Archive for January, 2009
Has the Children’s Minister Got the Right Priorities?
Posted by Claire Daley in Education on 20/01/2009
‘Making sure children are safe, well and receive a good education is our most serious responsibility… However, there are concerns that some children are not receiving the education they need. And in some extreme cases, home education could be used as a cover for abuse. We cannot allow this to happen and are committed to doing all we can to ensure children are safe, wherever they are educated.’ So said Children’s Minister Dame Morgan of Drefelin.
Can the EU laugh at itself?
Posted by David Conway in European Union on 19/01/2009
From the Czech presidency’s ominous start with the gas crisis in the previous Europe blog, they faced a diplomatic predicament of an altogether more jocular sort last week as the ‘Entropa: Borders without Barriers’ was unveiled in front of the European Council building in Brussels on the 12th January…writes Lara Natale
Admitting defeat
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 16/01/2009
This week social mobility has been high on the government’s agenda – and something of a low, in terms of reception. First there was Alan Milburn’s new position as ‘remover of barriers’ for the disadvantaged, then there was Harriet Harman’s bid to foster equality through legislation. On the latter, in particular, the response has been less than favourable.
Patient safety needs openness, not point-scoring
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 15/01/2009
Trawling over the health press I’d missed in a week’s holiday yesterday, this headline has got to be the winner: ‘Deaths from hospital blunders soar 60% in two years as NHS staff ‘abandon quality of care to chase targets’ says the Daily Mail. Really?
Are We Living in a Fool’s Paradise? If So, Which of Us Is Truly the Fool?
Posted by Claire Daley in Education on 13/01/2009
These days, it seems, you can’t open a newspaper without reading about social mobility and what the Government is doing to increase it. Yesterday, we read of Alan Milburn’s appointment to lead an enquiry into how more children from poor backgrounds might be got into the professions. Reports of his appointment precede publication today of a White Paper on social mobility that will doubtless occupy endless column inches in tomorrow’s papers.
Today, we read teachers who join and remain for three years at the country’s most disadvantaged secondary schools will be given bonuses of £10,000. Why? Because good teaching is thought key to pupil success, and that the key to social mobility.
New Year, New Crisis
Posted by David Conway in European Union on 12/01/2009
2008 went out with a proverbial bang as the Russo-Ukrainian dispute threatened to, and eventually did, plunge Europe into an energy crisis, writes Lara Natale. As the bells chimed midnight ringing in the New Year, the price Kiev should pay for gas in 2009 still hadn’t been agreed, thus gas supplies have been disrupted. An inauspicious start to the New Year and the Czech EU Presidency…