Building up STEAM

Posted on 21 April, 2015 by Fiona

Professor Rachel Armstrong is Professor of Experimental Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, and her Idea for an Incoming Government is to put the A back into STEM education. In British education, but also in our society, the arts play a part that fundamentally enriches, and Professor Armstrong urges an incoming government not to allow our cultural landscape to turn into a tedious shade of grey. Read about the Institute for Social Renewal’s other contributions to policy on our website.

What’s the problem?

In a technologically advanced age, STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) subjects are regarded as a fundamental way to boost the technological competence of our workforce. As a result, they have taken a central position in British education. While the original educational concerns that forged STEM promoted a more widespread uptake of these subjects, other commentators suggest that the term embodies synergies between these disciplines, which highlight the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations in the innovation process.

After a period of activism where the innovative potential of collaborative practices invited the introduction of ‘A’ for arts into the acronym shortly after its conception, we find that our core competencies are abbreviated back down to ‘left’ brain activities. While absolute distinctions between ‘left’ (logical) and ‘right’ (creative) in itself is a controversial claim, the generalization symbolizes broad differences between the sciences and arts. The consequences, unintentional or otherwise, of omitting the ‘A’ may push us back to the Enlightenment views of a knowledge dichotomy that Snow challenged over half a century ago in his 1959, Two Cultures Rede lecture.

Presumably, the climate that has allowed the arts to wither from centre-stage education relates to a streamlining of investment that appears more directly related to immediate returns in employment, global competitiveness and economic growth. Newcastle City Council is living testimony to such measures, having had its creative arts funding slashed by 50% in 2013, provoking widespread outcry.

The solution

It is imperative that ‘A’ is immediately reinstated. Even Ada Lovelace herself, who is attributed to designing the first computer program and has become a figurehead for the recruitment of young women into STEM subjects, advocated a ‘poetical science’. It is also not sufficient to assume that the creativity associated with the arts and humanities will inevitably be infused into scientific subjects without specifically creating funded opportunities for this to occur and to keep on happening.

Moreover, justifying arts in purely utilitarian terms such as facilitating technological innovation and leadership in an efficient workforce completely fails to acknowledge their enduring enrichment of society and culture. Additionally, the future of the arts should be in no way enslaved to its enlistment to STEAM.

The evidence

Civilizations are more than a function of their economic growth. Their vigour is acquired through the hearts of their communities – and passions are not won by facts. So, while science claims a necessary position of neutrality, objectivity and distance from their studies, the arts are deeply immersed in their subjects. The objective goal of achieving technological advancement without investing in shared values will only take us so far in uniting people.

In this age of great challenges, it is imperative that we can think beyond the limits of rational solutions and deal with the uncertainties of our situation by venturing into unknown territories. The consequences of starving our students and civic communities of these skills are far more insidious and enduring than facing any financial crisis.

STEAM is not just a procedural set of issues aimed at managing the meaningful integration of arts with science but also draws attention to investments made in the arts at a national and European governmental level. The scientification of our society is embodied in a recent international conference entitled ‘The future of Europe is Science’ that proposed to address subjects such as ‘How will we keep healthy? How are we going to live, learn, work and interact in the future? How will we produce and consume and how will we manage resources?’. While many aspects of our lives can (within limits) be evaluated objectively, such as average income, or employment statistics, these questions cannot be exclusively served through an objective, empirical scientific analysis. Indeed, a Europe without humanities and arts feels a chillingly soulless place. Right now, we are faced with spreading neoliberal malignancy that is turning our cultural landscape into a tedious shade of grey. It is reducing our daily lives to the pursuit of one bottom line – money – where we are aware of the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

If we are to survive what is likely to be an extremely challenging century, where we face many contradictions that do not clearly present us with logical solutions, such as reducing the gap between the have and have not’s, tackling dramatic weather changes, combating drastic resource challenges and managing ideological conflicts, then we’ll need to be extremely imaginative across all disciplines. It is only through actively nurturing creativity from an early age that we will be able to do more with less, produce new kinds of value, work productively in partnership with nature and find new ways of working within constraints.

Importantly, while we actively acknowledge our limits, we must also relentlessly pursue new ways to transcend them. This simply cannot be done purely objectively. It requires personal investment, which means believing in common goals and embracing the seemingly impossible. If we are to protect and restore our heritage, our community and our faith in humankind then we need a different toolset that creates a counterbalance within STEM, one that that refuses to be answerable to sciences, yet also has the capacity to potentiate them, so that we can remain critical of developments – while also fulfilling our passions.

We should indeed build on firm foundations that ensure that our workforce, leaders and next generations have the intellectual and practical skills to be competitive on a global scale, but we must also sow the seeds of our culture with the imaginative flexibility to deal with the unknown, uphold a humane quality of life and to invent into new spaces that have never before existed. So, let us not forget the broader needs of our society when thinking about our institutional goals, national productivity and shared futures – and urgently invest in the creative capacity of people by putting the ‘A’ back into STEM.

Making school buildings fit for purpose

Posted on 17 April, 2015 by Fiona

In ‘Ideas for an Incoming Government’ no. 14, Dr Pam Woolner from the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences argues that with pupil numbers rising, our schools are under pressure, and our school buildings need to catch up. Her idea is to make working with school students, staff and the wider community a priority in tackling the problem.

What’s the problem?

Our school estate is not fit for purpose. Although this government and the previous Labour administrations have overseen new school building, it was long overdue and has not got anywhere near renewing or refurbishing all the schools in need. It has also led to very uneven provision: schools built over the last 150 years that have been designed for disparate understandings of education.

Meanwhile, student numbers are generally rising, putting pressure on this already-strained infrastructure. For the first time in decades, the UK is experiencing a sustained increase in birth rate which will translate into steady increases in school numbers. As Sarah Healey (then Director, Education Funding Group, DfE) commented in 2013, “this is not a very short temporary bulge […] so it will continue to be a challenge.” (Westminster Education Forum, 16.1.13).

This is concerning because there is an established, if not entirely understood, link between the quality of the school space and student outcomes. In particular, research shows that there are clear negative consequences of inadequate school buildings. Focused research has found direct effects on learning of specific physical problems including noise, high and low temperatures, poor air quality and limited learning space. Other studies reveal correlations between measures of school building and classroom quality with student outcomes including attitude, attendance and attainment. We can see how a poor school environment might contribute to a spiral of decline: this could involve declining student attitudes, increases in poor behaviour, reduced well-being and attendance, lowered staff morale and difficulties in staff retention.

Yet research into the physical environment of education also demonstrates that there is not a single perfect or ideal setting for learning. Although spacious, well-ventilated classrooms with good acoustics and temperature controls will tend to be beneficial, the suitability of other aspects of the school building will depend on what the school community wants to do: collaborative learning in groups, hands-on science, musical performance and sport all make particular, sometimes conflicting, demands on space.

The solution

There is some evidence that in effective schools, staff tend to engage with the physical environment and attempt to make it fit their needs. Other research suggests an important role for students in such evaluation and adaptation activities. In these processes, everyone comes to understand the helps and hindrances of their particular building much better and are able to make better use of it.

The evidence base reveals the negative effect of poor school premises, but it does not provide priorities for fixing them, and shows that there is no ideal to aim for. We need to understand the intentions and needs of the school community to design them an appropriate setting.

This all implies a necessity of actively involving school students, staff and the wider community in any redesign or rebuilding, helping them to think collaboratively about exactly what their requirements are. There is expertise among architecture and design professionals to make such participation happen, but it needs to be a central requirement of rebuilding and refurbishment processes to ensure that it does. Unfortunately, it is this element of participation that is being determinedly left out of the current government’s funding arrangements for school rebuilding.

An incoming government needs to ensure that the understandings which school users have of education in their settings are brought together and developed to drive decisions in re-builds, re-designs and refurbishments. Ultimately, this is the most productive way to address the shortcomings of the school estate, which if ignored will detrimentally affect the education of the citizens of tomorrow.

The evidence

Bakó-Birób, Zs., Clements-Croomea, D.J, Kochhara, N., Awbia, H.B. and Williams, M.J. (2012) ‘Ventilation rates in schools and pupils’ performance’, Building and Environment, 48: 215-23.

Barrett, P., Zhang, Y., Moffat, J. Kobbacy, K (2013) A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning. Building and Environment, 59: 678-689.

Durán-Narucki , V. (2008). School building condition, school attendance, and academic achievement in New York City public schools: A mediation model. Journal of Environmental Psychology 28: 278-286.

Flutter, J. (2006). ‘This place could help you learn’: student participation in creating better learning environments. Educational Review 58(2): 183-193.

Maxwell, L.E. (2003) Home and School Density Effects on Elementary School Children: The Role of Spatial Density Environment and Behavior 35: 566 – 577

Uline,C. L. Tschannen-Moran, M., and DeVere Wolsey, T. (2009).The walls still speak: The stories occupants tell. Journal of Educational Administration, 47(3):400–426.

Woolner, P. (2015) (Ed.) School Design Together, Abingdon: Routledge

Woolner, P.and Hall, E. (2010). Noise in Schools: A Holistic Approach to the Issue, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7(8): 3255-3269.

Woolner, P., Hall, E., Higgins,S., McCaughey, C., Wall, K. (2007a) A sound foundation? What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for the Future. Oxford Review of Education, 33(1): 47-70.

Tackling Obesity – Through Planning and the Built Environment

Posted on 14 April, 2015 by Fiona

With obesity rates at crisis point across the UK, Dr Tim Townshend, Director of Planning and Urban Design within the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, discusses the part that our built environment has to play. Part of the Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal‘s Ideas for an Incoming Government series, Dr Townshend argues that central government and local authorities need to take action now to promote healthy living in our communities.

What is the problem?

Rates of obesity have reached crisis point, with accompanying health problems (type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease etc.). In 2007 the Foresight Report ‘Tackling Obesities: Future Choices’ suggested there was enough expert evidence to implicate built environment in the obesity crisis. The places where we live, work, go to school and spend our leisure time can either provide, or constrain, opportunities for physical activity and access to both healthy and unhealthy food. However, the planning system in England is ill equipped to act on this evidence.

This needs action now. Even if the influence of the built environment is small at the individual level, given its impact is over whole communities and that it generally survives several generations unchanged, it is highly significant in aggregate. The change in policy initially needs to address the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The NPPF calls for the planning system to promote ‘healthy communities’, but it is vague in its focus and how this might be achieved.

Obesity is not the only health crisis to face the country – however, it is one in which intervention in the built environment could make a significant difference and interventions to tackle obesity have the potential to deliver broader health and well-being benefits. For example, there is evidence that providing adequate good quality open spaces will encourage physical activity – we also know that physical activity and greenery/green space are also linked to improved mental health and well-being. Moreover obesity is also a problem that has a distinct socioeconomic profile – poorer communities are more adversely affected by obesity and related health/well-being issues than their better off neighbours – and therefore addressing this issue can help tackle health inequalities through the planning system.

The Solution

Action by Central Government/ Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)

The NPPF:

The NPPF (or its replacement) needs to be strengthened – it should state that planning policies must deliver (not merely promote) environments that support healthy lifestyle choices.
The NPPF should be clear that policies that deliver healthier environments should be enshrined in core polices of the Local Development Framework (LDF) – i.e. not just Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) so they carry enough weight to be acted upon.
The viability clause – paragraph 173 – must be rewritten. The elements which support healthy lifestyles, good quality public realm, greenspace, bespoke cycle provision are expensive – however ‘viability’ should not be used as an acceptable reason to remove elements of design in the planning process which are proven to be linked to healthy behaviours and outcomes.

More broadly non-planning actions DCLG should consider include:

Including directives that aim to improve health and wellbeing in other built environment guidelines – such as UK Building Regulations
Introducing a ‘healthy lifestyle’ kitemark or rating system (like that used for energy efficiency) for new buildings, particularly housing.

Action by Local Authorities

Local authorities should have planning policies that:

Deliver healthier lifestyles and greater well-being through the built environment incorporated in their Local Development Framework – to ensure enough weight is attached to these policies. Supplementary Planning Documents may be used to support and/or enhance core policies.
Enable ‘active travel’ (walking/cycling) to be ‘designed in’ as part of everyday life for communities wherever possible
Ensure adequate greenspace – in its full variety of forms (pocket parks; parks; sports pitches; garden allotments; wildlife areas etc) – is provided, particularly when new housing is developed
Restrict the proliferation of fast food outlets – in particular prohibit new outlets in the proximity of schools and children’s centres

More broadly:

Ensure the new public health responsibilities in local authorities (Public Health Boards etc.) are fully linked into to planning practice – for example through robust review processes.

The evidence

There is a vast body of evidence, it’s not all in a form that can be used by planning – however the Government Office for Science Foresight Report provides a useful summary:

FORESIGHT 2007. Tackling Obesities: Future Choices – Project report. London: Government Office for Science.

Also see:

LAKE, A. & TOWNSHEND, T. 2006. Obesogenic environments: exploring the built and food environments. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 126, 262-267.

TOWNSHEND, T. G. & LAKE, A. A. 2009. Exploring obesogenic urban form, Theory, policy and practice, Health and Place, 15, 909-916.

Townshend T.G. (2014) Walkable Neighbourhoods: principles, measures and health impacts, in Burton E., & Cooper, R Well-being and the Environment, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell

TOWNSHEND, T.G., GALLO, R. & LAKE, A.A. (May 2015) Obesogenic Built Environment: Concepts and Complexities in BARTON, H., GRANT, M., THOMPSON, S., & BURGESS, S. (Eds) The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-being, Abingdon, Routledge.

School-Community Advisory Groups: ‘Turning Schools Inside Out’

Posted on 10 April, 2015 by Fiona

To turn schools inside out, develop a localised community curriculum, argues Professor David Leat from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT), School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences. To read other Ideas for an Incoming Government, view the entire series hosted by the Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal blog.

What’s the problem?

We have a national curriculum which lays out what should be taught to school pupils. When the National Curriculum was first introduced the mistake was made of cramming in too much content and successive reviews have chipped away at this content. However it is increasingly recognised that schools need greater freedom to offer a curriculum that is locally developed to reflect local resources, issues and needs for a proportion of the school week. We need a policy which allows and supports schools, in partnership with local stakeholders, to develop a localised community curriculum.

The solution

Schools should be able to apply to the DES for licence to devote between 20 and 40% of their school year to curriculum which is developed locally in partnership with community stakeholders which would include businesses, community organisations/charities, specialist societies, public services and universities. The submitted plan would include the aims of such curriculum work related both to the goals of National Curriculum and to individual school aims and characteristics of the region/locality. Once accepted the plan would be included in the school inspection remit. Relevance comes from the meaningful work that is produced by the students which will address many of the challenges facing schools in relation to motivation, behaviour, transitions and wider educational outcomes (such as self-concept and resilience).

In practice schools would establish a community curriculum advisory group (CAG) which would advise and assist in developing inter-disciplinary, challenging and authentic projects for the students. The advisory group would consist of 5-12 members (larger in large secondary schools) drawn from the constituencies outlined earlier, but including one or two governors. Many might be parents and there should be a minimum of one from the business community and one from the culture/arts sector. The school would have the final say about the composition of the CAG. The aim of the CAG would be:

To review curriculum plans for year groups or subject departments;
To advise on and support curriculum development that uses the potential of the locality and community – thus acting as a conduit for school-community relationships;
Have regard to soft skills and EU competences;
Guide and support the school in recognising and validating the wider learning outcomes of school students, from both school activities and out-of-school activities – which would include possible development of digital portfolios.

The school could also submit an application for a community curriculum award at one of three levels (for the sake of argument: bronze, silver and gold). Such an application would have to include evidence of the wider learning outcomes for the students, and of the ‘products’ generated by the students validated by users or others in the community.

Benefits

The policy would make a substantial difference to schools, allowing them to release the creativity of staff and school leaders and free them from the excesses of ‘teaching to the test’.
Pupils would feel the difference through the authentic work and challenges that they are offered – thus engaging with work that matters.
Universities would feel the difference in having students who are better prepared for research and both collaborative and independent study.
Employers would benefit from having employees who have a wider spectrum of skills (with no diminution of basic skills).
The creation of CAGs would also bring fresh air to the feverish issue of accountability. Currently the government and its agent, Ofsted, determine the criteria for judging the performance of schools. This is an over-centralised model which is unresponsive to local need and creativity.

There would be teething troubles over how representative CAGs are and it is important that schools have control of their composition, so that they do not feel that they are being ‘done to’.

The evidence

A Demos report (Sodha & Gugliemi, 2009), detailed the disaffection and alienation evident amongst young people of school age, and the harm that they encounter. Recently, an Independent Advisory Group, coordinated by Pearson, recommended that England must adopt a framework of key competences such as that developed by the European Union (e.g. learning to learn, working as part of a team and intercultural competence) AND a recognition of vocational learning for ALL students (Anderson 2014).

The RSA have produced a report (Facer 2010) which summarises the literature relating to ‘Area Based Curriculum’ and reporting on two ABC projects in Manchester and Peterborough. The outcomes in Peterborough, where Curriculum Development Partnerships were pioneered included:

Teachers learned about the locality and felt more connected
School and partner representatives reported a change to the way organisations engage with schools
Partners reported that more schools are now open to working with outside agencies

In the US there is a substantial resurgence in interest in Community Education (although with a greater involvement of social workers that we are suggesting) and here the evidence is for far greater engagement. ‘High Tech High’ in California has a very high profile and reputation for project based work, often but not always, linked to the community (http://www.hightechhigh.org/about/results.php).

Finding ways of sustaining small town regeneration

Posted on 8 April, 2015 by Fiona

Dr Neil Powe is a senior lecturer in Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, and he writes the latest Idea for an Incoming Government about the regeneration of small towns, arguing for a new approach.

What is the problem?

Small towns are rural settlements whose fortunes have reflected many structural changes in the economy. Whilst some small towns have become vibrant centres, successful business locations and/or desirable residential and tourist locations, others, despite their potential, have struggled to adapt to the challenges faced.

Whilst assistance has previously been provided to help these rural settlements regenerate, it is arguable that there has been a failure to match the process to the challenge. As suggested by Powe et al., (2015, p179) “government-initiated programmes tend to reflect the political realities of transitory and generic support for rapid delivery, whereas the practical realities of regeneration require a sustained, collaborative, spatially-sensitive process of change.”

In the current climate of austerity, external agencies are less likely to get involved in encouraging change. With local authorities increasingly focused on their statutory roles rather than regeneration activities, they are also unlikely to provide much support for community capacity development or accessing external funding. Whilst there are good reasons to be concerned about the lack of regeneration funding, it is important to also reflect on the efficacy of the government-initiated programme model of regeneration and consider if there are alternative approaches which are more appropriate and applicable to the long term process of regeneration.

The solution

There is a need to be more realistic about what can be achieved through government support and new regeneration models are required. ‘Big fix’ external prescriptions will generally not work. Instead, successful processes are developed through repeated ‘small wins’ over long periods. Whilst lessons have been drawn from regeneration schemes in the US before, there has been a failure to focus on the charitable nature of their initiatives. Indeed, charitable organisations can be less transitory than government agencies, both in terms of their nature and their underlying principles.

In the UK context there is a growing realisation that innovative approaches are required to small town regeneration, with community enterprises providing one of perhaps many alternative approaches which better match the process to the challenge. Whereas social enterprises are responsible for running a specific business or service, charitable community enterprises are more focused on a particular place and can play a crucial role within regeneration. As long as the enterprises run by the organisation remain viable they can provide locally based expertise to help manage the regeneration process.

The evidence

These findings are based on two research projects.

The first research project (Powe et al., 2015) was a review of past experience of small town and other forms of regeneration which confirmed the tendency for government-initiated approaches to fail to match the regeneration process to the challenge. This project also extended understanding by considering the favourable case of an unusually long running government-initiated scheme. The role of the Regional Development Agency was found to be essential in providing initial momentum, facilitating engagement, bringing new ideas to the regeneration process and removing blockages which would have been difficult to deal with locally. Yet, consistent with other previous initiatives, frictions emerged as the agency strived to be over-directive. There was little local ownership in the partnership formed, or awareness of local history or culture in its scale of operation. The partnership also did not have any assets upon which to sustain its efforts (although efforts were made to achieve this). When external funding was withdrawn the local partnership folded.

The second research project is still ongoing but builds on the work of Healey (2015) (also at Newcastle University) which demonstrates the merits of a specific community enterprise in Wooler, Northumberland. More recently, this work has been extended by Neil Powe to other community enterprises engaged in small town regeneration. Whilst some enterprises do fail, lessons are being learnt and exemplars are emerging which demonstrate that this approach has potential to better match the process to the challenge. For example, for approximately twenty years there has been sustained effort and local expertise within Wooler and another Northumberland town, Amble, which has led to significant but incremental regeneration. Within these charitable trusts short term political objectives are put to one side and there is instead a focus on the mutual interests of regeneration. Clearly the relevance of the community enterprise model will depend on the specifics of the individual town but the research demonstrates the potential at least to develop new innovative models which are more appropriate to the regeneration challenges faced.

Healy, P. (2015) Civil society enterprise and local development, Planning Theory and Practice, 16(1), 11-27.

Powe, N.A., Pringle, R. and Hart, T. (2015) Matching the process to the challenge within small town regeneration, Town Planning Review, 86(2), 177-202.

Freeing public service to perform

Posted on 20 March, 2015 by Fiona

Dr Toby Lowe from the Centre for Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Enterprise (Newcastle University Business School) presents his Idea for an Incoming Government: make public services more effective. He urges us to move away from a ‘Payment by Results’ approach, and suggests alternatives that would cope better with the messiness of the problems we face in our society.

What is the problem?

Governments have attempted to make public services more accountable for producing desirable social outcomes. From reducing reoffending to helping the long-term unemployed to find work increasing numbers of programmes are commissioned using a ‘Payment by Results’ approach (PbR).

The rationale behind seems compelling – we should only pay for work undertaken that is effective in solving the problems that society has identified. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that PbR creates a paradox – programmes commissioned on this basis produce worse results, particularly for those with the most complex needs.

There are two reasons why this is the case:

Firstly, real life is complex and messy. But PbR programmes need life to be simple and measurable. They require that desired ‘outcomes’ can be easily measured – because payments are triggered by these measures. Unfortunately, the complex social issues which social interventions most often deal with are frequently those that are most difficult to measure. Take, for example, tackling obesity. Body Mass Index (BMI) is the measure that is most frequently used to measure obesity. It is used a measure of obesity because it is easy to measure: it is a simple measure of weight in proportion to height. Anyone with a BMI of more than 25 is overweight. Anyone with a BMI of more than 30 is obese.

Unfortunately, real obesity is much more complicated than that. BMI doesn’t effectively measure obesity for children, individuals with different body shapes, with different exercise regimes, and with certain medical conditions. According to BMI measures, this woman, Anita Albrecht, who is a personal trainer, is very overweight, and is only one BMI point short of being clinically obese.

So what happens if you use what is measurable as mechanisms to pay by results? You end up wasting time and money targeting obesity programmes on people like Anita – because that’s what simple targets, which are abstracted from the intrinsic messiness and complexity of life make people do.

The second reason that PbR makes it more difficult to create good outcomes is that they work on very simple cause and effect logic: if you are going to pay a person or organisation for producing a result, then you need to know that it was that person or that organisation which did it. How else do you know who to pay?

Unfortunately, the messiness of real life gets in the way once more. Real outcomes are emergent properties of complex systems. Look at the complex system which lies behind obesity as an issue:

This is the reality of what causes obesity. If you pay an organisation to undertake obesity activity, they can only influence a small part of this system. Whether people actually end up obese or not is the result of the interaction of a hundred other factors.

If you pay people or organisations on the basis of whether they achieve particular results, you are asking them to be accountable for things they don’t control. As a result, they learn to manage what they can control – which is the production of data. This is the evidence about what people do: They reclassify what counts as success (for example, counting trolleys as beds in hospitals in order to meet waiting time targets). They only work on clients who they know will provide the desired results, and they ignore the more difficult clients. They ‘teach to the test’ – only doing things which relate to what is measured, ignoring people’s needs that don’t fit into the simple measurement framework. And if all else fails, they simply make up data.

They do this because Payment by Results is nothing of the sort. Payment by Results should really be called ‘Payment for Data Production’. It changes the purpose of people’s job from helping those in need to producing the data which gets them paid.

All this is an enormous waste of resources. We end up paying huge fees to organisations who can play the data production game well, rather than those who are good at helping people. We waste resources paying organisations not to help those most in need.

The solution

The evidence is clear. If you want to achieve good outcomes, don’t pay by results. Evidence shows that these alternative approaches are successful:

1) Use systems thinking and invest in relationships. Design systems around people’s needs. Invest in organisations that build relationships with clients, and so who understand their needs authentically. Commission locally, so that the organisations have a connection with the people they serve.

2) Promote horizontal accountability. Make practitioners accountable to one another for the quality of their work. Create mechanisms for peer-based critical reflection, such as Learning Communities.

3) Create positive error cultures. Create cultures in which people talk honestly about uncertainty and mistakes – because this is how people learn and improve.

Extending Choices and Access for the Poorest to Low Cost Private Schools in India and Africa

Posted on 17 March, 2015 by Fiona

Dr Pauline Dixon from E.G West Centre, Newcastle’s School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, draws our attention to international aid in the latest Idea for an Incoming Government hosted by the Social Renewal blog. In particular, she argues that the evidence supports financial contribution towards low-cost private schools in slums of the developing world.

What is the problem?

A large body of research published since 2000 has documented the significant and growing contributions of low-cost private schools in slums and villages of developing countries around the world. In India, Pakistan and Africa these schools have been shown to have better facilities, teacher attendance and activity as well as higher student achievements than government schools. And this is all achieved at a fraction of the teacher costs. Low cost private schools are already contributing to quality “education for all”.

However, even though many poor people are able to access low cost private schools costing £4-£5 per month, others are so poor that they are unable to afford the fees. If international aid were to be given at the grassroots level in the form of targeted vouchers and/or conditional or unconditional cash transfers, then this would assist the poorest to access a better education for their children.

International aid regarding schooling in the developing world needs to focus on quality “Education for All” and not just getting children into ‘schools’ that may be ineffective. Aid agencies should start to consider assisting the poorest parents in gaining access to the better quality and more effective and efficient low cost private schools that already exist in city slums as well as rural areas in Africa and India. Parents voting with their feet away from state education that is failing their children have set an agenda that international aid agencies need to appreciate and acknowledge.

The solution

An education voucher may be a coupon or a cheque that a government or philanthropist provides to parents for them to spend with an education provider of their choice. They may be used as part or whole payment for schooling, which could be in the state or private sector – but typically an approved school participating in the voucher programme. It is possible therefore, through the use of aid vouchers, for funds to reach the poorest at the grassroots level, minimising waste, corruption and theft whilst focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. It is now time that such alternative means of allocating international aid be given a true hearing.

Some, such as Joseph Hanlon et al., also suggest that just giving money to the poor is the best solution to ending poverty. Hanlon et al provide evidence from cash transfer programmes around the world, setting out a case to show that cash transfers given direct to the poor are efficient because recipients use the money in a way that best suits their needs. Cash transfers can be unconditional (no conditions attached for gaining the cash) or conditional (the recipients are required to do something to get the cash transfer). Mothers usually receive the transfer and, in addition, some programmes give money to the student. They can have a broad target or a narrow target providing a very small or large proportion of household income. Typically, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) request those in receipt of the cash to make specific investments in their children’s education and health. The two largest CCTs are in Brazil and Mexico – Bolsa Família and Oportunidades respectively. Chile and Turkey’s CCT programmes focus on the extreme poor and socially excluded, and in Bangladesh and Cambodia CCTs aim at reducing gender disparities in education.

The conditions of the CCTs generally require parents to make investments in their children’s human capital in the form of healthcare and education. The education conditions have typically until now focused on government school enrolment. That is, the child’s school attendance requirements are set at between 80 and 85%. Focus could now be on the low cost private schools’ sector, which would be part of the ‘condition’ of the transfer. The child would need to access a school of ‘quality’ that would increase their attainment and ability, and not merely prove ‘attendance’.

The evidence

In India, randomised control trials have illustrated the advantages of directing funds to the poor through an alternative provider and management sector. The ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Delhi voucher programme funded by a London based charity has been shown to provide access to the poorest as well as to benefit girls from the poorest families in society. Some of the poorest children in the slums of Delhi started school in 2011 using ARK vouchers. They are attending schools of their own choice. At the end of year one of the voucher scheme, children in both control and treatment groups were tested again in the standardised tests. The results show that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of the voucher programme on math achievement. The voucher adds up to about £100 per year and includes the payment for fees, books, uniform and meals.

The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has been running the Education Voucher Scheme (EVS) in Lahore since 2006. In 2011 a total of 40,000 vouchers were offered in 17 districts including Lahore. Over half of the voucher recipients are girls. The aim of the scheme is to allow the poorest of the poor to have equal access to quality education. The LEAPS project found that children in low cost private schools in Pakistan were 1.5-2.5 years ahead of children in government schools.

In Columbia, the Programa de Ampliacion de Cobertura de la Educacion Secundaria (PACES), was set up 20 years ago and provided vouchers to help 125,000 children from low-income families. Researchers tracked the children over the years. They also tracked a similar number of families who had applied for, but were not allocated vouchers due to limited numbers. The results show:

Parents who were given vouchers opted to send their children to private schools and not keep them in the state system
The children stayed on until 8^th grade (about 13 years old), were less likely to take paid work during school time (therefore concentrated on their studies) and they scored higher in achievement tests than their peers attending government schools.
The number of youngsters graduating from high school rose by five to seven per cent and they were more likely to try for university.

Looking at the evidence regarding cash transfers, this shows that they are not only affordable for donors and governments, but provide immediate hardship and poverty reduction for those in receipt of the transfer. They facilitate economic and social development, initiating the potential to reduce long-term poverty. Providing those at the grass roots with a monetary payment, which is regular, assured, practical to administer, fair and politically ‘acceptable’, allows the poor to be in control and in charge of their own development.

References:

Dixon P. International Aid and Private Schools for the Poor: Smiles, Miracles and Markets. Cheltenham, Gloucester: Edward Elgar, 2013.
Dixon P, Marshall P. International Aid and Educating the Poorest. London, UK: Centre Forum, 2011.
Hanlon, J, Barrientos, A., and Hulme, D, Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution from the Global South, Virginia: Kumarian Press, 2010
Tooley J., Dixon P., Shamsan Y., and Schagen I. The relative quality and cost-effectiveness of private and public schools for low-income families: a case study in a developing country. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 21(2), 117-144, 2010

Watch Dr Pauline Dixon’s TED Talk on how private schools are serving the poorest in Asia and Africa and why, how and whom they are run and supported by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzv4nBoXoZc

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All Children Need to be Able to Read

Posted on 13 March, 2015 by Fiona

Professor James Law (School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences) presents Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal’s latest Idea for an Incoming Government: get all children reading well at age 11 by 2025. Using the findings of Save the Children’s Read On Get On report, Professor Law suggests that we are failing our children with the current system, and argues that change is needed to prevent further exclusion.

What is the problem?

There has been a lot of hand ringing recently about our addiction to screens, games consoles, tablets and all the rest of the gadgets which now permeate our lives. Yet this obscures a much more significant underlying societal problem which we overlook at our peril. Too many children are managing to get through school without being able to read. This means that in our predominantly ‘white collar’ world they are pretty much excluded from school activities and ineligible for most employment.

Getting children to read has been the focus of the National Curriculum for many years following the introduction of the Literacy Hour. Indeed, so dominant has this trend been that the word ’literacy’ seems to have replaced ‘reading and writing’ in many children’s vocabulary. Yet once children reach the age of ‘learning to read’ it is assumed that they will be ‘reading to learn’ and support for poor readers fades away and they are largely left to fend for themselves. Evidence suggests that an inability to contribute in these later stages of primary school leads to disengagement in the whole process of schooling well before the children reach secondary school.

But let’s have a look at some of the figures, taken from the report produced by Save the Children in September 2014 called Read On Get On. This report was designed to shed light on the data behind this issue and to ensure that these issues became an integral part of the manifestoes of all the political parties as they move towards the General Election in May 2015.

Last year a quarter of all children left primary school without being able to read well. This figure rose to 40% in the most socially disadvantaged groups. Low income white British boys were by far the most vulnerable group. The reading gap between boys and girls is one of the widest in the world. Similarly, the gap between the most and the least socially disadvantaged groups is wider in the UK than it is any country on Europe apart from Romania.

It is almost as if we have deliberately engineered inequity into our educational system. This is directly related to employment prospects. A quarter of people earning less than £10,000 per year are not functionally literate. The figure for those earning over £30,000 is one in 25.

The evidence

Underpinning this challenge is a need to understand how these difficulties emerge. We contributed a chapter in the report about the way that oral language skills – that is children learning their own language – have a bearing on children’s reading. Difficulties learning to read start in the preschool period as children struggle with basic language competency. In most cases it’s not that they don’t speak, but rather they often start late and then don’t keep up as the language skills of their peers race ahead. Again this is clearly related to social disadvantage.

Using data from 18,000 children in the Millennium Cohort Study, we showed that when you follow the children from three years to five and then at eleven years the gap between the highest performers and the lowest is 26 months at five years rising to 31 months at eleven years. Children do catch up, of course, but equally the skills of some children seem to fall back and this was twice as likely for the more disadvantaged groups. Whether a parent reads to their child has been consistently shown to predict more positive outcomes and there seems to be a special role for dads in this, particularly when children are in primary school, something that attracted a lot of attention when the report was released. It is also important to note that early child development fits into another cross party initiative called 1001 Critical Days which focuses on the importance of child development up to two years of age, but the need to keep an eye of a child’s development doesn’t stop at two years.

The solution

The ambition of Read On Get On is simple enough: to get all children reading well at 11 years by 2025. Underpinning literacy are oral language skills. And this has led to an additional aim of all children achieving good early language development by the age of five by 2020. The report calls for a national mission to address these issues. This mission seeks to engage parents in reading to every child for just ten minutes every day, to encourage volunteers to give their time to help children with reading and language, to bring together voluntary sector, schools, policy makers and the private sector together to create innovative solutions with local schools leading the way. And finally that this be driven across government, supporting these local initiatives.

Clearly the Government has a responsibility for the economic prosperity of the country and they are sensitive to international comparisons, as we see with the alterations being proposed for the A level system to raise Maths attainment to that of South Korea and other countries. Undoubtedly it is important to let our strong students thrive. Yet the fact that we appear to continue to fail students, who come out of school ill-prepared for the workforce, and thus vulnerable to external competition in a multinational world, raises real questions which are posed in Read On Get On and it is very appropriate to look for solutions in the party manifestoes.

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Restricting the Marketing of Alcohol Directed Towards Young People

Posted on 11 March, 2015 by Fiona

What impact does alcohol marketing have on young people? Our newest Idea for an Incoming Government is from Professor Eileen Kaner and Dr Stephanie Scott (Institute of Health and Society), who call for restrictions to be put in place, protecting our national health, and improving young lives.

What is the problem?

Alcohol use is the leading risk to health and well-being in young people, accounting for seven percent of disability adjusted life years in 10-24 year olds globally, with UK adolescents amongst the heaviest drinkers in Europe. Frequent, often high-intensity drinking in early to mid-adolescence has been linked to a myriad of adverse effects. Short-term implications, which pose the greater immediate risk, include accidents; early and unprotected sex; exacerbation of mental health problems; and poor school attendance and reduced educational attainment. Acute problems may have life-time consequences, such as early disfigurement or unintended pregnancies. Moreover, the longer and heavier an individual drinks, the greater the risk of developing chronic health problems such as liver disease or cancers later in life.

As a caring society, we should do more to limit youth exposure to alcohol marketing. But how can we be sure that there is a connection between this and alcohol misuse?

A growing body of literature, including two recent systematic reviews (Anderson et al, 2009; Smith and Foxcroft, 2009), demonstrates an association between exposure to alcohol marketing and initiation or progression of alcohol use, as well as development of pro-drinking attitudes and social norms (Gordon et al, 2010; Lin et al, 2013). UK research suggests that alcohol brand recognition is common amongst young people as young as 10-11 years old (Alcohol Concern, 2012) with US studies demonstrating identification with desirable images in alcohol advertising in 8-9 year olds and brand-specific consumption in 13-20 year olds (Austin et al, 2006; Siegel et al, 2013).

Despite the heavy attention paid to price and traditional advertising, alcohol marketing is much more extensive and comprises price, product (image/branding), promotion (including advertising) and placement (point of sale and outlet density or distribution), defined as the ‘4 Ps’ or ‘marketing mix’. This means that availability as well as how a product looks or tastes can be of as much importance as how much it costs. The extensive nature of alcohol advertising, including through new media (e.g. sponsorship of social networking sites) means that young people are regularly exposed to alcohol promotion including many who are below the legal age to purchase alcohol.

A recent qualitative study in North East England among 14-17 year olds found that marketing seemed to play a key role in building recognisable imagery linked to alcohol products, as well as associations and expectancies related to drinking (e.g. having fun, drinking games, brand slogans or logos, drinks associated with certain TV shows, such as cocktails).

The solution

Restrict alcohol advertising in newspapers and other adult press, with content limited to factual information about brand, product strength and provenance, mirroring The Loi Evin model in France.
Establish an independent body to regulate alcohol promotion in the interests of public health/safety.
Review the use of new media to market alcohol with a view to limiting the exposure of ‘under age’ young people who frequently access key sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook etc.).

The evidence

In terms of price restrictions only, recent research conducted in Canada over the course of eight years (where a minimum unit price has been implemented) suggests that a 10% increase in the price of most drinks led to a 32% fall in alcohol-related deaths (Stockwell et al, 2013). This international evidence is supported by UK modelling work which demonstrates the effects that setting a minimum unit price of 40p would result in (see below).

It is increasingly accepted that a fully joined-up public health response to tackle alcohol problems needs to include policy-focused interventions as well as individual-level input from health and social care practitioners (NICE, 2010). Individual and policy-level interventions are needed which can limit youth exposure to alcohol marketing whilst not curtailing producers’ legitimate right to market their products to adults.

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A Charter for Rural Enterprise

Posted on 6 March, 2015 by Fiona

Jeremy Phillipson (School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development) considers rural enterprise, in the latest of our Ideas for an Incoming Government. His vision is a Charter for Rural Enterprise, protecting rural economies and allowing them to flourish.

What is the problem?

We should be doing more with our rural enterprises. Rural areas contribute at least £211 billion a year directly to the nation’s economy but have great potential to achieve even more. Cuts in public spending and the need to rebalance the economy means that our expectations of what enterprise can achieve in employment, wealth creation and service provision have increased. We must, therefore, expect to see growth across the whole country rather than only in certain cities or sectors. The distinctive characteristics, business and employment structure and past performance of rural economies mean that they are well placed to meet this challenge. Through a new Charter for Rural Enterprise, we propose that an effective and transparent rural proofing of growth plans and policies be pushed forward across all business sectors and localities in order to tailor measures to rural conditions and assess their applicability to rural economies.

The solution

Rural areas have a number of dynamic features that enable economic growth:

They have more businesses per head of population than many urban areas.
Firms started by people moving into rural areas are more likely to sell their products and services on national and overseas markets, thus earning revenue beyond the locality.
Many manufacturing businesses are located in rural areas and this sector provides a higher proportion of rural jobs and output than are supported by urban manufacturing firms.
Rural economies have pioneered privatisation and community provision of many local services, fuelled by a combination of delivery and access difficulties and the distinctive nature of rural demand.
As the economic value and potential of ecosystems services are recognised these will offer increased opportunities for growth.
Rural economies have demonstrated their potential to provide more growth and employment if given appropriate stimuli and support from national and local business leaders and policy makers.

However rural growth measures have been more fully developed for the land-dependent sectors of farming, forestry, food and environmental services. Whilst these are important for the nation, in many rural areas we need to look to other sectors that are the primary engines for growth, for example in manufacturing, professional, scientific and technical sectors, and wholesale and retail. Through establishing a Charter for Rural Enterprise, rural economies would be treated as cross-cutting and more effectively embedded in mainstream policies and plans for economic development. This should include a commitment to:

Strategies for growth that respond to local variability of the spatial, sectoral and business size profiles of rural economies, and which drive resources to the local level through an approach that meets local constraints and opportunities of rural places. This would identify and respond to the diversity of growth challenges in rural industries. We also propose a review of the needs and opportunities for rural and home-based micro enterprises that have so far fallen beneath the radar of economic and enterprise policy.
Spatially-balanced and inclusive economic growth; to this end Impact Assessments should be prepared and published at national and sub-national level for economic plans and policies for areas larger than (lower tier) local authorities (for example City Deals, LEPs’ Strategic Economic Plans and European Structural and Investment Fund Strategies), to demonstrate their impacts on, and inclusiveness of rural areas. Assessments would identify spatial or functional gaps in, and weaknesses of, policies and programmes, inform future resource allocations and encourage a sense of inclusiveness.
Demonstrating ways that rural firms can realise the value of the natural environment to their growth, by securing efficiencies and developing new products and services. We also propose a national review of the challenges and adaptation needs facing rural enterprises in responding to the pressures of environmental change.
Strengthening rural business and community institutions which form the bedrock of our rural firms and bolster their innovative capability and resilience; to this end we should build on the experience of the Rural Growth Networks to extend nationally the network of rural work hubs offering flexible work premises and access to shared facilities. We suggest support for the establishment of rural business clubs and associations that provide rural business mentoring and strengthen the voice of rural business through establishing a National Rural Business Task Force to ensure that core business, financial and innovation policies are sensitive to rural needs.
Investment in affordable housing, public transport and local services which are essential for employee recruitment and new business development. In addition to providing meaningful support for building new housing or providing public transport in rural areas, financial help should be provided to small employers with hard-to-fill vacancies due to their area’s lack of affordable housing and poor public transport. These barriers to employment and growth of small firms are particularly evident in remote rural locations, and local economies with poor connectivity and limited pools of skilled labour, exacerbated by low stock of low cost housing. The Government should explore how tax reliefs or direct payments can be extended to measures taken by employers to help new employees’ access accommodation or transport to the workplace.

Overall, we need a new commitment to rural enterprise. This would entail more transparent proofing of national and local growth plans across all business sectors and localities. We need better engagement between stakeholders, to strengthen our understanding of rural business potential and to use this to inform strategic commitment to rural economies. Academia needs to play its part in filling the gap in independent rural analysis. This will allow us more firmly to take the pulse of rural economies as they respond to shocks, whether it be flooding, economic downturn or disease outbreak, and to more effectively assist their recovery to full health.

The evidence

Commission for Rural Communities (2011) Small towns in rural England.
Defra (2013) Statistical Digest of Rural England 2014
Defra (2010) Economic Growth and the Environment
Atterton, J. and Affleck, A. (2010) Rural Businesses in the North East of England: Final Survey Results. Centre for Rural Economy Research Report.
Phillipson J et al. (2011) Rural Economies: Incubators and Catalysts for Sustainable Growth. Submission to Government’s Growth Review – Stage 2, Centre for Rural Economy and Relu.
Phillipson J and Turner R (2013) Rural Areas as Engines of Economic Growth. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Policy and Practice Note no 41.
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: England, United Kingdom 2011

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