Archive for July, 2009
Thoughts on cost-sharing
Posted by Laura Brereton in Health on 23/07/2009
Twenty pounds to see your GP? The headlines are ablaze with the recommendation made this week by the Social Market Foundation in the report ‘From Feast to Famine: Reforming the NHS for an age of austerity’. The charge is suggested as a mechanism to constrain growth in demand for health care. Read the rest of this entry »
Blair for EU President? Unlikely, but nauseating nonetheless
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 22/07/2009
‘The person for Henry Kissinger to call if he wants to speak to Europe’ is just one of the ways that the potential post of President of the European Council is being described, writes Nicola Di Luzio (with the emphasis on ‘potential’ – since the new post is a part of the Lisbon Treaty, which must first be ratified by all 27 EU member states).
Dame Damns Schools for Not Being More Like Dame Schools – Damn it!
Posted by David Conway in Education on 21/07/2009
The Charities Act of 2006 demanded not unreasonably that, to qualify for the tax breaks that accompany charitable status, bodies seeking it must prove themselves of public benefit. Less reasonably, Parliament left the task of stipulating what constitutes public benefit to the Charities Commission.
How about a bonfire on the inconsistencies?
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 20/07/2009
Here’s a good question: where are the Tories going on health policy? Do they even know? It doesn’t seem so. First, the macro stuff. Is health spending to increase in real terms as pledged, or has – as today’s response to the King’s Fund and IFS’s projections for the NHS tends to suggest – reality finally struck? Is NHS pay to ‘not depend on how much money the government has’, or is there to be an acknowledgement that the NHS cannot be immune to the effects of the dire fiscal situation? Read the rest of this entry »
Failing all tests
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 17/07/2009
Problems with primary testing, from distorting the curriculum to painting a misleadingly positive view of basic standards in primary school, have been at the forefront of the school standards debate for well over a year now.
Prepare for rationing?
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 16/07/2009
Earlier in the week, the Health Service Journal published the results of a survey of NHS finance directors, in which 32 out of 35 participants, from PCTs, mental health and acute trusts. Two things are worth noting.
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