Academies update May 2012 - the shift to Primary Schools

Education Update May 2012 England's schools revolution: a progress report, two years on | Education | The Guardian

England's schools revolution: a progress report, two years on | Education | The Guardian: "The landscape of education in England is changing fast, and the pace of change has accelerated since the coalition came to power nearly two years ago. From being a tool to turn around failing schools, the option of academy status has been extended to all schools. Last week, the Department for Education confirmed that more than half of England's secondary schools are, or are about to become, academies."

Timeline

2000 The education secretary, David Blunkett, announces the Academies Programme. Academies were intended to replace existing failing schools or create new schools in areas of educational under-achievement. They would be state-funded but run in partnership with sponsors such as churches or businesses. The sponsor was expected to provide financial backing for the school.

2002 The first academy opens. The Business Academy, Bexley, is followed by several others including Mossbourne, in 2004, on the former site of Hackney Downs – once called the "worst in Britain". Mossbourne becomes the most high-profile success of the programme. Last summer, 82% of its students achieved the benchmark of five good GCSE passes including English and maths.

2010 Labour leaves office with about 200 academies open. The coalition's Academies Act 2010 allows all schools to apply for conversion to academies. They do not need to have sponsors. The legislation also authorises the creation of free schools, which can be set up by parents, teachers or charities.

2011 The first 24 free schools open their doors, including one in west London where the journalist Toby Young is chairman of the governors; a Sikh school in Birmingham; and a Hindu school in Leicester.

2012 At the start of March, there were 1,635 academies in England. By April, more than half of all secondary schools are academies or due to convert.

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"What is the financial value of public services to the private sector and who are the chief beneficiaries?"

Public services, big earners: a sector-by-sector analysis | Society | guardian.co.uk: "What is the financial value of public services to the private sector and who are the chief beneficiaries?"

Good synoptic stuff here.

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NHS Update May 2012

100 NHS voices | Society | The Guardian:

 Primary care trusts (PCTs), which currently commission and fund patients' treatment, will be replaced by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – local groups of doctors, who are mainly GPs. They will gradually be handed responsibility for £60bn of NHS funds. They, rather than PCT managers, will be the ones who decide what care is right for patients, advise them where to go to get the best treatment and pay the bills. But many GPs are worried that this dramatic extension of their power could also damage their relationship of trust with patients because they will become responsible for rationing care, which will generate inevitable tensions.

• The new NHS Commissioning Board will manage the CCGs and try to drive up quality of care. It is meant to be handed much of ministers' day-to-day control of the NHS, to reduce political involvement. Critics fear, though, that the board's regional offices will be very similar to the strategic health authorities (SHAs) that will disappear next year. Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has said he intends to streamline the NHS but the new system will contain many thousands of new bodies.

• Public health – tackling problems such as obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse – will transfer from the NHS to local councils. They will have a specific remit to narrow widening health inequalities between rich and poor.

• Any hospital which is not already a semi-independent foundation trust will have to become one, ideally by 2014. They will compete for treatment contracts from CCGs. Health policy experts predict that CCGs could over time force the closure of units, or even entire hospitals, if they do not rate the care given there.

The "cap" on how much hospitals can earn from private patients will rise from as little as 1.5% to 49%, prompting fears of a two-tier service in which NHS patients have to wait longer than those who pay.

• Competition will be extended, and non-NHS groups – charities and private healthcare firms – will be able to bid for increasing amounts of work currently done by NHS staff.

"Any qualified provider" will see nine NHS services, including treatment of neck and back pain, opened up to competition from next month, with other areas to follow later.

• Campaigners fear a "rush to the bottom" on quality of care as new providers of services put in unrealistically low bids to win contracts, leaving patients dissatisfied. Ministers deny they want to privatise the NHS but health leaders fear growing privatisation is inevitable.

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NHS after the reform

Hinchingbrooke hospital: three months into treatment, what's the prognosis? | Society | The Guardian:

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House defies Obama to pass student loan bill - Washington Times

The key to understanding this one is dispute over where the money will come from to pay for they cheaper interest rates the students pay on their loans. Most House Republicans voted in favour of keeping the subsidised loans for another year (which doesn't sound particularly Republican -ish), but the money for them will be taken from Obama's health Prevention Fund (which pays for healthy eating campaigns etc. etc.). We wait to see how the Senate responds with their bill and whether or not Obama will attempt a veto.


House defies Obama to pass student loan bill - Washington Times:

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Lords reform- arguments for

Lords reform: will nobody finally rid us of these bumptious buffoons? | Catherine Bennett http://gu.com/p/36hp2