🚨 NEW: Top performing secondary schools are effectively shutting out disadvantaged pupils with special educational needs. Our new polling suggests this is often a deliberate strategy to limit the numbers of these pupils coming through their school gates 🧵⤵️

A genuinely big announcement on English devolution from Rachel Reeves today! As we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk alongside others have argued fiscal devolution was a missing piece of the puzzle in the government's devolution white paper.

NEW REPORT: The government’s proposed reforms to criminal trials risk tilting the system too far towards speed over fairness and justice, and could lead to further declines in performance and productivity. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

On aggregate, direct taxes in the UK *are* progressive. The very richest pay more than five times more in income tax than the poorest. Council Tax is the big exception. It absorbs only about 1 per cent of income at the very top, but nearly 5 per cent at the very bottom.

quick analysis of what @instituteforgovernment.org.uk learned from the spring unfiscal event - top work from @danhaile.bsky.social @benpaxton.bsky.social @martha-ford.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/rach...

Lively debate upstairs @instituteforgovernment.org.uk on whether this was a fiscal event or not (splitting wonkland now). The fiscal eventers (as per @ruthcurtice.bsky.social) argue that there was a big spending figure on SEND, accommodated by a significant revision to the fiscal forecast.

Reeves sits down having announced no real new policy measures at this Spring Forecast (but having made a very political speech) So she did not make this a fiscal event – which is absolutely the right thing for her to do

Some pretty stark figures from the OBR on the state of local authority finances

Tomorrow the government will publish the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest set of economic and fiscal forecast. Follow our explainers and analysis ahead of the spring forecast www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/spring-forec...

We're developing recommendations for central government to support better coordination in the SEND system. Have a read of the comment if you'd like a taste of some of the issues we'll be thinking about, and if you have any thoughts please get in touch!

And @amberdellar.bsky.social is in the studio to discuss the government's big spending announcement on SEND reform. Read Amber's latest comment on how the government can join up the delivery of its SEND reforms www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

Great comment piece from IfG colleagues on what to expect from next week's Spring Forecast, and why approaching it as a fiscal NON-event is the right call from Reeves Do follow @danhaile.bsky.social, @martha-ford.bsky.social and @jillongovt.bsky.social for more on this in the week ahead

The main questions I have about the SEND reforms are about incentives and accountability. A lot of govt's reforms boil down to getting a lot of different bodies working together toward the same thing - absolutely vital for success. But I don't think the 'carrots and sticks' are in place yet.

Govt’s proposed SEND reforms contain positive ideas to move the system towards early intervention. But there are tensions the govt has not yet worked through between investing in these changes quickly and ensuring reforms are fully evidenced.

Pupils with only the “most complex needs” will require an education, health and care plan by 2035, the government has said as it outlines its large-scale reforms to the SEND system https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-white-paper-what-is-happening-to-ehcps-under-send-reforms/

DfE expects every secondary school to have an inclusion base as part of its ten year estates plan. These will comprise of support bases set up by trusts and schools and specialist bases commissioned by councils. @tesmagazine.bsky.social story here : www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The Government has announced expanded support for adopted children. This includes a £5m increase in funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund over the next 12 months, taking total funding to £55 million. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Time for my increasingly frequent, 'there's a clear Trend on this chart' joke

Agreed - I am surprised this size of new commitment hasn't had more attention. The settlement also commits to doing something unspecified for 26-28. A similar commitment for those years would require a further similar-sized chunk of money.

Major news for local government finance. Great that there's now more certainty - without action it's likely the majority of councils would have faced 'bankruptcy' in 28/29. But unclear (at least to me) where the £5bn is coming from. For context that's about 8% of the core schools funding for 25/26

Schools in more than one in three areas of the country face cuts to their core funding next year as local authorities grapple with “mountainous” deficits in special educational needs spending. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

If true, this is a huge change in appeal rights...

I have a report out today on the near-perennial question of why UK governments struggle to stick at growth policy in anything like a strategic way. Some hurried points:- 0/ www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

📉 Exclusive: Classrooms in schools rocked by falling rolls could be used by the NHS as 'community health hubs', the boss of the Department for Education’s property arm has said schoolsweek.co.uk/community-he...

Short comment from me about SEND reform: Legal rights are a much-relied-upon safeguard in the SEND system, but they can complicate efforts to make education more inclusive. Govt must acknowledge and carefully navigate that tension, with parents and other stakeholders

Winning the argument that any reforms to the SEND system will benefit children and young people will be key for govt But given how febrile the atmosphere is at the moment + recent U-turns due to strong MP pushback, it is unclear how any reforms will land Interesting from @amberdellar.bsky.social 👇

Short comment from me about SEND reform: Legal rights are a much-relied-upon safeguard in the SEND system, but they can complicate efforts to make education more inclusive. Govt must acknowledge and carefully navigate that tension, with parents and other stakeholders

the local government theory of everything

NEW REPORT: the gov’s proposals for judge-only trials will deliver only marginal savings and distract from the real route out of this crisis: reversing recent falls in court productivity.

Louise Casey on patient/citizen choice in public services: "I disagree with performative legislation that has no strategy, no money, no ability to get that done which turns it a advocacy, legislative, lawyering up job, which we have with SEND and potentially the Care Act, and with homelessness"

Government is looking for efficiencies within its tight spending plans: 16% back office cuts, 'technical' efficiencies as big as the MoJ budget (£13.8bn) and a reheated Sunak-era blanket 5% savings target Some thoughts on how these all add up from the IfG's Whitehall Monitor report out today...

This is getting going now, will live tweet some of the highlights of what Streeting says Thread below...

📢NEW REPORT📢 Every year @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sets out the latest on the civil service - size, professions, pay, morale. You name it, we analyse it. This year's report is out today. If you're interested in state capacity, you should be interested in what's happening in the civil service. 🧵

There's now data out about the resident doctor strikes last month So how disruptive did they end up being? And what can we say about how the NHS is responding to ongoing strikes? Short 🧵👇

Reform councillors are trying to blame Labour's funding reforms for council tax rises It doesn't stack up. After those reforms, 5/10 Reform councils will receive above average funding increases and none get anywhere near a cut They are raising tax because they failed to deliver promised savings

Wonder if a relatively small increase in local government spending on gritting this week would have lead to NHS savings from fewer A+E attendances with falls yesterday? Potentially an example of the benefits of a more place-based approach to funding public services www.thetimes.com/uk/weather/a...

Foster carers could be exempt from paying council tax in the future, if North Devon Council gets its way. www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...

Got 2 minutes? Tell us how we can improve our yearly deep dive into public services

Actions fall short of ambition in the government’s new homelessness strategy The government has set broadly the right destination for the homelessness system, but the changes it aren’t enough proposes to get it there, says @amberdellar.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

NEW report from @nehaldavison.bsky.social and I. Why have successive governments failed to tackle persistent inequalities in early years outcomes? We set out 5 systemic policy making failures that lead to some children being 'left behind'. 🧵⬇️ www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

NEW IfG verdict on the child poverty strategy from me and @amberdellar.bsky.social A critical package for the govt, but it needs: - stronger powers/accountability in DWP to lead it - much more robust support for LAs - earlier monitoring/evaluation www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/chil...

The child poverty strategy represents a concrete shift to prevention, but as always, the devil is in the detail. @sophiemetcalfe.bsky.social and I go into that detail in our new comment: - On coordinating multiple departments - Ensuring local partners have the right support - Monitoring progress

Schools lack resources needed to help keep children with SEND in school, meaning too many are leaving when it could be avoided, according to a new Ofsted report

Homelessness strategy now out - calling it A National Plan to End Homelessness certainly shows the right level of ambition www.gov.uk/government/p...

Big story from @lydiach.bsky.social - buried in Treasury documents, the government confirms it intends to allocate disadvantage funding to schools based on income data, not free school meals eligibility. It follows criticism that FSM is a poor proxy for poverty

Really interesting report, demonstrating the sheer lack of data that special schools and AP settings have about their pupils - a massive barrier to service delivery and coordination Almost a third of AP settings can only give an estimate for the number of pupils on their roll

The @instituteforgovernment.org.uk’s Week in Public Services blog is back! This week I looked at the Budget’s place-based budget pilots, jury trial restrictions, and Ofsted’s concerns on children’s social care. Some thoughts below. medium.com/week-in-publ...

The government’s decision to delay mayoral elections cannot be justified on democratic or fairness grounds Our IfG devolution experts react to the announcement that May 2026 elections for new mayors will be postponed to 2028 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

The Government’s Child Poverty Strategy published today is the first we’ve seen for 11 years – which in itself is a sea change. 🧵 👇

If you’re looking for a tl;dr of how the government is doing on public services, this fab line from @amberdellar.bsky.social does the job nicely: