Publications
Feb
2010
Sunday 7th February, 2010
A State of Disorder: Moving beyond the ASBO in tackling anti-social behaviour
Anti-social behaviour is inherently difficult to tackle. It covers a whole range of behaviour (some, but not all of it criminal), is hard to define, even harder to measure, is not the responsibility of any one agency and has a variety of social and economic causes. Making a real impact is possible, but it will require a new approach – one which:
• emphasises the importance of local leadership and self-governance;
• reinvigorates local policing through enhanced accountability and freedom from central direction;
• encourages personal and community responsibility through building social capital; and
•is based on the best available evidence about what works to reduce anti-social behaviour.
Monday 1st February, 2010
No Place Like Home
Written by James Groves
The need to ensure a secure, safe and stable home environment for every child cannot be overstated. For many of those children for whom the state has to provide long term ‘looked after’ care, the chance of an adoptive home offers the best opportunity to benefit from the stability and security of which they have been deprived. Yet, despite significant financial investment and considerable political will, the number of children in care who have been successfully adopted across England has fallen in recent years.
Monday 1st February, 2010
Running on Empty
Written by Andrew Brinkley and Robert McIlveen
We face an uncertain energy future, but one thing is for sure: we will be more dependent on gas in the next decade, and more of that gas will be imported. A low-carbon economy, once created, promises to reduce our dependence upon fossil fuel exporting countries as well as cutting our carbon emissions. However, between here and that promised land lies a decade of difficult choices. This is a reality which is still not being properly addressed by policymakers. We must come to terms with the implications of gas dependence, and the price we might have to pay to deal with it.
With old coal-fired and nuclear plants closing down in the latter half of the next decade before sufficient new nuclear, renewable or coal plants with carbon capture and storage can be built, we will be relying on gas to keep the lights on. This “energy crunch” in generation capacity will stretch our resilience – and our faith in liberalised markets – to the limit. It also raises serious questions about the price we will have to pay for our security – and whether we will have to sacrifice climate goals for energy security.
Jan
2010
Wednesday 27th January, 2010
Negotiating the Next Climate Change Treaty
Written by Scott Barrett
Edited by Robert McIlveen
Copenhagen is the new Kyoto, and it may turn out to be little better than its predecessor.While there are demands for a deal all around, the design and content of that deal has received less attention than it deserves. The approach taken at Kyoto and Copenhagen, of legally binding aggregate targets, is not working. It lacks credible enforcement mechanisms.
There is a better way. The Montreal Protocol, which dealt with ozone-depleting substances, is a model of success. Not only has it phased out substances such as CFCs which damage the ozone layer, it has done more to mitigate climate change than Kyoto even aspired to achieve. Treaty negotiation is complex and difficult. Yet if we are not to end up with a lowest-common-denominator treaty which achieves nothing, several key things need to be in place.
This report not only sets out an alternative approach; it also develops the reasoning behind it.While the result will be imperfect and is not, by design, as cost-effective as a Kyoto-style approach would have been if it had worked, the approach outlined has a much greater chance of actually delivering significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, as the case of HFCs demonstrates, it already has.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Thursday 14th January, 2010
Changing the Channel: A case for radical reform of the Public Service Broadcasting in the UK
The current UK Broadcasting system which was set up in the 1950s is struggling to keep up with the extraordinary changes of the digital age. It is clear that the 20th century analogue institutions that were created are now worryingly out of date.
This report warns that public service broadcasting needs to be radically overhauled if it is to survive in the new digital age. It calls for the BBC to place quality before ratings, and stop spending huge resources on sports rights, programmes for 16 to 35 year olds and popular entertainment, which other channels would deliver anyway. Instead of crowding out commercial schemes, the BBC management should spend up to 5% of total licence fee income on co-funding PSB programmes on other channels.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Tuesday 12th January, 2010
An Agenda for Better Regulation
Regulation is never off the political or media agenda. Every time something goes wrong there are calls for new regulation, better regulation, more regulation and tougher regulation. At the same time, in a sort of parallel universe, there are regular reports that regulation has gone too far.
Individual decisions on regulation are frequently taken in isolation of either of these trends , and many regulatory or deregulatory initiatives fail, either because they are knee jerk reactions or because they are not properly thought through or implemented.
In this report, author Mark Boleat sets out some guiding principles for regulation covering in particular effective policy making, enforcement, combating "backdoor regulation", funding and evaluation.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Friday 8th January, 2010
Simply Learning: Improving the skills system in England
This report looks at the skills system in England in order to understand the problems which beset it and to offer recommendations for reform. It offers a critique of the 2006 Leitch review, which is seen as the major driving force behind recent Government policy on skills. Leitch promised us a simplified and demand led system, but what we have now is in fact the exact opposite.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Thursday 7th January, 2010
Controlling Public Spending: The NHS in a period of tight funding
Our research, which included a roundtable discussion with a number of senior academics and business leaders with expertise in the NHS, considers some of the options for the NHS in a period of tight funding. We believe that in order to protect the NHS into the future the next Government needs to make bold decisions on:
• Performance related pay • Reducing variations in clinical practice • GP fundholding • Decommissioning services • Transformational change project
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Wednesday 6th January, 2010
At a Rate of Knots: Improving public transport on the River Thames
The Thames is London’s historic highway yet it is invisible on the transport canvas of London. Transport for London has even taken it off the standard Tube map. The river promises an exciting new transport network for Londoners, at a fraction of the normal cost for infrastructure projects, but needs sustained political leadership to make it happen.
This report argues that we can make much more of the river for very little cost, producing a new, integrated and expanded service which will offer a great new option for many of London’s commuters. The river is a core part of London’s identity yet it is cut off from its transport network. This report sets out how to correct this.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Dec
2009
Tuesday 22nd December, 2009
Which Doctor? Putting patients in control of primary care
A radical new framework to tackle the inequality of primary health care provision has been proposed in this report. The proposals recommend that the majority of NHS funding (£84.4 billion in 2010–11) be distributed on the basis of a patients’ age and postcodes, and that GPs be financially incentivised to set up practices in areas of most need through a ‘patient premium’.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
