Blogs & articles

A Big Society approach to low carbon

Comment

27 Oct 2010

New energy saving community trusts could help us meet our carbon targets while strengthening neighbourhoods, argues John Swinney FRSA.

WFAs 4 EMAs - we're on our way

Blog

27 Oct 2010

Matthew Taylor

Thank you for the eleven positive (and one negative) response to my post yesterday about pensioners donating their winter fuel allowance (WFA) to sustaining 16-18 year old students who will, from next year, lose their Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMA).

Fuel for learning - help me light a fire

Blog

26 Oct 2010

Matthew Taylor

I posted last Friday on the abolition of Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs), the grants of between £10 and £30 a week made to disadvantaged 16-18 year olds.

How do we promote innovation whilst assuring high standards in education?

Blog

26 Oct 2010

This is an age old question in education and one which we are tackling with Opening Minds. As you probably know Opening Minds is now being used by over 200 secondary schools in England. As an approach it promotes innovative and integrated ways of thinking about　education and the curriculum. Teachers design and develop a curriculum for their own schools based on a competence framework.

Membership ambitions

Blog

25 Oct 2010

Matthew Taylor

I am burning the midnight oil tonight finalising a speech I am delivering tomorrow on the role of membership organisations in building a Big Society and came across two quotes which I thought captured well some of the problems I have tried to address in the speech:

Who benefits from public services and how do we know?

Blog

22 Oct 2010

Who benefits and how do we know? This is a question which has been thrown into the spotlight with the commentary on the recent Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

OMG CSR EMA RIP

Blog

22 Oct 2010

Matthew Taylor

Taking a car load of teenage boys to play football in Surrey last night, I found the Comprehensive Spending Review has certainly had an impact. The boys were incensed by the abolition of Educational Maintenance Allowances (the weekly allowance of between £10 and £30 paid to 16-18 year olds in full time education). They predicted dire consequences including fewer kids from poorer families staying on in education, more students failing to attend lectures (EMA payments get withdrawn if students miss classes) and a rise in the crime rate.

The Big Society and local austerity

Blog

21 Oct 2010

Matthew Taylor

There was one mention of the Big Society in George Osborne’s CSR statement. It is difficult to avoid the impression that this mention was tokenistic, especially given the widespread view that the Chancellor is among those in the Cabinet least enamoured with the Prime Minister’s big idea. (There are, it seems to me, some distinct echoes of Blair and Brown’s first term in the balance of power and influence between Number Ten and HMT on domestic policy but this blog is not the place to speculate on such matters.)

Back to the drawing board

Comment

20 Oct 2010

FRSA Jane Gosney argues that, as more people from the creative sectors choose or are forced to go it alone as entrepreneurs or freelancers, the need to access life long learning opportunities and embrace the latest digital technology remains equally important.