?

7) A report I welcome

In my opinion, the formal teaching of under 5s is unwise http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2290715,00.html we have plenty of evidence that it’s the soft skills that are lacking among many students in later life. The foundations for these skills are laid during the early years; in my opinion, forget early reading and writing; try to develop human empathy and a positive self-image through play.

8) Interesting fact

Did you know that summer babies are less likely to go to university http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034773/Babies-born-summer-likely-study-university.html

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?

1) Second chance

The government has announced that more than one and a half million young people in England are to become eligible for £7,000 each to spend on improving their qualifications. The offer is open to 18-to-25-year-olds who want to boost their education to GCSE or A-level standard http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7448213.stm

2) Snail’s pace

Another batch of statistics and a report finding that widening participation into higher education is only making slow progress http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4069357.ece

3) Off-site units and PRUs

The government has produced a white paper, ‘Back on Track: A strategy for modernising alternative provision for young people’ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/backontrack it is discussed here http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2281099,00.html I feel that it is very wrong to assess the effectiveness of pupil referral units (PRUs) by the number of GCSE passes and it suggests to me that the people driving this policy review have little idea about the reality of such places. For example, it has always been the stated aspiration of off-site units to re-integrate into mainstream: it simply doesn’t happen in practice. Why? Because frankly everyone, student and mainstream school, are thoroughly sick of each other by the time the move to the PRU is undertaken. Its not surprising that few students get 5 GCSEs A to C, the kind of young people I came across were more like the characters in this article describing a unit that combines boxing with study http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2285860,00.html From my experience it should be seen as a success if students leave the PRU functionally literate and numerate with a sufficient repertoire of ‘soft skills’ that they are employable. Forget 5 GCSEs, once employed they can get an equivalent trade qualification that will serve them better.

4) Conservative Assessment

In an article by Oliver Letwin, interestingly placed in The Guardian, he argues that ‘Our aim is to be as radical in social reform as Margaret Thatcher was in economic reform.’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/03/conservatives.labour spelling out that project, the Conservative Party has produced a discussion paper, ‘welfare to work’ and their spokesperson Chris Grayling has outlined in a speech what he calls the ‘next steps in welfare’ http://www.cps.org.uk/latestlectures A common mistake and a common theme that I think I see in both Labour and Conservative analyses is that the out-of-employment population are seen as languishing away in their homes, sullen but ready to be swept up by programs of training or employment. From what I’ve seen over the years in Finsbury Park and from working as a social worker this is not the case. The lifestyle is not so much one of being gloomily stuck, it is more that of hanging out with friends, having a laugh, ducking and diving, being a gangster or at least a shoplifter or small time dealer. They are in a state of permanent adolescence, a careless nihilism. If you do pester them about their plans they will tell you that one day they will go to college and become a plumber or a beautician and earn more cash than you. Living in a haze of drink and drugs, time passes quickly enough and there is always one more money making scheme to be tried. Some exist for years thinking they just need a break and then they will become a celebrity.

In short, they have aspirations but little plausible idea as to how or when they will achieve them, however the offer of doing something hard, like picking vegetables at the minimum wage is not on their agenda. Shifting them will be a much more difficult project than government or opposition seem to realise.

5) Poverty statistics going the wrong way

This report makes for gloomy reading as it shows child poverty rates seem to be on the rise again, as reported in The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/failure-on-child-poverty-targets-is-moral-disgrace-842780.html and at The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/07/socialexclusion.taxandspending and http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/11/socialexclusion.children1 but I thought the charts at the end of this last article were interesting, in particular, the way they show a fall in the percentage of national income going to the middle and fourth cohorts of the population as well as to the poorest. I think this explains, at least in part, why in the UK the middle classes are feeling unloved, insecure and not particularly sympathetic to the poor. Yes, there has been consistent economic growth over the past ten years from which they have benefited in real terms, but it would also seem that the middle classes are right in feeling that their share of these gains has been minimal and that it stands to be wiped out by the present burst of commodity price inflation. I feel that another thread in the current middle class consciousness is paralleled in another article which focuses on a single parent who is quoted as saying ‘it feels like I am not giving my children what I had’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/11/socialexclusion.children2?gusrc=rss&feed=society . I think many middle class married couples could be found expressing the same sentiment albeit using different criterion. In turn, I think this is linked to the mood of public pessimism, which seems to be impervious to genuine improvements, such as the falling levels of crime. On the upside, I guess the Labour Party could save money and catch the popular mood by recycling the 1997 ‘things can only get better’ campaign song for the next election campaign.

6) Tomorrow belongs to OFSTED

“Strong leadership, self-knowledge and a strong school identity are key to a successful journey out of special measures, according to Ofsted's new report, 'Sustaining Improvement: the journey from special measures'.” http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/070221

I had hoped that the 20^th century had disabused people of the general folly of wishing for strong leaders. However, when it comes to headteachers there is form here. We have seen many decades of reinforcing the powers of headteachers and in particular of asserting their autonomy from local education authorities. In my opinion, what this has shown is that headteachers are only a marginal factor in school improvement and only in some circumstances. Where is the OFSTED study of those schools who appointed ‘superheads’ at salaries of over 100k and then got worse. I think that OFSTED have confused a description of some superficial outcomes with causal factors. It is the fashion for headteachers to present as strong leaders when ‘their’ school is improving; while the finding that ‘self-knowledge and a strong school identity are key’ is banal even in consultant-speak. The only good thing about this report is that it shows that whatever the problems schools face, OFSTED is not the answer.

7) ULN, a new acronym for you

I don’t know if people had noticed, and I’m afraid I hadn’t, but the government has willed the means for assigning every person undertaking education and training in the UK state system a unique number, which they will then carry through their academic life. An Oracle database has been constructed to keep the data associated with each Unique Learner Number (ULN) and it goes online in September. I don’t know who will have access to the database but it potentially opens up the possibility of much easier and more detailed research into widening participation and educational choices. If it is available to employers it should also make educational career counterfeiting a more difficult project.

1) Diploma dancing

It has been announced that student numbers for the new diplomas are to be cut by a quarter http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2274658,00.html embarrassingly it has been leaked that Ministers and education experts in Whitehall would not recommend studying the new diplomas to their own children http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/20/nedu120.xml This comes at a time when a government committee is asking what the future is for A levels? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7397084.stm It also comes at a time when the pre-U is coming into use at private schools http://education.guardian.co.uk/alevels/story/0,,2273115,00.html Overall, this is an interesting time for post 16 qualifications. We seem to be at a point where we are either on the eve of the establishment of a single system of post 16 qualifications after the phasing out of A levels in 2013. Or, we are seeing the establishment of the most divisive system we have ever had in the UK, where qualifications will reflect the social class of the student and the type of school attended. In this latter scenario, diplomas will identify students as being lower class and having attended a poorer performing comprehensive school; A levels will indicate middle class students who attended a superior state school; while private schools students will study the pre-U.
This in turn will then no doubt be reflected in higher education, with private schools consolidating their grip on the Russell group universities who will give preference to the pre-U students; A levels will be the qualification of choice for the other older universities; while diplomas will get you into an old polytechnic. The result will be that social mobility in the UK will diminish and the introduction of diplomas will have achieved the exact opposite of its originator’s intension. I think both scenarios are possible, what’s your bet?

2) Ending child poverty by 2020

The charity 4children have published a report entitled, ‘Turning up the volume on child poverty’ http://www.4children.org.uk/information/show/ref/1224. The publication begins with 3 relatively detailed and well argued statements from Labour, Conservative and Liberal spokespersons about what they would do to end child poverty. I found it significant, and admittedly a little surprising, that all 3 say they are committed to ending child poverty by 2020. However, I think it fair to say that all are rather vague as to how this will be achieved. Consequently, the analysis that 4children make of this challenge, between pages 28 and 40, is particularly useful. Of specific note to The Brightside Trust is the identification of the importance of various forms of mentoring if poverty is to be made history. From page 42 they identify ‘five end child poverty tests’, which they suggest should be used to judge social policy pronouncements.

3) Mentoring for the difficult

Most of the time, most social policy in the UK is not directed at the hardest to reach or hardest to change populations. However, a couple of recent initiatives are apparently aiming to do just that and have mentoring as a core component of their strategies http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2266449,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/30/socialexclusion1
It will be interesting to see if these projects are pursued. It is not clear how the youth task force action plan will engage and mentor 1,000 difficult teenagers but one for us to watch.

4) Are you NAGTY or Iggy?

Information update about the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) program http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2275354,00.html

5) More to do

Educational gap grows between cared for children and others http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7367250.stm

6) Happiest days?

A million students since 1997 have left school without achieving 5 GCSE at level G or better. http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,,2275280,00.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/21/nschool121.xml In my opinion, not reaching a grade G at GCSE is indicative of a complete failure to engage in a GCSE course or, in a small number of cases, a serious undiagnosed learning difficulty. I see this finding as proof that a significant number of students learn little or nothing in their final years at school.

7) Inadequate advice

Yet more interesting research from the Sutton Trust http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3828407.ece They found that many students reported the level and type of advice they received at school about university was inadequate. This would seem to match anecdotal information that has emerged from a number of Brightside projects. In turn, this seems to parallel concerns about careers advice expressed elsewhere http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7318919.stm However, I think it unwise to read too much into the detail of this type of survey. Firstly, I have doubts about administrating questionnaires in classrooms where the students inevitably feel they are under the disciplinary gaze of the school and hence most of them wisely try to give the correct responses. Also, I wonder if there is any real relationship, especially for the younger students, between their replies and their subsequent actions. A few years ago, I asked a classroom of 10 year olds what work they thought they would do when they grew up. The majority were going to be teachers, most of the rest vets. I don’t suppose that is what happened but I also don’t think it significant – they were children.

1) Shameless

Over the past few weeks, the disappearance and then discovery of Shannon Matthews has been the subject of much press interest and seems to have left many commentators thrashing around for explanation and understanding of disadvantaged Britain, for example http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=557960&in_page_id=1770&ct=5 While coverage has been diverse, the comments are always written from the perspective of outsiders struggling to understand ‘people like that’. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that writers have cast around for a schema that structures and ‘explains’ with the most popular comparisons being with the TV series Shameless, which is seen as prescient or even causal to the events in Wakefield. Apparently we live in post-modern times where fiction shapes reality. I think not, rather it was because the author of Shameless drew on his own life experience, that of growing up in a chaotic and disadvantaged family that he had a repertoire and way of writing about ‘these people’, which others are now borrowing. When reading this Sun article I noted that the family had three computers in the home; one apparently supplied by social services. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1034032.ece It would seem that it is not just the newspapers who try to understand social disadvantage in the UK using categories of analysis borrowed and mediated by fiction, albeit Oliver Twist rather than Shameless. For my part, I can only hope that things work out for Bianca and Ricky.

2) Poverty

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published a report that argued child poverty could double over the next 10 years in the UK unless significant steps are taken to up-rate welfare benefits. See report summary http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/09/welfare.socialexclusion and full report at http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2194-benefits-taxation-poverty.pdf The authors assume a constantly rising median income in the UK over the next 10 years and that government does nothing in response to this; even I think that a little unfair to government. It is however in the context of other reports that claim to show that the poverty gap has not narrowed under labour http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/03/socialexclusion.labour and http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-is-burying-bad-news-of-poverty-study-until-after-elections-803990.html However, despite this pessimism, I would argue that it is still a good time to push the issue of child poverty in the public domain as all three main political parties say that they are committed to abolishing child poverty, albeit none are very clear about how and when they will achieve it. For this reason, I think that The End Child Poverty Campaign, which brings together over 110 organisations, has a potentially important role to play at this time http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/assets/plugins/fckeditor/editor/index.html Maybe we should join?

3) Mentoring

As I’m sure most people are aware, the government are to launch a major mentoring scheme where secondary school pupils are to be mentored by university students http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7328464.stm I think it worth reading the linked description of Westminster’s scheme and how they pay mentors, £7 per hour. Are the days of the free volunteer over?

4) Texas – home of progressive thinking

As we have seen from the gifted and talented scheme in the UK, simply defining the top few percent of children in every school as gifted and talented can create anomalies and complications but I thought that the use of that approach in Texas seems to have achieved some genuinely innovative practice http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,2273636,00.html . Whatever the government intention, I’m worried that we are about to put in place a system of qualifications in the UK that will entrench the existing class system in higher education. Private schools are rapidly moving away from A levels to the new Cambridge Pre-U qualification http://education.guardian.co.uk/alevels/story/0,,2273115,00.html . IN state schools, the middle classes will continue to pursue A levels while the rest will be steered to diplomas. The result will be a three tier HE sector, with the old prestigious universities recruiting the Pre-U students, the middle range universities recruiting the A level students, while the old polytechnics will admit the diploma students. Once again, the British class system will be re-enforced and graduates class coded by their university. Rather than that scenario I think we should seriously consider the Texan alternative, which builds on student potential and achievement, rather than family background and school.

5) London calling

The conservative party have sponsored a report that raises many questions about poverty in London, it is entitled Breakthrough London http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/default.asp?pageRef=240 This comes at a time when government are also launching an initiative to help more children out of poverty in London http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0069 It is interesting to note the importance of children’s centres in the government’s plans and how many services, including training and employment, are to be child centre focused.

6) Gold star

A major report from the government looking at life chances in the UK

http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/life_chances_180308.pdf This is an excellent reference document. Indeed this report was recently given the rarely awarded Sue Maskrey prize for readability and relevance.

7) Firm foundations

Foundation degrees are designed to be organically generated, or at least intimately connected to the skills needs of specific industries and careers. In that sense I see this debate about foundation degrees as paralleling the debate about the new diplomas http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7343027.stm There is some evidence that industry specific training can be the most financially rewarding type of training for individuals at the lower grades. Will this prove to be true for higher qualifications such as the likes of foundation degrees? The government are pushing strongly ahead on this course of action http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2273466,00.html and also see this interview with John Denham for the direction of travel http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2273417,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8 Also Bill Rammell has launched a consultation on strengthening England’s skills base http://www.dius.gov.uk/press/14-04-08.html. Note the particular attention to STEM subjects. Maybe someone at The Brightside Trust would like to give Bill some advice.

1) End child poverty by 2020?

When listening to the Prime-Minister’s speech to the Labour Party spring conference last week, I thought that it was only the cause of ending child poverty by 2020 and some utopian ‘world’ projects, such as abolishing malaria, that triggered any real audience applause and enthusiasm. Even the party faithful seem to be finding it hard to express their passion for the many re-announcements, such as rebuilding schools or the minimum wage. I know this observation is widely shared and quietly voiced in government and there is now sufficient political impetus to try to make progress on ending child poverty in the UK by 2020; however, is this a credible project? Could we really be living at such an amazing point in history, when child poverty was about to be abolished? The signs are frankly not good, with headlines such as ‘Whitehall forecasts child poverty failure’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/03/children.tax and ‘poor children pay for non-doms’ tax break’ or http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/03/economy.economics or ‘child poverty targets ‘will fail’’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7273808.stm

However, it may surprise regular readers of this blog that I am not as pessimistic as these commentators. There are two reasons for this. First, a technical statistical point but one that is often misunderstood and confuses this debate: note that the government always speak of poverty being defined by 60% of median income; that’s average defined by the numerically middle household (whose income is then taken as a statement of average) this is not the way average is more commonly used (where total income for the population is divided by the number of its population to get the average income) which in statistical terms is called the mean. Why does this matter? It matters because as long as the magical median household remains on a static or only slowly rising income then what happens below and above them i.e. the rich and the poor, makes no difference to the calculation of average income and hence the income that represents the 60% poverty target. So it is statistically quite possible to upgrade everyone to beyond the 60% target without having to downgrade those above median income in order to keep the ‘average’ at the same level.

Secondly, I think some recent research has shown that specific and often localised factors seem to be highly influential as to why some families remain in poverty. For example, the recent London poverty review http://213.86.122.139/docs/capital-gains.pdf found that high housing costs were a major disincentive to work and suggested that changes to housing benefit rules might have a significant effect. While elsewhere in UK, such as the north-east of England, the emphasis would probably be on getting people off incapacity benefit and into work. There is also the question of rural poverty http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7273516.stm . I would argue that it is possible to analyse each of these areas, in turn, and identify specific and often relatively minor changes that would make a major difference to people. For me, this finding is a cause for optimism.

I’m not suggesting these things are going to be cheap or easy, far from it, but with serious money going into job training and support (see below) combined with localised measures, such as for example, changes to London housing benefit, then I see a real basis for taking another major bite out of the poverty figures. I don’t know if we will reach zero poverty by 2020, but as Larry Elliott concedes in the article above; to get to the Scandinavian level of 5% poverty would still be a stunning achievement.

2) A great scheme

A short report on a scheme to get disadvantaged students into St George's Medical School, University of London http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/students-from-poorer-backgrounds-catch-up-at-university-786755.html I think it interesting that course applicants academic results are judged, in part, by reference to their school peers and that this as a valid measure of potential has been proved valid by their subsequent course performance.

3) Jackpot

The government has announced a potentially enormous budget for getting people into work. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/plan-to-aid-jobless-will-cost-16375bn-789343.html £35 billion: you could build a hell of an e-mentoring scheme for that kind of money!

4) Sure Start Centres

While many of the disadvantaged seem to be mired in poverty, I think it is generally agreed that disadvantage is not the same as poverty. Sure start centres are at the very centre of the government’s attempts to combat disadvantage and this week saw the publication of a government sponsored evaluation and report into the effectiveness of sure start. The short summary report can be found at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/NESS2008SF027.pdf The government press releases accompanying this publication stressed how this research found that having a sure start children’s centre in a disadvantaged area produced a positive effect, in most ways, in most communities; however, what was not said, was that the positive effects found were mostly rather modest. Still, it was positive.

5) Literacy and disadvantage

By any measure, being an adult and unable to read must count as a disadvantage. The story of Scott Quinnell, the famous Welsh rugby player, illustrates this article ‘Why a million UK adults cannot read this headline‘ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/02/socialexclusion.adultliteracy and a simple but apparently effective tool; the short story of quick reads http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2261782,00.html

1 Stunning: well, it should be

Last year, only 176, of the nearly 30,000 pupils who got three grade As at A-level were eligible for free school meals: that’s ½ of 1% ! http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2259334,00.html Now, based on my personal experience and anecdotal evidence, I suspect that at least some of those golden 176 were children of recent asylum seekers and refugees; also, I suspect that a few will have been at private schools on scholarship programs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Consequently, I’m left wondering if any of the 176 who gained 3 As came through the mainstream school system. I might try and get a friendly Tory MP to ask the question. Perhaps that’s why Blair used to say education, education, education – there were three of them.

2 Crisis, what crisis?

The public accounts committee (PAC) recently reviewed university dropout rates and their report was generally critical of the efforts being made by the universities http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3423483.ece . The headline of their investigation was that nearly 25% of students fail to complete their degree courses and that course drop-out was more prevalent amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds; that despite many millions of pounds being spent by universities to supposedly address the failure rate, which had not improved over time http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/leading-article-dropout-waste-784623.html . Problem, what problem, seemed to be the view from HEFCE http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2259840,00.html

3 Mistake

Under the new legislation, the government are going to allow some young people to leave education and training before the age of 18 if they can show they are in difficult personal circumstances http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7258913.stm. In my opinion, the government seem to have learnt nothing from the experience of incapacity benefit. Building in these exceptions is a bad idea; it will mean the very types of people who are now teenage NEETs will remain so, as they will leave the education system of the back of one of these exceptions. Yes, it will be hard to keep all young people in education and/or training until 18 but that was bound to be the case. We didn’t need a legislative change to keep those in education who would remain in it anyway. Government should stiffen its resolve, and remember what happened when education leaving dates were raised in the past – within a couple of years they became generally accepted.

4 Strength through work

I thought this was a good example of the arguments about single parents in employment http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/23/workandcareers.familyfinance. Note the calculation at the end, which shows how essential the in-work benefits are to make work pay, even at this marginal level. This cost is important when calculating the cost of single parents working to the rest of society. I often find that liberal advocates of tax credits are shy about the costs of these schemes. I calculate that this person’s untaxed income without benefits would be £88.32 gross, way below the level of benefits income; it has to be toped-up with negative income tax and housing benefit, to make the worker marginally better off. I’m not against the project; I just don’t think we can hide this truth as it has major consequences for the welfare budget as a whole.

5 Advice

The need for better advice, earlier, seems to be the recurring finding of analyses of educational opportunities and stories of stymied choice. Indeed, is this the real secret of private schooling? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/conor-ryan-pupils-need-better-advice-on-their-options-784622.html

6 It was good enough for the Foreign Secretary and Nance

A study claims to show that middle class kids do educationally OK even when they attend less fashionable comprehensive schools. I know it is asking a lot of parents or guardians to make such a choice and possibly sad that their children’s good performance seems to be because they stick with their own, but it would make schooling in the UK so much easier if everyone did it. http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2258392,00.html

7 Your call is valuable to us

While there has been much debate recently about top grade A levels and elite universities, in my opinion, the equally important arena for improving skills and educational qualifications in the UK, that of the workplace has tended to be neglected. This article considers the practical advantages and costs that someone working in a call centre faces when considering investing in a work based qualification http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/18/2

1 Bargain

According to this article, over the past 5 years the money spent on university widening participation schemes for the disadvantaged has amounted to £211,500 per extra student recruited http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=512336&in_page_id=1770 . I guess that we will be hearing more of this statistic when the government gets round to launching their plans for the next phase of Aimhigher, which were due to be published in January and yet, strangely, have yet to appear. I remain convinced that part of the reason for such limited success has been a strategic underestimation of the real and specific difficulties of attracting disadvantaged students into higher education. A recent piece of Sutton trust research, this time on university choice, sheds light on the subject http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2256262,00.html full report at http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/StaffordshireReportFinal.pdf

2 Mentoring for the gifted and talented

The government has moved to combine with what they see as the academically elite recruits in their ‘Teach First scheme’ with disadvantaged, but bright pupils, in a bid to raise their applications to Russell group universities. Pupils on free school meals and who have also been identified as "gifted and talented" will receive support from Teach First Advocates in applying for highly competitive courses http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7217619.stm The government sees this as a mentoring program and it will include participants from the Teach First scheme who have ceased teaching in schools and are now working outside of the education sector.

3 Attitudes to the poor and poverty

A report from the Joseph Rowntree Trust looked at public attitudes to the poor and poverty using data from the British Social Attitudes survey http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/1999-poverty-attitudes-survey.pdf . In summary, I think this survey shows that the majority of British people are sympathetic to those people living in some form of absolute poverty, such as those suffering inadequate nutrition or being unable to sustain life without going into debt but not towards those in relative poverty. Attitudes to the poor also seem to be hardening, as in the latest British Social Attitudes survey, one-third of the 3,000 people interviewed believed that poverty was "an inevitable part of modern life" and a rising number laid the blame on the poor themselves; 27% of those surveyed thinking that poverty was due to "laziness or lack of willpower", up from 19% in 1984. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/23/socialexclusion

4 Is this the future?

Last Sunday, Gordon Brown took the opportunity to place an article in the Observer newspaper where he tried to explain both the moral inspiration and the analysis that lies at the heart of this government’s education and economic policy: that educational opportunity and achievement is not only vital for personal development and personal economic success but is also essential for the economic success of the nation http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/10/gordonbrown.education This argument is not new, it is built on the findings of the Leitch report of last year, which analysed the prospects for the UK’s economy for the next 20 years. This report was met with almost universal praise at the time of its publication and is now often wheeled out as an incontestable reference point. However, I fear that it makes a number of assumptions which are rarely discussed and which may cause problems in the future. First, for the most part, the report assumed that skills are the same thing as educational qualifications. The UK experience is that this is sometimes a fair assumption but sometimes it is not. Second, there is the much quoted assertion that by 2020 the number of jobs that require no qualifications will have shrunk from 3.6m to just 600,000. As this excellent article shows, this was an assumption about the nature of the future labour force not a projection of labour needs. http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2248309,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8 I do not think these factors negate Brown’s admirable vision for the future, but I wish that his policy makers would face up to these types of complication when developing programs, rather than ‘discovering’ them through the failure of well meaning but simplistic policy initiatives .

5 Halt, who goes where?

A Government plan to construct a national database of the educational careers and achievements of all UK citizens seems to be underway http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/13/nschool313.xml While some may see this as part of a secret liberal plot to destroy the British way of life, I prefer to dwell on a more mundane consolation; that any such database will be a significant boost to educational research, as it will make the tracking of detailed educational outcomes a much more practical venture. A major difficulty for any such research, until now, has been the lack of any mechanisms to track individuals once they have left the schooling system. This has been true even when they have only moved into higher education, as school and UCAS reference codes were different and not easily matched. If this database is implemented, then I would expect to see some early results, especially in areas such as assessing the effectiveness of widening participation schemes into higher education. It would also facilitate longer term assessments into the significance of education and training for people’s lives.

6 Dads Army

Some suggestions, however bad, just seem to keep coming around http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7245122.stm yes, I’m sure that’s what disadvantaged pupils need: being taught by battlefield survivors who are working through the psychological trauma of their futile cannon fodder years. Why stop at teachers? Surely there is a role as detached youth workers where they could bring their insights to cross community dialogue http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/15/communities.uksecurity .

1 The government plan for children

The publication of this plan is intended to be a major policy statement that will shape children and families policy for the rest of the time of this government. I know people complain that they don’t have time to read this kind of long report, so here’s the minister in charge, Ed Balls, telling you about it, jackanory style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6sAnrRe7Xk If this inspires you, then there is a summary that covers the main points http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrensplan/downloads/Childrens_Plan_Executive_Summary.pdf or even the whole plan at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrensplan/downloads/The_Childrens_Plan.pdf .The children’s plan is intended to be both a guide for the department’s work and a reference point for existing and future initiatives. If you intend to read one summary, of one government plan this year, I guess this is it.

2 University challenge

The government’s planned expansion of higher education continues to be rolled out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7201228.stm. These plans for expansion are being supplemented by new widening participation initiatives such as the ‘First to go campaign’ http://www.dius.gov.uk/press/03-01-08.html However, this expansion seems at times to be contradicted by practice, for example the news last week that there was a major under spend of widening participation monies at some universities http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2245216,00.html?

If universities are unsure as to how to spend this money I’m sure we could help them.

3 Welfare reform, the skilled workforce

A recent report detailed how UK productivity and hence the economy was damaged by low literacy and numeracy standards http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=AMO3E3AVF2L2PQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/18/nthreers118.xml . There have also been many studies that have shown a correlation between education and skills with employment and then increased income for individuals. Unfortunately, among many of the no-skills, low skills population, the benefits of training and qualifications don’t seem to have had the subjective appeal that the rational economic argument has had with government. However, the department of work and pensions (DWP) in alliance with the department for innovation (DIUS) is about to embark on a whole new set of programs in order to alter that. Last week, a paper called ‘Ready to work, skilled for work: unlocking talent’ was published by DWP/DIUS http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/ready_to_work.pdf this is intended to be a major initiative and is potentially highly relevant to The Brightside Trust as it specifically advocates mentoring as part of a skills and training packages (for example see page 14)

4 Volunteers

Volunteering, set to get a further boost http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/779595/Time-volunteering-minister-says-report/AA0C77276DD06D23D20602D0C4FC7DBF/?DCMP=EMC-DailyBulletin

5 Private parts

There has been a flurry of articles over the past month about the significance and proper role of private schooling in the UK. Most of this has been triggered by the recent changes to charity law and the ways in which private schools will have to ‘earn’ their charitable status. This produced a mighty volume of largely predictable words in defence of public schools such as this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=MDHURZQLC4LFZQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2008/01/16/dl1601.xml A smaller voice has taken the opportunity to criticise private schooling and argue strongly against their claim to special tax status. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-bakewell/joan-bakewell-theres-nothing-charitable-about-buying-privilege-770918.html you may have noticed that this article includes a swipe at one of the countries leading private school headteachers, Anthony Seldon, who I felt tried to break out of this rather obvious trench warfare by raising a number of important points in a major article in The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/dr-anthony-seldon-enough-of-this-educational-apartheid-770182.html In my opinion, if private schools can control their annoyance they would be wise to follow this advice and resist the temptation to hunker down and wait for a conservative government. Indeed, for me, the argument about private schools benefiting from tax breaks is a minor discussion, I think the major point made by Anthony Seldon is that the existing situation is one where private schools and the remaining state grammar schools act as a sort of cartel, an apartheid, controlling and limiting advancement and excellence ‘the stranglehold is almost total’. I’m not sure if his solutions will be enough but I think it is a far more interesting discussion than tax liability.

6 Camilla who?

In my opinion, a potentially important contributor to the debate as to why some young people in the UK are adopting openly anti-social and violent life-styles is Camilla Batmanghelidj. For example, in this article Camilla reflects on the trial and sentencing of those young men who beat to death Garry Newlove, ‘children are not born criminals or killers’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/01/18/do1805.xml –

I recognise that Camilla’s explanation is focused on the most disadvantaged of disadvantaged children and is not an analysis of youth culture in general, but I find her unhappy remarks insightful. Unfortunately, I fear Camilla will be marginalised in any policy debates in the UK, as her analysis poses very difficult questions for government and policy makers. Those who shape the policy debate in the UK would rather not have the adequacy of their policy-pronouncements measured against this benchmark and consequently I fear that Camilla, while being widely praised for her work with damaged children, will rarely be invited to the social policy ball.

7 The great energy debate

So far, the debate about the future of energy generation in the UK seems to have been dominated by the choice of nuclear or renewables. I’m concerned that the question of energy affordability and fuel poverty has been marginalised. In particular, I’m worried that there is already a consensus that fuel will be much more expensive in the future, whatever the source. If this is the case, then the disproportionate losers will be the socially disadvantaged, especially the most disadvantaged, who are already paying punitive energy supply charges through the use of pay-as-you-go key meters. These people also tend live in the least energy efficient and lowest standard of housing, especially since the abandonment of national minimum standards in 1980 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Morris_Committee Unfortunately, the likelihood of improving their housing stock, through the implementation of high quality insulation or other major energy saving building modifications, does not appear to be very great. I fear that a harbinger of how Housing Associations (HA) and local authority housing regimes will respond to this challenge has been the way that they have responded towards tenants who request permission to install water meters in their homes. For example Mosaic, one of London’s largest HAs, will only allow tenants to have water meters fitted when the tenant agrees, in advance, to pay any costs associated with installation of the meter. As the water supply is usually to a flat, where the plumbing is often a jerry-built bodge, rather than a standard street supply, there can be considerable damage to kitchen fixtures when plumbers trace and modify the pipe-work. The result, few dare risk the cost. The energy debate becomes even more abstract with discussion of how people might offset energy costs by generating their own supplies. Such schemes, though varied and imaginative, are all irrelevant to people living, for example in a third floor flat who are prohibited by the terms of their tenancy from fixing anything to the external wall of their home or making structural changes. I’m not arguing pro or anti-nuclear, frankly I’m more worried that that the narrow debate we seem to be having ignores the ways in which a future premised on more expensive energy will of itself increase social disadvantage and division in the UK.